Neither Physics Nor Chemistry ─ A History of Quantum Chemistry

Quantum chemistry--a discipline that is not quite physics, not quite chemistry, andnot quite applied mathematics--emerged as a field of study in the 1920s. It was referred to by suchterms as mathematical chemistry, subatomic theoretical chemistry, molecular quantum mechanics, andchemical physics until the community agreed on the designation of quantum chemistry. In NeitherPhysics Nor Chemistry, Kostas Gavroglu and Ana Simoes examine the evolution of quantum chemistryinto an autonomous discipline, tracing its development from the publication of early papers in the1920s to the dramatic changes brought about by the use of computers in the 1970s. The authors focuson the culture that emerged from the creative synthesis of the various traditions of chemistry,physics, and mathematics. They examine the concepts, practices, languages, and institutions of thisnew culture as well as the people who established it, from such pioneers as Walter Heitler and FritzLondon, Linus Pauling, and Robert Sanderson Mulliken, to later figures including Charles AlfredCoulson, Raymond Daudel, and Per-Olov Lowdin. Throughout, the authors emphasize six themes:epistemic aspects and the dilemmas caused by multiple approaches; social issues, including academicpolitics, the impact of textbooks, and the forging of alliances; the contingencies that arose atevery stage of the developments in quantum chemistry; the changes in the field when computers wereavailable to perform the extraordinarily cumbersome calculations required; issues in the philosophyof science; and different styles of reasoning.

Kostas Gavroglu teaches in the Department of History and Science at the University of Athens. Ana Simoes teaches in the Unit for the Faculty of Sciences, History of Science, at the University of Lisbon.