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54 Negocios ProMéxico | The Lifestyle Negocios ProMéxico | The Lifestyle 55
there is
Something
in the Air
A Conversation with
Mario Molina
Mario José Molina-Pasquel Henríquez (born March 19, 1943 in
Mexico City) is the first Mexican-born citizen to ever receive a Nobel
Prize in Chemistry. Along with Paul J. Crutzen and F. Sherwood
Rowland, he is one of the precursors to the discovery of the Antartic
ozone hole. In 1995 he was co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
for his role in elucidating the threat of chlorofluorocarbon gases to
the Earth’s ozone layer. In interview with Negocios, Dr. Molina talks
about how he became interested in science and his life today.
____
by maría josé esteva
photos courtesy of centro mario molina
Johannes Kepler asked himself some 400 years ago: “Why
are things the way they are and not otherwise?” No matter
what the era, it is that same, seemingly naive curiosity
that drives us to look for answers to the questions
that have fascinated mankind since time immemorial. Dr. Mario
Molina, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, talks to us about
his life and how he has contributed to science.
Mario Molina (Mexico City, 1943) was one of the scientists who
won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995 for discovering the threat
of certain polluting gases to the ozone layer. Almost 20 years have
passed and Dr. Molina is still hard at work. In interview with Negocios,
he tells us about everything from his early encounters with
science and why we need to take steps to protect the environment, to
what he does during his free time and his passion for music.
—The first “conscious” contact most people have with
science is the typical kid’s chemistry set and the home labs
set up in their bathrooms. What was yours?
As a kid, I started taking an interest in science –when I was
about nine or ten– after reading books about pirates and the
biographies of scientists. Then I got into chemistry experiments
and microscopes. Years later, I started conducting more serious
experiments. I “appropriated” a bathroom at home that wasn’t
being used and turned it into a lab where I conducted proper
experiments, not games. An aunt, a sister of my father who was a
chemist, helped me reproduce the experiments she did at university
in my little “lab”.
—When did you realize that chemistry is all around us?
What was that discovery like?
Studying the sciences made me realize –and this was outside of
school– how important they are to the general wellbeing of mankind.
I gradually specialized in one branch of science: chemistry.
I realized that chemistry plays a role in absolutely everything,
from industrial processes to the food we eat.
—Kids are always asking questions like “Why is the
sky blue?” “Why do onions make us cry?” that can only
be answered by science. Do you remember the kind of
questions you used to ask?
From a very early age, I started asking questions like: What is
chemistry and what makes life possible? How were the elements
and the chemical compounds on our planet created? How were
pharmaceuticals invented?