“The discoverers of the amino acids are among the elite of science”. This statement was made in a 1931 review of the history of the discovery of the amino acids, and having read the stories of how each of these compounds came to be known, I cannot help but agree.1,2 Just from a technical perspective,… Continue reading Amino Acids
Tag: etymology
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
Chemtymology 