A science all about change 
(Lectures)
13 February 2013
6pm
Venue: Auckland Museum Events Centre, Auckland Domain
Host: The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology
Cost: $15/$10
Website: www.royalsociety.org.nz
Lecture by Professor Roald Hoffmann, winner of the 1981 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
In this generously illustrated lecture, several views of chemistry will be presented, stressing its psychological dimension and links to the arts. Hoffmann writes: “Chemistry is, and always has been, the art, craft, and business of substances and their transformations. It is now also the science of microscopic molecules both simple and complex.”
Roald Hoffman is a theoretical chemist at Cornell University. He was born in Poland and survived the Holocaust, escaping with his mother from a Ukrainian labour camp and being hidden by neighbours in a schoolroom attic. He sees chemistry as a truly anthropic science while recognising the popular perception that it is capable of both healing and hurting. Underlying psychological tensions in the practice of chemistry will be explored in this lecture, as will the processes of creation and synthesis which bring chemistry close to the arts.
Tickets are $15/10 for members of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Auckland Museum Institute and students with ID. Tickets may be purchased on the night, but you are advised to book ahead of time. For tickets visit the website www.royalsociety.org.nz
On Saturday 16 February Professor Hoffmann will also discuss images on display in Art of the Invisible.
