After Dr. Solomon’s lecture about soil last Wednesday I approached him, absolutely humbled by the work he has been doing, with a question. To provide some background: it turns out soil can trap a lot of carbon. This carbon actually makes soil significantly more fertile, but when disturbed, the soil releases some of its carbon in the form of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Apparently soil emissions account for ~25% of all carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere (is that alone not mind-boggling?) But to apply these findings to a practical and effective plan of action, researchers (including Dr. Solomon) have found ways to convert atmospheric CO2 into usable carbon sources for soil. My question, from the perspective of a girl who just happens to really love chemistry, was why carbon that is actively added back into soil would not simply be released into the atmosphere through some sort of soil-disturbing process, especially with our current population.

Dr. Solomon’s response was probably the coolest thing I have ever seen come out of chemistry. Researchers have apparently found a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to bind atmospheric CO2 into cyclic organic compounds and put those back into the soil. I love organic chemistry, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned in this class, it’s that carbon-carbon bonds are hard to form (let alone forging rings out of linear molecules as nonpolar as carbon dioxide). And more than that, aromatic rings are even harder to break–they are incredibly stable and certainly won’t react spontaneously. This means that even if the soil is disturbed, all of this “manufactured” carbon will stay in the soil in the form of aromatic rings, keeping it out of the atmosphere and allowing it to further fertilize the soil.

Research has progressed so far over the last few decades, but I would never have imagined organic chemistry to have such cool implications. This just goes to show that we need to encourage creativity in society because divergent thinking is not something that can simply be taught. We have to actively engage the future generation in current problems so that they can be better prepared to come up with such innovative solutions as researchers have in the field of soil science.