Chemical warfare of a different kind

When teaching the hard facts of chemistry in the cold light of the classroom, it’s easy to lose sight of the rich historical foundation upon which our current understanding is built. We can easily fall into the trap of thinking ‘this is how it is and how it always was’, when in fact we are at one point on an evolving timeline driven by the interplay of experiment and developing theoretical understanding. By turning back the clock and enlightening students about the sometimes painful and disruptive birth of new scientific models, we can give them insight into the nature of the scientific method and bring some colour to what can be a hard slog through challenging material.

In this article, de Berg outlines the controversy which surrounded the late 19th century origins of physical chemistry, when European ‘dissociationists’ such as Arrhenius clashed with British ‘associationists’ such as Armstrong, the latter being renowned for his colourful use of language in discrediting unpalatable theorie

David Read summarises and reviews the article.