The root of the word "chemistry" is still debated, but it is commonly linked to one of the names of ancient Egypt, referring to the dark soil of the fertile Nile delta which, by extension, was considered the source of all substance and wisdom.

Ahmed Zewail, the only Arab to win the Nobel Prize in science, happens to be a chemist, but perhaps it is a little more than a coincidence in his case that he was a native of Egypt, where the roots of chemistry can be traced.

Zewail will give the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Lecture in Los Alamos this year. It will be the 40th talk in the annual series, traditionally one of the most important intellectual events of the year in Los Alamos.

His topic, fundamental to his research and achievements, will be on "The Mysteries and Miracles of Time" and will be given at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 16 at the Duane Smith Auditorium in Los Alamos. It is free.

"My focus is fundamentally on the concept of time per se," he said in a telephone interview this week from his office at the California Institute of Technology. "We all think we understand time, but we don't. I want to look deeply at that concept of time, but then look at how time has been measured from the invention of the calendar 6,000 years ago in ancient Egypt to the kind of work we've been doing at Cal-Tech."

Zewail was cited by the Nobel committee in 1999 "for his studies of the transition states of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy." His work in rapid laser techniques and super slow-motion photography enabled him to capture an ultra high-speed picture of how atoms in a molecule move during a chemical reaction."

The difference between a second and a femtosecond is about the same as that between a second and 32 million years.

As the news release of the Swedish Royal Academy of Science Applications noted at the time, applications of this new realm of imaging technological advance range from how catalysts function and how molecular electronic components must be designed, to the most delicate mechanisms in life processes and how the medicines of the future should be produced.

In a recent paper, "Micrographia of the Twenty-First Century: From Camera Obscura to 4D Microscopy," written for the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society this year, Zewail tracked the progress of microscopic to contributions by the Arab polymath Alhazen (A.D. 965-1040), who not only conducted experiments in refraction and reflection but also developed a concept of the camera obscura, the "dark chamber" that inspired the inventors of photography many centuries later.

In a current article, "Filming the Invisible in 4-D" in the August 2010 issue of Scientific American, Zewail brings the story of the last 10 years of his research up to date. Now he is making movies "unveiling motions that occur at the size scale of atoms and over time intervals as short as a femtosecond." The new capabilities he describes allow scientists to see molecules and microscopic materials like cells in three spatial dimensions plus the fourth, as they unfold in time, while reacting to all different kinds of conditions and situations.

Zewail's interest in observing the phenomena of change at the atomic scale and his interest in time are connected.

"I trace it back to understanding the process of change, how wood burns into a gas, creating light and how fast it occurs," Zewail said. "The moment you say change, you must put a time to it. Later, I have been more intrigued by the fundamental issues, the arrow of time and cosmic time. It's absolutely fascinating. What does it mean? It becomes philosophical."

Although his talk will have more to do with his scientific pursuit than his "personal trajectory," Zewail's autobiographical writings, Voyage Through Time and Age of Science will reward the reader looking for the humanity behind the science.

In April 2009, President Barack Obama named Zewail as one of the three Nobel Laureates on the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. In November 2009, he was one of three distinguished American scientists selected to the new U.S. Science Envoy Program, created to foster science and technology collaborations between the United States and nations throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and South and Southeast Asia.

In what he calls "work to help the world at large," Zewail has taken an active interest in global affairs as a spokesman for science, technology and higher education. He has advocated cooperation between Western and Muslim nations in new partnerships based on modern and enlightened views.

As for the United States, Zewail wrote in a 2008 Wall Street Journal op-ed of the need for "a complete overhaul of national science policy ... to prepare the U.S. for a future rapidly overtaking us."

Last year's Oppenheimer Memorial lecture was by Jeff Hawkins, inventor of the Palm Pilot. In 2004, Frank Wilczek of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology gave the lecture and shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2005.

Contact Roger Snodgrass at roger.sno@gmail.com.


IF YOU GO

What: The 40th J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Lecture, by Ahmed Zewail, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry and professor of chemistry and physics at the California Institute of Technology. The lecture is free and open to the public. College scholarships sponsored by the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Committee for high-school graduates throughout the region will also be announced at this time.

When: 7:30 p.m. Aug. 16.

Where: Duane Smith Auditorium at Los Alamos High School, Diamond Drive, Los Alamos