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A Translator’s Guide to Organic Chemical Nomenclature

A Fond Farewell

Download the zipped version of installments 1 - 7 of this series, originally published in the Sci-Tech Translation Journal of the American Translators Association. The file is approximately 87 KB.

Installments 8 - 27 of this series appeared in the July 1997, October 1997, January 1998, April 1998, July 1998, October 1998, January 1999, April 1999, July 1999, October 1999, January 2000, April 2000, July 2000, October 2000, January 2001, April 2001, July 2001, October 2001, January 2002, and April 2002 issues of the Translation Journal.
 

t's been a privilege for eight years to share some thoughts with readers of the Sci-Tech Translation Journal and of the Translation Journal. However, the time has regretfully come to quietly let my cerebral proteins fold into their relaxed lowest-energy state.

There have been some high spots during this endeavor—and a couple of hilarious ones. A lawyer in the Midwest once asked me to tell him whether a lactone was or was not an ester, obviously in his clandestine drug-manufacturing client's defense. He had found his client's starting material for a mind-altering drug in one of my installments! Subpoenas are not for me, and I declined to reply specifically, referring him to the chemistry faculties of his local universities.

I've had inquiries and comments from around the world. I am still sending htmls, one at a time, to a teacher in Italy who has trouble saving them from the Internet. Once a month he asks for the next one. Another teacher, in Spain, uses my columns to teach both English and chemistry. So there has been a good deal of satisfaction in knowing my efforts have been useful.

However, as search engines improve, and the available documentation on the Web proliferates, there seems to be less and less need for what I've been doing up to this point. Furthermore, the emphasis in chemistry has been changing swiftly. Translators are more likely to face documents on environmental remediation than on the research that made remediation necessary at all. More resources of energy and money (and translations) will be spent in the future on cleaning up contaminants than was spent years ago on developing the then-new products and processes now considered dangerous. My local Junior High School has requested bids to remove asbestos, with an estimate of $250,000. I find it difficult to cast off my sense of excitement at what is new and unanticipated, and to accept the cost of "green chemistry," of legislated right-to-know reports, and of litigation over sometimes imagined chemical damage and/or injury. In other words, my age is showing. For example, I don't know what my cholesterol level is, and I don't really care. I don't worry about parts per trillion of organic chlorides in my drinking water. You cannot, after all, legislate against chlorine. It exists, and always will.

And so, good friends, thank you for all your input and feedback over the years. It's been fun. Now I'm going to tend to my pet Baxter in his declining years, enjoy Eleanor's great cooking, and let chemistry wander where it will.

Editor’s Note