THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF CHEMISTRY.

International Year of Chemistry Logo

The resolution in favor of the proclamation of 2011 as the International year  of Chemistry was submitted by Ethiopia to  The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) in 2007. At its General Assembly in Turin, Italy in August 2007, IUPAC unanimously approved the resolution.

Less than a year later, the UNESCO Executive Board recommended the adoption of such a resolution,which subsequently led to the declaration in December 2008 by the UN General Assembly of 2011 as the International Year of Chemistry.

The International Year of Chemistry 2011 (IYC 2011) commemorates the achievements of chemistry, and its contributions to humankind.The year 2011 also marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Marie Sklodowska Curie, recognizing her discovery of the elements radium and polonium. Dr. Curie’s achievements continue to inspire students, especially women, to pursue careers in chemistry.  The year 2011 also marks the one-hundredth anniversary of the founding in Paris of the International Association of Chemical Societies to address the need for international cooperation among chemists and international standardization of nomenclature, atomic weights, physical constants, and 

scientific communication.  

Events for the year are being coordinated by IUPAC, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, and by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.

The theme of IYC2011 is "Chemistry–our life, our future," and focuses on the “achievements of chemistry and its contributions to the well-being of humankind.”. It aims to raise awareness of chemistry among the general public and to attract young people into the field, as well as to highlight the role of chemistry in solving global problems.

As a Chemist,I intend to share in the celebration of  International Year of Chemistry 2011 by sharing articles illustrating some of the most significant Chemistry innovations.I will also look at the lives of notable Chemists both in the past and current.I will finally look at the future trends and try to prospect at what contributions Chemistry may make in the next 100 years.

Hereunder is the first of such articles.I hope you will find these pieces informative. 

Through the Looking Glass

By James Voelkel

Among the defining characteristics of the scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries were the invention and development of new scientific instruments. The thermometer and barometer enabled experimenters to quantify heat and air pressure. The vacuum pump made it possible to manipulate the physical environment. And then there was the creation of the telescope and the microscope, which expanded the range of human senses.

After the publication of Galileo’s spectacular telescopic observations in 1610, the race was on to apply the magnification technology to the mundane world. But microscopes were more difficult to make and observations depended a great deal on the skill of the observer wielding what was essentially a glass bead functioning as a really powerful magnifying glass.

Easily the most skillful user of the single-lens microscope was Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723). Although he did not have a university education, nor mastery of Latin—the language of science—van Leeuwenhoek was nonetheless a devoted student of nature and a talented microscope maker. He was responsible for the discovery of blood cells, spermatozoa, protozoa, and bacteria, among other things. Despite his modest background, the scientific world beat a path to his door in Delft, Holland, and he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1680.

At the time, the Royal Society was home to another of the world’s foremost microscopists, Robert Hooke (1635–1703). Although also from a modest background, Hooke landed in the center of English science, making important contributions in the theory and practice of a number of different disciplines. His most notable book is Micrographia, Or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon (London, 1665).

Hooke had constructed a serviceable compound microscope, complete with focused light source, which did not give him as much magnification as van Leeuwenhoek’s, but was far easier to use. He published a series of observations he conducted as curator of experiments for the Royal Society, mostly of natural objects. (Hooke coined the word cell in its biological sense.) Hooke’s research was a showpiece for the young Royal Society, and his work was published in Micrographia, in a large folio with magnificent foldout engravings that remains a much sought-after landmark of scientific printing.