Hauser, Andreas

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CHIMIA

796 CHIMIA 2009, 63, No. 12 THE 450TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ACADÉMIE ET UNIVERSITÉ DE GENÈVEEditorialCelebrating the 450th Anniversary of the Académie etUniversité de Genève: More than Two Centuries of GoodChemistryEven though modern chemistry, having its origin in the discovery of the law of con-servation of mass and the elements towards the end of the 18th and the emergenceof the periodic table in the mid 19th century, is a much younger science than phys-ics or biology, the use of chemical processes had been of utmost importance forthe development of mankind long before. Very early on, mankind realised that lightand heat can be used to transform matter in a controlled way. Thus, the purple dyeused as early as 1600 BC for dying fabrics requires a photochemical cleavage andreorganisation of the initially yellow extraction from the slime-producing gland of thepurple dye murex, a snail plentiful in the Mediterranean Sea. The smelting of cop-per and bronze from about 3000 BC and later iron from the respective ores requiredcontrolled heating under a controlled atmosphere in order to achieve reduction tothe respective metals. Brewing beer and wine making by fermentation goes back asfar as 6000 BC, and other types of food processing even further. Despite the wide-spread use of complex chemical processes in everyday life, the understanding of theunderlying principles lagged far behind. Discoveries were thus essentially accidentaland improvement of existing technologies fully empirical.When Calvin founded the Académie de Genève in 1559, Alchemy, with the search forthe Elixir of Life and the Philosopher’s Stone, was still going strong. Despite the ato-mistic theory of Greek philosophers, early chemistry was fraught with frustrating andtenaciously long-lived fundamentally erroneous axiomatic approaches such as thetheory of the four elements or the phlogiston theory, long after physics, astronomyas well as biology had established themselves with accepted methodologies. Thisis due to the fact that classical physics can be experienced at the human scale, andcomparatively simple experiments could be devised by Galilei and his contempo-raries towards the end of the 16th century in order to develop, to verify and, mostimportantly, to refute theories. With regard to biology, plants and animals could becompared and genealogically classified as proposed by von Linné in the 18th centuryby direct observation, and even microbes were rendered visible by the most simplemicroscope very early on. Not so with chemistry. Direct observation does not tell uswhether a substance is a pure compound, an element or a mixture. The objects ofstudy, the molecules, evade the naked eye and even sophisticated apparatus, andonly the invention of molecular probes such as scanning tunnelling microscopy andatomic force microscopy in 1982 allowed direct observation of molecular entities.Thus, in the early days all evidence for the atomic and molecular structure of matterhad to be circumstantial, requiring experimental observations and deduction. Butthat was not the only reason for the late start of chemistry at the Académie. As you’llread in the contribution on the history of chemistry in Geneva, the Académie was runby the Vénérable Compagnie des Pasteurs, and the ecclesiasts were more interestedin theology, philosophy and law. Thus natural sciences were somewhat neglected atthe Académie before 1802, when the Faculté des Sciences was created in the after-THE 450TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ACADÉMIE ET UNIVERSITÉ DE GENÈVE CHIMIA 2009, 63, No. 12 797math of the French revolution and the occupation of Geneva by Napoléon’s troops.But private scientific activities flourished before that time, les savants of Genevakeeping in touch with the world at all levels.The chemistry of the past 150 years has altered life in many respects, providing thebasis for improved health, sustained production of food, and the novel materials usedin as different appliances as mobile phones, time trial bicycles, high-tech skis, andeveryday commodities such as perfumes and fragrances, dyes and paints, soapsand creams, and health products going from aspirin all the way to drugs for cancertherapy. The growing chemical industry in Geneva of the late 19th century helpedestablish the subject as priority subject at the transformation of the old Académieto the Université de Genève in 1872, which culminated in the creation of the Ecolede chimie and the construction of specialised new premises on the Boulevard desPhilosophes in 1878.Chemists at the University have a high responsibility towards society. Research hasto be cutting edge, requiring a combination of hard work and creativity, collaborationbetween colleagues and competition for funding. It has to be relevant for solving to-day’s problems, it has to prepare its students to go out and solve today’s problems,but it must not neglect the long-term fundamental advances in our understanding ofchemical processes. I am happy to be able to say that today chemistry in Genevaexcels in both respects.With the current issue of CHIMIA, we do not intend to present a comprehensivehistorical account of chemistry in Geneva. Of course some retrospective is inevita-ble, it serves to show how the Section de chimie de biochimie came to be what it istoday, with its modern building on the river Arve inaugurated in 1970. So followinga historical overview by Jonas Hauert from the Département d’histoire générale ofthe University of Geneva, the four departments of the Section, namely the Depart-ments of Physical, Organic and Inorganic, Analytical and Applied Chemistry as wellas the Department of Biochemistry each present the current research topics beingpursued by its members. An important part of the issue, however, is dedicated to thecontributions from former students, post-docs, and faculty members, who have leftthe University of Geneva to go and work in industry and academia around the globe,thus proving that our Section de chimie et biochimie has been and still is successfulin promoting chemistry in the twofold task of a university, that is, in both research andeducation. I would like to thank them for the time they spent writing their contribu-tions and the affectionate memories of Geneva they express.I sincerely hope that you’ll enjoy reading the varied accounts of our special issue ofCHIMIA.Andreas HauserPrésident de la Section de chimie et biochimieUniversité de Genève

Celebrating the 450th Anniversary of the Académie et Université de Genève: More than Two Centuries of Good Chemistry: Editorial

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Celebrating the 450th Anniversary of the Académie et Université de Genève: More than Two Centuries of Good Chemistry: Editorial

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