The News Magazine of the CHEMISTRYApplied Chemistry (IUPAC)publications.iupac.org/ci/2005/2706/nov05.pdf · Polymer Chemistry, Reactions and Processes 27 The Periodic Table: Into

International

Echoes from BeijingA Wrap-Up of the 43rd IUPACGeneral Assembly

November-December 2005Volume 27 No. 6

The News Magazine of the International Union of Pure and

Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)

CHEMISTRY

1 600 Years Young Lessons from EarlyChemists

From the Editor

CHEMISTRY InternationalThe News Magazine of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)

www.iupac.org/publications/ci

Managing Editor: Fabienne MeyersProduction Editor: Chris BrouwerDesign: CB Communications

All correspondence to be addressed to:Fabienne MeyersIUPAC, c/o Department of ChemistryBoston UniversityMetcalf Center for Science and Engineering590 Commonwealth Ave.Boston, MA 02215, USA

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SubscriptionsSix issues of Chemistry International (ISSN 0193-6484) will be published bimonthly in 2005 (onevolume per annum) in January, March, May, July,September, and November. The 2005 subscriptionrate is USD 99.00 for organizations and USD 45.00for individuals. Subscription orders may be placeddirectly with the IUPAC Secretariat. AffiliateMembers receive CI as part of their Membershipsubscription, and Members of IUPAC bodies receiveCI free of charge.

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ISSN 0193-6484

For IUPAC, its members, and governing bodies, the biennial event thatis the General Assembly is a major activity. While the schedule ispacked with all sorts of committees meetings, workshops, and task

groups, the GA is most of all a unique opportunity for attendees to meetwith hundreds of chemists from all over the globe. They make up the IUPACnetwork and come to the GA serving many different functions, but all withthe same goals of creating a better world.

For example, this past August a chemist from Kenya traveled to Beijingas a fellow of the Safety Training program to share with the Committee onChemistry and Industry his experience as a safety officer in a chemicalplant. A task group with fellows from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, andAustralia met relentlessly for days over issues related to metrological trace-

ability. Scientists from theworld over held a livelydiscussion to identifyIUPAC's niche in improv-ing public understandingof chemistry. Youngobservers from Brazil,Canada, Chile, France,India, Russia, Turkey, UK,and USA participated invarious committee meet-ings. The Union Officers—

currently from Norway, Canada, South Africa, Australia, andSwitzerland—convened with as many groups as possible to grasp the stateof IUPAC affairs. And finally, delegates from 45 countries and observersfrom a few more gathered for the Council meeting.

The GA is not like any other conference; it is a place where scientistsmeet not thinking about their own research, but about how they can helppromote the norms, values, standards, and ethics of the science, which,according to IUPAC's Mission, is what IUPAC is all about.

In this issue of CI and the next, you will find accounts from some of themeetings held during the GA and the World Chemistry Congress, organizedconcurrently by the Chinese Chemical Society and the Institute of Chemistryof the Chinese Academy of Science. It is not extensive coverage, but it willhopefully give a flavor of what happened in Beijing this past August underthe IUPAC banner.

The GA and Congress provide an opportunity for the IUPAC family tobuild special relationships with the local hosts and they help involve the sci-entific community in that region in IUPAC activities. For that reason, IUPACis eager to rotate the leadership of the Congress and move the events tovarious locations around the world. In recent years, the GA/Congress washeld in Brisbane, Australia (2001), and in Ottawa, Canada (2003). In August2007, the GA/Congress will be held in Torino, Italy, and two years later, inGlasgow, Scotland. Hope to see you there!

Fabienne [email protected]/publications/ci

In Beijing: IUPAC President Leiv Sydnes (cen-ter) with IUPAC staffers Fabienne Meyers (left),Paul LeClair, Enid Weatherwax, Erin Carter, andChris Brouwer, CI Production Editor.

CHEMISTRY International November-December 2005 Volume 27 No. 6

Presidents’s Column 2

FeaturesIUPAC in Beijing: A Wrap-Up of the General Assembly 4

Division Roundups 71 600 Years Young by Matthew V. Veazey 10Lessons from Early Chemists: Where is there Wisdom to be

Found in Ancient Materials Chemistry? by Philip Ball 13

IUPAC WireIUPAC–Samsung Education Prize for 2005 17IUPAC–Richter Prize in Medicinal Chemistry 18Standard Atomic Weights Revised 18New CAs Join IUPAC 19IUPAC Poster Prizes Awarded in Denmark 19Fullerene Nomenclature: A Letter from Stanley S. Brown 20

Up for DiscussionEmerging Issues in Developing Countries

Natural Products, a Possibility for the R&D of Drugs for Developing Countries by Antonio Monge 21

Provisional RecommendationsJCAMP-DX for Electron Magnetic Resonance 22XML-Based Standard for Thermodynamic Property

Data Storage (ThermoML) 22

Making an imPACtStability Constants of Metal Complexes of Complexones

for Biomedical and Environmental Applications 23Round Robin Test on the Molecular Characterization

of Epoxy Resins by Liquid Chromatography 23

BookwormOrganic Synthesis—PAC Special Topic Issue 24Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry—IUPAC

Recommendations 2005 25Analogue-Based Drug Discovery 26Measurement of the Thermodynamic Properties of Multiple

Phases 26Polymer Chemistry, Reactions and Processes 27The Periodic Table: Into the 21st Century, reviewed by Peter Atkins 27

Conference CallNanotechnology: Science and Application

by Mohamed Abdel-Mottaleb 29Heterocyclic Conference by Thomas Tidwell 30Electrical and Related Properties of Organic Solids

and Polymers by Jean-Michel Nunzi 31Physical Chemistry: Education and Challenges by Michel Rossi 32

Where 2B & Y 34

Mark Your Calendar 37

Index for 2005 40

Contents

page 44

Greetings from Beijing

2 CHEMISTRY International November-December 2005

Reflections at theEnd of a Presidency

by Leiv K. Sydnes

As my term as IUPAC presidentcomes to a close, it is naturalto reflect upon what has been

achieved in the current biennium.Two observations predominate: TheUnion has improved its performancein several areas and maintains itsposition as a reliable, nongovern-mental organization on the interna-tional scene, and secondly, themembership still has to learn to useIUPAC more actively to secure global

involvement in its operations.

A most encouraging development within IUPACduring the current biennium is the improved perform-ance of the project system. As pointed out by VicePresident Bryan Henry in his Critical Assessment, “therange of projects now covers the whole gamut ofchemistry from chemical education, critically evalu-ated databases, and precise and reliable atomicweights, to the political arenas of chemical disarma-ment, sustainable development, meeting the needs ofdeveloping countries, the requirements of chemicalindustry, and a plethora of other areas.” This is quitenoteworthy considering the fact that the project sys-tem was fully introduced during the 2002–2003 bien-nium. Four years have now passed, and it isremarkable that the vice president’s critical examina-tion concludes that “the project system is functioningvery well, perhaps even better than expected.”

In this context it is also important to note that theapproval process of recommendations has becomefaster, and the backlog in the pipeline of theInterdivisional Committee on Terminology,Nomenclature and Symbols has virtually disappeared.The final reports have therefore become availablefaster in Pure and Applied Chemistry (PAC) andimproved the formal dissemination of the results of asignificant part of our scientific activity.

But our pride should not stop here. Let me alsopoint out that our outreach material has beenimproved in the current biennium and has helped

increase the Union’s profile. It has been very stimulat-ing to follow the development of this publication andobserve that CI appears much more interesting andattractive than before. This is partly due to a refresh-ing layout and talented use of colors, but also becausethe range and diversity of topics have grown. Anotherrewarding process has been the rewriting and designbrush-up of our brochure portfolio, which nowappears more attractive and far more relevant. But letus not regard the current portfolio as our ultimateinformation material; I therefore urge you to read andreview it carefully and, subsequently, let us know whatyou think.

It is IUPAC’s mission to advance the worldwideaspects of the chemical sciences and contribute to theapplication of chemistry in the service of Mankind.Thus, it is important that the Union addresses globalissues, of which water-quality issues are among themost urgent. It is, therefore, quite encouraging thatIUPAC has a number of projects addressing theseimportant issues. Several projects are devoted to vali-dation of data and methods of importance in wateranalysis. Furthermore, the Chemistry and theEnvironment Division has a project on evaluation ofremote sensing techniques for real-time control of thequality of surface water. And we have several projectsdevoted to arsenic contamination of water, which wasthoroughly addressed at CHEMRAWN XV, “Chemistryfor Water,” in Paris last year. A number of action itemswere identified, and these are currently being imple-mented.

IUPAC has also become deeply involved with issuesof sustainability, sponsoring conferences on “GreenChemistry” and “Innovative Industrial Processes toPrevent Water Pollution.” Within IUPAC this work iscarried out under the umbrella of the Subcommitteeon Green Chemistry, and encompasses a variety ofdisciplines of fundamental chemistry. So far, mostprojects have focused on the development of chem-istry that improves the efficiency of chemicalprocesses and reduces the formation of hazardouswaste. In this way IUPAC assists the chemistry-relatedindustry in its contribution to sustainable develop-ment, wealth creation, and improvements in the qual-ity of life.

Another important global issue is chemicalweapons. In 2001, IUPAC was called on to provideadvice to the Organization for the Prohibition ofChemical Weapons (OPCW) on the impact of scien-tific advances on the Chemical Weapons Convention.

President’s Column

3CHEMISTRY International November-December 2005

We must have fulfilled OPCW’s expectations, becauseat the end of last year they invited us to engage IUPACexperts in a joint project, aimed at increasing aware-ness of the Convention in the scientific community,enhancing knowledge about its key provisions andrequirements, facilitating the integration of issuesrelated to the Convention into chemistry teaching, andpromoting the professional conduct of chemists andchemical engineers in line with the Convention. A suc-cessful workshop was held in the beginning of July2005 in Oxford, with significant involvement fromIUPAC chemists. The workshop report is currentlybeing drafted and will hopefully be available at theend of this year.

In today’s media-sensitive societies, rating, stand-ing, and reputation are important issues to consider. Indoing so we realize that the chemical enterprise suf-fers from a dubious public image. Chemicals are sooften associated with bad things happening that thepresence of chemicals in products and processes arefrequently denied. And the positive contributions fromchemistry and chemical engineering are barely com-municated. For everybody engaged in any of thechemical sciences, this is of course frustrating. This sit-uation is a significant challenge, which industrial andchemical organizations on an individual basis havemade efforts to meet by presenting a balanced pictureof the benefits and risks involved. Considering the lowreturn on all these efforts, it has been suggested thata range of coordinated activities should be developedand implemented under the IUPAC umbrella, becauseIUPAC has a global reputation of providing authorita-tive and unbiased information in the field of chemistry.Ideas along this line have been explored, but IUPAChas not yet managed to deliver as expected in thisfield. A thorough analysis of the situation was recentlyproduced, with the aim of defining and developing anappropriate niche for IUPAC involvement in the pro-motion of public understanding of chemistry. Thisvaluable document, which was discussed at theGeneral Assembly in Beijing, will help guide the Unionas it formulates a plan of action.

Any successful international organization is charac-terized by active internal communication. It is not easyto achieve this, and to maintain a vivid internal inter-action is a challenge. That was clearly spelled out atthe General Assembly in Ottawa in 2003, and it wasagreed that IUPAC had to improve in this respect. It istherefore a pity that no improvements in the tradi-tional internal communication have been observed in

the current biennium; It is still true that the writtencorrespondence with the 45 National AdheringOrganizations (NAOs) is characterized by a low replypercentage (typically four to five replies). Against thisbackdrop, it has been relatively encouraging to followthe implementation of the Union Advisory Committee.The members of the committee have been keptinformed by e-mail and several significant mattershave been referred for comments, and feedback. Tosay that the response has been good would be anexaggeration, but it isencouraging to see thatthe reply frequency hasbeen more than twicewhat was achievedwhen comments weresolicited from theNAOs. And the fre-quency is increasing. Itis therefore reasonableto believe that whenthe UAC has functionedfor a longer period oftime, the communication between the IUPAC leader-ship and the member countries will have improved.

Finally, I would like to say a few words about IUPACconferences and symposia. Due to their high scientificquality, these meetings are generally highly regardedand very well attended. However, a strange character-istic of most of these meetings is the absence of activepromotion of IUPAC. That is really a pity, and all of usshould do what we can to rectify the situation by try-ing to facilitate the proper presentation at meetings ofrelevant IUPAC recommendations, technical reports,and reports from task groups, and to discuss ideas fornew projects. Perhaps such activities should become aprerequisite to receiving IUPAC endorsement?

In closing, let me thank all of you for having had theopportunity to serve the global chemical community.It has been inspiring to meet a large number of dedi-cated IUPAC chemists and most enjoyable to experi-ence the service from the committed IUPAC staff. Andwhen January 1st arrives, I wish our new President,Bryan Henry, and our new Vice President, KazukoMatsumoto, the very best of luck! I am looking forwardto being at your service as Past President!

Leiv K. Sydnes <[email protected]> has been IUPAC president in the 2004-2005biennium; he is a member of the Norwegian Chemical Society and professor at theUniversity of Bergen.

Any successfulinternational

organization ischaracterized by active

internal communication.It is not easy to achieve

this, and to maintain avivid internal interaction

is a challenge.


A Wrap-Up of theGeneral Assembly

IUPAC held its 43rd General Assembly in Beijing,China, from 12–21 August 2005. This was the firstGeneral Assembly to be held in China, or in Asia for

that matter. At the Council meeting, Prof. KazukoMatsumoto of Japan was elected vice president orpresident elect for 2006–2007. Upon stepping in aspresident in 2008, she will become the second presi-dent from Japan and the first woman president sincethe Union was established in 1919.

Over the 10 days of the GA, 411 registered partici-pants from 52 countries took part in an intense andintricate schedule of various committee and divisionmeetings and events. Among the highlights of thegathering were a compelling World ChemistryLeadership Meeting that focused on “Chemistry inAsia,” a joint meeting of three committees to discussIUPAC’s role in furthering public understanding ofchemistry, and an inspiring Safety Training Workshopfeaturing presentations by recent trainees.

At the Welcome Reception, on Saturday 13 August,IUPAC President Leiv Sydnes made his address on thestate of the Union. The text of his address is availableon the IUPAC Web site at <www.iupac.org/news/archives/2005/p_report_sydnes.html>. Following the

address, IUPAC SecretaryGeneral David StC. Blackintroduced the recipientsof the 2004 and 2005IUPAC Prizes for YoungChemists and presentedservice recognition awardsto the retiring division pastpresidents, division presi-dents, and standing com-mittee chairmen. Thepresident also awardedthe 2005 IUPAC-SamsungEducation Prize to Prof.Pavel Kratochvíl on behalfof the Postgrad-uateCourse in Polymer Scienceat the Institute of

Macromolecular Chemistry of the Academy ofSciences of the Czech Republic (see article in IUPACWire on page 17).

This year, Young Observers again participated insessions of the GA. Following the same model used in2003, IUPAC and the Canadian, USA, and UK NationalAdhering Organizations selected 24 chemists, withvaried backgrounds and interests, from 9 countries:Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, India, Russia, Turkey, UK,and the USA. Their participation added vitality and avaluable perspective to the committee work in whichthey participated. In the past, several young observershave become directly involved in IUPAC.

Most of the GA was devoted to division and stand-ing committee meetings, each of which spanned twodays. Division Roundups on page 7 (and part II in thenext CI issue) give brief accounts of these meetings.

On Tuesday 16 August, a joint meeting was held bythe Committee on Chemistry Education (CCE),Committee on Chemistry and Industry (COCI), and theCHEMRAWN Committee to discuss public under-standing of chemistry. The centerpiece of the three-hour meeting was the presentation of a preliminaryreport by Peter Mahaffy and his team on “Chemistsand the Public: IUPAC’s Role in Achieving MutualUnderstanding.” Mahaffy’s forceful presentation—which focused on the constructive and destructiveinteractions between the general public and IUPAC’spublic—generated a great deal of discussion amongthe more than 50 people in attendance. As heexplained, the purpose of the project was to askwhere we got it right and what needs improvement. Amore detailed article on this report and presentationwill appear in a future issue of CI.

A stellar example of IUPAC’s far-reaching impactwas a workshop—held Wednesday 17 August and

IUPAC IN BEIJING

President Elect Bryan Henry, Vice President Elect KazukoMatsumoto, and Secretary General David StC. Black.

Jane Nyakang’o of the UNIDONational Cleaner ProductionCentre in Nairobi, Kenya, givinga presentation at the SafetyTraining Program Workshop.


organized by COCI—that brought together eightrecent fellows of the Training Program for Safety andEnvironmental Protection to share their experiencesand plans. Through this IUPAC activity, operatedjointly with UNESCO and UNIDO, individuals responsi-ble for safety and environmental protection in chemi-cal plant operations and research facilities indeveloping countries are given free training at a majorchemical facility. The fellows—who came from Egypt,Nigeria, Turkey, Kenya, and Uruguay—relayed inspir-ing stories of how they used their training to createsafety programs in environments where safety is oftena secondary consideration at best.

An important part of every GA is the WorldChemistry Leadership Meeting, which brings togethernational and regional leaders from chemical societies,chemical industry federations, and other organiza-tions to discuss current issues in chemistry that mayhave a potential international impact. The WCLMs areintended to provide a stimulus for future IUPACinvolvement in issues where the Union is in a uniqueposition to provide support to the chemical commu-nity. The focal point of the meeting was a well-received talk on “Chemistry in Asia” by Prof.Goverdhan Mehta of the Indian Institute of Science,Bangalore, India. Mehta’s presentation, which gave akick-start to a wide-ranging discussion, focused onthe challenges and opportunities for chemistry in thecentury ahead. Among the issues he discussed werethe strong interest in chemistry in Asia, the pivotalrole for chemistry in sustainable development, envi-ronmental concerns related to chemical industry,

Asia’s growing share of chemical trade, and the surg-ing growth in chemistry research in Asia.

The last two days of the GA, 20 and 21 August, wereset aside for the Council meeting. One function of theCouncil is to elect the officers and members of theBureau. As noted above, the Council elected KazukoMatsumoto as vice president. A full professor atWaseda University in Tokyo since 1989, Matsumotowill become president in 2008. Within IUPAC, she hasbeen a titular member on the Analytical ChemistryDivision (2002–2005). In Japan, she is a member ofthe chemistry division of the Science Council of Japan,the Engineering Academy of Japan, and the Councilfor Science and Technology Policy, cabinet office.

The Council also elected the following individualsto be members of the Bureau for the 2006–2009

Service recognition awards were presented to retiring division past presidents, division presidents, and stand-ing committee chairmen (from left): Robert Stepto (Division IV), Anders Kallner (VII), Peter Atkins (CCE),David Moore (V), Werner Klein (VI), Piet Steyn (IUPAC Past President), Gerd Rosenblatt (II), Kip Powell (V) ,and Ron Weir (I).

page 44

IUPAC President Leiv Sydnes (left) listens as GoverdhanMehta answers questions after his talk at the WorldChemistry Leadership Meeting.

Greetings from Beijing


term: Chunli Bai (China, reelected), SrinivasanChandrasekaran (India, reelected), Stanislaw Penczek(Poland), Elsa Reichmanis (USA), Alan Smith (UK,reelected), and Maria van Dam-Mieras (TheNetherlands). The following elected members of theBureau were appointed to the Executive Committee:Chunli Bai (China), Nicole Moreau (France), and OlegNefedov (Russia).

The Council rejected a proposal to begin theprocess of revising the statutes and bylaws to enablethe eventual replacement of the Bureau and ExecutiveCommittees with an Executive Board. A number ofdelegations voiced strong opposition to the measure,primarily because they felt it would disenfranchise thedivision presidents. In light of the outcome, VicePresident Henry announced his intention to create anad hoc committee to revise the Bylaws and a secondcommittee to examine ways to improve the opera-tional efficiency of IUPAC governance.

In other matters, Council approved NationalAdhering Organization status for the CaribbeanAcademy of Sciences–Jamaica Chapter, JordanianChemical Society, National Academy of Sciences ofUkraine, and the National Academy of Sciences ofBelarus. Council approved the suspension of NAO sta-tus for those NAOs who have not paid their 2003 andearlier National Subscriptions by 31 December 2005,until such time as the 2003 and earlier NationalSubscriptions are paid.

