Videotapes Humanize the World of Chemistry

Eminent Chemists: Video programs featuring distinguished chemists discussing their achievements. The American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C. Personal encounters with some of the greatest contemporary American chemists are not everyday occurrences for today's students. This series of videotapes produced by the American Chemical Society, 'however, is designed to change that. For chemical educators who wish to open new dimensions to students, these tapes not only help combat the dehumanized view of science, but also aid in motivating individuals alienated by the impersonal, rational and logical approach of most science textbooks. A sense of history can give the student a feeling for the movement, progress and continuous change inherent in science—the idea of science not as a static body of facts but rather as a dynamic human activity, with today's theories being merely on the leading edge of a trail from the past that stretches indefinitely into the future. It can also place the nature of discoveries in a truer perspective. Students can be encouraged by seeing the great men and women of science not as cold, perfect, intellectual giants but as human beings with human strengths and weaknesses similar to their own. These goals are fulfilled with varying degrees of success to this series of videotapes, as revealed by a sampling of four of the 19 tapes released to date. Although the 45-to 60-minute interviews differ in format (some include movies, photographs, drawings, equations, tables, graphs and other audiovisual aids), they have many similarities. All present the highlights in the lives of the scientists; scientific and social conditions; educational experiences; careers and accomplishments; advice for young persons entering chemistry today; rejections and adversities, which often turned out to be blessings in disguise; marriage and children; views of retirement; and predictions of future trends in specific specialties and in science as-a whole. Of the four videotapes under review, three were inspiring and exciting. Rosalyn S. Yalow, W. Lincoln Hawkins and Glenn T. Seabarg all come across as highly motivated, warm people with an intense curiosity about the natural world surrounding them. Yalow and Hawkins, featured in two of the, series' newest releases, undoubtedly will serve as role models for minority students who probably require more than the usual dose of encouragement to enter what is still viewed largely as the privileged domain of white, male practitioners. The fourth tape under consideration, an interview with the late Paul J. Flory, is of historical value, but the pace is slow and the story not nearly as inspirational. Yalow, a senior medical investigator for the Veterans Administration, who shared the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for devising the radioimmuno assay technique, was interviewed by Helen Free of Miles Laboratories in March 1986. We learn that Yalow was born in the East Bronx of poor Jewish parents of limited education, a self-described "stubborn child" who became a scientist because she couldn't do other things. She was the first woman physics major to graduate from Hunter College and later became the only woman in the 400-man faculty of engineering at the University of Illinois. Regarding prejudices, she states, "Once you get your foot in the door and do your work well, discrimination disappears." Hawkins, former assistant director of chemical research at AT&T Bell Laboratories, was interviewed in January. 1986 by Milton Harris, former chairman of the board of the Gillette Corporation. Hawkins was born in Washington, D.C., to well-educated black parents. He began work in 1942 at the prestigious Bell Laboratories, expecting to stay only a short time. Thirty-three years later, he had developed antioxidants that stabilized and prevented the oxidative degradation of polymers. His advice to young people: "Work hard, get an education, and whatever you do, make sure that you enjoy it and are interested in it." Seaborg, codiscoverer of plutonium and other transuranium elements, and holder of countless honors, shared the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. In a 1981 interview conducted by George Pimentel and David Ridgway of the University of California at Berkeley, Seaborg discusses his work with the transuranium elements, nuclear fission, the Manhattan Project, the separation of uranium isotopes, radiotracer and ion exchange techniques, and his revision of the periodic tables. The interview includes excerpts from the November 11, 1945 "Quiz Kids" radio program on which Seaborg announced the discovery of elements 95 (americium) and 96 (cunium)—"the only time that the discovery of new elements was announced under the sponsorship of Alka-Seltzer." The interview with Flory, who received, the 1974 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his investigations of the physical chemistry of synthetic and natural macromolecules, was conducted in 1982 by Charles G. Overberger, vice president for re search at the University of Michigan. It is a great disappointment. Neither participant appears enthusiastic and both speak in slow, static, halting monotones. The videotape reveals the fact that when Flory started work at DuPont with the late Wallace Hume Carothers, the discoverer of nylon, he did not know what a polymer was. Yet with his pioneering work he went on to become one- of the world's leading polymer chemists. Unfortunately, the interview is unfocused and projects little of the excitement of Flory's brilliant career. On the whole, though, these selected videotapes indicate that the series is probably of great value. In addition to its usefulness to science teachers, the series should also be of interest to historians of science, practicing scientists—industrial as well as academic—and even laypersons concerned with the operations, strengths and weaknesses of science. Kauffman, 1978 winner of the international Dexter Award in the History of Chemistry, is a professor of chemistry at California State University, Fresno, CA 93740. Other videotapes in the Eminent Chemists series feature Hubert N. Alyea, Arnold 0. Beckman, Melvin Calvin, Carl Djerassi, John T. Edsall, Ronald W. Estabrook, Karl Folkers, Louis P. Hammètt, Anna J. Harrison, Joel Hildebrand, Roald Hoffxnann, lzaak Kolthoff, Herman Mark, Carl S. Marveland Max Tishler. The tapes are available for rental only at $20 for seven working days. Transcripts are $7.50 each. Abbreviated tapes—ahout half the viewing time—are available in the. 20/30' series at $15 for seven working days (no transcripts available) Both series may be duplicated free upon request by non-profit, educational organizations for in-house use. Order from: The American. Chemical Society, EmInent chemists Program, 1155 Ith St., N.W, Washington D.C. 20036.

Videotapes Humanize the World of Chemistry

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