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Tribute to Smalley

The death of Richard E. Smalley, known to adoring colleagues and students as Rick, marks the passing of a scientific giant whose gift of nanotechnology will profoundly change the world for the better (C&EN, Nov. 7, page 7). Born in 1943 in Akron, Ohio, and educated at Hope College, the University of Michigan, and Princeton University, Smalley spent his scientific career at Rice University, where he eventually became the Gene & Norman Hackerman Professor of Chemistry.

Smalley and his colleague Robert F. Curl Jr. discovered a soccer-ball-shaped molecule of 60 carbon atoms (C₆₀) and modestly named it buckminsterfullerene after the late Buckminster Fuller, creator of the geodesic dome. C₆₀ and related carbon nanotubes (discovered by Sumio Iijima) are the strongest substances in the universe, with the potential to make things stronger, smaller, lighter, faster, longer lived, and less expensive.

Equally exciting was the discovery that fullerenes and many other substances exhibit surprising properties when made very small (10–100 nm—the size of viruses). These properties, including electrical conductivity, thermal insulation, friction, and fluorescence, can be tuned so as to make possible new signaling systems and switches. This opened a whole new world of nanotechnology and earned Smalley, Curl, and Britain's Sir Harold W. Kroto the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996.

These new materials, and new properties of known materials reduced to the nanoscale, have already made it possible to build affordable small devices with enormous memory, such as the iPod. During the next decade, as manufacturers learn to produce uniform nanoparticles and as techniques are developed for molecule-by-molecule construction and for imaging, these materials should be able to connect everything and everyone all the time (or not, as you choose) through an even faster and more reliable Internet; to make solar and wind and wave energy economical and clean; to manufacture inexpensive sensors that monitor our environment against biological, chemical, nuclear, or explosive threats; to make medical devices that detect diseases while they are still curable; and to design drugs that go only where they should.

Many scientists believe that the discovery of fullerenes will prove more important than that of the semiconductor, atomic fission, or DNA, because it will impact so many fields. Thus, at a time when U.S. competitiveness in science and engineering is challenged, it is important to ask what lessons can be learned from Smalley's life.

In his Nobel autobiography, Smalley—the youngest of four siblings—attributed his success to “a wonderfully stable, loving family of strong midwestern values.” His father's life was “one of total dedication to both his work and his family.” While many people attribute their success to triumph over some early hardship, Smalley acknowledged that “until late in life, I was never quite good enough for my father, and I suppose that is part of what drives me.”

From his mother, he first learned of Archimedes, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, and Charles Darwin. “She had big plans for me, and loved me beyond all reason,” Smalley wrote. In addition, he idolized his mother's youngest sibling, Sara Jane Rhoads, who was the only scientist in his extended family. He would later say that she was nothing less than a hero to him. He also credited such formative influences as his colleagues, students, and (surprising many) “real-world experience” helping Shell and Exxon purify petroleum products.

Smalley's love of science—and its applications—endured to the end: Only a week before his death, he called me (a scientific collaborator and fellow traveler through chemotherapy) to say he had invented a way to use nanotubes to heat tumor cells. A few hours before he died at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center surrounded by family, he and his students reviewed two breakthroughs in the laboratory, made just one day before.

Also noteworthy was his persistence in reaching out to scientists in the Texas Medical Center and at Johnson Space Center, who thus eventually came to realize the potential of nanotechnology. For example, the six-university/NASA Alliance for NanoHealth was formed with help from Rep. John A. Culberson (R-Texas) in 2003. In recognition, James T. Willerson, president of the University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, ordered flags to half-mast in honor of a man who taught and inspired not only Rice students but students all over the world. A bridge across Houston's Main Street is being considered so that the path Smalley blazed from Rice to the Texas Medical Center can more easily be trod by students who hope to use nanotechnology to defeat disease.

Thanks to the many contributions of Rick Smalley, the world will, in the next decades, become smaller, smarter, cleaner, and safer. He made of the small a whole new world and shared this enormous gift with memorable dedication, patience, and generosity.

S. Ward Casscells
Houston

Act before it's too late

It was interesting to read the letters “Convince Us” by Laura Sharp, Brian Brazeau, and Kurt Winkelmann (C&EN, Oct. 3, page 6) in response to your editorial “Declaring Independence” (C&EN, July 4, page 3). Generally, it is a good scientific practice to accept conclusions based solely on indisputably solid facts and evidence, but the global warming issue is one far beyond pure science—it is much more complex than a scientific experiment that can be carried out in a lab, it is much greater in magnitude, and it calls for action much more quickly.

Sound scientific findings and data are gained from repeatable scientific experiments and observations. Can we do that with Earth and the atmosphere in the same way as experiments in the laboratory? As we all know, the ozone layer was damaged by the release of ozone-depleting chemicals, but thanks to changes in human behavior, the layer is slowly recovering (C&EN, Sept. 5, page 13). Should we continue to release ozone-depleting chemicals to the atmosphere in order to see if the ozone decreases again to satisfy the scientific requirement?