Council also approved the Standing Order andMembership of the Editorial Advisory Board of Pureand Applied Chemistry. The Bureau proposed and theCouncil approved a motion that the official languageof IUPAC continue to be English. The final act of the

Council was to approve the proposal from the RoyalSociety of Chemistry to hold the 2009 Congress andGeneral Assembly in Glasgow, Scotland.

An interesting diversion at the GA was an exhibitcalled “The Project Place,” which illustrated howIUPAC takes a leadership role in addressing globalissues involving every aspect of chemistry. Attendeeswere able to sample the flavor of IUPAC activities dis-played in 40 posters set up on level 2 of the conven-tion center. The exhibit demonstrated how most ofthe work IUPAC does is channeled through the projectsystem, which utilizes expert volunteers all over theworld. If you missed the display in Beijing, it is nowonline at <www.iupac.org/symposia/conferences/ga05/posters.html> and each poster is also accessiblefrom its corresponding project page.

The Project Place was situated so that attendees ofthe 40th IUPAC Congress could browse the exhibit.Held concurrently from August 14–19, the WorldChemistry Congress was organized around the theme“Innovation in Chemistry.” The Congress, organizedby the Chinese Chemical Society and the Institute ofChemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, washeld in the same building as the GA, which allowed GAparticipants to also attend sessions of the Congress.The Congress itself attracted approximately 1 100attendees from around the world, with large repre-sentations from China and other Asian countries.

Coverage of the IUPAC World Chemistry Congresswill appear in the Jan.-Feb. 2006 CI issue

The Dutch delegation at the Council meeting.

IUPAC IN BEIJING

General Assembly attendees peruse the Project Placeposters.


Division Roundups

Division I. Physical and BiophysicalChemistryRon D. Weir, President

Much of the Division I meeting was devoted to review-ing the division’s busy biennium. Of the 30 projects thatwere active at some point between 2004–2005, 6 havebeen completed, 7 are interdivisional and continuing,and 17 others are ongoing. The titular members of thedivision were joined at their meetings by four youngobservers, two from the UK and two from the USA.

The division’s pilot project on Evaluation of KineticData for Atmospheric Chemistry (1999-037-2-100) hasproved to be very successfully and was the focus ofextended discussions. The primary objective of thisproject was to make IUPAC’s evaluated kinetic data-base available on the Web so that researchers, andany others with an interest in atmospheric pollution,could access it easily. The Web site for the database<www.iupac-kinetic.ch.cam.ac.uk> generates morethan 4000 accesses per week and there are now 370subscribers to the service. These are increasing at therate of about 10% annually. The success of this projectpoints the way for other databases within the IUPACproject system.

It was pointed out that when the information in thedatabase has appeared in printed journal format, it hasresulted in high numbers of references. One suchpaper that was published in 1997 had 432 referencesin 89 journals, and a more recent one published in2000 had 74 references in 26 journals.

Another project reviewed was the revised versionof the so-called Green Book, Quantities, Units andSymbols in Physical Chemistry, and its various appen-dices. Arrangements are being made for the finaliza-tion of the publication according to IUPAC guidelines,with a plan for publication in 2006.

Following the division elections during spring 2005and subsequent appointments confirmed at the meet-ings, there are now 22 division representatives: 10 tit-ular members, 6 associate members, and 6 nationalrepresentatives. In addition, there are three titularmembers and seven national representatives onCommission I.1 on Physicochemical Symbols,Terminology, and Units. These scientists and engi-neers are from 24 different countries and representalmost all of the subject specialities that are theresponsibility of Division I.

Division II. Inorganic Chemistry Anthony R. West, President

Division II reported it had a successful two-day meet-ing in which members were optimistic about thefuture and determined to put behind them a tumul-tuous period in which the division had “bottomedout.” Average attendance at the meetings was 16, withseveral young observers who stayed throughout andcontributed significantly to the discussions.

Five new project proposals were discussed; two areready for submission and should effectively use up theremainder of the division allocation for this biennium.Three more need working up, two in molecules andone in materials, for the next biennium. One of themolecules projects may become a joint project withthe Committee on Chemistry Education. Several of theyoung observers (Russia, UK, USA) are keen tobecome involved with this project. A sixth project pro-posal is being presented by a former young observer,now the German national representative, to the inter-divisional subcommittee on materials chemistry. Thisis likely to become a cross-division project on termi-nology in nanomaterials and nanotechnology and maystill be submitted within this biennium.

With elections taking place in September 2005 forfour titular members, the division is poised to move innew directions. During his presentation to the Council,Division President Tony West exclaimed, “We are justscratching the surface of materials chemistry. IUPACcan do much more.”

Commission II.1. Isotopic Abundances andAtomic WeightsMichael E. Wieser, Secretary

The Commission on Isotopic Abundances and AtomicWeights met for two days of evaluations and discus-sions under the chairmanship of Prof. Tiping Ding. Aswell as the normal scientific work of the commission,considerable discussion also took place on ways tomake the information produced by the commission ofgreater value to the wider chemical and scientificcommunity.

As presented in detail in the Wire section on page18, the standard atomic weights of 16 chemical ele-ments have been revised based on new determina-tions of isotopic abundances and reviews of previousisotopic abundances and atomic masses.

The Subcommittee on Isotopic AbundanceMeasurements (SIAM) evaluated published isotopeabundance data in order to determine the “best meas-

Division Roundups


urements.” This task has become increasingly impor-tant with the emergence of new analytical techniquesthat enable the analyst to produce isotope-amountratio measurements to very high precision. The chal-lenge is to ensure that the uncertainty calculations thatlead to the standard atomic weights are consistent.Therefore, members of the isotopic composition ofselected elements project are developing systematicand comprehensive evaluation criteria to account forsystematic uncertainties during sample preparationand measurement. SIAM also recognizes that the usercommunity is in need of isotopic composition data. Inresponse, project members are developing a databasethat presents the evaluated isotopic compositions,range of variation of isotopic composi-tion, and the atomic weight as decided bythe commission. These evaluation toolsare of immediate use to SIAM and will bea fundamental component of its work asthe subcommittee incorporates the out-comes of the report on the isotopic com-positions of the elements project.

Differences in measured isotope-amount ratios of stable carbon isotopes(13C/12C), commonly called delta carbon-13 values, are used to understandprocesses in oceanography, atmosphericsciences, biology, paleoclimatology, geology, environ-mental sciences, and food and drug authentication.Progress in these fields requires smaller measurementuncertainties to be achieved. Advances in instrumen-tation enable increasingly precise measurements.Nevertheless, laboratories measuring the same speci-men often disagree by 10 times their reported “uncer-tainty” of measurement.

The commission recommends that delta carbon-13values of all carbon-bearing materials be measuredand expressed relative to the VPDB on a scale nor-malized by assigning values of -46.6 parts per thou-sand relative to L-SVEC lithium carbonate and +1.95parts per thousand relative to NBS 19 calcium carbon-ate, and authors should clearly state so in theirreports.

Authors are encouraged to report their delta meas-urement results for the carbon-13 values of NBS 22 oil,USGS41 L-glutamic acid, IAEA CH 6 sucrose, or otherinternationally distributed reference materials, asappropriate for the measurement method concerned.Adoption of these guidelines should enable laborato-

ries worldwide that are measuring the same sample toreport delta carbon-13 values that agree with oneanother to within the measurement uncertainty.

The commission also formally recognized the sig-nificant contributions made by past commission mem-bers Dr. Steffen Peiser and Dr. John Gramlich, whoboth passed away in the past year.

Division IV. Polymer Robert Stepto, PresidentDivision IV had a successful and lively meeting with 35people from 15 countries attending. It was the firstmeeting as the so-renamed Polymer Division. The divi-sion had last met in Paris in 2004 as the

Macromolecular Division and the changeof name reflects the expansion of itswork to cover new polymer and poly-mer-based materials as well as themacromolecules used to form them.

Reports were received from the coor-dinators of various current projects.During this 2004–2005 biennium therewere 14 new projects, 17 publications,and 11 conferences sponsored. Thereports and the ensuing discussion at themeeting showed clearly that the organi-zation and management of projects

under the auspices of subcommittees, introducedgradually over the last four years, has been successful.It was therefore decided to go forward into the 2006-2007 biennium with five subcommittees:

Polymer Terminology and NomenclatureStructure and Properties of Commercial PolymersPolymerization Kinetics and ProcessesDeveloping Polymer MaterialsPolymer Education

In addition to the subcommittees, projects onmolecular characterization will continue to be run inan integrated manner and the successful program ofactively seeking conferences to sponsor will continue.Amongst these, the memorable World PolymerCongress in Paris last year will be followed by theWPC Macro 2006 in Rio de Janeiro, 2008 in Taipei,and 2010 in Glasgow.

Elections were completed prior to the division meet-ing. Jung-Il Jin (Korea) was elected to become divisionpresident in January 2006, and Chris Ober (USA) waselected vice president.

IUPAC IN BEIJING


Division VIII. Chemical Nomenclature andStructure Representation Alan McNaught, President

At its meeting, Division VIII discussed a number ofexciting developments. The most high-profile of theseis the International Chemical Identifier (InChI), a soft-ware implementation of which was released in April2005 and quickly generated a great deal of interest.The Identifier has been widely adopted by databaseproviders and is being considered for use by patentoffices in the UK and USA. A subsequent project fordevelopment of additional layers and for promotion isunder way. The Identifier is thought to have the poten-tial to revolutionize the way we communicate infor-mation about chemicals. An article on the project hassince appeared in Chemical & Engineering News (22August 2005 issue). Information about InChI is avail-able at <www.iupac.org/inchi/>.

In other news from the division, a number of publi-cations will be released soon. A revised edition of theNomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry should be inprint by the end of the year (see Bookworm section, p.25). A revised edition of the Nomenclature of OrganicChemistry, which also includes recommendations forselection of preferred names for organic compounds,has finished public review and review by ICTNS.Comments are being evaluated and appropriate revi-sions prepared. These revisions are to be reviewed bymeans of the division’s webboard. Publication isexpected in 2006.

In addition, a publication describing nomenclaturerecommendations for molecular rotaxanes is in thefinal stages of preparation and will soon be in the

review process. Recommendations for graphical rep-resentation of stereochemical configuration havecompleted public review and are now being finalized.More general recommendations for graphical repre-sentation of chemical structures are in preparation.

CHEMRAWNJohn M. Malin, Chairman

At the CHEMRAWN Committee meeting, 10 commit-tee members and one observer participated. In addi-tion, IUPAC Vice President Bryan Henry attended onesession to explain some strategy issues of the Unionand to participate in discussions.

The committee reviewed the results of the last con-ference, CHEMRAWN XV: Chemistry for Water, evalu-ating in particular the Bangladesh Workshop on waterarsenic pollution that was carried out as a post-con-ference activity. Committee members stressed thatCHEMRAWN should consider working with other divi-sions on future projects in this area because similar sit-uations exist in many countries. The committeeexpressed appreciation for Raymond Hamelin’s workin initiating and organizing this conference.

The committee also discussed upcoming confer-ences. In preparation for CHEMRAWN XII, a successfulWorkshop on Soil Fertility and African Food Supplieswas held in Tanzania on 7 August 2004. The commit-tee discussed the fact that CHEMRAWN XII still needsa clear financial supporter and that cooperation withother Union bodies is necessary to make the confer-ence a success.

It was also announced that the location of CHEM-RAWN XIII: Cleaner Energy has been changed fromIndia to China. Given the present energy situation, thecommittee is eager to organize this conference. Inaddition, the proposed CHEMRAWN XVII: GreenhouseGas Mitigation Strategies is planned for 8–12 July 2007in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The scientific committee(composed of 16 scientists) has started to prepare adetailed agenda, substantial preparatory work hasalready been completed, and some financial supporthas already been obtained.

Division Roundups

Part 2 of the Division Roundups from the 2005 GAwill appear in the next issue of CI (Jan.-Feb. 2006).

Take for example alpha-pinene—this compoundmight be known by its PIN(i.e. Preferred IUPACName) (1S,5S)-2,6,6-trimethylbicyclo[3.1.1]hept-2-ene, but our computerswill recognize it by itsInChI=1/C10H16/c1-7-4-5-8-6-9(7)10(8,2)3/h4,8-9H,5-6H2,1-3H3/t8-,9-/m1/s1.


Thanks to its Enduring CorrosionResistance, an Indian Historical Artifact’s Appearance Belies itsAge*

by Matthew V. Veazey

Adistance of approximately 7 200 miles (11 587km) may separate Troy, New York, USA, andDelhi, India, but the two cities share an impor-

tant bond for Professor R. Balasubramaniam. Whileearning his doctorate in materials engineering at Troy-based Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in the1980s, Balasubramaniam attended a seminar given bythe eminent corrosion scientist Helmut Kaesche thatdiscussed one of Delhi’s most famous archeologicallandmarks. Having grown up in India, Balasubra-maniam was familiar with Delhi’s 24-ft (7.3-m)-tall pil-lar of iron that has remained largely free of rust sinceit was fabricated in approximately A.D. 400. However,he cites the Kaesche seminar as the source of his fas-cination with the artifact.

Returning to his homeland in 1990 to accept amaterials and metallurgical engineering assistant pro-fessorship at the Indian Institute of Technology,Kanpur (IIT Kanpur), Balasubramaniam began his

investigation of the Delhi Iron Pillar in earnest—apartfrom his other research activities. Specifically, hesought to determine why the pillar exhibits suchremarkable resistance to atmospheric corrosion. Aftermore than a decade of independent, self-fundedresearch, he concludes that the property stems fromthe formation of a protective passive film on the pil-lar’s surface.1

A Major Artifact

Originally fabricated and erected 1 600 years ago atUdayagiri near the present-day city of Bhopal in cen-tral India, the pillar was relocated to the Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque in Delhi’s Qutub Minar Complexapproximately seven centuries ago. Constructed ofrubble from earlier Hindu temples and now designateda World Heritage Site by the United Nations, theQuwwat-ul-Islam mosque is the first mosque built onthe Indian subcontinent. The approximately six-tonnepillar was constructed during the Gupta Period (fromA.D. 320 to 600), which is considered the golden ageof Indian history.

“The Iron Pillar is considered a major artifact theworld over,” says Balasubramaniam, now a full profes-sor at IIT Kanpur. “Historians and archeologists con-sider the pillar to be a very important object of Indianhistory. The oldest Sanskrit inscription is famous, andits interpretation is still extensively discussed in aca-demic circles.”

A Metallurgical Treasure

Balasubramaniam points out that scholarly fascinationwith the pillar is not limited to students of archeologyand history. “Powder metallurgists claim [it] is a livingexample of an object manufactured by the powdermetallurgical route,” he says. “Corrosion scientists areaware of the remarkable corrosion resistance of thepillar.”

Since the first such analysis in 1912,2 researchershave estimated that the pillar’s average composition is0.15% carbon, 0.25% phosphorus, 0.005% sulfur, 0.05%silicon, 0.02% nitrogen, 0.05% manganese, 0.03% cop-per, 0.05% nickel, and the balance iron.3 “Interestingly,a sample of Delhi pillar iron was subjected to micro-probe analysis in order to determine the compositionof the elements manganese, chromium, copper, andnickel in the near-surface regions,” saysBalasubramaniam. “It was found that the composition

1600 Years Young

*This article first appeared in Materials Performance, July2005. Reproduced with permission.

These photos show the upper and lower sections ofthe decorative bell capital atop the Delhi Iron Pillar.The different components were shrunk-fit around ahollow cylinder. Photos courtesy of R. Balasubrama-niam, IIT Kanpur.


of copper [0.05%], nickel [0.05%], manganese[0.07%], and chromium [nil] was uniform through sev-eral millimeters into the sample from the surface.”4

Balasubramaniam says that the pillar’s high phos-phorus content has kept it from rusting on a wide-spread basis. “The presence of phosphorus is crucialto the corrosion resistance,” he notes, explaining thatthe phosphorus content is high because limestonewas not used as a flux when the iron was extracted.“The absence of calcium oxide [CaO] in slags leads toa lower efficiency for removal of phosphorus from themetal, which invariably resulted in higher phosphoruscontent. Archeological evidence indicates that the orefor extracting the iron must have been carefully cho-sen so that a relatively high amount of phosphoruswould result in the extracted metal.”

Typical of ancient Indian irons, the microstructureof the pillar shows a wide variety of structures, saysBalasubramaniam. He adds that the structures alsoprove the iron was obtained by the direct reductionprocess rather than casting. “The pillar is a solid bodywith good mechanical strength,” notes Balasubra-maniam. He points out that the yield strength is 23.5tons (21 319 kg)/in2 (645 mm2), the ultimate tensilestrength 23.9 tons (21 682 kg)/in2, and elongation 5%.

Forge welding was the process used to manufac-ture the pillar. Balasubramaniam says that approxi-mately 40- to 50-lb (18- to 23-kg) lumps of iron servedas the raw materials. “Forge welding is an operation inwhich iron lumps were joined together by forgingthem in the hot state such that fusion is obtainedbetween them,” he explains. “Research has indicatedthat the pillar was manufactured with the pillar in thehorizontal position, and the addition of lumps wasfrom the side,” he says. “The decorative bell capital istruly a marvelous example of blacksmithy and consistsof seven distinct parts. These individual componentswere shrunk-fit around a hollow cylinder, which wasjoined to the main body by the aid of an insert.”

Environment or Materials?

Balasubramaniam says that two general schools ofthought exist to explain why the pillar exhibits supe-rior corrosion resistance: the environment and materi-als theories. “The proponents of the environmenttheory state that the mild climate of Delhi is responsi-ble for the corrosion resistance,” he says, pointing outthat the city’s relative humidity (RH) does not exceed70% for significant periods of time in a given year. “It

is known that atmospheric rusting of iron is not signif-icant for humidity levels less than 70%.”

Advocates of the materials theory, to whichBalasubramaniam subscribes, stress the constructionmaterial’s role in determining corrosion resistance. “Theideas proposed in this regard are the relatively purecomposition of the iron used, presence of phosphorus,and absence of sulfur [and] manganese in the iron, itsslag particles, and formation of a protective passivefilm,” he says. The passive film component of the theorystems from Balasubramaniam’s research. “The largemass of the pillar also plays a contributory role,” he adds.

Although the environment and materials campscomprise the two predominant sides of the debate,Balasubramaniam adds that the literature does featureother, less-widely held theories about the pillar’s cor-rosion resistance. These suppositions include: initialexposure to an alkaline and ammoniacal environment;residual stresses resulting from the surface finishing(hammering) operation; freedom from sulfur contami-nation both in the metal and in the air; the “cinder the-ory,” which holds that layers of cinder in the metalstop corrosion from advancing; and that surface treat-

In this recent photo, materials engineer R. Balasubramaniamstands near the Delhi Iron Pillar. A new fence protects thebase of the column from the large number of visitors to thesite. Photo courtesy of R. Balasubramaniam, IIT Kanpur.

ments of steam and slag and coatings of clarified but-ter were applied to the pillar after manufacture andduring use, respectively. “The use of surface coatingsis readily discounted because a freshly exposed sur-face attains the color of the rest of the pillar in aboutthree years’ time,”5 says Balasubramaniam.

Balasubramaniam asserts that the low incidence ofcorrosion on ancient iron artifacts in more humid partsof India supports the materials theory. “That the mate-rial of construction may be the important factor indetermining the corrosion resistance of ancient Indianiron is attested by the presence of ancient massiveiron objects located in areas where the RH is high forsignificant periods of the year,” he says. The Suryatemple at Konarak, located near the Bay of Bengal,and the Mookambika temple in the Kodachadri Hills,which rise near the Arabian Sea, reportedly are twosuch locations. Balasubramaniam says that ancientiron beams at the Surya temple and an iron pillar atthe Mookambika temple all are in very good shapedespite their proximity to coastlines.

