Title: Chemical sciences in the 20th century : bridging boundaries
Authors: Reinhardt, Carsten
Publisher: Wiley-VCH,
Year: 2001
Subjects: Chemistry History; Chemistry history
Abstract: Chemistry in the last century was characterized by spectacular growth and advances, stimulated by revolutionary theories and experimental breakthroughs. Yet, despite this rapid development, the history of this scientific discipline has achieved only recently the status necessary to understand the effects of chemistry on the scientific and technological culture of the modern world. This book addresses the bridging of boundaries between chemistry and the other "classical" disciplines of science, physics and biology as well as the connections of chemistry to mathematics and technology. Chemical research is represented as an interconnected patchwork of scientific specialties, and this is shown by a mixture of case studies and broader overviews on the history of organic chemistry, theoretical chemistry, nuclear- and cosmochemistry, solid state chemistry, and biotechnology. All of these fields were at the center of the development of twentieth century chemistry, and the authors cover crucial topics such as.
Contents: Foreword / Roald Hoffmann -- Preface / Christoph Meinel -- Disciplines, research fields, and their boundaries / Carsten Reinhardt -- Research fields and boundaries in twentieth-century organic chemistry / Peter J.T. Morris, Anthony S. Travis, and Carsten Reinhardt -- Theoretical quantum chemistry as science and discipline : some philosophical remarks on a historical issue / Nikos Psarros -- Issues in the history of theoretical and quantum chemistry, 1927-1960 / Ana Simões and Kostas Gavroglu -- Giovanni Battista Bonino and the making of quantum chemistry in Italy in the 1930s / Andreas Karachalios -- Between disciplines : Jean Barriol and the theoretical chemistry laboratory in Nancy / Marika Blondel-Mégrelis -- From radiochemistry to nuclear chemistry and cosmochemistry / Xavier Rogué