Chemistry is everywhere in the world around us – so why are we so scared of it, asks Dr Mark Lorch.
I really enjoy my job, I’m a chemist in academia. I get to wallow in the fascinating world of research science and then pass on my passions to eager young minds.
But my job is even better than that. I’m an academic who gets let out of my ivory tower and into schools, shopping centres and festivals where I perform all the most entertaining chemistry. And I pull out all the stops – liquid nitrogen gets sloshed around in abundance, hydrogen balloons are ignited like mini-Hindenburgs, and ethanol-fuelled rockets zip around the playgrounds. Chemistry is fun.
So why is everybody scared of chemicals?
Because we are, aren’t we? The very word chemical is often synonymous with toxin or poison. We use phrases like “it’s chock-full of chemicals” to imply something is artificial and bad for you.
Meaningless slogans like “chemical-free” pop up on products in health food stores and billboards. And nobody seems to mind, least of all the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). I know – I’ve complained to them and they told me that consumers clearly understand that “chemical-free” really means “free of synthetic chemicals”.
What’s the difference? Orange juice and E300 crystalsI don’t get the distinction. Why are synthetic chemicals worse than natural ones? Why is the synthetic food additive E300 bad, while the vitamin C in your freshly squeezed glass of orange juice is good? (Even though they are both the same thing.)
Chemistry is fascinating because of the way it can be used to synthesise new stuff – it’s like molecular Lego. The fact that everything is made from 100-odd building blocks is remarkable. Throw chemicals in a pot in the right way and you can build the world around us.
So why is chemistry the bad boy of the sciences? Why is there this chemophobia? Biology doesn’t get a bad rap – quite the opposite. Biology has amazing animals, plants, the human genome project and David Attenborough. It’s natural and good.
What about physics? Well, physics is just pretty damn cool. It’s got stars, lasers and the most impressive machine ever built – the Large Hadron Collider. All fronted by Brian Cox beautifully explaining the wonders of the universe. It doesn’t get any cooler than that.



But this health risk has been covered up ever since, denounces the Foundation. “Health authorities have been careful to exclude ILFN measurement and exposure limits from noise regulations”, said its CEO, Dr. Sarah Laurie. “To this date, they continue to deny any problem exists with ILFN emitted by wind turbines, ignoring complaints of victims and their right to be protected against known health hazards from industrial installations”.




“Global sea level has been rising as a result of global warming, but in 2010 and 2011, sea level actually fell by about a quarter of an inch. Scientists now say they know why: It has to do with extreme weather in Australia. The sea level drop coincided with some of the worst flooding in that continent’s history. Dozens of people died and torrents washed away houses and cars, forcing thousands from their homes. Some of those floodwaters simply ran back into the ocean, so they didn’t affect sea level. But a lot of that water was trapped on the Australian land mass. That’s because the continent has an odd geography.” writes Richard Harris [1] reporting on a work recently published by John Fasullo and others in the paper here commented [2].

In this view “greenhouse gases” function much like a blanket or winter clothing. 



As the journal Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) recently reported, such a claim is readily discredited. Peer-reviewed studies by experts in sea level rises (not climate ‘scientists’) suggest that no only have sea levels gone on rising irresistably for the last several thousand years, but that there is compelling new evidence pointing to the existance of multidecadal cycles in the historical mean sea level observations from many ocean basins.