Computational history of chemistry

Restrepo, Guillermo

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/128614 Copy

Description

Title

Computational history of chemistry

Author(s)

Restrepo, Guillermo

Issue Date

2022-01-01

Keyword(s)

• Chemistry
• History
• Computational History

Abstract

In this essay it is shown how mathematical and computational approaches can be used to model the underlying mechanisms of historical processes, which transform the structure, dynamics and function of chemistry. By chemical knowledge, I refer to a complex dynamical system emerging from the interaction of the social, material and semiotic systems of chemistry. Besides instantiating some watershed events of the history of chemistry in this framework, the increasing availability of large datasets amenable to computational exploration is discussed, as well as the suitable mathematical theories to carry out these studies. I show how this framework allows for exploring possible alternative histories of chemistry by perturbing its past, leading to solving questions of the sort "what would have happened if." This not only sheds light on the past of chemistry, it rather allows modelling the future of the discipline, with its societal and pedagogical reaches. This approach complements conventional methodologies for the history of chemistry and becomes an interdisciplinary field of research for linguists, mathematicians, physicists, historians and chemists, to name but a few scholars and scientists.

Publisher

Division of the History of Chemistry

ISSN

1053-4385

Type of Resource

text

Genre of Resource

article

Language

eng

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/128614

DOI

https://doi.org/10.70359/bhc2022v047p091

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2022 Division of the History of Chemistry

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