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J. Med. Chem. 1996, 39, 1344
Book Reviews The Adventure Playground of Mechanisms and Novel Reactions. By Rolf Huisgen, in Profiles, Pathways, and Dreams. Edited by Jeffrey I. Seeman. American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C. 1994. XXIV + 279 pp. 15 × 23 cm. ISBN 0-8412-1832-3. $24.95. After having read several of the autobiographies of eminent organic chemists published in the series Profiles, Pathways, and Dreams, I was pleased indeed to be asked to review Rolf Huisgen’s autobiography. I feel obliged first to make a few general remarks on the goals that the series editor, Jeffrey I. Seeman, set up for all 22 books. His main goal “was to document the development of modern organic chemistry by having individual chemists discuss their roles in this development”. It is quite remarkable that this idea did not, in most cases, lead to the usual type of review article as they are (and have to be) written for journals publishing progress reports and reviews of smaller or larger areas of organic chemistry. On the contrary, the books often contain chapters or sections in which the historical development of new concepts, new structures of compounds, etc., are described in a way that enlightens how the specific subject was embedded in the contemporary state of the science at that time. Such aspects are important to know for scientific developments in the future, but they are revealed only rarely in scientific papers. I agree fully with the opinion of L. Wolpert and A. Richards in their remarkable book A Passion for Science (Oxford University Press, 1988) in which they write in the preface: “...The scientific paper is a kind of fraud. The neat format ‘IntroductionsMethodssResultssDiscussion’ bears no relation to the way scientists actually work. While the final results must stand up to cold and objective scrutiny, the process of achieving them rarely takes the form of the calm and logical progression suggested by the telling. Purging events of all human emotion, the formal impersonal style totally fails to indicate who actually did what and why. If the effort was a collaborative one, a whole team of widely differing individuals condenses into a faceless, characterless, Delphic oracle of science. Imagination and chance, confusion and failure disappear completely, as well as the vital conversations in the coffee room and thoughts in the bath!”. The “Profile” books demonstrate that they are (exceptional) a contradiction to Wolpert and Richards’ statements, and, indeed, one finds similar thoughts in an article that Jeffrey Seeman himself wrote for Chemical Reviews in 1983 on the Curtin-Hammett principle. Wolpert and Richards’ recommendation on how we should describe our scientific finding was well followed by Huisgen in his autobiography. The 10 chapters on his areas of interests in organic chemistry are embedded in an excellent “Editor’s Note” (four pages on the author) followed by an introductory chapter (“The Setting”, 11
pages) and an epilogue (“Glimpses and Reflections: More on My Life and Thoughts”, 59 pages). The 10 chapters mentioned contain summaries and discussions on reactions and structures investigated by Huisgen. The reader who is interested in a specific reaction is strongly recommended not only to read the respective chapter but also the others because it is, in my opinion, characteristic of Huisgen’s way of thinking to correlate hypotheses and conclusions gained by studying one reaction with observations on other reactions made by him or other chemists. This is particularly true for his most important area of success, the clear characterization of 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions and the development of new reactions of this type for syntheses in heterocyclic chemistry. These specific chapters also contain, however, remarks of general importance. I quote a paragraph on literature browsing as an example: “The computer age is changing our attitude toward the chemical literature. Search orders with detailed limits are given, and the computer coughs up citations in abundance. Photocopies of publicationssmany of them never readspile up on the chemist’s desk. Many budding scientists are looking in their research for a niche that offers lifelong shelter. Overspecialization appears to be nurtured by a flood of new specialized journals as well as by the library computer service. Who still has the leisure for browsing? Yet, the old literature is a gold mine for rediscoveries”. Both in the introductory chapter and in the epilogue the concentration of really fundamental statements on reaction mechanisms, kinetics, “unifying concepts”, “chaos of facts”, teaching of organic chemistry, personal style in writing and speaking, and relations to young associates, to friends, and to his family (etc.) is so great that I hesitate to mention examples. The encouragement that Huisgen received from and gave to colleagues interested in reaction mechanisms and structures of organic compounds is mentioned, particularly that regarding American chemists. As he emphasized the importance of kinetic investigations for elucidating mechanisms, it is astonishing that he mentions Christopher Ingold only once briefly and in a way that, in my opinion, is not appropriate for a chemist who did not just make mechanistic “excursions” but who had the virtue to propose the framework of the mechanistic scheme for organic chemistry on which our work is still based. In spite of this critical remark, I emphasize that Huisgen’s autobiography is one of the most interesting volumes in the “Profile” series. I can warmly recommend it to every organic chemist. Heinrich Zollinger Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland JM960034A
