A chemistry professor from Montreal said last night that although people use chemistry in their daily lives, most do not fully understand it because the media misrepresents it.
McGill University Professor David Harpp spoke to about 50 people in 106 Steele Hall. The goal of his speech, "Chemistry for the Public: The Final Frontier," was to put chemistry into a perspective so that everyone can understand it.
Harpp showed slides of the media trying to "popularize chemistry" to fit the mad scientist, absent-minded professor stereotype.
To combat the negative press and inspire the public to learn chemistry, Harpp and his colleagues have instituted a Chemistry for the Public program in Montreal. The program consists of various lectures ranging from subjects such as food additives to acid rain.
Harpp also cited the media's "mishandling of science."
"To get out of journalism school, I think the students need to take two to three science classes," Harpp said.
Harpp claims that the media jumps to conclusions before scientific facts are established. "It pays to do research because you can't always tell what connections will be made in certain situations," Harpp said.
Harpp told a story about a population in which the introduction to New Coke made the birth rate increase dramatically. Harpp said that only scientists found a correlation between these two facts.
Through research, the scientists discovered the women were using Coca Cola products after intercourse for birth control.
The scientists ran tests on sperm motility and determined 8.5 percent of sperms were still active after treatment of Coke Classic but 41 percent were still functional after treatment with New Coke. Thus, New Coke proved to be a less efficient way of birth control for this population.
