{"title":"Editorial 82","authors":"Eric R. Scerri","doi":"10.1007/s10698-026-09565-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10698-026-09565-5","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":568,"journal":{"name":"Foundations of Chemistry","volume":"28 1","pages":"1 - 3"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-03-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147559630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Adaptive natural density partitioning (AdNDP): a not-so-mythical description of the chemical bond","authors":"Arnout J. Ceulemans, Athanasios G. Arvanitidis","doi":"10.1007/s10698-026-09562-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10698-026-09562-8","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The AdNDP model of chemical bonding combines Lewis-type valence bonds with multi-center molecular orbital analysis. The question is addressed to what extent it offers an understanding of the delocalized bonding in the exploding area of pure boron sheets and clusters. It is argued that such understanding cannot be reached without invoking resonance. A vibronic definition of resonance is proposed, and its connection to the Rabi toy model is discussed.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":568,"journal":{"name":"Foundations of Chemistry","volume":"28 1","pages":"5 - 19"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147561632","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unexpectedness in organic chemistry: towards a new material epistemology","authors":"Nadji Belkheiri","doi":"10.1007/s10698-025-09561-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10698-025-09561-1","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This study constitutes a serious attempt to reshape the epistemological framework for understanding unexpected phenomena in organic chemistry, through a thorough critical analysis of fifteen historically documented cases spanning two centuries of chemical development. The study moves from the traditional model that treats “chance” as accidental luck, to the “material response” model that views these phenomena as manifestations of the intrinsic complexity of matter and its capacity to surprise prevailing theoretical models. This transformation necessitates rethinking fundamental concepts in chemical philosophy. The methodology relies on a precise analytical trilogy comprising critical historical reading of knowledge contexts, philosophical induction of epistemological patterns, and the study of socio-institutional dynamics governing the acceptance or rejection of anomalous phenomena. The integrated application of this methodology reveals new dimensions in understanding chemical discovery. The study concludes that unexpected phenomena represent fertile epistemological moments revealing the dialectical dialogue between abstract reason and material complexity, and proposes a radical shift in understanding the nature of chemical knowledge and its production methods, opening new horizons for future research in the philosophy of chemistry. The analysis distinguishes between serendipity, unexpectedness, and opportunistic observation, drawing on relevant literature to contextualize these concepts.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":568,"journal":{"name":"Foundations of Chemistry","volume":"28 1","pages":"21 - 36"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147559463","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Critical appraisal on “Chromatography in the chemical analysis of molecular substances: chemical substance predication and mereology”","authors":"Raihan Mohammed Mohiuddin, Mohammed Misbah Ul Haq","doi":"10.1007/s10698-025-09555-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10698-025-09555-z","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":568,"journal":{"name":"Foundations of Chemistry","volume":"28 1","pages":"173 - 175"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147558947","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The theoretical schism in foundational chemistry: Lewis vs. quantum","authors":"Mark R. Leach","doi":"10.1007/s10698-025-09560-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10698-025-09560-2","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Chemical bonding, structure, and reactivity are routinely taught and understood using a combination of classical Lewis theory and quantum chemistry. Both approaches are highly successful at describing and explaining many of the phenomena of chemistry, but they are also mutually incompatible. The aim of this paper is to elucidate, illustrate, and explain the issues.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":568,"journal":{"name":"Foundations of Chemistry","volume":"28 1","pages":"149 - 171"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147561031","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The chemical element category and classificatory norms: better understanding how science works","authors":"Matthew J. Barker, Matthew H. Slater","doi":"10.1007/s10698-025-09556-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10698-025-09556-y","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>From discoveries of oxygen and X-rays, to those of DNA and the Higgs boson, some of the most celebrated and productive achievements in science involve profound theories about scientific categories. Accordingly, philosophers have asked and pursued many questions about scientific categories, but these have tended to be ontological or metaphysical questions. We uncover and formulate a seldom addressed methodological or inferential question about epistemic practice—about <i>how</i> scientists in fact attempt to justify theories about the definitive natures, or constitutive conditions, of categories. We explain how a lack of sufficient attention to this <i>constitutivity inference question</i> reflects a gap in knowledge about how science works. Then we contribute to answering the question by focusing on two twentieth century periods of chemistry, showing that and how scientists sometimes rely on value-laden norms of scientific classification in their inferences to constitutivity theories about categories. This finding raises several interesting questions.