THE IMPORTANCE OF QUESTIONING

SCIENTIFIC ASSUMPTIONS:  LESSONS LEARNED AT UCI

FROM THE RARE EARTH METALS AND URANIUM

William J. Evans

Department of Chemistry

University of California, Irvine

Irvine, CA 92697-2025, USA

phone: 949-824-5174; fax: 949-824-2210

email: wevans@uci.edu

Abstract

As scientists we know that we should constantly question the assumptions upon which our research is based.  We also know that we do not do this often enough.  This lecture will serve to remind us not to take the traditional boundaries of any area of chemistry for granted.  Recent results with the rare earth metals and uranium will be presented that show how the "rules" in an area, thought to be true for decades, can be overturned.  Examples will be presented that challenge previous ideas on topics as fundamental as redox chemistry and bond lengths.  New ways of doing reductive chemistry including multi-electron reduction will be discussed as well as the synthesis of a growing class of organometallic complexes that have bond distances longer than anyone thought possible.