Protective Passive Film

Balasubramaniam cautions that the Delhi Iron Pillardoes rust, but he adds that the passive rust is so pro-tective and thin that it keeps the occurrence—andappearance—of corrosion at a minimum. Because the

region just below the dec-orative bell capital is inac-cessible to the public, rustfrom this location is theoldest undisturbed rust onthe pillar. Consequently,Balasubramaniam and acolleague collected rustfrom this region and char-acterized it by X-ray dif-fraction, Fourier TransformInfrared spectroscopy, andMössbauer spectroscopy.6

Balasubramaniam says theinspections revealed thatthe rust contains amor-phous iron oxyhydroxides(lepidocrocite [gamma-FeOOH], goethite [alpha-FeOOH], and delta-FeOOH)and magnetite. It also con-

tains crystalline phosphates, including iron hydrogen

phosphate hydrate (FePO4 · H3PO4 ·4H2O).Balasubramaniam says that the rust layer becomes

increasingly protective—and the rate of corrosiondecreases—as its composition changes. “In the initialstages, the rust comprises lepidocrocite andgoethite,” he says. “These forms of rust do not offerexcellent protection and, therefore, the rate of corro-sion is still maintained on the high side. Conversion ofpart of this rust to magnetite does result in lower cor-rosion rates.” However, he adds that cracks and poresin the rust allow oxygen to diffuse and complementarycorrosion reactions to occur. “Moreover, reduction oflepidocrocite also contributes to the corrosion mech-anism in atmospheric rusting,” he says.

According to Balasubramaniam, the catalytic forma-tion of delta-FeOOH initiates the Delhi Iron Pillar’senhanced corrosion resistance. “This phase is amor-phous in nature and forms as an adherent compactlayer next to the metal-scale interface,” he says. “Itsformation is catalyzed by the presence of phosphorusin the iron. Upon its formation, the corrosion resistanceenhances significantly because delta-FeOOH forms abarrier between the rust and the metal.” He says a sim-ilar mechanism is at work in weathering steels that con-tain copper and phosphorus.

“In the special case of Delhi pillar iron and in thegeneral case of ancient Indian irons, the presence ofsignificant amounts [greater than 0.1%] of phosphorusin the metal leads to further effects, which have adirect bearing on their corrosion resistance,” saysBalasubramaniam. “Due to the initial corrosion ofmetal, there is enhancement of phosphorus at themetal-scale interface. This phosphorus reacts withmoisture, and conditions are created in the rust thatare ideal for formation of phosphoric acid [H3PO4],which eventually leads to the precipitation of phos-phates in the long term.”

Balasubramaniam says that several phosphate for-mation reactions occur. Exposure conditions dictatethe nature and type of these phosphates, whichdemonstrate an inhibitive nature and thus affect cor-rosion resistance. “Added benefits accrue when thephosphate forms as a continuous layer next to themetal,” the researcher says. “In the case of alternatewetting and drying cycles [such as those present inatmospheric corrosion], the amorphous phosphatescan transform to crystalline modifications, and in thisprocess there is a large reduction in porosity in thephosphate. This transformation results in furtherexcellent corrosion resistance properties.”


1600 Years Young

continued on page 16

The 1 600-year-old Delhi IronPillar. Photo courtesy of R.Balasubramaniam, IIT Kanpur.


Where is thereWisdom to be Foundin Ancient MaterialsChemistry?*by Philip Ball

For its innovations in science and technology, thereputation of the Mayan culture is on the rise.The Mesoamerican culture that flourished in

Mexico, Guatemala, and the surrounding regionsbetween A.D. 200 and 1000 has been long known tohave had a sophisticated understanding of astronomyand mathematics (including the concept of zero), andrecently the ziggurat at Chichen Itza has been inter-preted as an example of acoustic engineering thatuses Bragg scattering from the steps to mimic the callof a sacred bird: a pre-Columbian photonic crystal.

Another technological triumph of the Maya is theextraordinary blue pigment used for murals, a materialthat still retains its azure brilliance after centuries ofexposure to the elements. It has long been recognizedto be a composite substance—a natural dye (indigo)mixed with clay—and recent work has shown that theindigo molecules form a highly stable surface complexwith the aluminosilicate sheets of the clay, slottingaway the organic substance within slit-like channels inthe inorganic matrix and protecting it from acids andalkalis.1 This trick has attracted interest from chemicalcompanies as a way to make durable, metal-free, envi-ronmentally benign paints and coatings.

No one can suppress a twinge of envy when theirrivals report an ingenious innovation that they wishthey had thought of first, or the chagrin when theirclever new material turns out to have been preemptedfive years ago in the patent literature. But when theingenuity and foresight comes from a civilization thatis several centuries old, scientists are invariablydelighted. There is a satisfaction in the humbling dis-covery that the researchers of an earlier era knewmuch more than we thought.

The history of science is full of such “pre-discover-ies” and demonstrations of antique virtuosity. Indeed,outside the laboratory it is a common complaint that

our ancestors knew more than we do. ThomasJefferson (not to mention Cicero) is invoked as wit-ness to the modern degeneration of political rhetoricand discourse; some modernist paintings have begunto fade when the paint was scarcely dry, while Jan vanEyck’s masterpieces from the 15th century remain aslustrous and vivid as ever.

No one, to my knowledge, has suggested thattoday’s materials technologists are less able orinformed than their historical predecessors. But therehas been a recent cluster of instances in which mod-ern methods have revealed fresh reasons for appreci-ating just how clever ancient artisans andtechnologists were. Introductions to nanotechnologyoften cite Michael Faraday’s experiments with goldsols as the practical beginnings of the field, but col-loidal gold, prepared from the alchemical aurum pota-bile made by dissolution ofthe metal in nitric andhydrochloric acids, goesback further than that. Arecipe for the ruby-red solu-tion is recorded in 1685 bythe German glassmakerAndreas Cassius, and hiscontemporaries knew howto trap the glorious color(“Purple of Cassius”) in silicaglass. But that art wasknown even to the Romans, who made beautifulobjects such as the fourth-century Lycurgus Cup (nowin the British Museum). Like the recipe for the fabulousTyrian purple dye, this secret was lost to the Westwith the fall of Rome.

Nanotechnologists can now also claim ancestryamong the potters of Renaissance Italy. The ceramic

When the ingenuityand foresight comesfrom a civilizationthat is severalcenturies old,scientists areinvariably delighted.

*This article originally appeared in the March 2005 issue of MRS Bulletin (Vol. 30,No. 3 , p. 149). It is reprinted with permission.

The Mayan ziggurat at Chichen Itza is one of many techno-logical triumphs of the Mesoamerican culture.

Lessons from Early Chemists


ware made in the Umbrian town of Deruta in the 15thand 16th centuries sported distinctive metallic and iri-descent glazes that were shown a few years ago tocontain nanoparticles of copper and silver.2,3

A recipe for these nanoparticulate glazes appearsin the 16th-century handbook Li tre libri dell’arte delvasaio by the Italian artisan Cipriano Piccolpasso. Ittells the potter to mix copper and silver salts withvinegar, ochre, and clay and apply them to the surfaceof already glazed pottery. The modern study showsthat this was a delicate and precisely controlledprocess; for example, the ratio of Cu(I) to Cu(II) ions iscrucial to the luster effect.

In part, such examples may come to light not somuch through new information about what these his-torical technologists were doing, as by the emergenceof a conceptual framework that makes a longknowntechnique seems suddenly like the anticipation of anew trend. The relative softness of lime-based mortarsused for stonework until the 19th century could beseen as a defect relative to modern cement-basedmaterials. But from the contemporary perspective ofsmart buildings, the older mortar can be viewed asadaptive, allowing a building to accommodate adegree of ground subsidence or of expansion causedby moisture absorption in freshly baked clay bricks.This benefit was, of course, fortuitous and barelyappreciated in the past; now materials technologistsare seeking such solutions by design.

Another historical “lesson”—this one, too, nowembraced within the field of nanoparticulate tech-nologies—was reported recently from the art ofancient metallurgy. Jonah Erlebacher and coworkersfrom the Johns Hopkins University drew on the expe-rience of medieval and Incan goldsmiths to preparegold membranes with nanoscale pores of controlleddiameters, which might find uses in catalysis and sep-aration technologies.4

The synthesis that Erlebacher and coworkers havedeveloped is based on the ancient technique calleddepletion gilding, by which means objects made fromgold alloy were given the appearance of pure gold. Itwas a good way to fake great wealth, although thevalue as a means of peddling counterfeit gold wouldhave been limited: medieval goldsmiths knew wellenough how to measure the density of metals usingArchimedes’ method.

In depletion gilding, an object made of a gold-silveror gold-copper alloy was treated with an etchant toremove the cheaper and less inert metal from the sur-

face layer, leaving behind a microscopically porouslayer of gold that was then smoothed and burnished.The etching was usually carried out with nitric acid,which was known in medieval Europe since at leastthe 13th century. Erlebacher and co-workers used thissame etching process on commercial white-gold leaf(a 1:1 alloy of silver and gold) and found that becausethe process involves the dynamic migration of goldatoms rather than simple excavation of the othermetal, the diameter of the resulting nanoporesincreases with increasing immersion time.

This sort of precise control of microstructure was,of course, totally irrelevant to medieval goldsmiths—not only were they ignorant of how the procedureworked, but they obliterated the porous texture dur-ing burnishing. All the same, the historical techniquewas the direct inspiration for the modern one:microstructural studies of depletion gilding in the1960s and 1970s identified the bicontinuous “porousmembrane” structure, which awakened the interest ofErlebacher and co-workers when viewed against thebackdrop of a desire for precisely engineerednanoporous materials.

As in the case of the Mayan blue pigment, such con-vergence of new and old interests invites us to showerpraise on the skills of the ancient technologists. There isnothing wrong with that. But the tendency to presentsuch instances as examples of prescience is almostalways misguided. This can result in crude and obviousanachronism, such as when an article of mine on thepotters of Deruta was given the title (and I confess thatI did not object at the time) “Renaissance Potters wereNanotechnologists.” This simply has no meaning, in thesame way that it is meaningless to say that, for instance,Tibetan devotional music is composed in a “minimalist”style. There is a critical difference between saying thattempering of iron with hammer and anvil modifies thedistribution of dislocations and saying that medievalblacksmiths were defect engineers.

More insidious, however, is the kind of interpreta-tion that attempts to forge links with contemporaryscience for the purposes of a positivist historicalagenda. This was often done in the 19th century, andit resulted in, for example, the denigration of alchemyin the history of chemistry and the concomitant sup-pression of the alchemical interests of Newton andBoyle. It is still common to find the Copernican theorypresented as an attempt at root-and- branch reformof astronomy, rather than as a practical method forsimplifying astronomical calculations.



But as far as “materials culture” is concerned, therehas been an equal tendency among some docu-menters of science history (I will not say “historians ofscience”) to go to the opposite extreme: to deny thatthe inventiveness of the Mayans or the Egyptians orthe alchemical artisans had anything to do with realscience because it was produced by blind trial anderror or mindless recipe-reading, without anything likea respectable theoretical framework to justify it. Thisis the position, for example, of British biologist LewisWolpert, who writes:

Science produces ideas whereas technologyresults in the production of usable objects.Technology—by which I mean the practicalarts—is very much older than science. Unaidedby science, technology gave rise to the crafts ofprimitive man, such as agriculture and metal-working, the Chinese triumphs of engineering,Renaissance cathedrals, and even the steamengine. Not until the nineteenth century did sci-ence have an impact on technology.5

Not only does this turn into “non-science” hugeswaths of what commonly passes for science today,but it evinces a contempt for any kind of historicalperspective on science at all.

Thus, the high-resolution optical microscope didnot suddenly make metallurgy a science—but it did, asCyril Stanley Smith once pointed out, tell the metallur-gist more about the history of that science (and art)than any documentary records could:

Microstructures . . . instantly reveal to a knowingeye the technical history of making the object.Such records are in a universal language, andthey are free from the distortion that inevitablyaccompanies passage through a human mind.Through such records, I have communicatedwith dozens of craftsmen, including a Luristansmith of 800 B.C., a bronze founder of Shang,China, an ancient Greek goldsmith, and a 13th-century Japanese swordsmith.6

Smith, one of the most accomplished translators ofhistorical documents of materials culture, understoodcompletely how one might acquire deep respect forthe knowledge and skills of past cultures without forc-ing them into a 20th-century vessel. Technologicalinnovation—one of the key components of science,

and not an adjunct to it—has in the past relied onexperimentation, but not aimlessly. If a theory stimu-lates experiment and careful observation, it surelydoes not detract from the “scientific” nature of thatwork if the theory proves later to be utterly wrong.(Vermilion, or artificial cinnabar, might well have beenthe product of the Islamic alchemists’ sulfur-mercurytheory of metals, which even provided quantitative,albeit incorrect, predictions for the amounts of sulfurand mercury required in the mix.)

But it would be wrong in any event to insist thatexperimentation should be grounded in rigorous the-ory before it deserves to be categorized as science.“Aesthetic curiosity,” said Smith, “is the very root ofall discovery . . . Discovery is art, not logic, and newdiscoveries have to be cherished for reasons that arefar more like love than purpose.”7 Could it, after all, beanything other than love of their materials thatenabled ancient craftspeople to make discoveries thatwe are only now, with our modern techniques andinstruments, beginning to understand? Science was ofno help to 19th-century French chemists when theyattempted to reproduce the opalescent celadon andJun glazes of Chinese potters of the Song dynasty(960–1279), with their “white clouds” glisteningagainst a “blue sky.”

Neither should we picture these ancient technolo-gists throwing any old ingredients into the pot in a rap-ture of creative excitement. Modern combinatorialmethods of materials discovery show how quickly thepermutations of ingredients become overwhelming ifconcocted without any guiding intelligence.Illustrations of ancient Egyptian kiln design attest tothe systematic nature of experiments that optimizedfiring conditions, while ancient and medieval artisans’manuals often record procedures with great care andquantitative detail. “[T]he most remarkable aspect ofthe chapters of Theophilus [in his medieval work OnDivers Arts] on glass,” writes materials scientist IanFreestone, “is just how frequently and in what detailthey prove accurate.”8 Some of these experimenters, atleast, knew how to keep good laboratory notes andmade thorough checks of how older recipes stood upin practical terms.

On top of all this, the feedback between experimentand outcome depended on the social context of thework. The Egyptian, Incan, and Western medieval arti-sans were prepared to devote so much effort to gettingthe right materials because their artifacts were mostlybeing made for religious and devotional purposes.




“Separation of aesthetics from technique, of tools fromsigns, of technofunction from sociofunction,” said DavidKingery, “is an artificial construct of scholars searchingfor a reductionist mode of analysis.”9

Thus, we should continue to be inspired anddelighted by the materials prowess of ancient cul-tures, but we should be wary of placing their achieve-ments in a modern context. They made those thingsfor themselves, not for us.

References1. L.A. Polette, G. Meitzner, M.J. Yacaman, and R.R. Chianelli,

Microchem. J. 71 (2002) p. 167. 2. W.D. Kingery and P.B. Vandiver, Ceramic Masterpieces

(Free Press, New York, 1986) p. 111. 3. J. Pérez-Arantegui, J. Molera, A. Larrea, T. Pradell, M.

Vendrell-Saz, I. Borgia, B.G. Brunetti, F. Cariati, P. Fermo,M. Mellini, A. Sgamellotti, and C. Viti, J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 84(2) (2001) p. 442.

4. Y. Ding, Y.-J. Kim, and J. Erlebacher, Adv. Mater. 16 (21)(2004) p. 1897 (DOI: 10.1002/ adma.200400792).

5. L. Wolpert, The Unnatural Nature of Science (Faber &Faber, London, 1992), p. 25.

6. C.S. Smith, A Search for Structure (MIT Press, Cambridge,MA, 1981).

7. C.S. Smith, A Search for Structure (MIT Press, Cambridge,MA, 1981), pp. 351, 347.

8. I.C. Freestone, in Materials Issues in Art and ArchaeologyIII, edited by P.B. Vandiver, J.R. Druzik, G.S. Wheeler, andI.C. Freestone (Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 267,Pittsburgh, PA 1992) p. 744.

9. W.D. Kingery, ed., Learning From Things (SmithsonianInstitution Press, Washington D.C., 1998), p. 200.

Philip Ball is a science writer and a consultant editor for Nature.

Following the “Beacon”

When viewed from a nonscientific standpoint, theDelhi Iron Pillar’s ability to resist corrosion has oftenbeen called a “mystery.” Balasubramaniam is quick todismiss this response. “There is nothing mysteriousabout the iron pillar,” he says. “The resistance toatmospheric corrosion is due to the presence of a rel-atively high amount of phosphorus in the pillar. Theremarkable corrosion resistance can be understood byapplying the basic principles of corrosion research.”He adds that the direct reduction technique used toproduce the iron is no mystery, either. “The ancientIndian ironmaking technology is well-known,” he says.The established scientific facts notwithstanding,Balasubramaniam concedes that one feature of thepillar is difficult to explain. “There is one aspect that isnot well-understood and this may be called a mystery,in one sense,” he says. “This is the method by whichthe iron lumps were forge-welded to produce themassive six-tonne structure.”

Mystery or not, the Delhi Iron Pillar serves as aguidepost for metallurgists in the 21st century andbeyond, asserts Balasubramaniam. In fact, just as aseminar at RPI inspired him to study the pillar, he hopesthat his research will motivate others to explore thepotential uses of phosphorus-containing iron. “Thereare so many wonderful options available with phos-phoric irons,” he concludes, adding that the Iron-Phosphorus phase diagram deserves as much attention

as the more popular Iron-Carbon phase diagram.“There is an exciting future in developing phosphoricirons, particularly for corrosion scientists and engi-neers.7 The beacon of light showing the way to thefuture is the Delhi Iron Pillar, with its tested proof ofcorrosion resistance.”

References1. R. Balasubramaniam, “On the Corrosion Resistance of the

Delhi Iron Pillar,” Corros. Sci. 42 (2000): pp. 2103–21292. R. Hadfield, “Sinhalese Iron and Steel of Ancient Origin,” J.

Iron St. Inst. 85 (1912): pp. 134–174.3. G. Wranglen, “The Rustless Iron Pillar at Delhi,” Corros.

Sci. 10 (1970): pp. 761–770.4. W.E. Bardgett, J.F. Stanners, “Delhi Iron Pillar—A Study of

the Corrosion Aspects,” J. Iron St. Inst. 210 (1963): pp.3–10.

5. R. Balasubramaniam, “On the Growth Kinetics of theProtective Passive Film of the Delhi Iron Pillar,” CurrentSci. 82 (2002): pp. 1357–1365.

6. R. Balasubramaniam, A.V. Ramesh Kumar, “Characteriz-ation of Delhi Iron Pillar Rust by X-Ray Diffraction, FourierInfrared Spectroscopy and Mössbauer Spectroscopy,”Corros. Sci. 42 (2000): pp. 2085–2101.

7. R. Balasubramaniam, “Phosphoric Irons for ConcreteReinforcement Applications,” Current Sci. 85 (2003): p. 9.

Note: Balasubramaniam has compiled his entire body of research on differentaspects of the Delhi Iron Pillar into a book titled Delhi Iron Pillar: New Insights (NewDelhi, India: Aryan Books International, 2002). A separate paperback version writ-ten for a nontechnical audience, Delhi Iron Pillar: A Metallurgical Marvel (New Delhi,India: Foundation Books, 2005), will be published soon.

Matthew V. Veazey is the staff writer of Materials Performance (MP), a monthlymagazine published by NACE International, Houston, Texas, USA.

continued from page 12

1 600 Years Young


IUPAC–Samsung Education Prize for 2005

At the opening ceremony of the 43rd IUPACGeneral Assembly, held in Beijing, China, inAugust 2005, IUPAC President Leiv Sydnes

presented to Professor Pavel Kratochvíl the 2005IUPAC-Samsung Education Prize for the Postgrad-uate Course in Polymer Science that he founded in1996 at the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry atthe Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic inPrague. Since its establishment, the course hasacquired a worldwide reputation for its high standardsand effective training of students in polymer science.The award of USD 5 000 is to assist a deserving stu-dent and will contribute to Samsung’s goal of stimu-lating polymer education and research in the world.

The award is managed by the IUPAC Polymer DivisionSamsung Fund Committee and is part of the generousdonation Samsung made to IUPAC in 2003 to help stim-ulate polymer education and research in the world.

