Another Year, More Chemophobia

Over the holiday break, a few people sent me pictures and links to demonstrate that we still have plenty to do to counter chemophobia in 2015. Here's a sampling:

1. U.S. FDA Cancer ad. Have you seen these pictures around airports, bus stations, and subways? This one - which I'm sure is equally supposed to simultaneously discourage youth smoking (while reminding them of Sauron from Lord of the Rings) appeared in my inbox a few days ago:

Nothing like some straight-up chemophobia from Big Government.

2. Health beans - now chemical-free!

Thank Goodness that 'omega fatty acids' or 'vital antioxidants' aren't chemicals!*

3. Microwaving'll kill ya. As a throwaway line in the Newsweek article interviewing famous futurists about whether or not Back to the Future Part II accurately predicted the future, Syd Mead, a "visual futurist" who designs sets for sci-fi movies, said this:

"No, I don’t remember [how the film depicted food]. I hope it wasn’t pills. [laughs] That was a fixture in future films. Popping steak or spinach or whatever in a pill. I hope it never comes to that."

"Microwave dinners are bad enough. Of course, microwave upsets the molecular structure of food, which isn’t too terribly healthy."

I've heard these arguments before, but neither one makes any sense. Healthy people routinely take all sorts of food supplements in "pill form" - vitamins, curcumin, antioxidants, essential oils - the list goes on and on. And as far as I'm aware, microwaves can't actually "upset" (change) the molecular structure of food.

Reminder: Syd consults for science fiction movies. We have a lot of work to do.
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*Yes they are.

The Future is Now

The Graf Zeppelin. Source: Ad Orientem

I’ll admit it: I love to look at antiquated predictions of how the world will be in 50 or 100 years. These glimpses into the future strongly reflect their era; the audience had to grasp the author’s intent and direction using metaphors and extensions of the technology they knew. 


We chuckle at predictions such as world zeppelin travel and automated horse-carriages, much like future generations might wrinkle their noses at our notion of a “world wide web” or “smart phones.”

A new (old!) article, published in the 1901 Ladies’ Home Journal by one John Elfreth Watkins, Jr., puts forth several such predictions (thanks to the Saturday Evening Post and the BBC; see reddit or imgur for the full article). Mr. Watkins apparently spoke with “the wisest and most careful men in our greatest institutions of science and learning” in a quest to determine what “…will have been wrought…before the dawn of 2001.”

All told, Mr. Watkins made 28 predictions in his article, and the BBC article covered 14, the Post 17. Since this is primarily a science blog, I’ll comment on some of the tech highlights; sadly, most of these didn’t make the cut for the preceding articles.

The drug designer's "killer app"

 “Few drugs will be swallowed or taken into the stomach” – Drug designers, aiming always for the killer app of oral availability, would be amused to hear this. The author was correct about a later statement in this section, though: “The living body will to all medical purposes be transparent.” Mr. Watkins waxes about invisible rays allowing physicians to operate on human organs directly, which, with the advent of MRI, PET scans, and endoscopy, is much closer to reality.

“…utensils shall be washed in chemicals fatal to disease microbes” – Antibacterial hand soaps, bleach, and wastewater sanitation systems maintain healthy conditions in large restaurants.

“There will be no C, X, or Q in our every-day alphabet” – Uh-oh, don’t tell any organic chemists! C is, of course, carbon, and X is a placeholder for halogens, a math variable, part of road signs (X-ing), holidays (Xmas), and of course where pirates bury their treasure!

“The soil will be kept enriched by plants which take their nutrition from the air and give fertility to the earth” – Nitrogen fixation, anyone? Legumes such as peas, beans, and carob are often rotated in with other food crops to ensure proper soil nutrients. In 1901, Watkins still had no inkling of the Great War to come, or how the Haber-Bosch process would lead to cheap fertilizers and increased munitions.

Might there be a Schrock-Chirik process in our fixation future?

“Plants will be made proof against disease microbes just as readily as man is to-day against smallpox” – Mr. Watkins refers, of course, to Jenner’s development of the cowpox vaccine for smallpox treatment. In the 21^st Century, industrial conglomerates such as Dow Agro, DuPont Crop Science, BASF, Syngenta, and Monsanto work towards pest-resistant crops and pesticides.

An FDA inspector checks a salad bar. Source: FDA Flickr.
(Did you know the FDA maintains a Flickr account? I didn't!)

 “Storekeepers who expose food to air breathed out by patrons or to the atmosphere of the busy streets will be arrested with those who sell stale or adulterated produce” – The modern FDA, presaged 5 years before its formation in 1906, now inspects both food and drugs from production through sale to consumers.