October’s many opportunities to celebrate chemistry

As I look back at the past month and think about the activities that the C&EN team has been reporting on or involved in, it occurs to me that October was a busy month when it comes to getting involved with and celebrating chemistry.

Chemistry students everywhere are now back to school and getting on with the new academic year. For chemists at the bench or in academia, there were plenty of conferences and events to take part in all around the world. For example, last week I wrote about the Latin-American Congress of Chemistry (CLAQ), which this year was preceded and followed by the Mexican and Peruvian congresses of chemistry, respectively. In Europe, CPhI Worldwide (see page 23 for our write-up of the event) took place at the same time as CLAQ. Other events keeping chemists busy in October are the European Graphene Forum, the World Methanol Conference, the Global Plastics Summit, the Welch Foundation’s annual conference, and more.

But two days are particularly noteworthy from the point of view of celebrating chemistry, at least in the U.S. The first one is National Nanotechnology Day. This is on Oct. 9, which was selected because 10/09 pays homage to the nanometer scale, 10^–9 meters. The goal of this celebration is to “raise awareness of nanotechnology, how it is currently used in products that enrich our daily lives, and the challenges and opportunities it holds for the future,” according to Nano.gov.

I qualified that this day is noteworthy in the U.S. because “10/09” is the agreed American date notation, but in many other countries around the world, the convention is to provide day first and month second. If those countries celebrated in the same way, they’d need to do so on Sept. 10 (“10/09,” according to their convention).

Regardless, C&EN joined the celebration and supported an initiative led by the External Affairs & Communications group at the American Chemical Society by contributing to a nanotechnology portal that is free and open to the public. Anyone who is interested can access a number of resources about nanotechnology, including articles, videos, podcasts, and more.

The second day that is noteworthy is Mole Day. The day is a celebration on Oct. 23 between 6:02 AM and 6:02 PM, which makes the date 6:02 10/23 in the U.S. That resembles Avogadro’s number, which is, as you all know, 6.02 × 10²³. Chemists have celebrated Mole Day for several decades, and it has become an integral part of National Chemistry Week (NCW), which this year took place Oct. 21–27.

NCW had an anniversary last year (it turned 30), and I am glad that it continues to go from strength to strength. Outreach programs like NCW are crucial in terms of demystifying scientific concepts; making science approachable, interesting, and exciting; and developing a deeper understanding of science’s applications and impact on society and the way we live our lives. In a forthcoming issue we will share some of the activities that ACS volunteers all over the world undertook to celebrate NCW.

The theme this year was space, with the tagline “Chemistry is out of This World.” This seems a wise choice given how much the space theme resonates with the general public. It’s worth noting that also in October, NASA—the name that invariably comes to mind when talking about human exploration of space—had a big birthday. On Oct. 1, NASA celebrated that it had been open for business for 60 years. Since 1958, NASA has continued to inspire, excite, and shape people’s lives and dreams. Here’s to many more years of celebration.

Views expressed on this page are those of the author and not necessarily those of ACS.