Table of Contents


           Foreword ................................................................    V
           Roald Hoffmann

           Preface .................................................................   IX
           Christoph Memel

           List of Contributors ....................................................  XVII

           Disciplines, Research Fields, and their Boundaries ......................     1
           Carsten Reinhardt
           References and Notes ....................................................    13


    1.     Research Fields and Boundaries in Twentieth-Century Organic Chemistry ...    14
           Peter J.T.Morris, Anthony S.Travis, and Carsten Reinhardt
    1.1    Physical Organic Chemistry ..............................................    14
    1.2    Physical Instrumentation and Organic Chemistry ..........................    20
    1.3    Bioorganic Chemistry ....................................................    29
    1.4    Conclusion ..............................................................    38
           References and Notes ....................................................    38



           Part I
           Theoretical Chemistry and Quantum Chemistry


    2.     Theoretical Quantum Chemistry as Science and Discipline:
           Some Philosophical Remarks on a Historical Issue ........................    45
           Nikos Psarros
    2.1    The Quarrel of the Faculties ............................................    45
    2.2    Theoretical Quantum Chemistry: Establishing a New Science in the
           Twentieth Century .......................................................    46
    2.3    Giovanni Battista Bonino: Pioneer of the New Science and Founder of a
           New Discipline in Italy .................................................    48
    2.4    Jean Barriol: The French Version ........................................    49
           References and Notes ....................................................    50
 
        
    3.     Issues in the History of Theoretical and Quantum Chemistry, 1927-1960 ...    51
           Ana Simoes and Kostas Gavroglu
    3.1    Introduction ............................................................    51
    3.2    Re-thinking Reductionism or the Chemists' Uneasy Relation with
           Mathematics .............................................................    51
    3.3    Convergence of Diverging Traditions: Physics, Chemistry, and
           Mathematics .............................................................    56
    3.4    The Role of Textbooks in Building a Discourse for Quantum
           Chemistry ...............................................................    62
    3.5    The Ontological Status of Resonance .....................................    64
    3.6    The Status of the Chemical Bond .........................................    68
    3.7    The Impact of Computers in Quantum Chemistry: the Split of the
           Community ...............................................................    70
           References and Notes 72
 
        
    4.     Giovanni Battista Bonino and the Making
           of Quantum Chemistry in Italy in the 1930s ..............................    75
           Andreas Karachalios
    4.1    Introduction ............................................................    75
    4.2    Early Career ............................................................    76
    4.3    Bonino and the Beginning of Infrared Spectroscopy in Italy ..............    77
    4.4    The Scientific and Political Context ....................................    79
    4.5    Scientific Contacts in Germany and Austria, 1931—1934 ...................    83
    4.6    Early Contributions to Quantum Chemistry ................................    86
    4.7    Bonino's Place within Contemporary Research .............................    89
    4.8    The Advent of Group Theory in Bonino's Work .............................    90
    4.9    Bonino's Quantum Mechanical Concept of Coordination .....................    92
    4.10   Encroaching Political Developments ......................................    94
    4.11   Conclusion ..............................................................    98
           References and Notes ....................................................    99


    5.     Between Disciplines: Jean Barriol and the
           Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory in Nancy ...............................   105
           Marika Blondel-Mégrelis
    5.1    Inspirations ............................................................   106
    5.2    Mathematics .............................................................   108
    5.3    Quantum Chemistry .......................................................   110
    5.4    Pragmatism ..............................................................   111
    5.5    Foundations .............................................................   112
    5.6    Experiment ..............................................................   114
    5.7    Jean Barriol's Theoretical Chemistry ....................................   115
           References and Notes ....................................................   117



           Part II
           From Radiochemistry to Nuclear Chemistry and Cosmochemistry


    6.     From Radiochemistry to Nuclear Chemistry and Cosmochemistry .............   121
           Xavier Roqué
    6.1    Physical Evidence in Chemical Disciplines ...............................   122
    6.2    Identification and Production ...........................................   124
    6.3    Natural Versus Arfificial Elements ......................................   126
    6.4    Discipline Dynamics .....................................................   127
           References and Notes ....................................................   129


    7.     The Discovery of New Elements and the Boundary
           Between Physics and Chemistry in the 1920s and 1930s.
           The Case of Elements 43 and 75 ..........................................   131
           Brigitte Van Tiggelen
    7.1    Rhenium: A Success ......................................................   132
    7.2    A Failure: Masurium .....................................................   137
    7.3    A Comparison: From Hunting to Breeding ..................................   139
    7.4    The End of a Research Tradition .........................................   140
           References and Notes ....................................................   142

