Developments In Structural Chemistry Research Articles

Developments in Structural Chemistry from the Viewpoint of a Solid‐state Chemist: A Review Prompted by the Sixtieth Anniversary of Professor Jack Dunitz's Research Group in the ETH, Zurich

AbstractThis reflective article begins with some examples of Jack Dunitz's contribution to structural chemistry and with his scientific and cultural influence on his contemporaries. There follows summarizing accounts of various highlights achieved by others in structural chemistry. The utility and impact of synchrotron radiation on the elucidation of nanoscale features of both inorganic and biological materials are outlined, as are some recent major advances achieved via various facets of electron microscopy.

Nobel Prize and structural chemistry I

Numerous discoveries in chemistry that have been awarded a Nobel Prize may be assigned an important role in the development of structural chemistry. Some of the most conspicuous ones during the first half of the twentieth century are reviewed in this Editorial.

ChemInform Abstract: Recent Developments in Structural Chemistry of Organosilicon Compounds

ChemInform Abstract: Recent Developments in Structural Chemistry of Organosilicon Compounds

Giuseppe Bruni 1873–1946

Abstract Giuseppe Bruni, a pioneer in the development of structural chemistry and the chemistry of solid solutions and isomorphism, and also outstanding for his researches in the chemistry and technology of rubber, was born in Parma, Italy, in 1873, and died in Milan in 1946. The news of Bruni's passing did not, for some unexplained reason, become known to most of his many friends and admirers abroad until the end of 1949. After graduating in Parma in 1896, he joined the renowned Ciamician at Bologna University, where for nearly ten years he worked mainly on the nature and theory of solid solutions and of isomorphism. In 1908, he summed up his researches in this field in a monograph entitled “Solid Solutions and Isomorphism,” published in Germany under the title “Feste Lösungen und Isomorphismus.” He temporarily left Bologna to work with van't Hoff in 1900–1901, and the latter subsequently emphasized the importance of Bruni's researches in the following words: “Ce savant à contribué d'une partie prépondérante à l'adoption des lois sur les solutions solides et les mélanges isomorphes, qui, sans son intervention auraient été troublée par des notions confuses.” [This scholar and master has contributed in a major way to the establishment of the laws of solid solutions and of isomorphic mixtures, for without the part which he played, the formulation of these laws would have been beset by a confusion of ideas.] The year 1907 saw Bruni appointed to the Chair of General and Inorganic Chemistry at Padua, where for a decade he conducted researches on diffusion in the solid state, on the cryoscopic method, etc. In 1917 he was appointed Professor of General and Inorganic Chemistry at the Polytechnic School of Milan—an institution similar in character to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He held this post until shortly before his death. In the following, a brief résumé is given of his work in rubber science and technology.

Oxford Science

Oxford Science makes a welcome reappearance after an absence of nearly nine years. Under the general editorship of F. A. Holland, it gives a survey of scientific development in the University of Oxford and is particularly designed to keep the person with a scientific education informed of the progress made in fields of science other than his own. Articles in the present issue (2, No. 1, June 1948) are by A. J. Birch and D. K. C. MacDonald on metal-ammonia solutions ; C. J. Dickenson on functional organisation within the cell ; J. D. Dunitz and S. C. Wall work on some developments in structural chemistry ; A. H. Cooke on magnetism at low temperatures, and H. M. Sinclair on nutritional science. In the editorial, reference is made to the part played by Oxford men of science in the nation's war effort, to the new laboratories under construction or about to be constructed, and to the closing down of the last of the college laboratories, so that laboratory teaching is now entirely in the hands of the University staffs. Only brief mention is made of the important physical work done in the new Clarendon Laboratory ; but a fuller report can be found in Oxford, 9, No. 2, p. 54 (1946-47). Those interested in the progress of chemistry at Oxford may like to refer to the article by F. M. Brewer in Oxford, 9, No. 3, p, 98 (1948), which is very informative.