Science Fair Interview

[qtip123]

For science fair this year I have to interview an expert on the topic of chemistry. If an expert with at least one year of experience could answer the questions; it would be very helpful. Thanks.

1. What is you name and title?

2. Do you think this topic is interesting, useful, or important? If so, why?

3. When did you first study/learn about chemistry?

4. What are some important things you have learned about chemistry?

5. How can knowledge of this topic be applied to everyday life?

6. Why did you want to study chemistry?

7. What are some tools that chemists use?

8. Do you think chemistry will continue to advance in the future?

[deleted-71417]

Hi,

1. What is you name and title?
Barrett L. Tomlinson, Retired Chemist

2. Do you think this topic is interesting, useful, or important? If so, why?
Chemistry studies the properties and transformation of matther. That includes the clothes we wear, the food we eat, and the buildings we live in, and the means of transportation we use. We can”t escape the influence of chemists.

3. When did you first study/learn about chemistry?
I was fascinated with chemistry from the fifth grade, when my dad showed me how to plate copper on an iron nail.

4. What are some important things you have learned about chemistry?
Chemistry underpines everything we use, grow, or make. There is almost nothing you can see that chemists have not invented, studied, or manufactured, yet only about 1 person in 100 has seriously studied chemistry..

5. How can knowledge of this topic be applied to everyday life?
Cooking is applied chemistry. The clothes you wear are polymers invented or modified or manufactured by chemists. The dyes that color your clothes are inventions of chemists. All metals were isolated and refined by methods invented by chemists. The processes of life are being unraveled by chemists.

6. Why did you want to study chemistry?
Anything I wanted to do involved something somehow involved with chemistry. It was fascinating.

7. What are some tools that chemists use?
Spectrometers (Nuclear magnetic resonance;microwave, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, & xray, fluorescence), balances; glassware; microscopes(optical, electron, x-ray, atomic force, electron tunneling, & several other types), vacuume systems, furnaces, to name but a few.

8. Do you think chemistry will continue to advance in the future?
Yes. The current hot area in chemistry is the study of life processes - how cells work, how to modify plants to improve food yields, cure diseases, etc. This will take decades to workout, and will continue until we design and build life forms from scratch, unless I miss my guess. By then we may be trying to colonize other planents.and visiting other stars..

I hope this helps you. The study of chemistry will last as long as people have imaginations.

Best regards,

Barrett L. Tomlinson

[qtip123]

Thank you!!!!!!!