The Postgraduate Course in PolymerScienceOn 21 July 2005, the ninth run of the UNESCO-IUPACPostgraduate Course in Polymer Science was con-cluded by a public seminar, at which 9 graduatesreported the results of their research carried out duringtheir 10-month stays at the Institute of MacromolecularChemistry at the Academy of Sciences of the CzechRepublic in Prague, Czech Republic.

The institute, with a staff of 240 and more than 100scientists, is one of the major centers of academic

research in polymer science worldwide. For almost 40years, the institute has been educating young scien-tists from countries with limited facilities for up-to-date research.

The present series of courses started in 1996 underthe sponsorship of UNESCO. A few years later, IUPACgranted its sponsorship. The course is financed by theinstitute and academy, with occasional contributionsfrom IUPAC or UNESCO. The course lasts 10 monthsand comprises about 50 hours of lectures in modernpolymer science and also an introduction into thenomenclature and terminology recommended byIUPAC. However, the students spend most of theirtime in laboratories working on research projectsunder the guidance of senior scientists of the institute.They are also invited to participate in seminars, con-ferences, lectures of visiting scientists, and other edu-cational activities within the institute.

At the final seminar after defending their reports,the students receive a certificate of graduation withUNESCO and IUPAC logos. Follow-up surveys withgraduates have shown that the course has been veryhelpful to their professional promotion in their homecountries. The institute continues to cooperate with anumber of graduates through joint projects with theirhome laboratories.

So far, 72 young scientists from the following coun-tries have graduated from the course: Bangladesh,Bulgaria, India, Kazakhstan, Poland, Romania, Russia,South Africa, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. The results ofstudents’ research have been published in interna-tional technical journals and presented at conferences.As of May 2005, students have had 87 papers pub-lished in international journals and 91 contributions atinternational meetings.

The 10th course started in October 2005. The admis-sion procedure for the 11th course, to be held in the aca-demic year 2006–2007, will take place in March 2006.

www.iupac.org/projects/2003/2003-041-1-400.html

News and information on IUPAC, its fellows, and memberorganizations.See also www.iupac.org/news

From left: Bob Stepto (President of the PolymerDivision), Pavel Kratochvil, Leiv Sydnes, and Jung-Il Jin(Vice President of the Polymer Division) pose afterKratochvíl accepted the IUPAC-Samsung EducationPrize from IUPAC President Sydnes.

Course graduate MuhammadShamsul Azim Khan, MS,from Bangladesh reports atthe final seminar the resultsof his project “Synthesis ofFunctionalized DiphosphonicAcids for SurfaceModification of MagneticOxides.”

IUPAC Wire


IUPAC Wire

IUPAC-Richter Prize in MedicinalChemistry

The IUPAC-Richter Prize in Medicinal Chemistrywas established by a generous gift from theChemical Works of Gedeon Richter, Ltd.

(Budapest, Hungary) to acknowledge the key rolethat medicinal chemistry plays in improving humanhealth. By establishing this prize jointly with IUPAC,Richter wishes to contribute to the internationalrecognition of the role of research in medicinal chem-istry, publicize the company’s commitment to medic-inal chemistry research, and further appreciation ofIUPAC’s activities.

The prize of USD 10 000 will be awarded to aninternationally recognized scientist, preferably amedicinal chemist, whose activities or publishedaccounts have made an outstanding contribution tothe practice of medicinal chemistry or to an outstand-ing example of new drug discovery. The prize will beawarded biennially by a selection committee that willbe appointed by the Subcommittee on MedicinalChemistry and Drug Development of the IUPACChemistry and Human Health Division. The first prizewill be awarded in 2006.

Gedeon Richter Ltd. is a major pharmaceutical com-pany in Hungary and one of the largest in the Central-Eastern European region. Founded in 1901, the companyhas more than 100 years’ experience in pharmaceuticalmanufacturing. The vertically integrated firm carries outresearch, development, manufacture, and marketing ofhuman finished drugs, active substances, and interme-diates. Gedeon Richter Ltd. has a growing presencethrough its commercial subsidiaries in key EU countries,the USA, and Japan. Two-thirds of its annual sales of599 million USD in 2004 were exported to 80 countries(Russia, USA, EU, Japan, etc.). Production takes place attwo sites in Hungary: Budapest and Dorog. The com-pany also has production facilities in Poland, Russia,Romania, Ukraine, and India. The company manufac-tures about 100 kinds of pharmaceuticals in more than170 presentations. Among its products are original,generic, and licensed preparations. The products covernumerous therapeutic areas, with special emphasis onthe production and development of drugs for the cen-tral nervous system, as well as antiulcer agents, cardio-vascular and gastrointestinal preparations, and oralcontraceptives. Research into drugs of the central nerv-ous system and development of generic products are ofprimary importance. Based on its traditional skills in

steroid chemistry, the company is a significant player inthe gynaecological field worldwide.

Standard Atomic Weights Revised

Following its meeting, held 10-11 August 2005 atthe 43rd IUPAC General Assembly, theCommission on Isotopic Abundances and

Atomic Weights (II.1) released the changes to thestandard atomic weights of 16 chemical elements.The following changes are based on new determina-tions of isotopic abundances and reviews of previousisotopic abundances and atomic masses:

These changes in the atomic weights will be pub-lished in a new Table of Standard Atomic Weights2005, which will be submitted for publication in Pureand Applied Chemistry by the end of 2005. The com-mission also continued its review of publications ofvariations in the natural isotopic abundances. Thecommission also continued its review of publicationsof the variation in the natural isotopic abundances. Formore details about the Commission meeting in Beijing,see Division Roundups on page 7.

For more information, contact Michael E. Wieser <[email protected]>, secretaryof the IUPAC Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights.

2006 Call for Nomination Deadline: 31 March 2006For further information, please contact Professor C.

Robin Ganellin at <[email protected]> or visit<www.iupac.org/news/Richter_prize.html>.

From ToAluminium 26.981 538 (2) 26.981 5386 (8)Bismuth 208.980 38 (2) 208.980 40 (1)Caesium 132.905 45 (2) 132.905 4519 (2)Cobalt 58.933 200 (9) 58.933 195 (5)Gold 196.966 55 (2) 196.966 569 (4)Lanthanum 138.9055 (2) 138.905 47 (7) Manganese 54.938 049 (9) 54.938 045 (5)Neodymium 144.24 (3) 144.242 (3) Phosphorus 30.973 761 (2) 30.973 762 (2)Platinum 195.078 (2) 195.084 (9)Samarium 150.36 (3) 150.36 (2)Scandium 44.955 910 (8) 44.955 912 (6)Sodium 22.989 770 (2) 22.989 769 28 (2)Tantalum 180.9479 (1) 180.947 88 (2)Terbium 158.925 34 (2) 158.925 35 (2)Thorium 232.0381 (1) 232.038 06 (2)


New CAs Join IUPAC

The Kuwait Chemical Society has embraced thechallenge set by the IUPAC Committee onChemistry and Industry (COCI) and has success-

fully engaged two industrial companies to join IUPACas Company Associates (CAs):

Kuwait Catalyst Company (Shuaiba, Kuwait),Contact: Mr. Ali A. Al-Othman<[email protected]>Kuwait Cement Company (Safat, Kuwait), Contact: Mr. Mohammad Omar Sayed<[email protected]>

Last spring, COCI campaigned for the CA programand challenged its members to raise at least two newCAs. Khalidah Al-Dalama<[email protected]>, from theKuwait Chemical Society (KSC)and National Representative onCOCI, lost no time actively recruit-ing in her region.

Founded in 1982, the KCS hasprominent activities on both thelocal and international levels. Onthe local level, it embraces, spon-sors, and organizes meetings,workshops, and lectures in Kuwaitin many fields that might be ofinterest to chemists, and other

professionals, in cooperation with other public-servingsocieties and governmental or private sectors. It alsosponsors other social activities that are enjoyed by its

members. On the internationallevel, delegations and representa-tives of the society have beenattending major conferences andmeetings, dealing with chemistryand chemical issues, that areorganized or held by several inter-national bodies in which the soci-ety is an active member.

For more information about the CA program oradditional copies of the brochure, please contactthe IUPAC Secretariat by e-mail<[email protected]>.

Kuwaiti delegates Khalidah Al-Dalama (left) with Sameera Al-Houli at the IUPAC Council (Beijing, Aug 2005). Al-Dalama isa National Representative on COCI.

Helping your company del iver a sus tainable fu ture

I U P A C

Company AssociatesProgram

IUPAC Poster Prizes Awarded in Denmark

Two IUPAC Poster Prizes were awarded at theannual meeting of the Danish Chemical Society,which was held 9 June 2005 at the University of

Southern Denmark in Odense. Posters were presentedfrom all of the Danish Universities by both studentsand professionals. Two student posters were selectedto receive the prize. The first was presented by StineMagnussen of the University of Southern Denmark,titled “Comparison of Volatile Organic CompoundMeasurements in Indoor and Outdoor Air in Austriaand Denmark.” The second was by Kristian Jensen ofthe University of Roskilde, titled “Methyl Cobalt(III)complexes-DNA Alkylating Agents?”

The meeting featured plenary lectures on topicssuch as “Chemistry and Climate, or Vice Versa,” pre-

sented by Claus J. Nielsen of the Department ofChemistry at the University of Oslo, and “MolecularGastronomy,” by Thorvald Pedersen of the RoyalAgricultural and Veterinary University.

The IUPAC Poster Prize ProgramNational Adhering Organizations and eligible IUPAC-sponsored conferences are encouraged to use theIUPAC Poster Prize program as a strategic tool toencourage interest in conferences among youngchemists. The Poster Prizes recognize outstandingposter presentations at IUPAC Congresses, at IUPACdivision/standing committee-sponsored confer-ences, and at designated national meeting. EachNAO may pick one conference a year at which toaward IUPAC Poster Prizes. Please contact theSecretariat <[email protected]> for more infor-mation and coordination details.

IUPAC Wire


Fullerene Nomenclature—AnAddendum to IUPAC History

A Letter from Stanley S. Brown

The note about fullerenes in the Sept.-Oct. 2005CI (p. 28) prompts me to follow up on your fea-ture in the previous issue, July-Aug. CI (pp.

10–12). I enjoyed your account of processing theIUPAC archives, having spent many hours with them atthe Oxford Secretariat in preparing the Supplement tothe History of IUPAC 1988–1999.

The penultimate draft of the supplement included asmall section on fullerenes as follows:

11.6.4 Fullerene Nomenclature*Vice-President Bard, having expressed concernthat the Union should take quicker action aboutnomenclature for newly emerging areas, andwith the fullerenes in mind, promptly convened aWorking Party, with input from the Commissionson Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry and ofOrganic Chemistry and from the Commission onHigh Temperature and Solid State Chemistry. Heexpressed the hope to the Executive Committee(Dublin, 1992) that the work could be undertakenby correspondence during 1992, together withone meeting in 1993, so that draft recommenda-tions on nomenclature could be available withintwo years.

Progress was duly reported to the Bureau(Oxford, 1992) and to the Executive Committee(Newark, 1993), and IDCNS acted swiftly toreview the Working Party’s draft recommenda-tions. However, the Executive Committee

(Oxford, 1994) and Bureau (Antwerp, 1994)learned that the American Chemical Society’sChemical Abstracts Service was already formu-lating a somewhat different approach tofullerene nomenclature. Strong efforts weremade to harmonize the IUPAC and ChemicalAbstracts approaches, but Past-President Bardhad to admit to the Executive Committee(Reading, 1995) that his attempt to rapidlydevelop systematic fullerene nomenclature wasa failed experiment. It was clear that IUPACneeded to act at the very earliest stages of newlyemerging fields of chemistry. The ExecutiveCommittee (Oxford, 1996) recommended thatrevised recommendations from the WorkingParty should be published as an interim report,but this outcome was criticized in the Bureau(Oxford, 1996) as being the result of the ad hocway in which the work had been initiated withinthe Union. Nevertheless, the ExecutiveCommittee (Jerusalem 1997) was advised thatthe project had been completed and a reportwas in press. The Committee agreed that futurepolicy and procedures regarding chemicalnomenclature should be included in topics to beaddressed by the Strategy Development andImplementation Committee.

This section was edited out of the final script. Itwould surely be a pity if the background to thefullerene problem were to be overlooked!

*Section 11 is titled “Restructuring, Reorientation, Relocation:1988-1999” and subsection 11.6 is titled “Nomenclature andSymbols.”

IUPAC Wire

The History of IUPAC 1988-1999by Stanley S. Brown

The Supplement to the History of IUPAC continuesthe story of IUPAC to 1999, the 80th anniversary ofthe founding of the Union. It covers the years in whichIUPAC underwent a number of significant changes asit adapted to changes in the science of chemistry andthe globalization of the chemical sciences. TheUnion’s earlier years are covered in The History ofIUPAC 1919-1987 by Roger Fennell.

The supplement is available for USD 20 (ISBN 0-967-85501-2).

A two-volume set of both history books is availablefor USD 41 (ISBN 0-967-85502-0).

Orders can be placed at <[email protected]>.


A forum for members and member organizations to shareideas and concerns.Send your comments by e-mail to <[email protected]>.

Emerging Issues inDeveloping CountriesThis series seeks to inform readers, explore new ideas,and promote discussion on themes related to devel-oping countries and emerging analytical communities.Articles in this series are available from<www.iupac.org/publications/ci/indexes/emerging-issues.html>.

Natural Products, a Possibility forthe R&D of Drugs for DevelopingCountries

by Antonio Monge

“You see things as they are and ask, ‘Why?’ Idream things as they never were and ask ‘Whynot?’ “ (George Bernard Shaw)

Natural products of plant origin are of special impor-tance to developing countries. Traditional medicine,which utilizes these compounds, is of great interest andvery useful to societies in every continent. In these soci-eties the inventors of therapeutic applications of a plantare not recognized as such. The work is seen as the resultof the relationship of man with nature, which remainsrecorded in the collective knowledge and wisdom of thesociety. It also appears in the legacy of generationspassed down to the men and women of today. Popularopinion makes it a part of the cultural heritage.Conservation of biodiversity and knowledge of the tradi-tional native medicine have often been of seminal impor-tance in the discovery of new drugs. Obviously, thisconception differs greatly from the ideas held by devel-oped societies. The ethical demand in the relationshipsbetween both parties makes the disconnection striking.

Scientists who research medicinal agents from nat-ural products often encounter a problem that is notwell resolved by political institutions and therefore hasa deleterious effect on everyone involved, includingnative populations. The developing countries have thediscovery, and the knowledge, but not the means totranslate them into tangible products and businesses(i.e., to make a protected invention and bring the ben-efits back to their society).

Societies differ in what they consider to be com-mon or sacred. It is evident that the first group is sus-ceptible to being patented, while the second group is

not. This is most important to keep in mind when deal-ing with natural products, of animal or plant origin, inthe idiosyncrasy of native communities. Symbioticrelationships between man and nature are broughtinto play. Here, man forms an important part, eventhough he may depend on technology in order toestablish the relationship. One such example is therelationship that can be established between tradi-tional agriculture and the agriculture of today, inwhich work is carried out with modified seeds.

It is essential that we develop a mechanism to takeinto consideration the enormous quantity of captiveknowledge in developing societies. This will only cometo light if systems of recognition are facilitated, as wasdone previously for other societies when they wereinitiating their own development. One must keep inmind an important element: equity of treatment.

The system of patents in developed countries wasnot designed to protect community intellectual prop-erty or knowledge. There is no way to recognize such“inventions” in terms of an inventor and, hence, anowner of the invention. When a native community dis-covers, via spiritual healers, observation, or othermethods, any given biological activity in a plant, it isvery difficult to establish ownership. In this type of sit-uation, it is not clear to whom recognition should begiven; the numerous possibilities include the spiritualhealers, the native community, and the country itself.

But when knowledge about a folk medicine is usedas the basis of the development of a new drug, with apatentable structure and demonstrated activity, howshould the developing society be recognized? Theorganization that turns such knowledge into a mar-ketable product needs some form of incentive to carryout the development but they would seek to recoverits costs (and make a profit) through patent protec-tion. This requires the organization to reveal its dis-covery, which may or may not be a gain to society.

How do patents contribute indirectly to the com-mon good? This may be a bit ambiguous and confus-ing, especially with regard to where the limit of the“common good” lies.

Every country has the right to development andespecially to an education and to health care. However,health care is conditioned by the availability of medi-cines. In the invention, development, and production ofmedicinal agents—cornerstones of any society—nocountry can remain excluded; to do so would be todeny it the capacity to develop universal healthcare.

So how can a developing country gain from work

Up for Discussion

continued on page 22


JCAMP-DX for Electron MagneticResonance

In this document, we define a data exchange format ini-tially formulated from discussions at the 35th RoyalSociety of Chemistry-ESR conference in Aberdeen2002. The definition of this format is based on theIUPAC Joint Committee on Atomic and MolecularPhysical Data Exchange (JCAMP-DX) protocols, whichwere developed for the exchange of infrared spectraand extended to chemical structures, nuclear magneticresonance data, mass spectra and ion mobility spectra.This standard was further extended to cover year 2000compatible date strings and good laboratory practiceand the next release will cover the information neededfor storing n-D data sets. The proposed recommenda-tions aim at adapting JCAMP-DX to the special require-ments for EMR, electron magnetic resonance.

Comments by 31 January 2006Robert J. LancashireUniversity of the West IndiesDepartment of Chemistry, Mona CampusKingston 7, JamaicaTEL: +876-927-1910FAX: +876-977-1835E-MAIL: [email protected]

www.iupac.org/reports/provisional/abstract05/lancashire_310106.html

XML-Based IUPAC Standard forExperimental, Predicted, and CriticallyEvaluated Thermodynamic PropertyData Storage and Capture (ThermoML)

ThermoML is an XML-based emerging IUPAC stan-dard for storage and exchange of experimental, pre-dicted, and critically evaluated thermophysical andthermochemical property data. The basic principles,scope, and description of all structural elements ofThermoML are discussed. ThermoML covers essen-tially all thermodynamic and transport property data(more than 120 properties) for pure compounds, mul-ticomponent mixtures, and chemical reactions(including change-of-state and equilibrium reac-tions). Representations of all quantities related to theexpression of uncertainty in ThermoML conform tothe Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty inMeasurement (GUM). The ThermoMLEquationschema for representation of fitted equations withThermoML is also described and provided asSupporting Information together with specific formu-lations for several equations commonly used in therepresentation of thermodynamic and thermophysi-cal properties. The role of ThermoML in global datacommunication processes is discussed. The text of avariety of data files (use cases) illustrating theThermoML format for pure compounds, mixtures,and chemical reactions, as well as the completeThermoML schema text, are provided as SupportingInformation.

Comments by 31 January 2006Michael FrenkelNational Institute of Standards & TechnologyPhysical and Chemical Properties Division, 838Room 2-1010325 BroadwayBoulder, CO 80305-3328, USATEL: +1 303-497-3952FAX: +1 303-497-5044E-MAIL: [email protected]

www.iupac.org/reports/provisional/abstract05/frenkel_310106.html

IUPAC Seeks Your CommentsProvisional recommendations are drafts of IUPAC recommendations on terminology, nomenclature, and sym-bols made widely available to allow interested parties to comment before the recommendations are finallyrevised and published in Pure and Applied Chemistry.

Provisional Recommendations

based on community knowledge? Should the patentbe a partnership? Should it be licensed freely or areother models for recognition possible? At the veryleast, can arrangements be developed so that a devel-oping country does not have to pay the patent pre-mium to use the drugs based on their intellectualproperty.

The author wishes to thank the IUPAC Subcommittee on Medicinal Chemistry andDrug Development and former Medicinal Chemistry Section for their interestingcontributions.

