Welcome to Don Cass's Website

Hi, I'm on the faculty here at College of the Atlantic (COA) in Bar Harbor Maine. By training, I'm a physical chemist, but get to teach all of the chemistry classes here at the college. However, all of us here try to wear 'human ecologist' hats as much as possible, since our efforsts are directed at studying the inter-relatedness of things. Indeed, the college grants only one undergraduate degree, the B.A. in Human Ecology.

I'm at such a place because I'm interested in the chemistry of how our world impacts us humans and how we impact our world. I'm interested in why you can see through windows and not walls. I'm interested in where the atmosphere and the oceans have come from - and where they go to. I'm interested how our surroundings have led us to this odd notion that everything (?) is made up of these little atoms bouncing to and fro. And I'm interested in how this somewhat odd perspective can make us more responsible citizens. To me, the latter includes becoming more aware

• of the materials that we use,
• of the sources of those materials,
• of the impacts that the production, use and disposal of such materials has on our world, and
• of the impacts that such impacts, in turn, have on us.

My guiding principles:

• nobody can do nothing
• the non-human world isn't any kinder or more thoughtful than the human
• if you give them a chance, most people will try to do good things
• screw-ups are inevitable. For example,...

  "PROBLEM"	"SOLUTION"	BUT...
  Unsightly smoke was emitted from 1960's stacks, so ....	smokestacks were equipped with pollution control devices such as scrubbers, but...	removing alkaline ash increased the acidity of escaping fumes, increasing acid rain.....
  Early aerosol propellants were toxic and/or very flammable, so ...	the unreactive & nontoxic chlorofluorocarbons (CFCS) were developed, but...	the CFCs were so stable they migrate to the stratosphere and attack the ozone layer that protects earth from UV light.....
  Diets high in "saturated" fats increase the risk of heart disease, so...	butter was replaced by polyunsaturated hydrogenated vegetable oils (margarine), but...	diets high in polyunsaturated fats may increase cancer risk.
  Nuclear power plants generate long-lived radioactive wastes, so...	nuclear power plants could be replaced by massive collection of solar energy in the sunny south-western US, but...	the resultant changes in heat distribution across the conutry could change weather patterns impacting agriculture, etc...
  Nuclear power plants generate long-lived radioactive wastes, so...	develop photovoltaics to make electricity from sunlight, but	photovoltaics use toxic metals which may create widespread pollution problems.
  Much of global agricultural harvest is lost to insect pests, so...	synthetic pesticides like DDT, were developed but...	some pesticides may have undesirable side-effects....
  Gasoline burns too readily in engines making them inefficient (causing "pinging"), so....	compounds such as lead containing compounds were added, but	this led to global lead pollution....
  Homes waste energy by being so drafty, so...	home owners added extra insulation & caulked all cracks, but ....	tighter houses increased the impact of indoor air pollution.

• so diversity is good in that it limits the impacts of any screwups..
• 
  

The Main Courses that I Teach (click on each for more info):

• Chemistry For Consumers: won't be up for a while
• Chem 1 & 2
• Organic Chemistry
• Biochemistry: check back this winter
• Environmental Chemistry
• The Union River Watershed: coming up next spring

Some of My Other Interests (not up yet)

• Risk Assessment
• History of Science
• Running & Skiing
• Magic
•  

My Background

Some favorite quotations