IUPAC—Then and Now
Pure and Applied Chemistry and a variety of refer- Reflections on 40 ences listed below. IUPAC sponsors conferences, and one condition Years of Involvement for IUPAC sponsorship is that the government of the by Jeffery Leigh host country will issue visas to bona fide scientists who wish to attend, no matter from which country they come. This was particularly important during the any people have asked me what I actually Cold War and is still necessary in some regions such have done during my time of involvement as the Middle East. Finally, IUPAC encourages interac- Mwith IUPAC, which is now approaching 40 tion between industry and academia, considering and years, especially since a yearly trip to whatever exotic publicizing the value and the dangers of chemistry for spot chosen for a meeting is no longer seen as being the world as a whole. much of a perk. Others want to know what the organi- One of IUPAC’s most contentious functions, carried zation does. That, at least, is easy to answer. IUPAC’s out jointly with IUPAP, its sibling physics organization, mission, the reason for its existence, is to enable is to assess researchers’ claims to have synthesized a chemists to communicate unequivocally and without new element, and adjudicate on priority. Only when misunderstanding. In particular, IUPAC ensures that this has been done are the discoverers invited to sug- different authorities do not start arguing at cross gest a permanent trivial name. Most go for famous purposes because they are not sure that the subject compatriots or home towns and states. Thus, we now of their discussion is understood by both parties. use names such as seaborgium, hassium, dubnium, Regulatory authorities, publishers, and researchers and californium. In the meantime, IUPAC has devised are aware of this problem and ask for an indepen- the peculiar three-letter symbols and related names dent authority to advise them on such matters. That for elements that are yet to be prepared beyond all authority is IUPAC. reasonable doubt, but which are discussed in the lit- erature. The element of atomic number 111 was provi- One of IUPAC’s most important tasks is to develop a sionally called unununium, symbol Uuu, until recently, universal systematic nomenclature for chemical com- when IUPAC recognized that it had been synthesized pounds. This was what first attracted me to IUPAC. unequivocally by researchers in Germany, who have I started by being intrigued by a kind of cross-word now given it the permanent name roentgenium, with approach to nomenclature: Could you define a name the symbol Rg. This name is to honor the German by a set of rules that would always allow anyone to discoverer of X-rays, Wilhelm Roentgen. Evidence for infer the chemical structure from it? This was before the element 112, Uub, ununbium, is currently being the routine availability of computers, which have assessed. When the Dubna and Berkeley laboratories changed the way in which chemical information is were competing in a race to establish new elements stored and manipulated. in the 1980s, there were some unpleasant and difficult Another aspect of IUPAC’s work involves standard- political pressures applied to the chairmen of the com- ization. For example, estimates of atomic weights missions. To their credit, all parties finally accepted the are still being made, and though changes in estab- IUPAC decisions. lished values are small, they are important in some circumstances. IUPAC continuously assesses the new I started by being intrigued by a literature and amends the list of atomic weights every kind of cross-word approach to two years. Isotopic abundances for a given element are not independent of source, as was once believed, nomenclature: Could you define a and they vary from place to place and from heavenly name by a set of rules that would body to heavenly body. IUPAC also reviews new data always allow anyone to infer the in this area. IUPAC advises chemists on how to assess statistical chemical structure from it? data, on how to present analytical results, and on how to teach chemistry, particularly in emerging regions The activities mentioned above have always been with limited resources, by providing teaching aids and principal aims of IUPAC, but how the Union approaches advice, and organizing conferences. IUPAC publishes them has changed significantly since I first became the results of its deliberations in its scientific journal involved. I attended my first meeting, which was of the
CHEMISTRY International November-December 2008 9 IUPAC—Then and Now
Commission on Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry nomenclature rules and IUPAC rules intimately. IUPAC (CNIC), as a stand-in because they could find no reference books are continually revised but subsequent one to act as meeting secretary. My boss at work editions retain the cover color of the first version, so was Joseph Chatt, a long- organic nomenclature is time IUPAC enthusiast. At . . . it was always necessary to reach always found in the Blue home, we subordinates Book, and inorganic in the were frustrated by his the conclusion that the chairman Red Book, whatever the insistence that we use cor- wanted, and on many occasions we editions, and so on. The rect IUPAC nomenclature, worked from nine till nine, when the first version of the inor- which we didn’t appreci- ganic rules (Report of the ate or understand. It was a exhausted and hungry members of Committee for the Reform laboratory joke that every- the commission finally capitulated. of Inorganic Chemical thing in a written report Nomenclature) was actu- had to be presented