Neither Physics nor Chemistry: A History of Quantum Chemistry (Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology)
This is a first-rate book co-authored by the two leading experts in the history of quantum chemistry. They have achieved a detailed and complete interpretive synthesis which should stand for many years as the definitive book on the subject.(Mary Jo Nye, Horning Professor in the Humanities and Professor of History Emerita, Oregon State University)This book by Gavroglu and Simões is a masterful investigation of the constitution of a new scientific discipline that is 'neither physics nor chemistry.' It is a book that cannot avoid becoming a standard work for a long time to come. It will be of great interest not only to historians and philosophers of science, but also to the large community of chemists.(Helge Kragh, Department of Science Studies, Aarhus University; author ofQuantum Generations)Neither Physics nor Chemistryis much more than a meticulously researched, authoritative history of quantum mechanical explanations of chemical structure. It is an insightful sociological and a commanding histriographical study of the formation of a modern new subdiscipline, quantum chemistry, and a searching examination of the impact that digital computers had on the field. It is also a highly instructive exploration of the consequences of these innovations for the culture of chemistry, and more generally for the philosophy of chemistry. It is a model for how to write the history of twentieth-century science, and Kostas Gavroglu and Ana Simões are to be commended for it.(S. S. Schweber, Koret Professor of the History of Ideas and Professor of Physics, Emeritus, Brandeis University)