Editorial

Here is a recipe for those who do not want to spend all their lives wearing long lab-coats, thick- rimmed glasses and shaking a beaker or test tube in hand.

If any one of you is interested, but allergic to physics and mathematics, one need not worry. Anti-allergic pills in the form of tailor-made courses in physics and mathematics are available. In course of time, the barriers between disciplines will vanish and one will start liking them.

Here is the list of things, which you have to handle in a modern laboratory. Atomic emission, atomic absorption, x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, Electron spectroscopy, and mass spectrographs are used for elemental analysis.

To study molecules, infrared and ultra violet molecular spectrometers (emission and absorption), microwaves, nuclear magnetic resonance, chromatography and many others are, used depending on the nature of the laboratory and the funds available.

To study the structure of materials, X-ray and electron diffraction are common. One has to be not only well versed in physics and applied mathematics but also must have a clear picture of how these results are used for nuclear chemistry, petroleum and lubricating oil development, textiles, minerals etc. The sky is the limit for applications.

Now-a-days, in modern laboratories, one has to be a three-in-one — chemist, physicist, mathematician. The order may change. The contents are the same. You may still wear lab- coats and glasses but you will not be the same person again.