Editorial

Many students who read political science do not feel that it is abnormal to take interest in planes and cars, discussing the horse power of the engine, the pick up speed and the shortest time needed to stop and so on. Ask them the axle length, they will tell you.

Yet, the some person will not be interested in knowing the structure of benzene, what is molecular weight or for that matter, even physics in general. They are interested in relativity and nuclear physics. What is the basic reason why this is so? I cannot appreciate beautiful Chinese poetry or even Burmese for that matter. The reason is simple. I don't know the language and I can't read even their script. Is it because of the formulae and diagrams that chemistry and physics look forbidding? One has to make some pedagogic experiments to find out how can the maximum content of science be fed to the common man in the most palatable way.

Every person wants to know whether the cereals like dal is contaminated by chromate, spinach and bitter gourds are coloured green, etc. In fact everybody will be interested to know how to  detect adulteration. Let the formula and equations be given in the appendix. In a pamplet, in plane language one should show how to test chromium or lead, explained by figures, and using the kits, they can repeat the experiments and a new set of Lavoisiers will be born. To take analytical chemistry to the common man, I.R. emission spectroscopy Or XRF, can be mounted on vans and parked at various schools at different dates and lectures can be given on the usefulness of chemical analysis.

Analytical chemistry is the backbone of any industry. Production in any factory will stop, the moment they cannot determine the purity. Quality control has to be fast, accurate and reproducible. More than that, it has to be transparent. Visitors to the lab should be shown how in a minute their ring con be put in XRF machine and how the chart shows the copper and silver content of their 'gold' ring. Seeing is believing. Once their interest is developed in instrumental analysis, the ice gets broken.

Only then the visitors start listening to you. Simplification of science presentation is what is needed, not simplification of the contents.