with a plethora of square brackets ally written in German and had been completed just in order to satisfy Joseph. He would disappear from before the Second World War. An English translation the country annually for mysterious IUPAC meetings, was published in 1940. The first Red Book version was but eventually he asked me if I were prepared to come published in 1957 and had parallel texts in English and to Munich to act as secretary for this one meeting of French. For most of the members of CNIC at that time, CNIC. As I had worked in Munich with E.O. Fischer, and that publication was regarded as finished, but regular was very fond of the city, I was delighted to do so. This meetings of IUPAC still provided a good opportunity was in 1973, and I have been a member of IUPAC in one to see old friends, argue about angels and points of capacity or another ever since. needles, and to gain prestige at home, if any of your When I first became involved in IUPAC, the sec- colleagues actually knew what IUPAC was supposed retariat was run by Mo (Maurice) Williams and his to be. The agenda of a meeting was drawn up at the devoted assistant Ann Troughton. The office was beginning of the first day, and was worked through housed in a small shopping mall on the outskirts of solidly. However, it was always necessary to reach the Oxford. Chatt relied on the IUPAC office for consider- conclusion that the chairman wanted, and on many able help, even in arranging his journeys to meetings. occasions we worked from nine till nine, when the Mo also seems to have been a exhausted and hungry members of the commission Most of the part-time travel agent. Certainly finally capitulated. After dinner, however late, the archives were he and Ann were the most per- secretary had to write the minutes for approval the manent aspect of the admin- following morning! When the CNIC meeting coincided carried about in istration of the Union. Most of with the General Assembly, the chairman would sud- Mo’s head. the archives were carried about denly announce that he had to go to another meeting, in Mo’s head. Members of the and depart with a throw-away line such as: “It’s up commissions did not worry much about finance since to you to decide this matter without me.” In truth, it Mo handled everything. Nowadays, the permanent never was, unless the decision was what the chairman staff occupies a small office with five employees in actually wanted. North Carolina and an even smaller office with one CNOC worked rather similarly, but we did try to hold proud independent employee in Boston, both in the joint meetings of CNIC and CNOC, because overlaps United States. Everything is much more professional, of nomenclature were becoming evident, with the but, unavoidably, less personal. The use of e-mail development of areas such as organometallic chemis- rather than the telephone, more efficient but requiring try. These meetings were often a dialogue of the deaf. much less human interaction, has undoubtedly caused Both commissions knew how to name the compounds this to happen. that fell within what they regarded as their aegis, and A main characteristic of CNIC (and of its sister no quarter was asked or given. CNOC also had the Commission on Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry, benefit of a long established and widely accepted CNOC) at that time was its iron-willed chairman. It methodology, whereas CNIC were relative ingénues. became evident to me that CNIC had no defined pro- So we ran along parallel lines, due to meet only at infin- gram apart from the plans of the chairman. Most of the ity, and few of us were likely to survive long enough to members of CNIC and CNOC had been in their posts see that happy event. Evidently things had to change, for many years, and they knew the published inorganic and with the proper application of rules concerning
10 CHEMISTRY International November-December 2008 Reflections on 40 Years of Involvement terms of membership, things eventually did. Newer and younger people to take part in IUPAC’s activi- and younger people arrived in CNIC and proper pro- ties, and not just senior persons who have reached a grams of work were established by the 1980s. The next certain degree of eminence in their home organiza- version of the Red Book was published in 1990. tions. However, motivations such as my own original Many of the difficulties described here have now stimulus are no longer enough, because the activities faded away. Both CNIC and CNOC have been abol- of IUPAC, however vital, do not carry enough prestige ished. The Chemical Nomenclature and Structure to persuade a person embarking on an academic Representation Division (Division VIII) is for- mally responsible for what they once did. This is clearly sensible, because nomenclature is now treated as a single subject. However, I remain to be convinced that the current project system will suffice to deal with long- term activities such as regular revision of the Red and Blue Books. There are relatively few nomenclaturists of either stripe on the division committee, and many nomenclature activities require large groups of workers. The projects may have to be very flexible to accommodate them. Indeed, recommended atomic weights are revised by what seems to me to be a permanent commission under another name, and quite justifiably so. In nomenclature, some new activities are proceeding under the aegis of Division VIII. There is a project to identify Preferred IUPAC CNIC meeting in 1978 (from left): F. Bertello (Argentina), C.K. Names, or PINs, which will be the names used Buschbeck (Federal Republic of Germany), D.M.P. Mingos (UK), B.F. in legal documents. Currently, IUPAC nomen- Myasoedov (USSR), Y. Jeannin (France), W.H. Powell (USA), J. Chatt clature procedures can lead to more than one (UK), K. Yamasaki (Japan), and G.J. Leigh (UK). name for a given compound, which can be confusing. New IUPAC documents will carry the PINs career to spend time on activities that do not result of the compounds they describe. Since IUPAC cannot in research publications. We need more input from impose its suggestions on the chemistry community, National Adhering Organizations (NAOs) and more and because chemists will continue to read the older prestige to attach to IUPAC activities. There are cur- literature with its multiplicity of names, IUPAC will con- rently 51 NAOs, each paying a subscription based tinue to cite these other names alongside the PINs. upon the annual turnover of its chemical industry. Many systematic names are very long and difficult This money is used to run the Union. The individual to construct accurately for any but a skilled nomencla- members of IUPAC, now as in the 1960s, are usually turist. A particularly innovative development has been nominated by their own NAOs, and are volunteers to construct a language that can enable a computer whose time devoted to IUPAC work is limited by their to draw a chemical structure by having it read what, other professional responsibilities. We need the NAOs to the eye, is simply a meaningless string of alphanu- to publicize IUPAC’s work and to try to ensure that meric symbols, or to construct such a string when it is such work is recognized by national authorities as use- presented with a structure written in a particular man- ful and valuable. ner. Such a string is termed an International Chemical The other problem is to ensure that there is a steady Identifier, or InChI (pronounced “inchee”). An InChI supply of projects that are of value and use to the is unique to any given compound and provides an community. Many of the current projects stem from unequivocal method for describing its structure. older persons and older programs, but a stream of There seems to me to be two major internal prob- suggestions arising from outside the Union would be lems for IUPAC to solve in order for the organization invaluable. A campaign by individual NAOs amongst to remain in good health. It is vital to attract newer their own members might be one way to approach
CHEMISTRY International November-December 2008 11 IUPAC—Then and Now
this. At the least it would publicize IUPAC activities in • Multilingual Dictionary of Analytical Terms, 1994. the community at large. • The Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry, 1993, known as the IUPAC Blue Book (a new edition is IUPAC Reference Publications in preparation). • A Guide to IUPAC Nomenclature of Organic The most important IUPAC reference publications are Compounds (recommendations 1993), A Guide to listed below. the Blue Book, 1993. • Compendium of Analytical Nomenclature (defini- • Compendium of Macromolecular Nomenclature, tive rules 1997), 3rd edition, 1998, known as the 1991, known as the IUPAC Purple Book (a new edi- IUPAC Orange Book. tion is in preparation). • Quantities, Units and Symbols in Physical Chemistry, 3rd edition, 2007, known as the IUPAC For those whose principal interest is nomencla- Green Book. ture, there are elementary guides available, suitable • Combining and Reporting Analytical Results, for teachers and students rather than for specialists. 2006. One of the most important is Principles of Chemical • Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2006, Nomenclature: A Guide to IUPAC Recommendations, known as the IUPAC Gold Book. 1998. The writer is currently leading a project to revise • Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry, IUPAC this text, and it is hoped that a newer version will Recommendations 2005, known as the IUPAC appear before the end of 2009. Red Book. • Compendium of Terminology and Nomenclature Jeffery Leigh
See also www.iupac.org/publications/ci/indexes/ stamps.html Stamps International
Libby and the Nuclear Hourglass covery. In addition to Libby’s likeness, the Radiocarbon dating is one of the most important stamp shows an hour- radiometric methods available to estimate the age of glass, a clever choice carbon-containing materials up to 60 000 years old, since the radioactive and has thus found multiple applications in archeol- decay of carbon-14 ogy, geology, and other branches of science. It is occurs at a regular based on the use of the naturally occurring carbon-14 and predictable rate, radioisotope, which is continuously generated in the much like the flow of stratosphere and upper layers of the troposphere sand in an hourglass. when cosmic rays interact with atomic nitrogen. This Unfortunately, it is nuclide is quickly oxidized to carbon dioxide and also worth noting that enters the global carbon cycle, where it slowly begins the stamp incorrectly its unrelenting beta decay to nitrogen-14 with a half- gives Libby’s first life of about 5 730 years. and middle names as The stamp illustrated in this note was issued by Frank Willard (instead of Willard Frank), not the first Monaco in 2004 to honor Willard Frank Libby (1908– time the wealthy city-state makes a blunder in the 1980), the American chemist who developed the tech- realm of chemical philately, as we shall see in a future nique of radiocarbon dating in the late 1940s while note. working at the University of Chicago. He subsequently received the 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this dis- Written by Daniel Rabinovich
12 CHEMISTRY International November-December 2008