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Sustaining chemistry

Nature Chemistry volume 14, pages 477–479 (2022)Cite this article

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Bruce C. Gibb offers some suggestions to chemists for how they can help save the world, one nudge at a time.

Of course, we can all work on our science-communication skills and try to alleviate the perception of being evildoers; we need to counter our critics’ deficit-framing with some asset-framing. But really, the elephant in the laboratory here is that there is some truth as to why our critics portray us so; it’s not hard to find examples of our art putting profit ahead of all other considerations, especially the precautionary principle. Not only do chemists love to solve problems and improve life, but we also relish concocting needs for chemicals. And whether there was a real societal need for some application or not, we hope for societal adoption whilst closing our eyes and hoping it will not lead to any downstream blowback. And if there is any? Well, we just deny the existence of Elephantidae (such as the example in the aforementioned lab).

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  1. Twitter: @brucecgibb

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  1. Department of Chemistry at Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Bruce C. Gibb

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  1. Bruce C. Gibb
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Correspondence to Bruce C. Gibb.

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Gibb, B.C. Sustaining chemistry. Nat. Chem. 14, 477–479 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-022-00938-9

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