Science, serendipity, coincidence, and the Oregonator at the University of Oregon, 1969–1974

Abstract

This historical review of the development of the Oregonator model of the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction is based on a lecture Dick Field presented during IrvFest2015—Celebrating a founding father of chaos!, a meeting in commemoration of Irving R. Epstein’s 70th birthday. For Dick’s 80th birthday festschrift, we focus here on the five papers in the series named “Oscillations in chemical systems,” published in 1972 [Noyes et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 94, 1394–1395 (1972); Field et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 94, 8649–8664 (1972); Field and Noyes, Nature 237, 390–392 (1972)] and 1974 [Field and Noyes, J. Chem. Phys. 60, 1877–1884 (1974); Field and Noyes, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 96, 2001–2006 (1974)].