'The Chemistry Book' - C&EN Global Enterprise (ACS Publications)

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From the Editor 1155—16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20036 (202) 872-4600 or (800) 227-5558 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Bibiana Campos Seijo MANAGING EDITOR, EDITORIAL: Amanda Yarnell MANAGING EDITOR, PRODUCTION: Rachel Sheremeta Pepling BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & PUBLISHER: Kevin A. Davies SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER: Marvel A. Wills BUSINESS NEW YORK CITY: (212) 608-6306 Michael McCoy, Assistant Managing Editor, Rick Mullin (Senior Editor), Marc S. Reisch (Senior Correspondent), Alexander H. Tullo (Senior Correspondent), Rachel Eskenazi (Administrative Assistant). CHICAGO: (917) 710-0924 Lisa M. Jarvis (Senior Correspondent). HONG KONG: 852 9093 8445 Jean-François Tremblay (Senior Correspondent). HOUSTON: (281) 486-3900 Ann M. Thayer (Senior Correspondent). LONDON: 44 1494 564 316 Alex Scott (Senior Editor). WEST COAST: (315) 825-8566 Melody M. Bomgardner (Senior Editor) GOVERNMENT & POLICY Cheryl Hogue, Assistant Managing Editor Britt E. Erickson (Senior Editor), Jessica Morrison (Assistant Editor), Andrea L. Widener (Associate Editor) SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY/EDUCATION WASHINGTON: Lauren K. Wolf, Assistant Managing Editor Celia Henry Arnaud (Senior Editor), Stuart A. Borman (Senior Correspondent), Matt Davenport (Associate Editor), Stephen K. Ritter (Senior Correspondent). BERLIN: 49 30 2123 3740 Sarah Everts (Senior Editor). BOSTON: (973) 922-0175 Bethany Halford (Senior Editor). CHICAGO: (847) 679-1156 Mitch Jacoby (Senior Correspondent). WEST COAST: (626) 765-6767 Michael Torrice (Deputy Assistant Managing Editor), (925) 226-8202 Jyllian Kemsley (Senior Editor), (510) 390-6180 Elizabeth K. Wilson (Senior Editor) JOURNAL NEWS & COMMUNITY: (510) 768-7657 Corinna Wu (Senior Editor) (651) 447-6226 Jessica H. Marshall (Assistant Editor) ACS NEWS & SPECIAL FEATURES Linda Wang (Senior Editor) EDITING & PRODUCTION Kimberly R. Bryson, Assistant Managing Editor Craig Bettenhausen (Associate Editor), Mitch A. Garcia (Assistant Editor), Jeff A. Huber (Associate Editor), Manny I. Fox Morone (Assistant Editor), Alexandra A. Taylor (Contributing Editor) CREATIVE Robert Bryson, Creative Director Tchad K. Blair, Deputy Creative Director Robin L. Braverman (Senior Art Director), Ty A. Finocchiaro (Senior Web Associate), Yang H. Ku (Senior Associate Designer), William A. Ludwig (Associate Designer) DIGITAL PRODUCTION Renee L. Zerby, Manager, Digital Production Luis A. Carrillo (Web Production Manager), Marielyn Cobero (Digital Production Associate), Joe Davis (Lead Digital Production Associate), Krystal King (Lead Digital Production Associate), Shelly E. Savage (Senior Digital Production Associate), Cesar Sosa (Digital Production Associate) PRODUCTS MANAGER: Pamela Rigden Snead SALES & MARKETING Stephanie Holland, Manager, Advertising Sales & Marketing Natalia Bokhari (Digital Advertising Operations Manager), Kirsten Dobson (Advertising and Marketing Associate), Sondra Hadden (Senior Digital Marketing Specialist) ADVISORY BOARD Deborah Blum, Raychelle Burks, Kendrew H. Colton, François-Xavier Coudert, Cathleen Crudden, Paula T. Hammond, Matthew Hartings, Christopher Hill, Peter Nagler, Dan Shine, Michael Sofia, Michael Tarselli, William Tolman, James C. Tung, Jill Venton, Helma Wennemers, Geofrey K. Wyatt Published by the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY Thomas M. Connelly Jr., Executive Director & CEO Brian D. Crawford, President, Publications Division EDITORIAL BOARD: Nicole S. Sampson (Chair), ACS Board of Directors Chair: Pat N. Confalone, ACS President: Donna J. Nelson, Cynthia J. Burrows, Michael P. Doyle, Jerzy Klosin, Gary B. Schuster Copyright 2016, American Chemical Society Canadian GST Reg. No. R127571347 Volume 94, Number 10

