Before I write too many of these posts, I thought it best to take a pause and talk a little bit about something that is going to come up a lot: the distinction between systematic nomenclature and common names, and the differing roles that they each play. A Shifting Attitude Towards Systematic Names As I’ve… Continue reading Systematic Nomenclature vs Common Names
Acetone
The terminology used by scientists of one generation can be very revealing of the misconceptions of the previous ones, and in the worst-case scenarios this can lead to these misconceptions being propagated. To put it another way, sometimes generic names for chemicals can be confusing to the student of chemistry, and only really make sense… Continue reading Acetone
Saturated Fatty Acids
Before chemists had a detailed understanding of molecular structure, newly discovered chemicals were named on the whims of the discoverers. By the end of the 19th century the number of organic molecules known to science had started to increase dramatically, and the list of unconnected names that had to be remembered was getting longer and… Continue reading Saturated Fatty Acids
The General Idea
Chemistry has its own language. As both a chemist, and a person who is fascinated by words, this is a fact that I find endlessly interesting. It is very easy for chemists to forget that some of the words we use every day are nonsense to the wider population. It is also very easy to… Continue reading The General Idea
