We are in the middle of the YouTube Generation. Anyone can create short films and disseminate them to the masses with relative ease. Want to learn how to change a tire? Need to fold a napkin so it looks like a swan? Interested in feedstocks derived from biomass to make thermoset materials ranging from rigid foams to flexible sheets that don't release any harmful substances upon combustion? Check out YouTube.
No, really – check out YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afggRfw0-Ko
This video was created to introduce Prof. Gadi Rothenberg's Heterogeneous Catalysis and Sustainable Chemistry research group at the University of Amsterdam to a broader audience.
Chemical Processing recently featured an article about Rothenberg's team in its May 2011 issue (Resins Process Promises Plenty of Pluses). Rothenberg and Editor Mark Rosenzweig exchanged a few e-mails regarding interest in videos.
Rothenberg wrote that he is "trying to convince various funding agencies that scientists should make more short films as deliverables for projects for the knowledge dissemination work package."
His hypothesis is that more people will look at a short film on YouTube about a scientific project than read a paper.
What do you think?
