Letters: December 2022

Recipe for success

I agree with Derek Lowe. Chemistry is nothing if not a practical subject. I can remember a professor of chemistry complaining about undergraduates who, when answering an exam question about the differences in properties between amines and amides, began the answer ‘I predict’. Presumably they had not seen any amines or amides.

I have since noticed some chemistry graduates whose laboratory skills were less than wonderful. The chemical community should make sure that anyone with a qualification in chemistry can do some chemistry without being a menace in the lab.

I can remember how practical chemistry transformed my life. When I started to do titrations I was slow and bad but I learnt to be systematic, to check all the glassware for cracks, to check the burette for leaks. After a while I could get an accurate result as fast as anyone. I am told that in a classical French restaurant kitchen the process of checking all the ingredients and equipment before starting is called a mise en place. Chemistry practicals taught me to apply this method to any task.

Bill Edwards FRSC CChem

Braintree, UK