Antonio Monge <[email protected]> is a professor of medicinal chemistry and directorof Centro de Investigación en Farmacobiología Aplicada at the Universidad deNavarra, in Pamplona, Spain. He is a member of the IUPAC Subcommittee onMedicinal Chemistry and Drug Development.

continued from page 21


Recent IUPAC technical reports and recommendationsthat affect the many fields of pure and applied chemistry.See also www.iupac.org/publications/pac

Critical Evaluation of StabilityConstants of Metal Complexes ofComplexones for Biomedical andEnvironmental Applications (IUPACTechnical Report)

Giorgio Anderegg, Françoise Arnaud-Neu, Rita

Delgado, Judith Felcman, and Konstantin Popov

Pure and Applied Chemistry

Vol. 77, No. 8, pp. 1445-1495 (2005)

This study involves evaluation of all reported protonand metal ion binding constants for the remainingcommonly used complexones, and the identificationof recommended values for use in chemical speciationcalculations. Within these objectives, a priority wasgiven to compounds of strong medical and environ-mental importance and to those (IDA and MIDA) thatrepresent complex-forming fragments and decompo-sition products of higher denticity complexones.

Within a broad variety of applications, complexoneshave in common the regulation of metal concentrationsin widely differing systems. Complexones are used indetergents, textile and paper processing, photographicdeveloping solutions, scale solubilization in processing

tanks, electroplating, and as components of agriculturalmicro-fertilizers. Annual industrial output of EDTA andother complexones in the thousands of tons.

This paper presents critical evaluations of availableexperimental data, published between 1945–2000, onstability constants of proton (hydron) and metal com-plexes for seven complexones of particular biomedicaland environmental interest: iminodiacetic acid [2,2’-azanediyldiacetic acid, IDA], (methylimino)diaceticacid [2,2’-(methylazanediyl)diacetic acid, MIDA];2,2’,2’’,2’’’-{[(carboxymethyl)azanediyl]bis[(ethane-1,2-diyl)nitrilo]}tetraacetic acid (DTPA), 3,6,9,12-tetrakis(carboxymethyl)-3,6,9,12-tetraazatetradecanedioic acid (TTHA); 2,2’,2’’-(1,4,7-triazonane-1,4,7-triyl)triacetic acid (NOTA); 2,2’,2’’,2’’’-(1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetrayl)tetraaceticacid (DOTA); 2,2’,2’’,2’’’-(1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetrade-cane-1,4,8,11-tetrayl)tetraacetic acid. Some typicalerrors in stability constant measurements for particu-lar complexones are summarized. Higher quality dataare selected and presented as “Rec-ommended” or“Provisional.”

www.iupac.org/publications/pac/2005/7708/7708x1445.html

Making an imPACt

Round Robin Test on the MolecularCharacterization of Epoxy Resins byLiquid Chromatography

Stepan Podzimek

International Journal of Polymer Analysis and

Characterization

Vol. 9, No. 5-6, pp. 305-316 (2004)

DOI: 10.1080/10236660490935718

The great importance of epoxy resins originates fromthe wide range of applications in many industrialareas. However, only relatively primitive analyticaltests are commonly used for routine characterizationof epoxy resins. The simple characteristics are oftenunable to discriminate among different samples, tofind structure versus properties relations, and to eval-uate production reproducibility. Molar mass distribu-tion of epoxy resins affects their applicationproperties and can be also used as a sensitive meas-ure of the reproducibility of the production.

The main objectives of this project were (i) to studythe influence of experimental conditions, in particular

the type and number of columns and column calibra-tion, on the molar mass averages obtained by sizeexclusion chromatography (SEC), and (ii) to figure outattainable reproducibility of SEC results generated indifferent laboratories, and (iii) to compare SEC molarmass averages with those determined by the absolutemethods. Since epoxy resins are typical examples ofoligomers, most of the conclusions may be generallyapplicable to the analysis of other oligomers.

Two commercially available epoxy resins based onbisphenol A (2,2-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)propane) ofdifferent molar mass distribution were selected for theRound Robin Test. The samples were characterized byvapor pressure osmometry (VPO), method of endgroups (EG), multi-angle light scattering (MALS) inbatch mode, and matrix assisted laser desorption ion-ization mass spectroscopy (MALDI-MS) to allow com-parison of chromatographic results with the data fromthe absolute methods of molar mass determination.

www.iupac.org/projects/1999/1999-021-1-400.html


Organic Synthesis—PAC Special TopicIssue

Tamejiro Hiyama, Conference EditorPure and Applied Chemistry Vol. 77, No. 7, pp. 1087–1296 (2005)

What is the future of organic synthesis? The inventionof unprecedented drugs and materials has enrichedand expanded the horizons of the human experiencein formerly unimagined ways, and owes much to theever-increasing ingenuity of organic synthesis, andrecognition and attainment of new synthetic targets.The impact of organic synthesis on cognate disciplinesand on general advancement of science and technol-ogy is definitely enormous and will be furtherstrengthened by future challenges and opportunities.

The July 2005 issue of PAC is a collection ofreviews and research papers based on lectures pre-sented at the 15th International Conference on OrganicSynthesis (ICOS-15), held in Nagoya, Japan, 1–6 August2004, on the theme of organic synthesis. The paperscapture the vitality and ongoing promise of organicsynthesis, and offer readers an opportunity to partici-pate vicariously in another milestone in its advance-ment.

A lecture program comprising 10 plenary and 20invited presentations contributed to a truly excitingconference experience, and the 21 speakers whokindly agreed to contribute papers based upon their

presentations have made it possible to capture someof the excitement in this issue of PAC.

The Nagoya Gold Medallist, J.F. Stoddart, used theoccasion to share an absorbing and very personal per-spective on molecular assembly and materials. Oneprominent lecture topic was advances in the total syn-thesis of biologically active natural products that haveextremely complex structures and often require devel-opment of novel synthetic methods. A number of lec-turers did justice to this theme with presentations on avariety of extremely elegant and sophisticated newdevelopments in methodology, based uponorganometallic catalysts and/or reagents. Finally, thebroad theme of asymmetric synthesis usingorganometallic complexes with chiral ligands or chiral

Books and publications hot off the press.See also www.iupac.org/publications

PAC Special Topic Issues

Special topics have come to be afamiliar, albeit irregular, feature ofPure and Applied Chemistry (PAC,the monthly official journal ofIUPAC) in recent years, and wereoriginally conceived as a way ofpromoting occasional and some-times extraordinary IUPAC projects.The concept has served to publicizenew initiatives, and promote therole of chemistry in multidisciplinaryactivities and collaboration. Forexample, the proceedings of twosuccessive Workshops onAdvanced Materials were featuredprominently as special topic issues.And the series has now been assim-ilated into the program of estab-

lished IUPAC events. In addition,projects arising from close collabo-ration with fellow international bod-ies have enjoyed similar coverage,with special topic issues on “Naturaland Anthropogenic EnvironmentalEstrogens” and “Implications ofEndocrine Active Substances forHumans and Wildlife.”

Publication policy has also beenevolving to ensure that the journalcontinues to occupy a unique andindispensable niche in the primarychemistry literature. Recentchanges have been influenced bythe distinctive features of special-topic projects. Most notably, a pre-requisite for publication coverageof IUPAC-sponsored events is prioreditorial agreement on the desir-

ability and scope of coverage inPAC, as is acceptance of centrallycoordinated peer review of allmanuscripts. The policy recognizesthat the core business of PAC is topromote representative coverageof the established series of IUPAC-sponsored international confer-ences, for the good reason thatthey serve the topical mainstreamof the subject with distinction.

Special topic issues will featuremore regularly in the future, as adeliberate initiative to showcasesome of the most prominent andenduring disciplinary themes onoffer in the calendar of establishedIUPAC-sponsored conferences.

James R. Bull, PAC Scientific Editor

Professor Minoru Isobe (Nagoya University, confer-ence cochair and president of the IUPAC Organic andBiomolecular Chemistry Division) and Professor J.Fraser Stoddart (UCLA, recipient of the Nagoya GoldMedal).

Bookworm


organocatalysts was developed in conjunction withcombinatorial methodology, which is shown to behighly effective in optimizing catalytic systems.

In his autobiographical essay, J. Fraser Stoddardevokes how his own interest in host/guest andsupramolecular chemistry gradually evolved over twodecades into a fascination with the chemistry of themechanical bond. Stoddart traces his hurly-burly life

as a scientific nomad “through thick and thin from theAthens of the North to the City of Angels, with briefand not so brief interludes on the edge of theCanadian Shield, in the Socialist Republic of SouthYorkshire, on the Plains of Cheshire beside the Wirral,and in the Midlands in the heartland of Albion.”

www.iupac.org/publications/pac/2005/7707

Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry*—IUPAC Recommendations 2005

Prepared for publication by Neil G. Connelly andTure Damhus (senior editors), and Richard M.Hartshorn and Alan T. Hutton RSC Publishing, 2005, ISBN 0 85404 438 8

Chemical nomenclature must evolve to reflect theneeds of the community that makes use of it. In partic-ular, nomenclature must be created to describe newcompounds or classes of compounds, modified toresolve ambiguities that might arise, or clarified wherethere is confusion over the way in which nomenclatureshould be used. There is also a need to make nomen-clature as systematic and uncomplicated as possible inorder to assist less familiar users (for example, becausethey are only in the process of studying chemistry orare non-chemists who need to deal with chemicals atwork or at home). A revision of Nomenclature ofInorganic Chemistry, IUPAC Recommendations 1990(Red Book I) was therefore initiated in 1998, under theguidance of the IUPAC Commission on Nomenclatureof Inorganic Chemistry and then, after the generalrestructuring of IUPAC, by a project group workingunder the auspices of the Division VIII: ChemicalNomenclature and Structure Representation.

The need to ensure that inorganic and organicnomenclature systems are, as far as possible, consis-tent has resulted in extensive cooperation betweenthe editors of the revised Red Book and the editors ofNomenclature of Organic Chemistry (the revised“Blue Book,” in preparation). At present, the conceptof preferred IUPAC names (PINs), an important ele-ment in the revision of the Blue Book, has not beenextended to inorganic nomenclature (though pre-ferred names are used herein for organic, i.e., carbon-containing, compounds when appropriate). A planned

future project on inorganic PINs will need to face theproblem of choosing between the equally validnomenclature systems currently in use.

The present book supersedes not only Red Book Ibut also, where appropriate, Nomenclature of InorganicChemistry II (Red Book II). One of the main changesfrom Red Book I is the different organization of mate-rial, adopted to improve clarity. Thus, Chapters IR-5(Compositional Nomenclature, and Overview of Namesof Ions and Radicals), IR-6 (Parent Hydride Names andSubstitutive Nomenclature), and IR-7 (AdditiveNomenclature) deal with the general characteristics ofthe three main nomenclature systems applied to inor-ganic compounds. (Note that the notation ‘IR-’ is usedto distinguish chapters and sections in the current bookfrom those in Red Book I,prefixed ‘I-’). The next threechapters deal with theirapplication, particularly thatof additive nomenclature,to three large classes ofcompounds: inorganic acidsand derivatives (Chapter IR-8), coordination com-pounds (Chapter IR-9), andorganometallic compounds(Chapter IR-10). Overall, theemphasis on additivenomenclature (generalizedfrom the classical nomen-clature of coordinationcompounds), which was already apparent in Red BookI, is reinforced here. Examples are even included oforganic compounds, from the borderline between inor-ganic and organic chemistry, which may be conve-niently named using additive nomenclature (althoughtheir PINs will be different).

One important addition in this book is Chapter IR-10on Organometallic Compounds. The separation of thismaterial from Coordination Compounds (Chapter IR-9)* In IUPAC circles, this book (including former edi-

tions) is commonly referred to as the Red Book.


reflects the huge growth in importance oforganometallic chemistry and the very different prob-lems associated with the presence of p-bonded lig-ands. Chapter IR-9 is also considerably changed (cf.Red Book I, Chapter I-10). This revised chapter includesa clarification of the use of the Z and k conventions incoordination and organometallic compounds (SectionIR-9.2.4.3); new rules for the ordering of central atomsin names of polynuclear compounds (Section IR-9.2.5.6); the bringing together of sections on configu-ration (Section IR-9.3) and their separation from thoseon constitution (Section IR-9.2); and the addition ofpolyhedral symbols for T-shaped (Section IR-9.3.3.7)and see-saw (Section IR-9.3.3.8) molecules, along withguidance on how to choose between these shapes and

those of closely related structures (Section IR-9.3.2.2).The reader facing the problem of how to name a

given compound or species may find help in severalways. A flowchart is provided in Section IR-1.5.3.5,which will in most cases guide the user to a section orchapter where rules can be found for generating atleast one possible name; a second flowchart is given inSection IR-9.2.1 to assist in the application of additivenomenclature, specifically to coordination andorganometallic compounds. A more detailed subjectindex is also provided, as is an extended guide to pos-sible alternative names of a wide range of simple inor-ganic compounds, ions and radicals.

www.iupac.org/publications/books/author/connelly.html

Analogue-Based Drug DiscoveryJ. Fischer and R.C. Ganellin (editors) Wiley-VCH, 2005 [ISBN 3-527-31257-9]

Statistically, every second drug is an analogue, andtheir market value amounts to two-thirds of all drugs.Analogues are the most successful way of inventing anew drug and they provide the required improve-ments in drug therapy.

This is the first authoritative overview of past andcurrent strategies for successful drug development bymolecular modification of known leads. The book is aunique resource, which spans the important drugclasses in most major therapeutic fields.

Analogue-based drug discovery is discussed amongothers, for beta blockers, ACE inhibitors, steroids, opi-ates, stigmines, proton pump inhibitors, platinum anti-

cancer compounds, and anti-infective quinolones. Casestudies, by the respectiveinventors of selected com-mercially successful druganalogues provide primeadvice for new drug develop-ment projects based on ana-logue modification. The bookincludes a table of the mostsuccessful drug analogues asbased on the IMS ranking andcompares them in terms ofchemical structure, mode of action, launch year, andpatent priority.

www.iupac.org/publications/books/author/fischer.html

Measurement of the ThermodynamicProperties of Multiple Phases

R.D. Weir and T.W. de Loos (editors)Elsevier, 2005 [ISBN 0-444-51977-7]

This volume (VII) is another in the series of IUPACsponsored monographs that summarizes the state ofknowledge in experimental techniques in thermo-chemistry and thermodynamics. Following volume VI,Measurement of Thermodynamic Properties of SinglePhases, this book contains descriptions of recentdevelopments in the techniques for measurement of

thermodynamic quantities for multiple phases of purefluids as well mixtures over a wide range of conditions.The precision and accuracy of results obtained fromeach method was regarded as an essential element ineach description. Throughout the text, the quantities,units and symbols are those defined by IUPAC for usein the international community. Measurement ofThermodynamic Properties of Multiple Phases,Volume VII is an invaluable reference source toresearchers and graduate students.

www.iupac.org/publications/books/author/weir.html

Bookworm


Polymer Chemistry, Reactions andProcesses

A. Deffieux, C. Pichot, and F. Candau (editors)Macromolecular Symposia, Vol. 226Wiley-VCH, 2005, pp. 1-302ISBN 3-527-31329-X

This volume contains key papers given at the WorldPolymer Congress “Macro 2004,” held 4–9 July 2004 inParis, under the auspices of IUPAC (see September-October 2005 CI (pp. 30–31). The volume covers the ses-sion devoted to Polymer Chemistry Reactions andProcesses, in particular topic 1) Polycondensation,Polyaddition, Chain Polymerization, Catalytic Polymer-ization, Functionalization; and topic 2) Preparation ofPolymers in Dispersed and Unconventional Media.

The contributions under the first topic dealt witheither purely mechanistic or synthetic aspects of met-allocene and enzyme catalysis, as well as anionic,cationic, and radical initiated polymerisations. These

papers cover quite different types of monomers, rang-ing from olefins and dienes, to heterocycles includingsaccaridic monomers, with the common aim of under-standing the elementary reaction mechanisms andbetter controlling the polymerization processes.

Due to the versatility of polymerization processesin dispersed media (topic 2), a large variety of poly-mers exhibiting a wide range of functionalities, prop-erties, morphologies and particle size, can be nowprepared. A considerable number of such materialsare indeed involved in many diverse applications andintensive research is increasingly devoted to their syn-thesis and properties. The selected papers cover thefollowing aspects: recent developments in emulsionpolymerisation, smart polymer colloids, unconven-tional preparation methods of dispersed polymers,and organic/inorganic hybrid colloids.

www.iupac.org/publications/macro/2005/226_preface.html

The Periodic Table: Into the 21stCentury

Dennis Rouvray and Bruce King (editors)Research Studies Press, Baldock, England, 2004ISBN 0-86380-292-3Pp xix + 396

reviewed by Peter Atkins

My first thought on opening this book was that, becausethe periodic table is discussed to exhaustion in justabout every lecture room throughout the world on justabout every day of the year, then there is little need foran international conference on it. Moreover, apart froma few ripples of discussion that have passed throughthe pages of CI over the past few months (relating tothe position of hydrogen), and the slow growth of thebottom row as new elements are made and recognized,surely there is nothing more to be said? In fact, I waspleasantly surprised by most of the articles.

First, a few facts. This book is a collection of pre-sentations made at a conference of the same title heldin the Kananaskis region of Alberta, not far from Banff,in July 2003. There are 13 chapters, covering a widerange of aspects of the table, ranging from its historyto more recondite aspects of the atomic structuresthat it in effect portrays.

Dennis Rouvray kicks off with an account of factand fable in the story of the periodic table, including

an account of the various alternatives, the various dis-coverers of the periodic table, such as deChancourtois and his famous “telluric screw” of 1862,Odling’s table of 1864, and the less-known GustavusHinrichs and his table of 1869. He with whom we nor-mally associate the formulation of the table,Mendeleev, came later to the game, with his first tablein 1869. Mendeleev is famous for using his table tomake three spectacularly accurate predictions (of theelements later to be called gallium, germanium, andscandium), but Rouvray points out that he actuallymade around 20 predictions, with most proving to beeither lucky guesses or completely wrong. Thus, qui-etly and benignly forgotten are his insistence thatthere is a series of elements of atomic weight less thanthat of hydrogen (including newtonium of atomicweight 0.17 and coronium of atomic weight 0.4). Healso proposed the existence of six new elementsbetween hydrogen and lithium. Rouvray goes on topoint out that none of the discoverers of the periodictable received a Nobel Prize: Mendeleev came close(losing out to Henri Moissan and fluorine in 1906, by avote of 5:4), and died the following year.

Mendeleev moves to center stage in MichaelGordin’s contribution on the short happy life of his,Mendeleev’s Periodic Law, which is a biographicalaccount of Mendeleev’s life and in particular the gene-sis of the table. For obvious reasons my heart warmed

Bookworm


to his passage about textbooks being much malignedas a scientific genre and the undervaluing of their con-tribution to science: Mendeleev might never have for-mulated his table if he had not been grappling with theproblem of organizing his The Principles of Chemistry(Osnovy Khimii) in 1868/69, which he realized wasbecoming a rambling compendium of data and neededa system of organization. This long contributionexplores the “eka-elements” in more detail and gives afascinating insight into Mendeleev’s thinking.

The historical analysis of theformulation of the periodic table istaken further in the contributionby Masanori Kaji, who provides auseful analysis of the efforts of themain contributors. Hinrichs heplaces at the foot of the heap, as arepresentative of the group ofresearchers in the 1850s whosought numerical patterns inatomic weights. Odling is just a lit-tle higher up the heap: Kaji classi-fies him as someone whoconsidered his table merely as aconvenient way to arrange the ele-ments. At level three lie deChancourtois and Newlands, whounderstood the significance of thetable and speculated about theexistence of a periodic law. At theapex, at level four, standsMendeleev, who understood thecomplex nature of the periodic law and used it effec-tively (but not, as we have seen, always with correctoutcome). Lothar Mayer, Kaji asserts, somehow man-aged to span all four levels as his contribution evolved.

Michael Laing and then Eric Scerri survey the vari-ety of portrayals of the periodic table, which still pro-vide a good romping ground for chemists. Readers ofthis journal will know that suggestions have beenmade about the position of hydrogen (in the positionadopted by Linus Pauling in his textbook); they willprobably warm less to Scerri’s location for heliumamong the alkaline earth metals and will probablywish to take issue with what he calls “the tyranny ofthe chemist.”

From chapter six on, we move from history tochemistry, with several chapters more reminiscent offreshman chemistry textbooks. Thus, Geoffrey

Rayner-Canham surveys the properties of the ele-ments in the context of the table and identifies pat-terns richer than the consanguinities of groups andperiods. Bruce king goes on to describe the more rec-ondite applications of the table in the context of met-allurgy, and Helen Aspinall reviews the chemistry ofthe lanthanoids.

