Keeping Up with the Joneses

When being taught undergrad organic chemistry, one tends to consider it as a pure, unadulterated discipline.  Once you start going over journals, reading blogs, and keeping up with the news, it becomes apparent that there are politics, popularity contests, public demand, and ever-shifting trends that influence the state of the science.  Since I and many other undergrads are soon to be entering the game, I think it prudent to cover a few of the current trends to help us stay ahead of the curve.

One of the biggest trends right now is 'Green' Chemistry.  You know, the kind of chemistry that's good for the environment and what not.  This strikes me as a little odd, because this trend arises not from the needs of researchers to improve experiments, but from politics and moral convictions.  I'm not saying that it is wrong for us to move in this direction (in fact I support it), but merely note how interesting it is that such a trend is not influenced by reactions in the lab or hypothesis on a chalk board.  A good example of the rise in organic chemistry is an editorial over at ACS about replacing solvents with 'green' counterparts.

Some other trends are listed on a Wikipedia page and include chiral syntheses, flow chemistry, and microwave chemistry.  For those of you who are unaware, microwave chemistry is literally what it sounds like.  BRSM has a great post discussing microwave chemistry, you should check it out. The Wikipedia section on trends was last updated in 2008, so expect some of these to be out of style and others to have taken their place.

What's next on the organic chemistry trends list?  See Arr Oh over at justlikecooking.blogspot.com has a recent article about a rise in calcium catalysts.  It's not quite a wide-spread trend yet, but it could be the next big thing. While your there check out some of the other recent trends linked to in the article, like the 'Gold Rush'.

Your homework is to look for themes, tendencies, and trends in the articles you read.  That way you'll be on top of your game and ready to play.

-Woodward