04482nam 2200673Ia 450 991079136840332120230124184339.01-282-64642-797866126464230-226-72335-610.7208/9780226723358(CKB)2560000000012044(EBL)544075(OCoLC)642685760(SSID)ssj0000420274(PQKBManifestationID)12110481(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000420274(PQKBWorkID)10391804(PQKB)11499730(StDuBDS)EDZ0000123058(MiAaPQ)EBC544075(DE-B1597)524059(DE-B1597)9780226723358(EXLCZ)99256000000001204420090622d2010 uy 0engur|nu---|u||utxtccrImage and reality[electronic resource] Kekulé, Kopp, and the scientific imagination /Alan J. RockeChicago University of Chicago Press20101 online resource (403 p.)SynthesisDescription based upon print version of record.0-226-72332-1 Includes bibliographical references and index.Front matter --Contents --Preface --Abbreviations --1. Ether/Or --2. The Architect of Molecules --3. Building an Unseen Structure --4. A Barometer of the Science --5. The Heuristics of Molecular Representation --6. Molecules as Metaphors --7. Aromatic Apparitions --8. Dimensional Molecules --9. Kopp's World --10. Kekulé's "Dreams" --11. The Scientific Image-ination --Bibliography --IndexNineteenth-century chemists were faced with a particular problem: how to depict the atoms and molecules that are beyond the direct reach of our bodily senses. In visualizing this microworld, these scientists were the first to move beyond high-level philosophical speculations regarding the unseen. In Image and Reality, Alan Rocke focuses on the community of organic chemists in Germany to provide the basis for a fuller understanding of the nature of scientific creativity. Arguing that visual mental images regularly assisted many of these scientists in thinking through old problems and new possibilities, Rocke uses a variety of sources, including private correspondence, diagrams and illustrations, scientific papers, and public statements, to investigate their ability to not only imagine the invisibly tiny atoms and molecules upon which they operated daily, but to build detailed and empirically based pictures of how all of the atoms in complicated molecules were interconnected. These portrayals of "chemical structures," both as mental images and as paper tools, gradually became an accepted part of science during these years and are now regarded as one of the central defining features of chemistry. In telling this fascinating story in a manner accessible to the lay reader, Rocke also suggests that imagistic thinking is often at the heart of creative thinking in all fields. Image and Reality is the first book in the Synthesis series, a series in the history of chemistry, broadly construed, edited by Angela N. H. Creager, John E. Lesch, Stuart W. Leslie, Lawrence M. Principe, Alan Rocke, E.C. Spary, and Audra J. Wolfe, in partnership with the Chemical Heritage Foundation.Synthesis (University of Chicago. Press)Chemistry, OrganicHistory19th centuryScienceMethodologyHistoryImaginationVisualizationscience, scientific, imagination, history, historical, atoms, molecules, visualization, micro world, organic chemistry, creativity, interconnected, 19th century, friedrich august kekule, theoretical, theory, chemical structure, benzene, german, germany, europe, hermann franz moritz kopp, natural, physics, physician, physico-chemical inquiry, constitution, investigation, modification.Chemistry, OrganicHistoryScienceMethodologyHistory.Imagination.Visualization.540.9/034VB 2380SEPArvkRocke Alan J.1948-1127855MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910791368403321Image and reality3751097UNINA