Historiography of Chemistry in the Eighteenth Century: Hermann Boerhaave and William Cullen

Abstract

This paper explores the manner in which historians have dealt with the issue of industrial pollution in the United States. It reviews the existing literature, suggesting reasons for the subject's neglect in the past. It also raises a series of questions for historians of pollution to focus upon. These questions include the need to understand societal values and knowledge that determined how society reacted to past pollution that threatened its health and the quality of its environment; the need to identify major turning points in the understanding and regulation of these wastes; the need to clarify how different professional groups have related to the issue of industrial pollution; the need to explore the development of indicators for measuring and regulating industrial pollution; and, the importance of clarifying what past responsible parties understood about the risks of industrial pollutants and how they had gained this knowledge. These issues are important not only to clarify the historical record but also to inform public policy.     

Chemistry,Mechanics and the Making of Anatomical Knowledge: Boerhaave vs. Ruysch on the Nature of the Glands

Abstract

A controversy between the well-known medical teacher Herman Boerhaave and the anatomist Frederik Ruysch on the nature of the glands shows how chemical knowledge had a decisive influence on the way in which Boerhaave perceived the anatomy and working of the glands. While Ruysch maintained that the glands are no more than the extremities of arteries and act as mechanical instruments separating the fluids into smaller particles, Boerhaave examined the glands as membranous follicles in which chemical processes prepare the fluids for their different uses in the body. Boerhaave, in other words, turned to the chemical properties of particles rather than the vessels that contain them. Boerhaave's viewpoint was new and resulted from his belief in chemistry as the discipline par excellence for the explanation of the most basic processes in the body. More than anything else, the controversy shows how chemistry was not contained within fixed disciplinary boundaries, but had a decisive influence on Boerhaave's construction of anatomical knowledge.     

Chemistry, mechanics and the making of anatomical knowledge: Boerhaave vs. Ruysch on the nature of the glands

A controversy between the well-known medical teacher Herman Boerhaave and the anatomist Frederik Ruysch on the nature of the glands shows how chemical knowledge had a decisive influence on the way in which Boerhaave perceived the anatomy and working of the glands. While Ruysch maintained that the glands are no more than the extremities of arteries and act as mechanical instruments separating the fluids into smaller particles, Boerhaave examined the glands as membranous follicles in which chemical processes prepare the fluids for their different uses in the body. Boerhaave, in other words, turned to the chemical properties of particles rather than the vessels that contain them. Boerhaave's viewpoint was new and resulted from his belief in chemistry as the discipline par excellence for the explanation of the most basic processes in the body. More than anything else, the controversy shows how chemistry was not contained within fixed disciplinary boundaries, but had a decisive influence on Boerhaave's construction of anatomical knowledge.     

活跃有机化学课堂教学的若干方法

结合有机化学课堂教学实践,提出了活跃有机化学课堂教学、增强学生学习兴趣、提升教学效果的几种方法。     

Teaching the Chemistry of Platinum

Following colonisation of South America by the Spanish, many new naturally occurring substances were sent to Europe. One of these was the silvery, unreactive metal, platinum, discovered in New Grenada in the mid-eighteenth century. It was often found in granular form, associated with gold, and the challenge to chemists was to refine it, produce it as wire or sheet, and determine its chemical properties. This interested the professor of chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, Joseph Black, who was able to obtain samples from London-based Spanish contacts, particularly Ignacio Luzuriaga. This paper examines how Black transmitted his knowledge of the metal to large numbers of students attending his annual course.     

化学与社会课程授课方式探讨

重点讲述了北京科技大学“化学与社会”课程课堂讲授方式的改革与实践,并与传统授课模式的效果进行了比较,提出在教学大纲范畴内,以“教无定法”为思想宗旨,使得大学化学课堂的授课方式呈现多样性,并在实践中取得了很好的教学效果.     

