What research is on the leading edge of chemistry? What are some papers that you have read recently that make you really reflect on the prospects of science? What do you think is a really awesome field to be in right now?
The cutting edge of chemistry, in my opinion, is connected to the frontier of water and life. About 9 out of 10 molecules in a cell are H2O, with water hydrogen bonded to itself and to the organics of life. Currently most of biological research works under the oversimplified premise of organics in a vacuum, thereby making it harder for biology to leave empirical. The future will include water, as a cooperative partner with the organics, allowing life to be based on cause and effect. This will advance medicine in a quantum way, because blind experiments will be a thing of the past, when open eyes appear. Water within life brings with it a fifth force of nature, which is the entropic force. This is a force based on entropy and can be demonstrated in the lab with osmosis. Life uses membranes and highly selective material permeability to take advantage of and fine tune the entropic force generated by water, with life optimized to the potential of water; dominant component. If you substitute any other solvent for water life does not work, down to the enzymes. Life evolved in water and is highly dependent on water to pick up the slack. If we use simple inference and add water back, suddenly everything in the cell returns to operation. The secrets of water in relationship to life is the cutting edge.
Now all we need to do is find the link between fish and us, and find the pic of the first creature that walked out of the water, similar to the one below. "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Just sayin' Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
What about making energy from splitting bonds? I think that's pretty cutting edge. We could power so much with so little.
Sorry, that's not that big of a deal - it's exactly what we're doing (along with creating new bonds) when fuel is burned in a vehicle's engine. The real future in chemistry is in organic chemistry and it's practically unlimited. An example is in how we take a long hydrocarbon chain , break it in places and add in non-organic atoms/molecules. That's precisely how new medications and materials are made. The longer the chain, the more times it can be broken or split and the more times "foreign" material can be attached or inserted.
The impact of water on life is based on natural selection. Biological changes that can take advantage of the potentials of water will have selective advantage, since water has many tricks up its sleeve. For example, there are many DNA conformations, with the most hydrated version of the DNA (contains the most water) the one based on natural selection. The evolution of the DNA molecule, had a directed goal in mind, in the direction of holding the most water. This allows DNA to take full advantage of the potential within water. The current traditions still assume randomness within life, but because of water, what should be random ends up fixed. For example, proteins have specific folds not average folds implicit of randomness. This occurs even though the energy that binds protein configurations has the energy value of only a few hydrogen bonds. This is well within the range for thermal fluctuations leading to randomness, but do not occur. Water takes way the uncertainty of that is assumed within life. How this occurs will change medicine.
There's no free lunch. I'd say that the future of chemistry is in the area of life: how it began (abiogenesis), how it works (biochemistry), how to fix it when it doesn't work (pharmacology), etc.
Are we not putzing around for long time already and we are going to putz much much more. Remember Nixon 1968 declared war on cancer , how much have we solved ? I go for coal conversion into usable organic material
That's what chemistry - and science in general - are all about: putzing around. A lot. The Germans have been doing that for more than a century but yes, there is certainly room for more putzing there.
