Got chemistry?

In the University of Auckland labs, associate chemistry professor Jadranka Travas-Sejdic has two PhD students beavering away with human blood and tiny bits of plastic. Trials have begun on a new biosensor she developed from conductive polymers — plastic materials that conduct electricity. If the trials are successful the product could transform forensic techniques and medical diagnostics by making DNA tests far quicker and simpler for a fraction of the current cost. Travas-Sejdic likens chemistry to being an explorer, where new things are just waiting to be discovered every day. “I love chemistry. Everything has some very logical physical or chemical explanation.”
All matter is composed of chemical elements and most processes are controlled by chemical reactions. But most of us never give chemistry a second thought.

Perhaps it’s not surprising then that 2011, the International Year of Chemistry (IYC), is passing with little hint that the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and chemists across the globe want us to pause and smell the substances reacting around us.

The Royal Society and the Institute of Chemistry (NZIC) are championing the International Year of Chemistry in New Zealand and Travas-Sejdic is one of the Royal Society’s “featured chemists”.

Former NZIC president Mark Waterland says chemistry has had an enormous impact on society. “Think of all the modern materials we use these days, modern technology, medicines, vaccines, environmental impacts — good or bad — these all have routes in chemistry. It’s important for the public to know what chemistry can do for them and how it impacts their world.”

One of the themes of the IYC is to improve chemistry’s image; to get us to look past chemical reactions with negative impacts — like pollution and bombs — and show us how chemistry can meet today’s needs. That could be renewable energy alternatives, food preservation tools or stronger, more environmentally-friendly construction materials.

Travas-Sejdic’s work with conductive polymers stems from the findings of one of New Zealander lan MacDiarmid, one of only three Nobel Prize winners in New Zealand. Since MacDiarmid and joint Nobel Prize winners Alan Heeger and Hideki Shirakawa discovered conductive polymers, they have been trialed in products as diverse as solar panels, artificial nerves and anti-static clothing.

Travas-Sedjic says their importance can’t be underestimated. “You can now make electrical devices that are flexible. In the future television screens will be flexible and as thin as paper ... so there will be a lot less waste as well.”

With international food crises, global warming and the destruction of the ozone layer threatening our world, chemistry has an increasingly important role to play, she says. “There would be no advancements in any aspect of human lives without science without chemistry. It’s important that we get this message across, especially to young people, that chemistry is really very, very exciting. And it’s really not as complicated as people think.”

IYC is designed to encourage more young people to make chemistry their career and to celebrate women in chemistry. It’s 100 years since Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize for pioneering work on radioactive elements, and the foundation of the International Association of Chemical Societies. This year also marks the centenary of the publication of Rutherford’s Nobel Prize winning paper.

Waterland says it’s amazing where chemists can be found. “The vast majority don’t end up practicing chemistry — they end up in food technology or textiles.” Chemistry is called the ‘central science’ because it has links with all other fields, he says. “Whenever you need new materials or want to do something different, that’s where chemistry comes in.”

yearofchemistry.org.nz