以史明鉴: 化学认识论对教学的启示

化学认识论体现了学科发展的历史轨迹, 经由经验的感知到粗犷的实验尝试, 而后转向精致的科学研究, 如今已发展到知识集成、学科交叉、方法整合的新高度。知识的形成犹如个体的发展, 化学知识的呈现过程应与化学学科的发展历程相契合。读史明鉴, 认识论启发化学教学应以学生熟识的经验作为学习的出发点, 注重知识的生成过程, 然后臻于知识创新的境界, 从而提升学生的科学素养。     

浅谈2018年诺贝尔化学奖:驾驭进化的力量

In living organisms, protein functions are constantly evolving over generations throughout the history. Through iterative rounds of genetic mutations and natural selection of fit phenotypes, protein functions have been gradually optimized. This process could be mimicked and even greatly accelerated in the laboratory, when the selection pressure is directly applied to biomolecules of interest, which forms the basis of a technique called directed evolution. The Nobel Prize in chemistry 2018 was awarded jointly to Frances Arnold, George Smith and Gregory P. Winter for their pioneering contributions to the development and applications of directed evolution. Here we briefly review the history of this technique and its impact on renewable energy and pharmaceutical industry.     

Nucleoside Chemistry and Flash Chromatography: An Integrated Approach to Teaching an Organic Chemistry Laboratory

We report here the development of an integrated approach to teaching an organic chemistry laboratory. The laboratory exercise focused on the syntheses of two modified nucleosides and used the syntheses as a vehicle to teach organic chemistry from the point of view of how science is done in the real world. The project not only taught advanced organic bench techniques, but also drew heavily from the basics of molecular biology. The laboratory exercise was taken from the work accomplished in an industrial research laboratory and introduced during the spring semester of 1998. Each three person group was provided with a file containing the relevant literature and given the task of completing the synthesis and purification in a three week period. The groups were encouraged to handle the science and chemistry in a manner similar to a research group in an industrial or academic setting. Each group presented their results in a written paper and an oral presentation.     

师专环境化学教学联系中学化学初探

本文从师专的培养目标出发,提出了开设环境化学选修课的必要性,并介绍了在环境化学教学中联系中学化学教学,培养学生的环境意识和教学能力的一些做法。     

计算化学辅助无机化学课堂教学模式的探索

根据无机化学教学的特点,针对目前无机化学课堂教学的问题,研究了以计算化学为辅助教学,促进无机化学课堂教学的方法。该创新模式的实施,不仅有利于学生理解无机化学知识难点,发挥主观能动性,也普及了计算化学的实践应用,为高校化学大数据平台的建立提供了契机。     

结构化学小班课教学情况介绍

简要介绍了北京大学结构化学小班课教学情况。几年的教学实践表明:在大班授课的基础上采用小班讨论的方式可以起到巩固基础、开阔视野、促进交流、提高水平的作用。     

深化教学改革促进材料化学课程建设

论述了新兴的交叉学科材料化学课程的改革与建设,将优化课堂教学内容、改进教学方法、丰富教学手段以及增设实验教学几方面相结合,构建课程教学新体系。     

化学新课导入方法研究

“良好的开端是成功的一半”。本文从新课导入功能、常见新课导入方法及分类、如何进行新课导入的设计3个方面对新课导入进行研究,并结合“离子键”一节导入的设计,对新课导入加以深入、具体的阐述。     

如何精准做好化学教学实验室的建设

This paper focuses on the detailed construction of the National Demonstration Center for Experimental Chemistry Education of Xiamen University. It contains the accurate design and construction of engineering systems, supply and exhaust air, water, electricity, etc., and furniture. Therefore, this paper provides practical experience for the detailed design and construction of chemistry teaching laboratories in colleges and universities.     

化学奥赛与化学教学

我国中学生在国际奥赛中连年取得骄人的战绩,极大地鼓舞、激励了广大青年学生。他们在欣喜、羡慕之后,便是投入。     

有机化学知识在高分子化学教学中的应用

<高分子化学>是研究聚合反应机理和聚合方法的一门科学,是高分子材料专业的一门重要专业基础课,它与前期所学课程<有机化学>课程有着非常紧密的联系.有机化学知识在高分子化学中的应用有利于调动学生的学习积极性,加深对教学难点的理解,以便提高教学质量,达到更好的教学效果.本文结合高分子化学和有机化学的课堂教学实践,就有机化学知识在辅助高分子化学教学过程中的应用提出了一些实例和自己的体会.