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Review of Neither Physics nor Chemistry: A History of Quantum Chemistry Jeffrey Kovac* Department of Chemistry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-1600, United States Slater are also discussed, as is the tension between the valence bond approach developed by Pauling and the molecular orbital approach championed by Mullikan. The third chapter, Quantum Chemistry qua Applied Mathematics, moves across the Atlantic to the United Kingdom where Charles Coulson and his students take center stage. Coulson’s 1952 textbook, Valence, eventually diminished the influence of Pauling’s book and helped legitimize the use of mathematics in chemistry. The fourth chapter, Quantum Chemistry qua Programming, moves around the globe and includes the work in France by Raymond Daudel and Bernard and Alberte Pullman, the development of the quantum chemistry group in Sweden led by Per-Olov Löwdin, as well as later research in the United States and in England. This chapter outlines the importance of the highspeed digital computer in the emergence of quantum chemistry as a mature field, which is the subject of the final chapter. As part of the story, the authors discuss the philosophical and methodological questions that were confronted by those who contributed to the development of the theories and of the subdiscipline. This discussion illuminates the unique nature of chemical reasoning, which often uses fuzzy concepts such as electronegativity, combines every theoretical argument available, and is strongly rooted in experimental evidence. This material will be interesting to both philosophers of chemistry and to teachers of chemistry who are concerned with its conceptual foundations. We also learn a lot about the personalities of the people involved in this history. Some of the players, Pauling, for example, are well-known, but I learned about some figures, such as John Lennard-Jones, whom I only knew as names. The portrait of Coulson and his influence on the development of quantum chemistry seems quite complete and well done. Those who like to enliven their courses with a historical perspective will find lots of material in this book. It is hard to criticize such a fine book, an excellent history that is written in an engaging style; nonetheless, I would have liked a discussion of the application of quantum mechanics to chemical reactions, particularly the work of Michael Polanyi and Henry Eyring. Similarly, there was no discussion of the use of quantum mechanics in statistical mechanics, which provided a bridge between the developing understanding of molecules and thermodynamics. These are minor quibbles, however. Every author has to make choices and Gavroglu and Simões have chosen to focus on molecular structure and bonding. Finally, an important theme in this book is the development of a subdiscipline within chemistry. Quantum chemistry is a mix of physics, chemistry, and applied mathematics. To reach maturity it required the development of a tool, the high-speed
Neither Physics nor Chemistry: A History of Quantum Chemistry, by Kostas Gavroglu and Ana Simões. MIT Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2012. pp. ISBN: 978-0262016186 (hardcover). $40.00.
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large fraction of the undergraduate chemistry curriculum is devoted to the understanding of molecular structure and bonding using the various ideas developed by chemists during the 20th century: Lewis structures, and the valence bond and molecular orbital theories. Few of us who teach chemistry, however, know how these theories developed or much about the scientists who struggled to understand how quantum mechanics could be applied to understanding of the chemical bond. This new book by Kostas Gavroglu and Ana Simões tells the fascinating history of the development of the subdiscipline of quantum chemistry and the effort to understand the chemical bond.
Cover image provided by MIT Press and reproduced with permission.
After an introduction in which they discuss the issues they want to raise, the authors trace the history of quantum chemistry up to 1970 in four interlinked historical chapters. The first chapter, Quantum Chemistry qua Physics, primarily concerns early work by Germans, especially Walter Heitler and Fritz London who showed that the covalent bond could be understood in terms of quantum mechanics, but also Friedrich Hund, Erich Hückel, and Hans Hellmann. The second chapter, Quantum Chemistry qua Chemistry, focuses on work done in the United States. As one would expect, the history begins with G. N. Lewis and his theory of the shared pair bond, followed by developments by Linus Pauling and his student George Weyland. Pauling’s 1939 book, The Nature of the Chemical Bond, was enormously influential in helping chemists understand how quantum mechanics could help them understand bonding. The contributions of Robert S. Mullikan and John C. © 2012 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
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Journal of Chemical Education
Book and Media Review
digital computer, which allowed complex calculations on molecules to be accomplished in a reasonable amount of time. A large number of theoretical, methodological, and practical issues had to be resolved before quantum chemistry could be recognized as a legitimate pursuit. Gavroglu and Simões have done an excellent job in showing how quantum chemistry, a field that has grown in importance, developed in the middle part of the 20th century. This is a book that will be interesting to historians and philosophers of chemistry, yet I hope it has a wider readership. Both working chemists and teachers of chemistry will benefit from the discussion of the questions that arose as quantum chemistry developed into a mature field of study. If nothing else, the book contains a lot of good stories.
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dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed3007154 | J. Chem. Educ. 2012, 89, 1485−1486