Where will it all end? Paul Karol points out that onthe average, a new element is found every two and ahalf years, which suggests that at the end of this cen-

tury there will be around 150known elements. This reaching outinto the unknown generates itsown controversies, such as theacceptability of evidence for thecreation of a new element and,sometimes with more vitriol, thenaming of the element. Karoldescribes in detail his version ofthe arguments that took placewhen names were suggested forthe transfermiums, particularlyelement 106. He concludes on amore conciliatory note, pointingout that IUPAC was shaken by theoutrage within the global nuclearcommunity and that “the situationhas since settled down andchanged enormously for the bet-ter.”

I do not have space to describethe more theoretic approaches

typical of the remaining chapters of the book, whichdeal with topics such as relativity (KrishnanBalasubramanian), group theory (Maurice Kibler), avariety of rules based on quantum numbers (ValentinOstrovsky), and the extension of the concepts of peri-odicity of elements to that of benzenoid hydrocarbons(Jerry Dias). These are of a more specialist character,and show that the table can be mined for deep under-standing as well as used for practical applications.

Overall, I warmly recommend this book for theaccounts it provides in the early chapters of the his-torical background and the illumination it gives to thestruggles and controversies that led to the current,evolving form of the table.

Peter Atkins <[email protected]> is a professor at the Lincoln College inOxford, UK, and is chairman of the IUPAC Committee on Chemistry Education.

Bookworm

Nanotechnology: Science andApplicationby Mohamed Abdel-Mottaleb

The International Conference on NanoTechnology:Science and Application (NanoTech Insight’05) washeld in the beautiful, historic city of Luxor, Egypt, from20–25 February 2005. Over 200 participants—repre-senting leading researchers from 40 countries—con-tributed to a very successful conference.

The scientific content of the meeting was as diverseas it was high in quality, emphasizing the intrinsic mul-tidisciplinary nature of nanotechnology. Split into twosessions, the program featured 22 plenary lectures, 30keynote lectures, 48 contributed talks, and 100posters.

Klaus Müllen (Max Plank Institute, Mains, Germany)gave the opening lecture in which he gave an exem-plary lesson on “putting the molecules into molecularelectronics” by demonstrating the self-assembly ofpolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons into columns andordered monolayers for the formations of supramole-cular wires and two-dimensional crystals. Chemicallygated rectifiers were structured at surfaces by usingsuch systems. Beng Ong (Xerox Research Labs,Toronto, Canada) provided excellent proof of the fea-sibility of this approach to electronics through Inkjetprocessing of oligothiophene derivatives to produceprinted field effect transistors with high on/off ratios.Further examples of molecular electronics and self-assembly approaches where demonstrated byConcepció Rovira (Consejo Superior deInvestigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), Barcelona, Spain)and Maria Rampi (Ferrara University, Italy, andHarvard University, Massachusetts, USA). Avik Ghosh(Purdue University, Indiana, USA) and Peter Hänggi(Augsberg University, Germany) elegantly showedhow the design and interpretation of physical experi-ments now benefit from precision calculation of theelectronic properties of nanostructures.

The 10-nm-size regime is often seen as the realm ofthese bottom-up molecular approaches; however,top-down CMOS (complementary metal oxide semi-conductor) techniques are expected to reach sizes ofaround this value. Hans Lüth (Research Centre, Jülich,Germany) showed how combinations of the twoapproaches are certain to be fruitful, and reflected onhow new device types will become necessary as thequantum mechanical limit is reached.

Self-assembly is a powerful paradigm in the prepa-

ration of chemical systems at the nanoscale from thebottom-up approach. In this context Alan Rowan(Nijmegen, The Netherlands) demonstrated the con-trol of polymers over nanostructures by threading acatalyst ring over a polymer chain. Roberto Lazzaroni(Mons-Hainaut, Belgium) additionally exposed thedramatic effects that block polymer composition canhave on the nanostructures and properties. RoelandNolte (Nijmegen, The Netherlands) showed how blockcopolymers are even self-assembled into vesicles thatcan house enzymes and whose surfaces can be poly-merized to create conducting spheres.

The versatility of the self-assembly approach wasclearly shown by the wealth of structures and proper-ties demonstrated by Dirk Kurth (MPI Colloids andInterfaces, Potsdam, Germany), Jaume Veciana (CSIC,Spain), and Raphaël Lévy (Liverpool, UK).

It has been recognized that natural phenomena canact as a guide to unnatural chemical systems. PaulHansma (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)showed how the tools of nanoscience are giving newinsight into the way in which nature has developednanostructured materials with crosslinks, whichbehave as “sacrificial bonds” and fracture before thebackbone of the polymers, which break at a force ofover 1000 pN. These safeguards are present in sys-tems as diverse as spider silk, abalone shell, and bone;their elegance is that only these reformable bonds arebroken (at forces below 500 pN), thus providing adamage protection mechanism.

“Molecular Surgery” on biological structures was


Conference CallReports from recent conferences and symposia.See also www.iupac.org/symposia

Multilayer assembly of a thiophene oligomer. From slide pre-sented by Roberto Lazzaroni.

11 layers of 4.7 nm—atomic forcemicroscopy image

6 layers of 10 m—StepPyramid in Egypt,Netjenkhet Djoser

(2667–2648 BC), The2nd King of Egypt’s 3rd

Dynasty


shown by Min-qian Li (Chinese Academy of Sciences,Shanghai, China), who demonstrated the formation ofartificial DNA structures via “molecular combing,” andthen put the molecules under the knife using anatomic force microscope.

Perhaps the most remarkable chemical featexposed at the conference was the preparation of a

series of triruthenium clusteroligomers, which in the caseof the tetramer displays a14-step reversible sequenceof redox processes involvingthe transfer of 15 electrons.Tasuku Ito (Tohoku Univer-sity, Japan) showed howjudicious choice of ancillaryligands surrounding thecomplexes can give this

effect as well as gradients of potential in dendrimersbased on the same module. The systems are surelyinteresting for molecular electronics.

Paul Ziemann (Ulm, Germany) brought the confer-ence to a fitting climax, showing how metal-loadedblock copolymers can be used for the preparation ofordered arrays of both gold and cobalt nanoparticlesafter removal of the polymer matrix by optimizedhydrogen plasma treatment. One of the results pre-sented revealed the remarkable fact that Au55 clustersare Nobler than bulk gold! The outlook for theseprocesses and materials in the preparation of newdevices is very promising.

With the high-caliber lectures and posters pre-sented, the conference succeeded in establishingstrong collaborations among advanced researchgroups in the field and the developing world, wideningthe benefits of nanoscience beyond developed coun-tries, and promoting female scientists. The partici-pants perceived the conference as a scientific,intellectual, and social success. The organizers of theconference would like to issue a warm thank you to allparticipants for their scientific contributions and formaking the event so memorable.

The next NanoTech Insight conference will takeplace in Cairo, Egypt, 11–17 March 2007.

Dr. Mohamed Abdel-Mottaleb <[email protected]> is a research associate at the Technical University of Chemnitz,Germany, and was the chairman of NanoTech Insight'05.

Heterocyclic Conferenceby Thomas Tidwell

The 6th Florida Heterocyclic Conference was held 28February–2 March 2005 in Gainesville at the Universityof Florida. The 150 delegates in attendance partici-pated in a varied and rich program including 12 ple-nary lectures, 11 short lectures, 2 short courses, and anextensive poster session. The short courses were onbenzotriazole chemistry—taught by Alan Katritzky(University of Florida)—and organometallic chemistryof heterocycles—taught by Gordon Gribble(Dartmouth University, New Hampshire, USA).

The attendees included many chemists from theindustrial sector and from a large number of countriesrepresenting five continents. Heterocyclic compoundsplay a major role in the pharmaceutical industry and inother applications, which accounts for the great inter-est in the subject. The conference attracted a numberof commercial exhibitors, including publishers, chemi-cal suppliers, and instrument makers.

The following scientists gave plenary lectures:Alois Fürstner, Max-Planck-Institut fürKohlenforschung, GermanyScott Denmark, University of Illinois, Urbana, ILPaul Reider Amgen, Thousand Oaks, California, USAPaul Krapcho, Dept. of Chemisty, University ofVermont, USAMikael Begtrup, Royal Danish School of Pharmacy,Denmark Gary Molander, University of Pennsylvania,Philadelphia, USAPaul Hodgson, Pfizer Ltd., United KingdomMargaret Brimble, The University of Auckland, NewZealandMitchell deLong, The Procter & Gamble Company,Cincinnati, Ohio, USAJohn A. Joule, The University of Manchester,United KingdomDale Boger, The Scripps Research Institute, LaJolla, California, USARama Rao, Avra Laboratories Pvt Ltd., India, USARichard Larock, Iowa State Univ., Ames, Iowa, USA

Prof. Thomas Tidwell <[email protected]> served as the IUPAC represen-tative at FloHet 6. He is currently a professor at the University of Toronto. Tidwellhas been extensively involved in the IUPAC Organic and Biomolecular Division formany years; he is currently the division past president.

Conference Call

Perhaps the mostremarkablechemical feat . . .was the preparationof a series oftriruthenium clusteroligomers . . .


Electrical andRelated Propertiesof Organic Solidsand Polymersby Jean-Michel Nunzi

The fast development of organicelectronic and optoelectronicdevices bearing advanced proper-ties prefigures new research anddevelopment opportunities inmaterials and polymers chemistryfor the third millennium. Almostevery week, we can read in thejournals Science and Nature aboutthe new discoveries in the fields oforganic and polymer chemistry applied to electronicsand optoelectronics.

In order to transform this insightful research into anew worldwide industrial market-which makesadvanced low-cost plastic electronics available toalmost everyone-a conference was organized to bringleading chemistry and physics scientists together withyoung researchers. Advanced renewable energy,communication, and sensing and security systems areexpected to emerge in the next decade from this newopportunity in chemistry. These were the main topicsof the ERPOS conference held 10–15 July 2005 inCargese, France.

About 100 participants attended the conference,with 22 invited presentations, 64 talks, and about 50posters. The different topics were organized in sevensessions: optical storage materials; green functional

materials for electronics; polymersfor broad-band information tech-nologies; nano-bio-photonics;multi-functional materials foradvanced electronics: principlesand applications; and opticallyswitchable materials.

A special session on optical stor-age materials began with an invitedtalk by H.J. Eichler (Berlin) on“Microholographic Data Storage.”Eichler described a bit-storageprocess that enables an increase inDVD capacity by two orders ofmagnitude by using the depth of100 µm thick holographic polymerstogether with wavelength multi-

plexing. Holographic storage polymers and applica-tions were also addressed in the talks of A. Miniewicz(Wroclaw), S. Kucharski (Wroclaw) and D. Bogdal(Krakow).

The subject of green functional materials for elec-tronics was introduced by J. Grote (US Air ForceOffice of Scientific Research (AFOSR), USA), whospoke about DNA-based photonic materials. Grotepointed out that DNA is an abundant natural productwith versatile properties: it has transparent photonicwaveguides, it is a molecular conductor, and it is ananosystem templating material. Other importanttalks were given by G. Aldea (Angers) on a new high-loading totally water-soluble C60-pendant copolymerfor electronic devices and layer-by-layer electrostaticself-assembly, and by B.C. Simionescu (Iasi) on func-tional micro- and nanoparticles fabrication.

TAKAYOSHI KOBAYASHI, EDITOR IN CHIEF

FRANCOIS KAJZAR, EUROPEAN REGIONAL EDITOR

YANHUA SHIH, NORTH AMERICAN REGIONAL EDITOR

o c p s c i e n c e

NONLINEAR OPTICS, QUANTUM OPTICSC O N C E P T S I N M O D E R N O P T I C S

VOLUME 35 • NUMBERS 1-4 ISSN: 1543-0537NOQOAP 35(1-4) 2006

Special Issue

Electrical and Related Properties of Organic Solidsand Polymers (ERPOS'10)

Guest EditorsJM. Nunzi (conference chair) and F. Kajzar (conference co-chair)

ERPOS ’10 participants.

Conference Call


A special session sponsored by Keio-COE was heldon polymers for broad-band information technologies.Y. Koike (Keio) delivered the plenary lecture ongraded-index polymer optical fibers (GI POF) andtheir applications in telecommunications. GIPOF haveless than 10bB/Km losses in the 0.8–1.3µm band and atransmission band in excess of 10Gb/s for 100mcables.

The topic of nano-bio-photonics was addressed byseveral invited talks from world leaders, giving broadcoverage of the domain. Among the many talks werethose of N. Peyghambarian (University of Arizona,Tucson, Arizona, USA) on photorefractive polymersand applications, K.D. Singer (Case Western ReserveUniversity, Cleveland, Ohio, USA) on non-dispersivehigh-mobility discotic liquid crystals for electronics,and A. Djurisic (HongKong) on new organic and inor-ganic nanoparticles and structures for electronic andlaser applications.

Multi-functional materials for advanced electronicswere introduced by the plenary talk of S. Saricifci(Linz) on plastic solar cells. Interpenetrated polymernano-solar cells should soon permit solar yields to sur-pass 5 percent. Owing to their good performance toprice ratio, they should soon become credible renew-able energy devices and an economic alternative tosilicon cells.

The diversity of organic devices for electronics is anopen field for new theories and characterization.Leading experts presented their studies of devicemodelization at all scales: from the individual mole-cules which are the building blocks of semiconductors(N. Kirova, Orsay); through charge transport in disor-dered organic semiconductors (H. Baessler, Marburg);the effect of disorder at interfaces on charge injectionin electronic devices (S. Novikov, Moscow); to theenergy levels and traps in organic transistors (S.Schrader, Wildau) and bimolecular recombination inplastic solar cells (K. Arlauskas, Vilnius).

Optically switchable materials were introduced byH. Cailleau (Rennes), with time resolved X-ray studiesof photoinduced phase transitions in charge transferorganic crystals. Two-photon absorption materialswith applications to optical limiting, nanofabrication,microscopy, and phototherapy were introduced byK.S. Lee (Busan), a world-leader in this area.

The proceedings of ERPOS’10 will be published aspeer-reviewed papers in a special issue of NonlinearOptics and Quantum Optics (Old City Publishing). The

next edition of ERPOS will be organized in Poland byA. Miniewicz in 2008.

Jean-Michel Nunzi <[email protected]> is a professor at POMA, theLaboratoire des Propriétés Optiques des Matériaux et Applications, at theUniversité d'Angers, in Angers, France. He was chair of the 2005 ERPOS conference.

http://sciences.univ-angers.fr/erpos/

Physical Chemistry:Education and Challengesby Michel Rossi

An International Symposium on Physical Chemistry:Education and Challenges, took place at ShaanxiNormal University in Xi’An from 9–11 August 2005, justbefore the 40th IUPAC Congress in Beijing. This sym-posium was supported both by the IUPAC Physicaland Biophysical Chemistry Division, as well as theCommittee on Chemistry Education (CCE). Bothorganizers of this symposium, Yu Fang of ShaanxiNormal University and ZhongQun Tian of XiamenUniversity, convened a highly successful meeting thatfocussed on several aspects of physical chemistry ofimportance today.

A persistent challenge for chemistry educators isthat many, if not most, chemistry students the worldover perceive physical chemistry as too difficult. InChina, this difficulty will most likely increase as bilin-gual teaching is gradually introduced into the curriculaof selected universities in order to improve communi-cation with the English-speaking world.

Chinese specialists in physical chemistry education,as well as teachers at the university level, agreed apotential obstacle to bilingual teaching would be thewillingness of Chinese teachers to bear the brunt ofthe change. Apparently, the English-speaking abilitiesof the younger generation no longer represent a sig-nificant barrier to communication with the rest of theworld. Chinese teachers face a double challenge: mod-ifying their teaching approach, which may have to sig-nificantly change once they start teaching in English,as well as overcoming the language barrier itself.However, it was felt that the advantages of the grad-ual introduction of bilingual education into physicalchemistry by far outweighed the potential difficultiesthat may be encountered. Teachers from Arab-speak

Conference Call


ing countries of North Africa expressed support forthis process as did representatives from the EuropeanUnion who face similar challenges in teaching.

China’s access to the world scientific community willgreatly benefit from the preparedness of its youngergeneration of practicing physical chemists who will befacing a field that is undergoing, or has already under-gone, significant changes. Materials chemistry,nanoscience, and biological chemistry will from now onbe major subjects in physical chemistry in their ownright. The consensus of those present was that switch-ing some courses to English represented a win-win sit-uation, both for faculty and staff: Not only will Chinesestudents benefit from direct interaction with theirpeers abroad, but it also may lead to more frequentexchanges of visiting faculty, from which both educa-tion and research in China may take advantage.

A well-known teacher and textbook author of phys-ical chemistry in China, professor Wenxia Shen ofNanjing University, highlighted both the options thatthe Chinese teacher in physical chemistry may face inthe selection of subject areas as well as some of themodern teaching methods that are available today. Onthat latter point she claimed that a combination ofeither static or animated presentations (e.g., PowerPoint) should be alternated with more “pedestrian”methods such as using chalk and a blackboard, whichhave proven their worth over time. This, she said, willallow students more time to accommodate and inter-nalize the reasoning of the teacher during more chal-lenging parts of the course, such as key derivations.

Peter W. Atkins of Oxford University, chairman ofCCE, presented visualization concepts in physicalchemistry that translate the meaning of an expressionin a qualitative sense before fully exploring its quanti-tative ramifications.

The educational component of this conference wasunderlined by the presence of many junior faculty,graduate students, and masters students from all over

China who significantly contributed to the discussions.The conference also showcased research and

development in contemporary physical chemistry inChina, as presented by young researchers. Thisafforded a useful overview of modern physical chem-istry research, ranging from classical aspects of elec-trochemistry and materials chemistry to moderninterdisciplinary studies of interfacial processes,molecular dynamics involving solid surfaces,nanoscience, and molecular biology. The threadthroughout the presentations was the fundamentalunderstanding from the point of view of physicalchemistry principles. As an example, Xinsheng Zhao ofPeking University discussed the question of the ther-modynamic driving force for key biological or electro-chemical processes, which will be increasinglyimportant for classifying and ultimately understandingcomplex biological processes in molecular biology. Inaddition, the presentation of Mostafa A. El-Sayed ofthe Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta put theemphasis on the understanding of “old” interfacialphenomena that are well known to “classical” physicalchemistry in terms of modern concepts involving ther-modynamics, spectroscopy, molecular dynamics, andchemical kinetics in a truly interdisciplinary fashion.Therefore, it may not come as a surprise if the teach-ing of electrochemistry in China, for instance, occupiesa predominant place in the curriculum of physicalchemistry as it is key to such novel areas as chemicalbiology, materials chemistry, (photo)catalysis, andmolecular electronics. In contrast, electrochemistryfrequently occupies a less visible place in manyAmerican or European schools.

Michel J. Rossi <[email protected]> is a professor at the Laboratoire de PollutionAtmosphérique at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland.He was IUPAC representative at the conference and is currently secretary of theIUPAC Physical and Biophysical Chemistry Division.

Participants at the International Symposium on Physical Chemistry, each wearing a gift from conference organizers—an example of the excellent hospitality afforded all attendees.

Where 2B & Y


Neurotoxic Metals: Lead,Manganese, and Mercury—From Research to Prevention17–18 June 2006, Brescia, Italy

The International Workshop on Neurotoxic Metals:Lead, Manganese, and Mercury—From Research toPrevention will be held in Brescia, Italy, 17–18 June2006.

Different integrated functions of the nervous sys-tem are sensitive targets for metal toxicity. The imple-mentation of preventive programs has lead to adecrease in occupational exposure levels to heavymetals, but environmental exposure has increased sothat it is now ubiquitous. New research has shown thatadverse effects may occur at “low” levels previously

thought to be safe. Given the increasing lifeexpectancy and duration of working life, there is agrowing concern about the possible long-term effectson the nervous system of heavy metals such as lead,mercury, and manganese. Therefore, more research isneeded into exposure-related health effects so thatpreventive measures may be implemented by govern-mental and regulatory agencies.

