With the modern world buzzing with information at many new levels, the Learned Societies serve a special purpose, the chief executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry says in a prominent European journal article.

Richard Pike, writing in European Union, says that organisations like the RSC serve a role "challenging the status quo, which carries risks and rewards."

He goes on to say that in a world with almost limitless access to information the time is right for independent, balanced views that the RSC and its counterparts in other sciences can offer.