Ignou celebrates International Year of Chemistry

Updated on: Friday, October 14, 2011

A two-day national conference on chemistry was launched Thursday at the Indira Gandhi National Open University (Ignou) to celebrate the International Year of Chemistry.

The conference, titled "Chemistry: Education and Research Frontiers", was inaugurated by eminent scientist CNR Rao and is being attended by around 250 students and teachers from various schools and colleges.

"Chemistry is an old subject. It is not just doing but understanding. In the first century, there were only seven elements known to us, in the 16th century there were 10 and today, we know 114 of them," said Rao.

"The subject is not just about reading books or just doing experiments. It requires intuition. You have to come up with an idea which may or may not work," he added.

Describing the modern chemistry era, he said: "When did modern chemistry start? It started when it was said that a chemical bond is nothing but two electrons between two atoms. The 1960 view of chemistry was based on structure, synthesis and dynamics."

Times of India

Ignou celebrates International Year of Chemistry

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