“May I talk about chemistry with you?”, asked Eliza Leusmann, Nachrichten aus der Chemie, Frankfurt, Germany, random people on the street or train. Leusmann portrayed the interviewees in a humorous way and described their opinions as well as their first associations with chemistry. After her survey Leusmann comes to the conclusion that the image of chemistry in the society is very mixed.

On a Saturday morning Leusmann positioned herself on the marketplace in Marburg, Germany, wearing a lab coat and holding posters saying “Chemistry is everywhere – let’s talk about it!” Many passersby seemed interested, but in the end only 10 % were willing to talk about chemistry.

Some people seem to have quite a good understanding what chemistry is about, whereas others only have a vague idea. One man declared that chemistry is everything with abbreviations of letters and numbers. After being informed that water also has such an “abbreviation” he asked shocked “What? Water is out of chemistry?”.

• „Darf ich mit Ihnen über Chemie sprechen?“,
  Eliza Leusmann,
  Nachr. Chem. 2016, 64 (4), 448–449.
  DOI: 10.1002/nadc.20164049844