Cool Science

The old saying goes that no one has more respect for the sea than the people who sail it for a living. Sailors take more precautions than any one else. It seems funny to outsiders because we think sailors have legendary command of the waves, uncanny skills to read the water, and a set of gills underneath those tall collars.

So I need this to make an analogy. No one has more respect for chemicals than a chemist. Chemists are not supernatural wizards who hide their talents by squirreling away in ivory tower labs producing fantastic chemicals that promise better living for all. (anybody get the oblique reference?) Stereotypes would have us believe that chemists have eschewed the natural world and committed to a new life full of synthetic wonders from rayon to pesticides.

But the truth, while quite a bit less romantic, still is compelling. Here is one example first and let's leave more examples for other posts. Chemists know that nature has evolved chemicals of more elegance and complexity than anything ever made in any research lab. Some chemists spend their whole careers trying to find ways to make naturally found chemicals in their own labs, such is their respect for nature's chemicals. Also chemists and chemical industries can be found trying to protect nature's best chemists: frogs. Look, I'm not an expert on frogs, but it goes something like this: because the frog's skin takes up foreign chemicals so easily, frogs have evolved the most sophisticated molecular defenses of any species on earth. The late Steve Irwin championed this well known fact that frogs are an indicator species because they absorb foreign, non-native chemicals into their systems more than any other animal. The point : chemists are not running around conceitedly trying to outdo nature, but instead have a tremendous respect and desire to preserve and learn from the marvelous chemistry in nature, like in frogs.