Frontiers in Chemistry Grand Challenge: Open Communication to the World

The excitement of making a new compound, discovering new characterization methods, and applying these systems for practical applications is a feeling that many of us as chemists and scientists markedly enjoy. Yet how can we pass along these experiences to younger generations? One major way involves communication of our results in written forms that others can experience over long periods of time, and use to generate new and exciting ideas. The pleasure and process of writing a research article is a complicated one. We need to learn to communicate so that a broad audience can understand what we are thinking, and most of us master this process by trial and error. The ability to have better feedback through, for example, the mechanism afforded by Frontiers, to clarify our thoughts and ideas, certainly should lead to improved writing and communication. The subject of Chemistry is a very broad and exciting one. Chemistry evolved from alchemy and atomism to the chemical science that we know today, central to so many disciplines. There are clear examples of the current and future prospects of studying Chemistry ranging from studies of the nature and birth of the Universe to infinitesimal detail of how atoms, ions and molecules come to ether at a very small scale. Chemistry is central to all research endeavors including the very current topics of energy, medicinal, pharmaceutical and biological chemistry, materials, and environmental research. The world is and will be facing a variety of difficult problems that center around energy, resources, education, health, and climate. Chemists have the ability and knowledge to understand these problems, to design and carry out experiments to gain more fundamental insight, and to help design new strategies, materials and devices that will help humans survive and live better, longer, and happier. An important first step in chemists helping our world is writing our results of experiments, writing about ideas to pursue for the future, and enhancing understanding of these complex areas of need. Authors should also not be reticent to publish disconfirming results or studies on the non-reproducibility of previously published work in journals that allow the general growth of knowledge and the exchange of information between research groups around the world. Writing of research papers can readily lead to confusion if reviewers and editors are not conscientious. It is easy to spew out the everyday acronyms of instruments and methods that we use constantly without defining these. It is easy to mix results (facts) and discussion