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'One must never show one’s tongue in Japan'

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Chemistry in Japanese is ‘magical change’
Norman Greenwood Scientist
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And it was very interesting that the students I found, could understand English, their perception of English was very good, far greater than the Japanese, than the Chinese that I was speaking about in an earlier part. But there were some words of course, and key words, which would have been unfamiliar and then Takeda would write up a symbol on the…

As you probably know the Japanese is a symbolic language, they have... well there’s also a phonetic part of it, but the characters that are borrowed from the Chinese, express an idea. And the word for chemistry is called magical change; that is the symbol for chemistry.

Norman Greenwood (1925-2012) was born in Australia and graduated from Melbourne University before going to Cambridge. His wide-ranging research in inorganic and structural chemistry made major advances in the chemistry of boron hydrides and other main-group element compounds. He also pioneered the application of Mössbauer spectroscopy to problems in chemistry. He was a prolific writer and inspirational lecturer on chemical and educational themes, and held numerous visiting professorships throughout the world.

Listeners: Brian Johnson

Professor Brian FG Johnson FRS, FRSE, FRS Chem, FAcad Eu, FAS. Professor of Inorganic Chemistry University of Edinburgh 1991-1995, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry University of Cambridge 1995-2005, Master Fitzwilliam College Cambridge 1999-2005. Research interests include studies of transition metal carbonyls, organometallic chemistry, nano- particles and homogeneous catalysis. Professor Johnson is the author of over 1000 research articles and papers.

Tags: Japan, China, Masuo Takeda

Duration: 55 seconds

Date story recorded: May 2011

Date story went live: 25 November 2011