We're More than Engineers!

Recently, Colorado State University has made a transition metal catalyst that reacts with unactivated carbon hydrogen bonds, which gives scientists something to manipulate since all organic compounds have carbon and hydrogen bonds. Yes, as learned from our last blog post, unactivated means that the carbon hydrogen bonds are in their lowest, non-reactive state. The unactivated bonds  are thermodynamically and kinetically stable. Thus, as you can see, the catalyst is very useful if it can allow scientists to manipulate these bonds. Specifically, the rhodium catalyst allows scientists to shorten the time it takes to change natural compounds into ones that they want for making certain drugs. The diseases that these drugs treat do include cancer, which is a huge deal. Experiments have shown what would take scientists months to make, the rhodium catalyst cut down to a day! The head researcher, Tomislav Rovis, got his work published in Science, so you know that this research is quite legitimate. We know this description is a bit too general, but the paper is not out yet on the internet. But you can be that as soon as it is out, its gonna be on this blog! 

The philosophical part of this catalyst above, and many other transition metal catalysts, is that it is made of organic and inorganic parts, as in a metal and organic matter. As the article states, these things are not really meant to be together, but the catalyst brings them together, and thus achieves success. This idea comments on the nature of chemists. Chemists do not just make compounds by putting lifeless pieces of matter together; chemists are mediators they bring two or more opposing sides together. Chemists are not lego builders, the pieces do not just go together. Chemists sometimes have to fit, in a figurative sense, a box into a circular hole. Usually, chemists are called "molecular engineers"--but really, they are more than just engineers. Chemists have to deal with more than just structural problems when making molecules. Thus, this idea of calling a chemist a "molecular engineer" is not apt, but rather, it is inadequate, and will not be followed by this blog.