Martin Levy, Chemistry and Chemical Technology in Ancient Mesopotamia’, 1959 was the topic of an earlier blog post.
Here I present: Isaac Asimov, The Future of Chemical Engineering, CHEMICAL ENGINEERING PROGRESS. January 1988 (p 43-49).
INTRODUCTION.
Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in 1988 wrote an article entitled “The Future of Chemical Engineering”. BELOW is the “table of contents “ from Martin Levy, “Chemistry and Chemical Technology in Ancient Mesopotamia’, 1959.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter #1. “The Threshold of Chemical Discovery“.
Chapter #2. “Early Chemical Apparatus“.
Chapter #3. “Chemical Furnaces“.
Chapter #4. “Distillations, Sublimation, and Extraction”.
Chapter #5. “Food and its Technology“.
Chapter #6. “Tanning“.
Chapter #7. “Oils , Fats and Waxes“.
Chapter #8. “Dyes and Dying“.
Chapter #9. “Perfumery“.
Chapter #10. “Detergent Materials“.
Chapter #11. “Prelude to Medicine“.
Chapter #12. “Alum“.
Chapter #13. “Gypsum, Salt and Soda“.
Chapter #14. “Silver“.
Chapter #15. ” Gold“.
Chapter #16. “Copper and Bronze“.
COMMENTS.
Isaac Asimov listed three (3) areas for the future of chemical engineering.
#1. Nuclear Energy.
#2. Outer Space Travel.
#3. Biotechnologies.
Atop this blog post is changing education for chemical engineering in the twentieth century. In the new millennium we have “chemical systems engineering”. Isaac Asimov saw the future as different because communication. In Mesopotamia’ writing began on clay tablets of cuneiform writing. Now Fifty-five (55) centuries later writing is digital books encoded in silicon computer chips. Nuclear, Space and Genome are today’s technical areas and continuing in this millennium. Isaac Asimov was a futurist SciFi writer whose day job was professor of biochemistry at Boston University.