This international workshop will facilitate informa-tion exchange among researchers, risk assessors, reg-ulatory bodies, public health authorities, andstakeholders. Details on each session and topics to bediscussed are available on the conference Web site.

See Mark Your Calendar on page 37 for contact information.

www.ntoxmet.it

Upcoming IUPAC-sponsored eventsSee also www.iupac.org/symposiafor links to specific event Web site

Polymers and OrganicChemistry

2–7 July 2006, Okazaki, Japan

The 12th International Conferenceon Polymers and OrganicChemistry (POC’06) will beheld in Okazaki, Japan, 2–7July 2006. The conferencewill focus on functionalizedmacromolecular design andarchitecture and applicationsbased on fine organic reactiontechniques. The conference pro-gram will cover the following topics:

polymer supported reagents polymeric catalysts polymer in medicine and biochemistry polymer for separations electro- and light-sensitive functional polymers polymers for environmental protection processes within functional polymers novel functional polymers

Topics related to the synthesis, characterization,and application of functional polymers will be alsocovered in the conference. A number of renownedchemists have agreed to present plenary and invitedlectures: J.M.J. Frechet (USA), Y. Okamoto (Japan), S.

Kobayashi (Japan), D.C. Sherrington(UK), K. Ding (China), H.

Wennemers (Swiss), D.E.Bergbreiter (USA), Y.-S. Lee(Korea), E. Yashima (Japan),K. Nozaki (Japan), and H.D.H.Stover (Canada).

Deadlines: The second circularand call for papers will be avail-

able on 1 January 2006. The dead-line for abstract submission is 1 April

2006.


www.tutms.tut.ac.jp/POC06


Section head cont NEW

Green Chemistry

10–15 September 2006, Dresden, Germany

IUPAC, the German Chemical Society (GDCh), andConsorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale “La Chimicaper l’Ambiente” (INCA) are organizing the 1stInternational IUPAC Conference on Green Chemistryto be held 10–15 September 2006 in Dresden,Germany. This first-of-its-kind meeting will cover allaspects of environmentally benign and sustainablechemistry. By filling the gap between research and

technology in this field, the meeting will stimulatecloser linkages between academia and industry.

The symposium will take place in the new lecturehall of the Dresden University of Technology, a beau-tiful venue abounding with cultural treasures such asthe famous Semper Opera House and the magnificentZwinger Palace. In 2006, the city will celebrate the800th anniversary of its founding.


www.gdch.de/vas/tagungen/tg/5559.htm

Aromatic Compounds

22–27 July 2007, Tsuna-Gun (Awaji Island),Japan

The 12th International Symposium on Novel AromaticCompounds (ISNA-12) will be held 22–27 July 2007 onAwaji Island, located near Kobe, Japan. The goal ofthis symposium is to further elucidate fundamentalprinciples of synthesis and properties of aromaticcompounds, and to extend application of aromaticcompounds to many areas of molecular science.

The ISNA-12 program will highlight not only the tra-ditional and fundamental aspects of novel aromaticcompounds, such as their theory, synthesis, structure,and properties, but also topics in materials science.These include, for example, supramolecular chemistry

based on aromatic compounds; conducting, magnetic,and optical properties of aromatic compounds; andmolecular electronics based on aromatic compounds.The program will include plenary and invited lectures,contributed oral presentations, and poster sessions.Young scientists-graduate students and post-doctoralfellows-are encouraged to attend and to take advan-tage of reduced participation fees.

The symposium venue, Awaji YumebutaiInternational Conference Center, is on the northeastcoast of Awaji Island, which is located near Kobe (30minutes by car) and is connected by the world’slongest suspension bridge.


www.chem.es.osaka-u.ac.jp/ISNA12

Biodiversity and NaturalProducts

23–28 July 2006, Tokyo, Japan

The 25th International Symposium on Chemistry ofNatural Products will be jointly held with the 8thInternational Conference on Biodiversity from 23–28July 2006 in Tokyo, Japan, at the Kyoto InternationalConference Hall. These biennial symposia were firstheld jointly in 2004 in New Delhi, India. The symposiawill focus on the advancement of international collab-oration and communication in the interdisciplinaryareas involving natural product chemistry and biodi-versity-related and pharmaceutical sciences.

There will be six half-day sessions for plenary lec-tures, and three half-day parallel sessions on eight

topics: 1) Isolation and Structure Elucidation of NaturalProducts; 2) Synthesis of Natural Products and theirModels; 3) Biosynthesis and Genetic Engineering onNatural Products; 4) Spectroscopy in Natural ProductsChemistry; 5) Molecular Mode of Action on NaturalProducts and Drugs; 6) Chemical Biology and RelatedAreas; 7) Chemistry and Biochemistry Related toBiodiversity; 8) Drug Discovery and Developments.Contributed lectures (of 10 minutes) will be selectedfrom poster presentations.

Applications and abstracts for presentations shouldbe submitted before 28 February 2006.


www.tennenyuuki.ne.jp/iupac


Biotechnology: Milestonestowards Sustainability ofHuman Society12–17 October 2008, Dalian, China

The 13th International Biotechnology Symposium (IBS)will be held from 12–17 October 2008 in Dalian, China. Asone of the most influential events in biotechnology, IBSis held every four years on a different continent. The13th IBS is expected to offer a unique opportunity toreview the milestones in updated biotechnology, andmore significantly, to discuss the biotechnology fron-tiers and their potential contribution to global sustain-ability by conquering the various challenges ahead ofus. The theme of this symposium is “Biotechnology:Milestones towards Sustainability of Human Society.”

The following eight technical sessions will be included:I) Molecular, Cellular, and Genetic Tools; II) SystemsBiology; III) Tissue Engineering and Cell CultureEngineering; IV) Advances in BiotechnologyApplication in Health Care; V) Industrial Biotechnology;VI) Marine Biotechnology and Natural ProductsBioprocessing; VII) Environmental Biotechnology; andVIII) Bio-Safety, Bio-Security, and Bio-economy.

Under the auspices of IUPAC, the Chinese Societyof Biotechnology, and other academic organizations,this symposium will be co-hosted by Dalian Institute ofChemical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciencesand Dalian University of Technology. A call for paperswill be available in October 2006.

Contact: Profs. F.W. Bai <[email protected]>, W. Zhang <[email protected]>,or J.J. Zhong <[email protected]>.

Organometallic Chemistry

2–6 August 2007, Nara, Japan

The 14th IUPAC International Symposium onOrganometallic Chemistry Directed Towards OrganicSynthesis (OMCOS-14) will be held in Nara, Japan,from 2–6 August 2007. The venue for the event isNara Centennial Hall, a conference and exhibition cen-ter surrounded by beautiful mountains and many cul-tural and historical spots, including eight assets ofWorld Heritage. Nara, Japan’s capital from the years710 to 785, is located at the geographic center of theKansai area. It takes one hour from Kyoto and Osaka,and one and a half hours from Kansai InternationalAirport, making Nara a perfect venue for OMCOS-14.

Organic chemistry as the core science of moderntechnology has been gaining in importance in recentyears. Organometallic compounds have played indis-pensable roles in organic chemistry. OMCOS-14 seeks tobring together researchers from around the world inacademia and industry, to share the latest results inchemistry involving carbon-metal bonds and theirapplications in organic synthesis. OMCOS-14 will notonly handle synthetic organic reactions withorganometallics, organic reaction under metal catalysis,asymmetric synthesis and asymmetric catalysis, struc-tures and properties of organometallics, but will alsoconsider state-of-the-art applications of organometallicreagents to material and biological science.


Other Upcoming Conferences

Combining and Reporting Analytical Results6–8 March 2006, Roma, ItalyInternational APAT–IUPAC Workshop on the role of(metrological) traceability and (measurement)uncertainty for comparing analytical resultswww.iupac.org/divisions/V/501

Theoretical and Computational Chemistry6–10 August 2006, Kunming, ChinaThe Fourth Worldwide Chinese Theoretical andComputational Chemistry Conference (WCTCC)http://wctcc2006.iccas.ac.cn

Combustion6–11 August 2006, Heidelberg, GermanyThe 31st International Symposium on Combustion www.combustion2006.org

1st European Chemistry Congress27–31 August 2006, Budapest, Hungarywww.euchems-budapest2006.hu

Solid State Chemistry24–29 September 2006, Pardubice, Czech Republic7th International Congress of the Solid StateChemistry (SSC 2006)http://ssc.upce.cz

Where 2B & Y


2 0 0 5 (later than 1 November)

6––9 December 2005 • Agriculture • Jesenik, Czech RepublicXXXIth International Conference—Chemistry for AgricultureDr. Adam Pawelczyk, Wroclaw University of Technology, Smoluchowskiego 25, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland, Tel.: +48 (0) 71-3202930, Fax: +48 (0) 71-3203469, E-mail: [email protected]

11–13 December 2005 • Arsenic Remediation • Dhaka, Bangladesh Bangladesh Workshop on Origins and Remediation of Groundwater Contamination by ArsenicDr. Satinder Ahuja, Novartis Corporation (retired), 1061 Rutledge Court, Calabash, NC 28467 USA, Tel.: +1 910 287-2765, E-mail: [email protected]

2 0 0 610–13 January 2006 • Green Chemistry • Delhi, India

Second International Symposium on Green/Sustainable ChemistryProf. M. Kidwai, Department of Chemistry, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007, India, Fax: +91 11 27666235, E-mail: [email protected]

6–10 February 2006 • Photodynamics • Havana, Cuba4th International Meeting on PhotodynamicsProf. Jesus Rubayo Soneira, Instituto Superior de Tecnologias y Ciencias Aplicadas, Ave. Salvador Allende yLuaces, A.P. 6163, Havana 10600 Cuba, Tel.: + 53 7-2041188, Fax: +53 7-2041188, E-mail: [email protected]

12–15 March 2006 • Heterocyclic Chemistry • Gainesville, Florida, USA7th Florida Heterocyclic ConferenceProf. Alan R. Katritzky, University of Florida, Dept. of Chemistry, Gainesville, FL 32611-7200, USA, Tel.: +1 352 392 0554, Fax: +1 352 392 9199, E-mail: [email protected]

2–7 April 2006 • Photochemistry • Kyoto, Japan XXIst IUPAC Symposium of PhotochemistryProf. Masahiro Irie, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Kyushu University, Graduate School ofEngineering, Hakozaki 6-10-1, Fukuoka, Japan, Tel.: +81 92 642 3556, Fax: +81 92 642 3568, E-mail: [email protected]

17–21 April 2006 • Polymer Characterization • Nara City, Japan POLYCHAR-14 World Forum on Advanced Materials (Polymer Application & Theory)Prof. Masaru Matsuo, Department of Textile and Apparel, Nara Women’s University, Faculty of Human Life andEnvironment, Nara, 630 8263 Japan, Tel.: +81 742 20 3462, Fax: +81 742 20 3462, E-mail: [email protected]

11–15 June 2006 • Organic Synthesis • Merida, Yucatan, Mexico 16th International Conference on Organic Synthesis (ICOS 16)Dr. Eusebio Juaristi, Instituto Politecnico Nacional, Departamento de Quimica, Avenida IPN #2508, EsquinaTicoman, Mexico City, DF, 07360, Mexico, Tel: +52 55 50613722, Fax: +52 55 57477113, E-mail: [email protected]

17–18 June 2006 • Neurotoxic Metals • Brescia, ItalyWorkshop on Neurotoxic Metals: Lead, Manganese, and Mercury. From Research to Prevention Dr. Roberto G. Lucchini, Institute of Occupational Health, University of Brescia, Italy, Brescia, Italy, Tel.: +39 0303996080, Fax: +39 0303996080, E-mail: [email protected]

25–30 June 2006 • Analytical Sciences • Moscow, RussiaInternational Congress on Analytical SciencesProf. Vladimir P. Kolotov, Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, 19, Kosygin Str.,Moscow B-334 119991 Russia, Tel.: +7 (095) 137 04 86, Fax: +7 (095) 938 20 54, E-mail: [email protected]

2–7 July 2006 • Polymers and Organic Chemistry • Okasaki, Japan 12th International Conference on Polymers and Organic Chemistry 2006 (POC’06)Prof. Shinichi Itsuno, Department of Materials Science, University of Technology, Toyohashi, 441-8580, Japan,Tel.: +81 532 44 6813, Fax: +81 532 44 6813, E-mail: [email protected]

IUPAC poster prizes to be awarded

Mark Your CalendarUpcoming IUPAC-sponsored eventsSee also www.iupac.org/symposiafor links to specific event Web site



Section Head New16–21 July 2006 • Macromolecules • Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

41st International Symposium on Macromolecules—IUPAC World Polymer Congress MACRO 2006 Prof. Ailton de Souza Gomes, Caixa Postal 68525, Rio de Janeiro, 21945-970, Brazil, E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected]

23–28 July 2006 • Biodiversity and Natural Products • Kyoto, Japan ICOB-5 & ISCNP-25 IUPAC International Conference on Biodiversity and Natural Products Prof. Michio Murata, Department of Chemistry, Osaka University, Graduate School of Science, 1-16Machikaneyama, Toyonaka, Osaka, 560-0043, Japan, Tel.: +81 6 6850 5437, Fax: +81 6-6850-5774, E-mail: [email protected]

24–29 July 2006 • Solubility Phenomena • Freiberg, Germany12th International Symposium on Solubility Phenomena and Related Equilibrium Processes (12th ISSP)Prof. Wolfgang Voigt, Technische Universitat Bergakademie Freiberg, Institut fur Anorganische Chemie,Leipziger Strasse 29, D-09596 Freiberg (Sachs), Germany, Tel.: +49 3731 39 4338, Fax: +49 3731 39 4058, E-mail: [email protected]

6–11 August 2006 • Pesticide Chemistry • Kobe, Japan 11th International Congress of Pesticide ChemistryDr. Hisashi Miyagawa, Division Applied Life Sciences, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan, Tel.: +81 75 753 6118, Fax: +81 75 753 6123, E-mail: [email protected]

12–17 August 2006 • Chemical Education • Seoul, Korea 19th International Conference on Chemical EducationProf. Choon H. Do, Sunchon National University, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, 315 Maegok-dong, Sunchon, Chonnam 540-742, Korea, Tel.: +82 61 750 3565, Fax: +82 61 750 3565, E-mail: [email protected]

13–18 August 2006 • Coordination Chemistry • Cape Town, South Africa37th International Conference on Coordination ChemistryProf. K.R. Koch, Department of Chemistry, Univsersity of Stellenbosch, Private Bage X1Matieland, Stellenbosch 7602, South Africa, Tel.: +27 21 808 3020, Fax: +27 21 808, E-mail: [email protected]

3–9 September 2006 • Radical Polymerization • Il Ciocco/Castelvecchio Pascoli, Italy International Symposium on Radical Polymerization: Kinetics and MechanismProf. Michael Buback, Institut für Physikalische Chemie, Universität of Göttingen, Tammannstraße 6D-37077 Göttingen, Germany, Tel.: +49 5-513-931401, Fax: +49 5-513-93144, E-mail: [email protected]

10–15 September 2006 • Green Chemistry • Dresden, Germany First International IUPAC Conference on Green-Sustainable ChemistryProf. Pietro Tundo, Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, Ca’ Foscari, University of Venice, Calle Larga S. Marta,Dorsoduro 2137, I-30123 Venizia, Italy, Tel.: +39 41 2348642, Fax: +39 41 2348620, E-mail: [email protected]

18–22 September 2006 • High Temperature Materials • Vienna, Austria 12th International Conference on High Temperature Materials Chemistry (HTMC XII)Prof. Dr. Adolf Mikula, Wahringstr. 42, A-1090 Vienna, Austria, Tel.: +43 4277 52606, Fax: +43 4277 52679, E-mail: [email protected]

11–13 October 2006 • Advanced Polymers • Busan, KoreaAdvanced Polymers for Emerging TechnologiesProf. Sung Chul Kim, Department of Chemical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Sci. & Tech., 373-1Guseongdong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Korea, Tel.: +82 42 869 3914, Fax: +82 42 869 8435, E-mail: [email protected]

16–20 October 2006 • Chemistry for Life • Havana City, Cuba27th Latin American Congress on Chemistry and 6th International Congress of Chemistry and Chemical Eng.Prof. Alberto J. Núñez Sellés, Center of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Sociedad Cubana de Quimica, Ave 21 &200, Rpto. Atabey, Apdo. 16042 Havana, CP 11600, Cuba, Tel.: +53 7 218 178, Fax: +53 7 273 6471, E-mail: [email protected]

Mark Your Calendar


2 0 0 715–21 April 2007 • Phosphorus Chemistry • Xiamen, China

17th International Conference on Phosphorus ChemistryProf. Yufen Zhao, Xiamen University, Department of Chemistry, Xiamen, China 361005, Tel.: +86 5922185610Fax: +86 5922186292, E-mail: [email protected]

21–25 May 2007 • Mycotoxins and Phycotoxins • Istanbul, Turkey XIIth International Symposium on Mycotoxins and PhycotoxinsDr. Hamide Z. Senyuva, Tubitak-Atal, Konya Yolu No. 67, Besevler, 06530, Ankara, Turkey, Tel.: +90 312 2124620/ext.14, Fax: +90 312 2123749, E-mail: [email protected]

16–20 July 2007 • Solution Chemistry • Perth, Australia 30th International Conference on Solution ChemistryProf. Glenn Hefter, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150Australia, Tel.: +61 8 9360 2226, Fax: +61 8 9360 1711, E-mail: [email protected]

22–27 July 2007 • Novel Aromatic Compounds • Tsuna-Gun, Japan12th International Symposium on Novel Aromatic Compounds (ISNA-12)Prof. Yoshito Tobe, Division of Frontier Materials Science, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka University,Japan, Tel.: +81 6 6850 6225, Fax: +81 6 6850 6229, E-mail: [email protected]

2–6 August 2007 • Organometallic Chemistry • Nara, Japan14th International Symposium on Organometallic Chemistry Directed Towards Organic Synthesis (OMCOS-14)Prof. Kazuhiko Takai, Dept. of Applied Chemistry, Okayama University, Faculty of Engineering, Tsushimanaka3-1-1, Okayama 700-8530, Japan, Tel.: +81 86 251 8097, Fax: +81 86 251 8094, E-mail: [email protected]

4–12 August 2007 • IUPAC 44th General Assembly • Torino, ItalyIUPAC Secretariat, Tel.: +1 919 485 8700, Fax: +1 919 485 8706, E-mail: [email protected]

5–11 August 2007 • IUPAC 41st Congress • Torino, Italy Chemistry Protecting Health, Natural Environment, and Cultural HeritageE-mail: [email protected]


Mark Your Calendar

VisasIt is a condition of sponsorships that organizers ofmeetings under the auspices of IUPAC, in consideringthe locations of such meetings, should take all possiblesteps to ensure the freedom of all bona fide chemistsfrom throughout the world to attend irrespective ofrace, religion, or political philosophy. IUPAC sponsor-ship implies that entry visas will be granted to all bonafide chemists provided application is made not lessthan three months in advance. If a visa is not grantedone month before the meeting, the IUPAC Secretariatshould be notified without delay by the applicant.

IUPAC Poster PrizesIUPAC Poster Prizes can be awarded at Division—orStanding Committee—sponsored events. The eventsare flagged in the previous calendar pages. For moreinformation, contact the IUPAC Secretariat.

How to Apply for IUPACSponsorshipConference organizers are invited to complete anApplication for IUPAC Sponsorship (AIS) preferably 2years and at least 12 months before the Conference.Further information on granting sponsorhsip isincluded in the AIS and is available upon request fromthe IUPAC Secretariat or online.<www.iupac.org/symposia/application.html>.