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":568,"journal":{"name":"Foundations of Chemistry","volume":"28 1","pages":"111 - 133"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147561300","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Phenomenological epistemology and nanotechnology: scanning tunneling microscopy as hermeneutic technics","authors":"Marina Paola Banchetti-Robino","doi":"10.1007/s10698-025-09558-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10698-025-09558-w","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Although quite a bit has been written by philosophers of chemistry about the ontology of nanomaterials, this paper proposes to address the question of epistemic access to nanomaterials from the perspective of the phenomenology of technology, since this approach can provide important insights into nanotechnology's ability to yield transparent epistemic access to nanomaterials. In fact, I will argue that nanotechnology lends itself to the same sort of phenomenological analysis as other technologies (such as nuclear reactors) in which direct epistemic access to the product of the technology is not possible due to the nature and/or features of that product. I will argue that nanotechnologies provide only a 'mediated access' to nanomaterials that requires chemical engineers to infer what is happening at the nanoscale from the information provided by the mediating devices. However, the indirect and interpretive nature of this epistemic relation increases the probability of 'misreading' what is occurring at the nanoscale and of unintended consequences from the manipulation of nanomaterials. This analysis concludes that, from the standpoint of safety, there are serious reasons for concern regarding nanotechnology due to the toxicological and environmental effects that may result from such unintended consequences. These concerns also stem from the fact that this problem is insurmountable because the phenomenological limits of epistemic access is endemic to nanotechnology itself.</p>","PeriodicalId":568,"journal":{"name":"Foundations of Chemistry","volume":"28 1","pages":"135 - 148"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147561050","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Electric dipole moment in chemistry: historical account and its representation in chemistry textbooks","authors":"Juan Quílez","doi":"10.1007/s10698-025-09550-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10698-025-09550-4","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The experimental determination of molecular dipole moments as well as their theoretical prediction and interpretation have historically represented insightful tools in the study of molecular structures. On this basis, a historical account is carried out concerning the vectorial representation of the electric dipole moment in chemistry. This convention, which is the opposite of the one adopted in physics, has its origin in the works that Sidgwick published in the early 1930s, which was consolidated in the related research papers of the following decades. As a result, authors of chemistry textbooks adopted the chemical direction of this vector. However, at the end of the last century some authors of physical chemistry textbooks started to use the physics convention, but organic chemistry and general chemistry textbooks still mainly follow the historical tradition. Hence, as long as there is no unification between all these academic fields, those authors should warn students of the existing different convention.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":568,"journal":{"name":"Foundations of Chemistry","volume":"28 1","pages":"71 - 87"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147560267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A pictorial (and hopefully pedagogical) discussion on the Born–Oppenheimer approximation","authors":"Federica Agostini, Basile F. E. Curchod","doi":"10.1007/s10698-025-09559-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10698-025-09559-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The Born–Oppenheimer approximation is one of the central tenets of chemical dynamics and reactivity. Despite its central importance in chemistry, the Born–Oppenheimer approximation is often severely misinterpreted or misrepresented. More specifically, widespread claims about the Born–Oppenheimer approximation within the chemistry community imply that this approximation enforces the nuclei of a molecule to be (1) frozen and (2) treated as classical particles. Both claims are wrong. This article aims to discuss the derivation of the Born–Oppenheimer approximation in a pedagogical way, representing the main steps of this derivation pictorially via a model molecular system. The pictorial derivation is then connected to the formal mathematical derivation for the interested reader. We hope that this pictorial derivation can help chemists to better understand the main steps leading to this key approximation and why the two claims mentioned above are incorrect. We also believe that a detailed understanding of the Born–Oppenheimer approximation is necessary to tackle problem in chemistry where this approximation breaks down, like photochemistry for example.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":568,"journal":{"name":"Foundations of Chemistry","volume":"28 1","pages":"89 - 109"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10698-025-09559-9.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147559420","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial 81","authors":"Eric R. Scerri","doi":"10.1007/s10698-025-09557-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10698-025-09557-x","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":568,"journal":{"name":"Foundations of Chemistry","volume":"27 3","pages":"339 - 340"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2025-10-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145429136","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}