The Column - January 2008 - (Page 10)

Zosimus The Column www.thecolumn.eu.com January 2008 Are We Being Heard in the Modern World? Should chromatographers change the way they communicate? Some months ago I listened to a lecture in which the lecturer showed an extract from the 1992 film The Medicine Man staring Sean Connery and Lorraine Bracco. Connery plays Dr Robert Campbell, a reclusive research scientist living with a native Brazilian tribe who accidentally discover a flower extract that cures cancer, but who has been unable to duplicate the formula. With the assistance of Dr Crane (Bracco), he explores every possible chemical derivative, but continues to fail. This is even after using a gas chromatograph that can identify the compounds in the peaks and provide full structural information! In fact, on close inspection the peaks shown relate to sodium chloride, silica, ferric chloride and a few other volatile compounds. And the lecturer’s point: is this what the film and public really think we can do? This was brought to my mind again after I listened to a radio interview. The Author: Zosimus E-mail: zosimus@thecolumn.eu.com interviewee recommended that we should not take salt (as salt is sodium chloride, a chemical), but instead should use organic sea salt as it is a natural product. Things got worse when the speaker was allowed to continue, unchallenged, stating that we should all have spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum) in our houses as they can absorb electromagnetic radiation emitted by our televisions. As you know, I have on occasions talked about the standard of degree-level science education; however, I now feel we have a far bigger problem in educating the public. How many “real” scientists have put themselves forward to write science-based articles for newspapers or magazines the general public will read? How many have offered to do radio interviews or pushed to appear on television? I know of not one person in analytical science or separation science that has. But the film clip and the radio interview on organic salt make the point that we, in today’s modern world of communications, must change our approach. We as scientists must change the way we are being seen by the general public. We must change our language to one the public can understand. We must change our image. In a previous article I commented on badly dressed scientists. Since that article was published I have continued to see scientists wearing the same old suits and ties covered in food and drink stains, and shoes that haven’t been cleaned in years. Today we must engage with the public — let’s face it, either directly or indirectly, they pay for our academic and industrial research. They have a right to understand what we can and cannot do. Unless we as the originating scientists move out into the media world then there will be more and more misinterpretation of our work. We must find new ways of talking to the public, explaining what we do. Perhaps a good place to start is to tell the general public just what defines a chemical. So I have a challenge for 2008. Offer yourself for a radio or television interview explaining your work. Explain in simple terms what chromatography is about and why it is so fundamentally important to all our lives. And perhaps at the same time, buy yourself a new dress or suit. 10 http://www.thecolumn.eu.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Column - January 2008

The Column - January 2008
Contents
News
Zosimus
Cover Story: HPLC with Charged Aerosol Detection for Pharmaceutical Cleaning Validation
Market Trends and Analysis
Far From Staying Stationary: Q&A

The Column - January 2008