Ambix special issues

Shifting centres and emerging peripheries: global patterns in twentieth-century chemistry

Vol. LII, No. 1, March 2005

If there is one single concept which connects the four papers of this issue, it is the idea that centre-periphery relations are not fixed, once and for all, but subject to processes of historical change. These four papers not only show interesting aspects of the history of chemistry, unfamiliar to most readers of Ambix, but they also present intriguing puzzles for anyone interested in the role of centre-periphery relations in science.

Articles:

Shifting centres and emerging peripheries: global patterns in twentieth-century chemistry, 

edited by Ernst Homburg

The evolution of chemistry in Russia and the Soviet Union, 1900-1953, 

Nathan Brooks

Chemistry in Australia: growing up, down under, Ian D Rae

Catalytic chemistry and industry during the political transformation in Russia, 

Elena Zaitseva

Two chemists, two Koreas, Dong-Won Kim

Academia and industry in chemistry: the impact of state interventions, and the effects of cultural values

Vol. LI, No. 2, July 2004

Chemistry appears to be the ideal case for arguing in favour of a strong interrelationship between academia and industry. Who would be able to decide what is meant by a sentence that begins with “Chemistry is…”? Does it refer to technology or science? By contrast, statements such as “Physics is…”, “Biology is…” are clear from the outset. At the most fundamental point, it is the very ambivalence of chemistry that connects the four articles published in this special issue of Ambix.

Articles:

Academia and industry in chemistry: the impact of state interventions, and the effects of cultural values, Carsten Reinhardt and Harm G Schröter

Malaria chemotherapy and the “kaleidoscopic” organisation of biomedical research during World War II, Leo B Slater

Biology in the chemical industry: scientific approaches to the problem of insecticide resistance, 1920s-1960s, John S Ceccatti

Exemplar of academia-industry interchange: the department of chemical technology at Bombay University, Nasir Tyabji

Networks of innovation or networks of opportunity? The making of the Spanish antibiotics industry, Nuria Puig

Justus Liebig (1803-1873)

Essays on the 200th anniversary of his birth

Vol. L, Number 1, March 2003

The 115-page issue commemorates the 200th anniversary of the birth of the influential German organic chemist Justus von Liebig in 1803. The essays by four internationally-known historians of chemistry concentrate on Liebig's teacher Karl Kastner, Liebig's transformation of organic analysis, and the establishment and world-wide dissemination of Liebig's method of practical chemistry teaching.

Articles:

Liebig, his university professor Karl Wilhelm Gottlieb Kastner (1783-1857), and his problematic relation with romantic natural philosophy, Martin Krischke

Breeding chemists in Giessen, William H Brock

Liebig's alkaloid analyses: the uncertain route from elemental content to molecular formulae, Melvyn C Usselman

Origins and spread of the “Giessen model” in university science, Alan J Rocke

Forty years since Silent Spring: historical perspectives on the pollution of water and soil by synthetic chemicals

Vol. XLIX, Number 1, March 2002

This issue of Ambix is devoted entirely to the environment, particularly the impact of chemical industry in the twentieth century. Pollution and industrial releases respect no border, and the articles provide perspectives on both Europe and the United States, with particular reference to wastewater and contamination of surface and groundwater.

Articles:

Industrial waste disposal in the United States as a historical problem, Joel A Tarr

Contaminated earth and water: a legacy of the synthetic dyestuffs industry, 

Anthony S Travis

Deregulation, chemical waste, and groundwater: a 1949 debate, Benjamin Ross and Steven Amter

Mendeleev: beyond the periodic table

Vol. XLV, Part 2, July 1998

This special issue of Ambix grew out of the panel, 'Mendeleev: New Perspectives', organised by Richard Rice and Nathan Brooks for the 1996 History of Science Society Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Since the best known aspects of Mendeleev's career concerned topics related to the Periodic Table, this journal focuses on some of the less-studied topics.

Articles:

D I Mendeleev and Siberia, Beverly S Almgren

Dmitrii Ivanovich Mendeleev and the emergence of the modern Russian petroleum industry, 1863-1877, Francis Michael Stackenwalt

Mendeleev's public opposition to spiritualism, Richard E Rice

Making newtons: Mendeleev, metrology, and the chemical ether, Michael D Gordin

Mendeleev and metrology, Nathan M Brooks

To order one of these titles please contact:

Customer Sales and Services Department

Maney Publishing

Suite 1C

Joseph's Well

Hanover Walk

Leeds LS3 1AB

Tel:+44 (0)113 386  8168

Fax: +44 (0)113 386 8178

Email: subscriptions@maney.co.uk