If we accept ozone-depleting chemicals as the major cause of the atmospheric catastrophe, why is it wrong to be more cautious toward the CO₂ issue? Even though scientific evidence about CO₂ may not yet be sufficient to convince everyone, it is our responsibility to carefully balance the huge risk with relatively small sacrifices and take action on the safe side by reducing the unrestricted release of CO₂ into the atmosphere.

We have been shifting the balance of nature by relentlessly converting fossil fuels into carbon dioxide on an unprecedented large scale. If we make a fatal mistake on a global scale, can we turn back the clock and start all over again? Can we afford to wait for all the scientific evidence before starting an Earth preservation project? The unprecedented production of carbon dioxide through fossil fuels is, in large part, irreversible right now. We might err on the side of “scientific rigidity” without taking into consideration the human factor and the potentially grave consequences.

What we need now is more social consciousness for the well-being of future generations. It is prudent to make a wise choice when one still has several available options, rather than only one. It will probably be too late to act after “enough” data are accumulated from the environment in order to convince everybody that global warming is real and grave. In particular, all ACS members around the globe should work together to generate a majority decision on this, the most critical issue of the 21st century.

Rongzhong Jiang
Olney, Md.

Charles Rong
Pittsburgh

Train troubles

This letter has little to do with the present problems of the railroad industry (C&EN, Oct. 24, page 36). It is, however, related to a future inescapable problem facing the industry. That is the depletion of underground oil. Before that time comes, we will see a very chaotic international crisis. High-priced oil will bring drastic reductions to both food production and the capacity to transport people, food, and essential goods throughout the world. Some people are already talking about wars among industrial nations.

To either delay or avoid the catastrophic situation, conservation of oil is the only way left. The U.S. should be the major player to do so, because it is the largest consumer in the world. How do we do it? The easiest and most obvious approach for us is to drive small cars with gas mileage as high as 50 mpg or more for commuting and shopping purposes. But I don't believe that is enough.

I propose that the U.S. create nationwide public transportation networks that include high-speed passenger and freight trains and improved bus systems. Global positioning systems would play the major role in operating the networks safely and efficiently.

In particular, elevated structures should be built on the shoulders and medians of interstates and other highways that crisscross the continent. At least four rail tracks, two each for passenger and freight trains, should be laid on the structures. Trains would run at an average speed of 200 to 350 mph for passengers and at 70 mph or so for freight trains. The technology for these high-speed trains is now reaching mature form in Japan, France, and Germany. The technology for linear motor-levitation trains, which run at 350 mph, is also available from Germany and Japan. In this way, trains running at high speeds can compete with air travel for distances of 600 to 1,000 miles. Unlike planes, trains can serve people with easy downtown access and comfortable seats.

The present passenger and freight train networks are not capable of dealing with the coming situation. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to build nationwide public transportation networks, which should also connect to Canadian and Mexican systems.

Hitoshi Maruyama
Kenmore, Wash.

An illuminating story

The story of David Cummings' illuminating encounter with cold-light luminescence from opening packages of Breathe Right strips, as well as his brazenness in naming the phenomenon the “Cummings effect,” was amusing (C&EN, June 27, page 64).

In 1991, I taught high school chemistry at Saint Agnes Academy in Memphis. I was also 8.6-months pregnant with my second child (and precisely aware of how far that experiment had progressed) when, one night, I abruptly stubbed my toe on an object that I had not seen over my protrusive abdomen. While hopping on my unstubbed foot and dabbing blood from the damaged toe, I reached for the Curad self-adhesive bandages in our bathroom cabinet. As I opened the package in the darkened room, a lovely blue gleam was emitted along the seams as new surfaces were exposed to air.

In the days that followed, I shared my discovery with my high school chemistry students and a couple of chemistry instructors at the University of Memphis; however, few people were interested in joining me with a box of bandages in the types of dark closets that are available near chemistry classrooms. I also wrote about the phenomenon to C&EN, hoping for a reply. Of course, my ego was much more restrained back in 1991, so I did not dare name the fleeting azure gleam the “Olsen effect,” but I had hoped that my inquiries would generate more interest.

Alas, after tiring of telling people about the effect (or perhaps I was tired from toting around the baby, the toddler, the diaper bag, and my textbooks), I consoled myself by sitting in the dark with my last two Curad bandages, opening their packages as slowly as possible to prolong the shimmer of blue light. (Not to worry; we still had several boxes of Band-Aids in the house, in case of “boo-boos.”) For the past 14 years, I have kept the “Olsen effect” to myself and have only infrequently opened a Curad bandage package in the dark to confirm that the luminescence still works.

I applaud Cummings for coming forward with his observations about the Breathe Right strips. As for his suggestion on using cold-light luminescence to guide airplanes in rare cases in which the runway lights go out, tell him that if he agrees to rename the phenomenon the “Olsen-Cummings effect,” I will join him on the tarmac with a box of Curads.

Lisa Olsen
Sacramento, Calif.