On some characteristics of Marcus’ work in the light of the history of science

Abstract

Professor Rudolph A. Marcus, recipient of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, is a distinguished theoretical chemist. Two important theories happen to bear his name: the Rice Ramsperger Kassel Marcus (RRKM) theory of unimolecular reactions and the Marcus theory of electron transfer reactions. When considering Marcus’ work, one finds characteristics of it that bear striking similarity to those that can be found in the work of some famous scientists. Such characteristics appear then as common recurring patterns in the work of theoreticians. Among them we find the following: (1) the creation of new theories, driven by experiments that preceding theories were unable to explain; (2) the use of thought experiments; (3) the generalization and extensions from one realm of science to another; (4) the making of predictions and the finding of new properties from correlations among series of data; (5) the use of variational principles; (6) the providing of different demonstrations of an equation; (7) the introduction of new types of coordinates; (8) the innovative capacity to use, by somehow recreating it under the pressure of the physical problem, a mathematical method previously unknown to the author; and finally, (9) the presentation of formulations of the same theory in different mathematical and physical languages. Before discussing in some detail the above points, a brief description of Marcus’ work is first presented for the convenience of the reader.