    8.     The Search for Artificial Elements and the Discovery of Nuclear Fission .   146
           Ruth Lewin Sime
           References and Notes ....................................................   158


    9.     From Geochemistry to Cosmochemistry:
           The Origin of a Scientific Discipline, 1915—1955 ........................   160
           Helge Kragh
    9.1    Introduction ............................................................   160
    9.2    Nineteenth-Century Backgrounds ..........................................   161
    9.3    Chemists, Element Formation, and Stellar Energy .........................   164
    9.4    Victor Moritz Goldschmidt and the Transition from Geo- to
           Cosmochemistry ..........................................................   169
    9.5    Geochemistry and the Shell Model of Nuclear Structure ...................   175
    9.6    Chemistry in Space ......................................................   176
    9.7    Chemical Cosmogony and Interstellar Molecules ...........................   178
    9.8    The Emergence of Cosmochemistry .........................................   180
    9.9    Conclusion ..............................................................   183
           References and Notes ....................................................   183




           Part III
           Solid State Chemistry and Biotechnology


   10.     Between the Living State and the Solid State:
           Chemistry in a Changing World ...........................................   193
           Peter J. T. Morris
   10.1    Biotechnology and the Myth of a Recent "Biotech Revolution" .............   194
   10.2    Polymer Science .........................................................   195
   10.3    At the Boundaries .......................................................   196
   10.4    A Composite Field of Research ...........................................   198
   10.5    Conclusion ..............................................................   200
           References and Notes ....................................................   200
 
        
   11.     Biotechnology Before the "Biotech Revolution": Life Scientists,
           Chemists and Product Development in 1930s—1940s America .................   201
           Nicolas Rasmussen
   11.1    Hormones: "Master Molecules" of Life Between the Wars ...................   203
   11.2    Pharmaceuticals in Peace and War ........................................   210
   11.3    Conclusion ..............................................................   218
           References and Notes ....................................................   224


   12.     Polymer Science: From Organic Chemistry to an
           Interdisciplinary Science ...............................................   228
           Yasu Furukawa
   12.1    Macromolecular Chemistry as a New Branch of Organic
           Chemistry ...............................................................   229
   12.2    From Macromolecular Chemistry to Polymer Science: Staudinger, Mark,
           and the Naming of a Discipline ..........................................   231
   12.3    The Rise of Polymer Physics .............................................   233
   12.4    The Biological Nexus ....................................................   237
   12.5    The Problem of Interdisciplinary Science ................................   238
   12.6    Polymer Science versus Macromolecular Science: Continuing
           Strife ..................................................................   240
           References and Notes ....................................................   241


   13.     At the Boundaries: Michael Polanyi‘s Work on Surfaces
           and the Solid State .....................................................   246
           Mary Jo Nye
   13.1    Polanyi on Scientific Ideals and Scientific Practice ....................   246
   13.2    The Potential Theory of Adsorption, 1914—1932 ...........................   248
   13.3    Diffraction and the Solid State .........................................   250
   13.4    Rewards and Recognition in the Scientific Community .....................   252
           References and Notes ....................................................   254


   14.     The New Science of Materials: A Composite Field of Research .............   258
           Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent
   14.1    From Metallurgy to Solid State Physics ..................................   259
   14.2    From Reinforced Plastics to Composite Materials .........................   262
   14.3    From Composite to Complex Structures ... Through Biomimetics ............   266
   14.4    A Future for Chemists? ..................................................   267
           References and Notes ....................................................   269

           Index ...................................................................   271

Foreword

by Roald Hoffmann


Why do active chemists need the history of chemistry? And why some of us are resistant to Clio's art in the laboratory? These are the questions I want to think about.

First, because everything has a history. Things happened, in a chronology and influenced by a personal past (a chemist's advisors, his or her students), in communication with others, and in the setting of a society. The system of science uses the addiction to curiosity of moderately smart, fallible, and underpaid individuals in the labor of a micro-society whose aim is to generate reliable knowledge of the beautiful world within and around us. This gloriously successful European invention demands open publication and communication and mandates frequent dipping back and forth between theory and reality. The tying of such a structure to normal human aspirations (suppressing some along the way, with consequences easily anticipated) nearly guarantees that any interesting new finding will be tested by someone out to prove it wrong. Science, being process, has a history - of individuals, their tools, their communications. It is natural that we should want to know how Diels and Alder got to the reaction named after them. That we discover how discovery took place.

