Organic chemist fears being “invented out of a job” by MNT
Organic chemist Derek Lowe, PhD, gives a chemist's view of molecular nanotechnology: "As a chemist, I've more than a passing interest in this field. Nanotechnology is chemistry, through and through. It's done (going to be done, I should say, if Drexler's right) by other means than the ones I'm used to, but it's atoms and bonds all the way. As a solution-phase classical organic chemist, I look on the advent of what Drexler calls "machine-phase" synthesis with equal parts anticipation and dread. The dread isn't because of some looming catastrophe, just the fear that I'll eventually be invented out of a job."
So that's why they object so much…–CP From his website: "Derek Lowe, an Arkansan by birth, got his BA from Hendrix College and his PhD in organic chemistry from Duke before spending time in Germany on a Humboldt Fellowship on his post-doc. He's worked for several major pharmaceutical companies since 1989 on drug discovery projects against schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, diabetes, osteoporosis and other diseases."
January 1st, 2004 at 1:56 PM
Plenty of work for chemists yet
As the recent work done by IBM to use polymer chemistry to produce smaller data storage domains, or the recent assembly of molecular FETs by TIIT using a combination of biochemical methods, or the assembly of a single electron tunneling transistor in part with chemical methods at the Chalmers Univ. of Technology, or the commercial work being done by Calmec and Zettacore there is no shortage of problems for creative chemists to work on.
Four problems I can think of without devoting much energy to it would be:
All of these are going to involve chemists. So while yes, some aspects of solution phase organic chemistry will diminish in importance, that is going to happen anyway whether or not Drexler is right! This will be due to the simple fact that designer enzymes and/or evolved enzymes (e.g. work being done by Maxygen) are going to be more efficient at many, perhaps most, reactions that have traditionally been handled by solution phase organic chemistry. If that were not enough, the development of retrosynthetic programs to work out very complex synthesis paths is making at least a couple of years of education that the typical organic chemist receives rather obsolete.
So the need for people to reeducate themselves is going to become a continual and accelerating process (due to the singularity). The chemists are going to simply have to catch up with people such a physicians who have had things like requirements for attending CME seminars and conferences for a long time in order to retain their medical licenses.