Index for 2005


page(issue)

Bookworm2004 Winners of the IUPAC Prize for Young

Chemists, 27 (2)A New Unifying Biparametric Nomenclature that Spans

All of Chemistry, reviewed by Kevin Thurlow, 30 (2)An Ontology on Property for Physical, Chemical, and

Biological Systems, 26 (3)Analogue-Based Drug Discovery, 26 (6)Bio-Based Polymers: Recent Progress, 29 (5)Gaseous Flourides of Boron, Nitrogen, Sulfur, Carbon,

and Silicon and Solid Xenon Flourides in AllSolvents, 29 (5)

Green Chemistry in Russia, 26 (1)Ionic Polymerization, 25 (1)Measurement of the Thermodynamic Properties of

Multiple Phases, 26 (6)Natural Products and Biodiversity, 28 (2)Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry—IUPAC

Recommendations 2005, 25 (6)Organic Synthesis—PAC Special Topic Issue, 24 (6)Polymer Chemistry, Reactions and Processes, 27 (6)Polymers in Novel Applications, 29 (5)Polymers, 25 (1)Radioactivity, Ionizing Radiation, and Nuclear Energy,

26 (1)Spectroscopy of Partially Ordered Macromolecular

Systems, 27 (3)The Periodic Table: Into the 21st Century, reviewed

by Peter Atkins, 27 (6)

Conference CallBiological Polyesters, George Guo-Qiang Chen, 34 (1)Biotechnology, Juan A. Asenjo and Barbara Andrews,

35 (4)Carbohydrates, Elizabeth Hounsell, 34 (5)Chemical Education and Sustainable Development,

Natalia P. Tarasova, 31 (3)Chemical Engineering, A.J. Núñez Sellés, 37 (2)Chemical Sciences in Changing Times: Visions,

Challenges, and Solutions, Teodor Ast, 36 (4)Chemical Thermodynamics, John H. Dymond and

Haike Yan, 34 (2)Chemistry for Agriculture, Adam Pawelczyk, 33 (3)Chemistry in Africa, Graham E. Jackson, 31 (1)Coordination and Organometallic Chemistry of

Germanium, Tin, and Lead, Keith Pannell , 27 (1)Coordination Chemistry, Silvia E. Catillo-Blum, 28 (3)Crop Protection in Latin America, E. Carazo, 34 (4)Electrical and Related Properties of Organic Solids

and Polymers, Jean-Michel Nunzi, 31 (6)

Fats, Oils, and Oilseeds Analysis and Production,Richard Cantrill, 32 (5)

Heteroatom Chemistry, Irina Beletskaya, 32 (1)Heterocyclic Chemistry, Irina P. Beletskaya, 36 (2)Heterocyclic Conference, Thomas Tidwell, 30 (6)Macromolecules, Jean-Pierre Vairon and Jean

François Joanny, 30 (5)Mycotoxins and Phycotoxins, Douglas L. Park, 36 (4)Nanotechnology: Science and Application, Mohamed

Abdel-Mottaleb, 29 (6)Organic Synthesis, Tamejiro Hiyama, 32 (2)Phosphorus Chemistry, Pascal Metivier, 35 (2)Photochemistry, Silvia E. Braslavsky, 28 (1)Physical Chemistry: Education and Challenges, Michel

Rossi, 32 (6)Physical Organic Chemistry, Guo-Zhen Ji, 33 (1)Polymer Networks 2004, Ferenc Horkay, 28 (3)Polymer-Based Materials, Phillipe Dubois, 35 (5)Polymers and Organic Chemistry, Karel Jerabek, 29 (1)Soil Science, Qiaoyun Huang, 36 (2)Solubility Phenomenon, Heinz Gamsläger, 30 (1)Trace Elements in Food, Michael Bickel, 30 (3)Vanadium Chemistry, Tamas Kiss, 33 (2)

Features1 600 Years Young, Matthew V. Veazey, 10 (6)Advancement of Harmonized Approaches for Crop

Protection Chemistry in Latin America, K. Racke, E.Carazo, and G. Roberts, 4 (5)

An Update on the Kilogram, Ian Mills, 12 (5)Challenges for Chemists, Charles P. Casey, 8 (5)Chemistry and the Environment: IUPAC Division VI

Takes Stock and Looks Ahead, Patrick Holland andKenneth Racke, 12 (1)

CHEMRAWM XII: Exploring Solutions to Africa’s FoodCrisis, Ikenna Onyido, 8 (3)

Fun and Games in Chemistry: On Scientoons, andOther Light-Hearted Mind Benders that Help UsAppreciate Chemistry, D. Balusbramanian, 8 (1)

IUPAC History Preserved: Processing Addenda to theRecords of IUPAC, Andrew Mangravite, 10 (4)

IUPAC in Beijing: A Wrap-Up of the GeneralAssembly, 4 (6)Division Roundups, 7 (6)

Joseph Priestley: Radical Thinker, Mary Ellen Bowden,4 (3)

Lessons from Early Chemists: Where is there Wisdomto be Found in Ancient Materials Chemistry?, PhilipBall, 13 (6)

Old Warriors Get New Armor, Matthew V. Veazey, 4 (1)

Public Images of Chemistry, Nicole J. Moreau, 6 (4)Pure and Applied Chemistry: Citation Highlights

1998–2003, James R. Bull and Bohumir Valter, 13 (2)Responsible Care in Canada: The Evolution of an

Ethic and a Commitment, Jean Bélanger, 4 (2)Role Models in Chemistry: Linus Pauling, Balazs

Hargittai and István Hargittai, 10 (2)The International Chemistry Olympiad, Jan

Apotheker, 3 (4)

Internet ConnectionChemistry and You, 31 (2)

IUPAC Wire2005 IUPAC Prize for Young Chemists, 15 (4)Address to Younger Chemists, 16 (5)COCI Campaigns for the Company Associates

Program, 18 (2)Coplen Honored, 16 (3)Element 111 is Named Roentgenium, 16 (1)First ICSU Regional Meeting for Africa, 19 (2)Freedom to Publish, Wendy Warr, 13 (4)From Macro to Poly, 16 (1)Fullerene Nomenclature—An Addendum to IUPAC

History: A Letter from Stanley S. Brown, 20 (6)Honoring A Hero: A Letter from Oliver Sacks, 16 (4)In Memorium: Jacques-Emile Dubois (1920-2005), 17 (5)InChl 1.0 Release, 14 (4)IUPAC Elections: Candidates for Vice President and

Elected Members of the Bureau, 17 (4)IUPAC Poster Prizes Awarded in Denmark, 19 (6)IUPAC–Richter Prize in Medicinal Chemistry, 18 (6)IUPAC–Samsung Education Prize for 2005, 17 (6)

The Course, 17 (6)Lida Schoen Made Knight of the Order of Orange-

Nassau, 16 (5)Making an imPACt, 16 (3)New CAs Join IUPAC, 19 (6)Piet Steyn Wins One of South Africa’s Highest

Science Awards, 18 (2)Remembering Two Prominent IUPAC Members, 18 (3)Samsung Funds IUPAC Programs for Young

Chemists, 14 (4)Standard Atomic Weights Revised , 18 (6)Subcommittee Members Teach Short Course on

Medicinal Chemistry, 17 (3)The IUPAC Poster Prize Program, 14 (3)Young Chemists to the 40th IUPAC Congress, 17 (1)

Making an imPACtCharacterization of Polyamides 6, 11, and 12 , 24 (2)Chemical Actinometry, 25 (2)Chemical Speciation of Environmentally Significant

Heavy Metals with Inorganic Ligands, 33 (4)Chemical Structure and Physical Properties of Cyclic

Olefin Copolymers, 26 (5)Compilation of k0 and Related Data for Neutron-

Activation Analysis, 23 (1)Critical Evaluation of Stability Constants of Metal

Complexes of Complexones for Biomedical andEnvironmental Applications, 23 (6)

Definition of Terms Related to Polymer Blends, 24 (2)Electrochemistry at the Interface, 26 (2)High-Temperature Mass Spectometry: Instrumental

Techniques, Ionization Cross-Sections, PressureMeasurements, and Thermodynamic Data, 33 (4)

IUPAC Empfehlungen, 26 (2)Name and Symbol of the Element with Atomic

Number 111, 25 (2)New Online Submission and Peer Review System for

PAC, 24 (2)Numbering of Fullerenes, 28 (5)Polyaniline: Thin Films and Colloidal Dispersions, 26 (5)Practical Guide for Measurement and Interpretation

of Magnetic Properties, 25 (3)Properties and Units in the Clinical Laboratory

Sciences, 23 (1)Rheological Properties of Aromatic Polycondensates,

25 (2)Round Robin Test on the Molecular Characterization

of Epoxy Resins by Liquid Chromatography, 23 (6)Terminology in Soil Sampling, 27 (5)

Mark Your CalendarListing of IUPAC Sponsored Conferences and

Symposia, 39 (1), 43 (2), 37 (3), 42 (4), 41 (5), 37 (6)

Officers’ ColumnsAchieving Important Goals with the Right

Combination of “Hard Cash” and Volunteers,Christoph Buxtorf, 2 (5)

Assessing the IUPAC Project System, Bryan R. Henry,2 (4)

Did You Say the IUPAC Conference?, David StC.Black, 2 (1)

Looking Back and Pondering the Future, Piet Steyn, 2 (3)Reflections at the End of a Presidency, Leiv K.

Sydnes, 2 (6)Welcome to Beijing!, Chunli Bai, 2 (2)


page(issue))


page(issue)Index for 2005

The Project PlaceA Joint OPCW-IUPAC Project on Education and

Outreach Regarding Chemical Weapons, 20 (3)Capacity Building in the Mathematical Sciences, 20 (1)Categorizing Hydrogen Bonding and Other

Intermolecular Interactions, 20 (3)Comparable pH Measurements by Metrological

Traceability, 21 (3)Compendium of Targets of the Top 100

Commercially Important Drugs, 19 (1)Critically Evaluated Propagation Rate Coefficients for

Free-Radical Polymerization of Water-SolubleMonomers Polymerized in the Aqueous Phase, 19 (1)

Design of Polymer Education Materials for French-Speaking Countries, 32 (4)

Equilibria in Solution: A Software Aid, 22 (3)Global Availability of Information on Agrochemicals,

30 (4)Guidelines for Potentiometric Measurements in

Suspensions, 31 (4)Heat Capacity of Liquids: Critical Review and

Recommended Values, 19 (1)Ionic Liquids Database, 23 (5)Public Understanding of Science: Identifying IUPAC’s

Niche, 19 (3)Remediation Technologies for the Removal of

Arsenic from Water and Wastewater, 29 (4)Standardization of Analytical Approaches and

Analytical Capacity-Building in Africa, 20 (2)Teaching School Children About Pesticides and

Health, 21 (5)Terminology for Biomedical (Therapeutic) Polymers,

21 (5)Thermodynamics of Ionic Liquids, Ionic Liquid

Mixtures, and the Development of StandardizedSystems, 22 (5)

Towards a Holistic Mechanist Model for ReversibleAddition Fragmentation Chain Transfer (RAFT)Polymerizations, 30 (4)

Towards Defining Materials Chemistry, 22 (5)Uncertainty Estimation and Figures of Merit for

Multivariate Calibration, 19 (3)Young Ambassadors for Chemistry, 20 (2)

Provisional RecommendationsGraphical Representation of Configuration, 24 (3)

and 32 (4)JCAMP-DX for Electron Magnetic Resonance, 22 (6)Nomenclature of Cyclic Peptides, 22 (1) and 23 (2)Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry, 22 (1) and 23 (2)

Terminology of Polymers Containing Ionizable orIonic Groups and of Polymers Containing Ions, 23(2) and 24 (3)

XML-Based IUPAC Standard for Experimental, Predicted,and Critically Evaluated Thermodynamic PropertyData Storage and Capture (ThermoML), 22 (6)

Up for DiscussionEmerging Issues in Developing Countries:

Can Ambiguous Terminology Cause a Barrier toTrade?, Paul De Bièvre, 18 (5)Challenges of Practicing Analytical Chemistry inSub-Saharan Africa, Nelson Torto, 11 (3)How Can IUPAC Facilitate InternationalCollaborative Research?, Elias A.G. Zagatto, CarolH. Collins, and Jan Ake Jönsson, 16 (2)Natural Products, a Possibility for the R&D of Drugsfor Developing Countries, Antonio Monge, 21 (6)

No more emf, 13 (3)Simples and Compounds:

A Proposal, Claudio Giomimi, Mario E. Cardinali,and Liberato Cardellini, 18 (1)Another Opinion, Tomislav Portada and VladimirStillinovic, 20 (5)Letters from Eric Scerri and John E. Hammond, 12 (3)

Wolfram vs. Tungsten by Pilar Goya and PascualRomán, 26 (4)Reply from Ture Damhus and erratum, 27 (4)

Where 2B & YAnalytical Chemistry, 12-18 September 2005, Kiev,

Ukraine, 42 (2)Analytical Sciences, 25-30 June 2006, Moscow,

Russia, 39 (4)Analytical Spectroscopy, 4-9 September 2005,

Antwerp, Belgium, 34 (3)Aromatic Compounds, 22-27 July 2007, Tsuna-Gun

(Awaji Island), Japan, 35 (6)Biodiversity and Natural Products, 23-28 July 2006,

Tokyo, Japan, 35 (6)Biotechnology: Milestones towards Sustainability of

Human Society, 12-17 October 2008, Dalian, China,36 (6)

Boron Chemistry, 11-15 September 2005, Sendai,Japan, 38 (1)

Carotenoids, 17-22 July 2005, Edinburgh, Scotland,36 (1)

Chemical Education, 12-17 August 2006, Seoul, Korea,39 (4)

Chemical Thermodynamics, 27 June-2 July 2005,


page(issue)

Moscow, Russia, 34 (3)Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, 16-20 October

2006, Havana City, Cuba, 39 (5)Chemistry for Agriculture, 6-9 December 2005,

Jesenik, Czech Republic, 38 (4)Coordination Chemistry, 13-18 August 2006, Cape

Town, South Africa, 40 (4)Fine Chemistry and Novel Materials, 17-20 October

2005, Shanghai, China, 36 (5)Green and Sustainable Chemistry, 10-13 January

2006, Delhi, India, 37 (5)Green Chemistry, 10-15 September 2006, Dresden,

Germany, 35 (6)Heterocyclic Chemistry, 31 July-5 August 2005,

Palermo, Italy, 41 (2)High Temperature Materials, 18-22 September 2006,

Vienna, Austria, 40 (4)Humic Science, 22-24 March 2006, Boston, USA, 36 (5)Ionic Polymerization, 23-28 October 2005, Goa, India,

35 (3)Learning Science, 28 August-1 September 2005,

Barcelona, Spain, 37 (1)Macromolecules, 16-21 July 2006, Rio de Janeiro,

Brazil, 38 (5)Macromolecules, 4-9 June 2005, Réduit, Mauritius, 36 (1)Metallothionein, 8-12 October 2005, Beijing, China, 38 (4)Molten Salts, Chemistry, and Technology, 29 August-

2 September 2005, Toulouse, France, 37 (1)Nanotechnology, 20-25 February 2005, Luxor, Egypt,

35 (1)Neurotoxic Metals: Lead, Manganese, and Mercury-

From Research to Prevention, 17-18 June 2006,Brescia, Italy, 34 (6)

Novel Aromatic Compounds, 14-18 August 2005, St.John’s, Newfoundland/Labrador, Canada, 42 (2)

Nuclear Analytical Methods, 17-22 April 2005, Rio deJaneiro, Brazil, 35 (1)

Organic Solids, 10-15 July 2005, Cargese, Corsica,France, 40 (2)

Organic Synthesis, 11-15 June 2006, Mérida,Yucatán, Mexico, 38 (5)

Organometallic Chemistry, 2-6 August 2007, Nara,Japan, 36 (6)

Pesticide Chemistry, 6-11 August 2006, Kobe, Japan,38 (4)

Photochemistry, 2-7 April 2006, Kyoto, Japan, 37 (5)Plasma Chemistry, 7-12 August 2005, Toronto,

Ontario, Canada, 41 (2)Polymer Blends and Eurofillers, 9-12 May 2005,

Bruges, Belgium, 39 (2)Polymer Science, 26-29 July 2005; Fukuoka, Japan,

35 (3)Polymer Systems, 20-24 June 2005, St. Petersburg,

Russia, 40 (2)Polymers and Organic Chemistry, 2-7 July 2006,

Okazaki, Japan, 34 (6)Polymers for Advanced Technologies, 11-14

September 2005, Budapest, Hungary, 38 (1)Radiochemistry, 17-21 October 2005, Beijing, China,

35 (3)Recent Advances in Food Analysis, 2-4 November

2005, Prague, Czech Republic, 38 (1)Thermodynamics, 6-8 April 2005, Sesimbra, Portugal,

39 (2)Water Contamination by Arsenic, 12-14 December

2005, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 36 (5)

I U P A C

A d v a n c i n g Wo r l d w i d e C h e m i s t r y

IUPAC Prize for Young Chemists Supporting the future of chemistry

The encouragement of young research scientists is critical to the future of chem-istry. With a prize of USD 1000 and paid travel to the next IUPAC Congress, the IUPAC Prize for Young Chemists encourages young chemical scientists at the beginning of their careers. The prize is based on graduate work and is given for the most outstanding Ph.D. thesis in the general area of the chemical sciences, as described in a 1000-word essay.

Call for Nominations: Deadline is 11 Februaryy 2006.

For more information, visit www.IUPAC.org/news/prize.html or contact the Secretariat by e-mail at [email protected] or by fax at +1 919 485 8706.

Index for 2005

CHEMISTRY International November-December 2003

International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry

President: LEIV K. SYDNES (Norway)Vice President: BRYAN R. HENRY (Canada)Past President: PIETER S. STEYN (South Africa)

Secretary General: DAVID StC. BLACK (Australia)Treasurer: CHRISTOPH F. BUXTORF (Switzerland)

Asociación Química Argentina (Argentina)Australian Academy of Science (Australia)Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften

(Austria)Bangladesh Chemical Society (Bangladesh)The Royal Academies for the Sciences and

Arts of Belgium (Belgium)Brazilian Chemistry Committee for IUPAC

(Brazil)Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Bulgaria)National Research Council of Canada (Canada)Sociedad Chilena de Química (Chile)Chinese Chemical Society (China)Chemical Society located in Taipei (China)Croatian Chemical Society (Croatia)Czech National Committee for Chemistry

(Czech Republic)Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab

(Denmark)National Committee for IUPAC (Egypt)Suomen Kemian Seura—Kemiska Sällskapet i

Finland (Finland)Comité National Français de la Chimie (France)Deutscher Zentralausschuss für Chemie

(Germany)Association of Greek Chemists (Greece)Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Hungary)Indian National Science Academy (India)Royal Irish Academy (Ireland)

Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities(Israel)

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Italy)Science Council of Japan (Japan)Korean Chemical Society (Korea)Kuwait Chemical Society (Kuwait)Koninklijke Nederlandse Chemische Vereniging

(Netherlands)Royal Society of New Zealand (New Zealand)Norsk Kjemisk Selskap (Norway)Chemical Society of Pakistan (Pakistan)Polska Akademia Nauk (Poland)Sociedade Portuguesa de Química (Portugal)Colegio de Químicos de Puerto Rico (Puerto

Rico)Russian Academy of Sciences (Russia)Union of Yugoslav Chemical Societies (Serbia

and Montenegro)Slovak Chemical Society (Slovakia)Slovenian Chemical Society (Slovenia)National Research Foundation (South Africa)Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (Spain)Svenska Nationalkommittén för Kemi (Sweden)Schweizerische Chemische Gesellschaft

(Switzerland)Türkiye Kimya Dernegi (Turkey)Royal Society of Chemistry (United Kingdom)National Academy of Sciences (USA)

Mission Statement—IUPAC is a non-governmental organization of member countries thatencompass more than 85% of the world’s chemical sciences and industries. IUPACaddresses international issues in the chemical sciences utilizing expert volunteers from itsmember countries. IUPAC provides leadership, facilitation, and encouragement of chemistryand promotes the norms, values, standards, and ethics of science and the free exchange ofscientific information. Scientists have unimpeded access to IUPAC activities and reports. Infulfilling this mission, IUPAC effectively contributes to the worldwide understanding andapplication of the chemical sciences, to the betterment of the human condition.

National Adhering Organizations

Advancing the worldwide role of chemistry for the benefit of Mankind

Documents

The News Magazine of the CHEMISTRYApplied Chemistry (IUPAC)publications.iupac.org/ci/2005/2706/nov05.pdf · Polymer Chemistry, Reactions and Processes 27 The Periodic Table: Into