The second reason I see for doing history of chemistry is simply that it is interesting to see how ideas evolved. Even if one was in the middle of the fray. Or, maybe, just because one was there: My mother and I were busy surviving World War II in Galicia; the news we had of the war was fragmentary and propagandistic. What a joy it was to read years later Winston Churchill's history of the Second World War! Chemistry isn't war, but there is a lot of action in those 500 000 articles published each year.

One interesting aspect of doing the history of 20th century chemistry is that the events are likely to be close to the personal experience of chemist-readers. Or they may see their Doktorvaters in them. Since we are human, and prone to selfjustificafion, that proximity in time is likely to lead the responder to focus on the critical - the fact missed, the factor misjudged.

Third, the human in us is absolutely insatiable in its interest for the personal. When the medium is inherently expressive, as in a novel, we just take it in (though we may wonder who that character is based on). But if the mode of expression in which we ply our trade excludes (as the scientific article regretfully does) writing of people, motivation, emotion, anger, then we simply love it when it is allowed to come back. In Nachtisch gossip, for instance. Or, to be serious about it, many of us will recall the tremendous impact of the threadbare two line biographies of organic chemists in "Fieser and Fieser". Students are starving for history, and good teachers know this.

Fourth, history humanizes. The social construction of science program antagonizes scientists, almost reflexively. I think the SCS approach deserves what it gets, in part because it sometimes clothes an antipathy to the organism in the cloak of trying to bring us to see the practice of science as being no different from any other human enterprise. Good history of chemistry (and analysis of real life chemical practice) is not aggressive. It comes out of love for the subject, and shows by example how science is embedded in culture, that scientists are people with faibles and mind sets (call them themata, call them prejudices) that influence what they create. Good history of chemistry relaxes scientists, makes them more tolerant (by a hair) of what the humanities have to say about science.

This last point leads me to think about why chemists are suspicious of history of chemistry (until such time as they try to do some history).
1. There is an arrogance bred by the macho practice of modern chemistry - becoming an administrator, poet, historian is like dropping out of the race. Those who can, do; those who can't ...

2. Science has bought into the cult of the new, with a vengeance. References to old papers are in there only to stake out claims to novelty ("no one since 1912 has .. .") or to establish lines of authority. The Oedipal urge is heightened in the enterprise ("the only prior calculations on this molecule are by the unsatisfactory extended Hückel method"). Nothing new here, except perhaps the pace. Given this valorization of the new, it is especially difficult to enter the mind set of chemistry done two hundred years ago. Many chemists don't have the patience to partake of the world past. They don't see the value. Incidentally, one of the oft-cited uses of history is that we may learn from the past. The behavior of individuals and nations leads one to be skeptical of the idea. Sometimes we learn, sometimes (as in falling in love) it's good that we don't. It's the same for chemists - it may be good not to know that someone else had tried an experiment and it failed.

3. There is a skepticism among chemists that historians can acquire the cognitive structure of chemists and so "understand" them. This is sometimes a silly conceit, because many of the historians of chemistry have the "passport" of a Ph. D. or have practiced chemistry. Shall we listen to the chemists themselves? Autobiographies are often poor history (to be exceeded in their unreliability only by biographies - pathography or hagiography - by children of their parents). But I think historians should ask practitioners in the field not only for fact checking, but also for expressions of that intangible feeling that an analysis is off.


We are occasionally inebriated by the beauty of what we have created in science. It is as if in that moment of understanding we were speaking to the gods. And when one touches the sublime, moral considerations don't mafter. Werner Heisenberg, in his wartime visits to the Netherlands and Denmark wanted to talk science; he had no idea what it meant to be a human being (one who by chance is a scientist) in an occupied country.

History helps here, as I was reminded in a conversation with Hunter R. Rawlings, Cornell's President and a classical scholar, expert on the Greek historian Thucydides. Rawlings (and Thucydides) would stress the moral utility of history. History tells us how human beings acted, and asks us to think about the motives and consequences of their actions. In reconstructing history, we move outside of ourselves, and - not abdicating the capacity to feel strongly about what transpired - we are pushed gently toward alternative perspectives, towards tolerance, towards empathy. This has real spiritual value.


Roald Hoffmann