亚里士多德的哲学元素观及其在化学中的演化

亚里士多德早在两千多年前就总结了古希腊自然哲学家们探索世界万物本原的思想成果,提出了与近代表述极其相近的古代元素概念。只是由于长期无人挖掘和论述,以致被埋没和误解。本文探讨了亚里士多德的哲学元素学说(包括元素概念和元素体系两部分内容)及其对近代化学、尤其是对近代化学元素论和原子论建立和发展的影响。指出了亚里士多德元素观中的“不可分性”概念,一直被近代化学元素论所继承和发展,直至现代科学元素学说建立后才被推翻。     

Are the Elements Elementary? Nineteenth-Century Chemical and Spectroscopical Answers

We analyze the role and influence of a tradition of research linked to the concept of primary matter in nineteenth-century studies on the nature of the elements.The suggestion of William Prout (1785-1850) in 1816 that the atomic weights of pure chemical elements are whole numbers and multiples of the atomic weight of hydrogen, taken as unity, was met with serious confutations,which in turn prompted several attempts to save Prouts hypothesis.We discuss these attempts in detail and the objections raised against them, for instance by Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834-1907). We pay particular attention to the use of spectroscopy as a method for proving the existence of elementary forms of matter inside atoms. Leaders in this field of research were two English scientists, the astrophysicist Norman Lockyer (1836-1920) and the chemist William Crookes (1832- 1919). Both of their approaches involved the idea of primary matter. However, while Crookess approach proved to be incorrect, Lockyers ideas survived for several years and supported the discovery of the electron by J.J.Thomson (1856-1940).     

The Periodic‐Table—A Universal Icon: Its Birth 150 Years Ago,and Its Popularization Through Literature Art and Music

This Essay projects the spark of genius of Mendeleev, whose efforts led to the effective formulation of the periodic table, which has placed the entire world of chemical matter on a palm. The periodic table gave rise to a central paradigm, which did for chemistry what Newton had done for physics and Darwin for biology. Subsequently the Essay recounts the popularization of the Periodic Table through literature by Primo Levi, Oliver Sacks and others, and through music and art by composers and artists, such as Jerry Feldman, the King Crimson band, Tom Lehrer, and George Brecht, Blair Bradshaw, Eugènia Balcells, etc.     

Peer Review of Mendeleev’s 1869 Breakthrough Paper: ‘I Suggest Eliminating the Table…’

This article describes a document sent in 1982 by Jack Dunitz at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich to Roald Hoffmann at Cornell University, reportedly a Journal of the American Chemical Society peer review of Dmitri Mendeleev’s 1869 submission on the periodic table. Several aspects of the resultant mystery are examined.     

Alfred Werner: Overlooked Genius of the Periodic System

2019, which was proclaimed by the United Nations as the International Year of the Periodic Table, sees one hundred years since Alfred Werner, the first Swiss to receive a Nobel Prize in chemistry, passed away. The undoubted father of coordination chemistry, he is also well-known for influencing many other fields of chemistry, including organic, inorganic, organometallic, bioinorganic, and stereochemistry. However, one of his more rare and unique contributions to chemistry, his 1905 version of the periodic system, to this day remains overlooked. The simple and elegant idea which he used to construct his periodic table has not been communicated to the English-speaking world, because Alfred Werner published his only original paper on the periodic table in German. Werner's simple mathematical approach lead to overwhelming success with anticipating the future f-block. He managed to predict almost perfectly the number of lanthanides, which was hotly debated at that time. Werner's genius vision was considerably ahead of its time. It was not until the 1940s and the discovery of actinide series when the idea of representing the elements as a 32-column periodic table finally became justified.     

On books and chemical elements

The history of the classification of chemical elements is reviewed from the point of view of a bibliophile. The influence that relevant books had on the development of the periodic table and, conversely, how it was incorporated into textbooks, treatises and literary works, with an emphasis on the Spanish bibliography are analyzed in this paper. The reader will also find unexpected connections of the periodic table with the Bible or the architect Buckminster Fuller.     

Dmitrij Ivanovič Mendeleev (1834–1907): Zum 100. Todestag

The 100th anniversary of death of Mendeleev is occasion for us to appreciate live and work of this great scientist whose name is inseparable from the periodical system of elements and who accomplished pathbreaking benefits not only in the chemical field.