First:
you synthesize an artificial, man-made, *Ur-topia of static reduction and perfection - the way it supposedly was before Nature's plentitude of chaos took over.
Then :
(Sixth time unlucky) you plenticide the life out of all the species that your Ur-topia's manifest says are no longer 'needed on voyage' ...
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*Ur-topias, (I say), unlike u-topias, look backwards to a supposed Golden Age rather than forward to a new Golden Age
Showing posts with label synthetics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label synthetics. Show all posts
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Saturday, September 6, 2014
1945's apogee of Modern science , Big science, Synthetic science : Zyklon-B, Plutonium, Napalm , DDT , Freon and leaded gas
Wow ! Quite a lot for Big Science (particularly chemists and synthetic scientists) to celebrate in 1945.
Set against that , a bit of a minor and undoubtedly temporary disappointment.
For there was (also in 1945) the totally unexpected failure by a thousand of the smartest guys in the room - nay the entire universe - to quickly synthesize the simple small molecule made by some small and extremely simple beings : penicillin.
Flash forward Gordon to 2015.
Chemistry (what's left of it) is now Green , a johnny-come-lately attempt to regain ground lost to biology and penicillin-mediated microbiology in particular.
And yes penicillin is still unpatented, still cheap and abundant, still only created by those extremely simple minded little slime cretins.
Synthetic is now passe , un-cool, like white bread to whole grain bread , and natural is the thing.
We're almost all post-moderns now (angry old white protestant male deniers of climate change, Auschwitz and post-modernity aside.)
For once Big Modern Synthetic Science was given its head (aka WWII) , a lot of us apparently didn't like what we saw.
That is why I find 1945's climatic battle between modern synthetic penicillin and postmodern natural penicillin so darn fascinating.
For the long, broad and convoluted battle between modernity and postmodernity is a story only a seasoned academic could love or fully understand.
But the tale of 1945 penicillin is a tight page turner that both laity and ivory tower can really enjoy...
Set against that , a bit of a minor and undoubtedly temporary disappointment.
For there was (also in 1945) the totally unexpected failure by a thousand of the smartest guys in the room - nay the entire universe - to quickly synthesize the simple small molecule made by some small and extremely simple beings : penicillin.
Flash forward Gordon to 2015.
Chemistry (what's left of it) is now Green , a johnny-come-lately attempt to regain ground lost to biology and penicillin-mediated microbiology in particular.
And yes penicillin is still unpatented, still cheap and abundant, still only created by those extremely simple minded little slime cretins.
Synthetic is now passe , un-cool, like white bread to whole grain bread , and natural is the thing.
We're almost all post-moderns now (angry old white protestant male deniers of climate change, Auschwitz and post-modernity aside.)
For once Big Modern Synthetic Science was given its head (aka WWII) , a lot of us apparently didn't like what we saw.
That is why I find 1945's climatic battle between modern synthetic penicillin and postmodern natural penicillin so darn fascinating.
For the long, broad and convoluted battle between modernity and postmodernity is a story only a seasoned academic could love or fully understand.
But the tale of 1945 penicillin is a tight page turner that both laity and ivory tower can really enjoy...
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