Annals of Advances in Chemistry

ISSN: 2576-3768

Editorial

Knowledge or Money: Which One is More Important?

Narayan S Hosmane*

Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois 60115 – 2862, USA

*Address for Correspondence: Narayan S Hosmane, Editor-in-Chief, Distinguished Research Professor and Board of Trustees, Professor, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois 60115 – 2862, USA, Tel: + (815) 753-3556; Email: hosmane@niu.edu

Dates: Submitted: 17 October 2018; Approved: 22 October 2018; Published: 23 October 2018

How to cite this article: Hosmane NS. Knowledge or Money: Which One is More Important? Ann Adv Chem. 2018; 2: 073-074. DOI: 10.29328/journal.aac.1001015

Copyright License: © 2018 Hosmane NS. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

When I asked the students in my general Chemistry class whether grade is more important than knowledge, a majority of them opted for grades over knowledge and this answer did not surprise me a bit as the smart phones are available for them to think while their brains are corrupted or unused for most of the time. This brings one to the Einstein’s prediction that technology will develop to the point where there is no human interaction, which will be the day a new generation of idiots will emerge, and we are witnessing everywhere, including in the classrooms all over the world.

With no interest in learning the true knowledge of basic science or mathematics, many universities around the globe are at the verge of abolishing classroom teaching by introducing the online classes where students need not to be present in the classrooms of the campuses. This learning option has made our younger generation ignore the basics of science and go after money-making applications, which they may never find. Recently, the Asian edition of the “Organometallic Chemistry” textbook, purchased through Amazon, removed Chapter 2 on Fundamentals of Structure and Bonding, in order to increase the profit. This clearly indicates that money is more important than knowledge. By eliminating this chapter, the students are deprived of the fundamental knowledge of the science they need to know in their true learning process. The basic sciences are the foundations of learning which would lead eventually to applications, just like the invention of the cathode-ray tube by JJ Thompson of Scotland leading to the development of television, the discovery of neutrons by John Chadwick in Cambridge leading to cancer treatment therapies, Einstein’s discovery of photons, Rutherford’s discovery of the atomic nucleus, Enrico Fermi’s quantum theory and particle physics and Marie Curie’s discovery of radioactivity, and many more of such basic science discoveries which led to comfortable lives for our younger generations with smartphones, LCD displays, satellite broadcasts, fancy man-made fibers and plastics, automobiles, remote controls, drugs, etc. Without fundamental science, these discoveries would not have been possible. I have emphasized in my “General Chemistry: Nature’s Mystery” book that humans are blessed with a “diamond-quality” brain – the more you polish, the more it shines (meaning learning properly with great interest and curiosity), but when it is cut, the luster increases (meaning more creativity) and further cuttings in all angles lead to a precious diamond (meaning more rewards and/or awards) and eventually it may become a crown jewel (meaning Nobel Prize?). Otherwise, there is no difference between animals and humans. Learning basic science is to understand with enthusiasm and to enjoy developing the understanding of the connection between life and nature. Everyone should be reminded that “without a great foundation, you cannot build a strong and stable castle” [1].

It is evident that many authors of the younger generation are in a hurry to obtain patents on the ideas that nature has never created. For example, bringing moon from the sky and do its face surgery on earth and sending the new faced moon back to sky is a kind of writing we observe in many recent patents in the game of making money. This led the patent owner, so-called Supervisor/Scientist to put a tremendous pressure on their students to fuzz the data in order to prove that the ideas presented in the patents work in laboratory settings, even if the idea never existed in nature! No wonder that many of those results cannot be reproduced in laboratories around the globe. Patent-based publications of this type must not be given any priority in the scientific world. Similar unethical behavior can be found in the pursuit of publishing in Nature, Science, or other journals of high impact factor for securing, not earning, the desired tenure and promotion in their profession.

A scientific journal will become a high-impact premier journal only when the editorial board, the expert reviewer panel, the contributing authors and the readers pledge to make sure that there are neither any falsified scientific data presented, nor plagiarism committed by the authors. It is also equally important that the reviewers point out any unethical acts of authors, while the readers should inform the journal editors if they find suspicious data presented in that particular published article to make sure that the authors do not tarnish the reputation of the journal [2]. The observed or determined scientific data are true knowledge or they are existent facts of nature and, of course, “facts are forever”, but “interpretations may come and go”. Therefore, the peer review system should be such that the authors interpret the data to the best of their ability and in a way consistent with already existing literature data [2].

In this context, the Heighten Science Publishers have created a new an open access journal Annals of Advances in Chemistry (ISSN: 2576-3768) to demonstrate the versatility of the advanced chemistry through highest quality publications. A general misconception is that the open access journals do not follow the same standards as those of the established main line journals of a particular International Scientific Society or Academy. One way to eliminate this misconception would be by publishing the names of the reviewers of each accepted paper as suggested by my mentor Professor M. Frederick Hawthorne, recipient of the US National Medal of Science, Priestley Medal and former Editor-in-Chief of the American Chemical Society’s journal Inorganic Chemistry. This would improve the integrity of the science being reported in the published articles [3].

Finally, what kind of “words of wisdom” one can offer to those young budding researchers and contributing future authors? It may be surprising that not all of them are taught the correct meaning of ethical standards and plagiarism at home, school, college and workplace. The concepts, such as “lying” is not a “sin” and “plagiarism” is not a “crime”, have led to a corrupted belief in their vocabulary, particularly among the new generation in many developing countries. Many of the younger generation of students/postdocs and even junior faculty think that “lying, stealing or plagiarism” and then “not being caught” is a “bravery”! If it was not for the modern-day high-speed Internet, we would not have found many of these illegal acts and stopped them in order to preserve the integrity of the publications [2]. We must thank those dedicated scientists who have made discoveries by using their own creativity, rather than stealing the ideas from others. A wise man once said – “If you salute your work, then you don’t salute anyone; but if you pollute your work, then you need to salute everyone” – so true!

I have full faith that the Heighten Science Publishers will ensure that in the future, the reputation of Annals of Advances in Chemistry (ISSN: 2576-3768) will be enhanced by making it one of the highest cited and top-ranked journals. I wish the entire team of Heighten Science Publishers much success in journal publishing!