I’ve been trying to develop my writing and thinking skills. Last week I started taking an online course on Coursera called Reasoning Across the Disciplines by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In each module, student watch around 10-15 minutes of video content about the fundamental concepts in a discipline, and write a short essay responding to prompts. Since I am on the free version of the course thus cannot submit my work, I’ll share them here.
The first module is chemistry. I remember disliking chemistry very much in middle school, going as far as to drop the
class on the exit exam, when it was revealed that the exam registration document requires only my own signature. Music
and language studies filled the spot instead, though I had to self-learn because my small school does not have instructors
on them. However, as age and wisdom grew, I realized that my distaste of chemistry arises from my own incompetence.
I did not enjoy the subject because could not look past a teacher’s renderings to appreciate the subject’s own central
thinking. Thus, I took an introductory chemistry class and lab in university, and became somewhat friendly with its concept.
Having basic chemistry knowledge is practical. For one, it is arguably the least intuitive of the 3 natural sciences,
so it demands a lot more imagination skills. Our world at an atomic level has a different set of rules that we cannot
see with naked eyes–what a skill for humans to be able to combine imagination and reason to draw chemical laws!
Secondly, it is also a discipline that leverages a lot of graphical communication. Much like engineering, it requires
details down to the degrees (soggy drawing signals soggy thinking!). Thus the study of chemistry also helps to develop
visual communication skills. Finally, advances in chemistry has fuelled prosperity and pitted economies against each
other, so a basic level of chemistry is useful to understand political tension and roots of prosperity.
But if nothing else, sheer fun would have driven me here. “How would a chemist make of this? ”, I tried to ask
myself about everything in the past few days, and I enjoyed quite some giggles. For the assignment, I experimented with
different writing styles in 2 essays. The first one, “Universe As a Cell“; and the second, “Chemistry’s Role in the Energy Crisis”.
The first one was posted in a separate post as it’s a lot more fun, and the second is here:
On Chemistry’s Role in the Energy Crisis
For millions of years, algae and plankton live in the sea, sinking to the bottom of the sea when they die. Overtime, pressure and heat convert their bodies and energy into natural gas and oil. Humans discovered them and shiftly claimed ownership, withdrawing tens of thousands of barrels and hundreds of thousands of million cubic feet from the earth everyday. That took its toll: at the current rate, all fossil fuel reserves will be gone in 55 years. If no energy alternatives were found by then, the world would plunge into dispute, poverty, and starvation for energy.
One could imagine such a society in 110 years, if energy sources are depleted. Firstly, energy intensive activities will be scarce. Much like living in a pandemic, food, transportation, water and electricity will be rationed by the government. Secondly, world population will halve, fueled not by oil but poverty, disease, and natural disasters following climate change. Thirdly, there will be only a handful of countries on the map. Powerful economies will have the developing ones working for their needs to sustain, further plunder and continue their exploration of various ways to leave earth. No international treaty is in force, as diplomatic discussions or unilateral withdrawals come ashore and washes away like tides. Civil and international wars are commonplace, and years of innovation are destroyed while humanity struggles for survival.
As lights dim, trade slows, and data inflow halts, the world goes back to the fundamentals, and looks to the natural sciences to solve the crisis. In fact, even before seabeds are dug dry, chemists are already looking for ways to extract, conserve, and store energy. For one, since energy cannot be created or destroyed, there must be a matter on earth or in space that contains the power that escaped from the earth’s energy sources. Chemists could find innovative ways to extract energy from biomass or other forms of energy storage, or look beyond earth to examine samples of matter from space. Furthermore, with the discovery of technology such as steel, uranium and radioactive substances, chemistry has shown us time and again that elements on earth can combine at the right conditions for more efficiency. While easy access to fossil fuel has in the past blinded the world to manage currently known matters, continued research can point us to new directions. Finally, and perhaps the most dangerous point is, chemistry will be key to dominance in the quest for energy. For example, control of key element production such as calcium and sodium is critical to deployment of critical energy such as nuclear power, while a firm hand over fibre production may mean commanding internet connectivity around the world.
Successful use of chemistry and other sciences is the key to before, during and after bracing the depletion of fossil fuels. Leaders and scientists will need to be aware of how the knowledge of chemistry can provide both problems and solutions, in order to navigate the world out of the menacing energy crisis.
- Please criticise!
- I found the title clipart here.
Written by Natasha. Last edited:2020-06-28 22:51:46