‘The Chemistry Book’ ’ve really been enjoying “The Chemistry Book.” This is the latest venture— his first into “between-hardcovers authorship”—by Derek Lowe, the wellknown blogger of In the Pipeline who is also a medicinal chemist working on preclinical drug discovery at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. This book is part of a series that highlights events, discoveries, and concepts in a particular field (physics, biology, law, and so on) throughout history. And so, from gunpowder to graphene, the book covers 250 milestones in the history of chemistry. As the book “traces the evolution of the ‘central science,’ ” it is interesting to observe Lowe’s choices. Penicillin, sulfuric acid, the Ziegler-Natta reaction—it’s all there. But I particularly commend him for not shying away from noting the less celebrated aspects of chemistry, such as the Bhopal disaster, the thalidomide tragedy, or the use of chemicals in warfare. In this chronological overview, 1912, 1951, and 1965 are prolific years, with five entries each. Of these, 1951 takes the crown for me: It includes Frederick Sanger’s sequencing of the B chain of insulin; the discovery of the birth control pill; the elucidation of proteins’ structural motifs (the α-helix and the β-sheet); the discovery of ferrocene (Recall the famous quote from a then-assistant editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society to Robert Burns Woodward: “We have dispatched your communication to the printers but I cannot help feeling that you have been at the hashish again”); and the discovery of transuranic elements, a tribute to Glenn T. Seaborg, who was involved in the discovery of nine of them. Another entry I find particularly fascinating explains the polywater saga, which happened 50 years ago. I had not heard of polywater, but after I read about it in Lowe’s book, it piqued my interest and I did some digging. In 1966, scientists in the Soviet Union thought they had discovered a new form of water, produced by condensation of pure water vapor in ultrathin quartz tubes. It had strange, unexpected properties: Instead of freezing at 0 °C, it solidified at –40 °C; it was 10 times as viscous as and 40% denser than normal water; and it had a much higher boiling point than 100 °C. When other scientists tried to produce polywater, some were able to do it and oth-

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ers weren’t. And the myth and speculation just grew bigger. A lot of time, resources, and effort were spent investigating this new substance. In 1970 alone, nearly 100 scientific papers were devoted to polywater. Some theorized that the water molecules were locked into place by stronger bonds than the van der Waals forces observed in regular water. In a proposed chemical structure, molecules were linked in hexagons, like honeycombs made of water. It wasn’t until Sérgio Pereira da Silva Porto, a Brazilian physicist, became interested in polywater that its true nature was discovered. When he tried to run Raman spectroscopy on the sample, the polywater would get burned by the laser and turned into char. Porto and his team performed an analysis for sodium, and they were able to find it—as well as potassium, chlorine, and calcium. One of Porto’s team members guessed what it could be, analyzed his own sweat, and showed that the infrared spectrum was almost identical to the pattern produced by polywater. So it turned out that polywater was just sweaty water, and so the myth of polywater was dead. This is a story of the record correcting itself. There was no fraud—the data were correct—just misinterpretation on the part of the scientists involved. Although the focus of the book is the history of chemistry through today, it concludes with two future entries. Both relate to the generation and storage of energy: hydrogen storage for 2025 and artificial photosynthesis for 2030. Both are major areas of research, and significant recent advances have been made. Lowe cautions, “The task is enormous but so are the benefits.” Lowe’s timescales don’t look overly optimistic. Can this be achieved?

Editor-in-chief @BibianaCampos

Views expressed on this page are those of the author and not necessarily those of ACS. MARCH 7, 2016 | CEN.ACS.ORG | C&EN

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