History and Epistemology of Science in the Classroom: The Synthesis of Quinine as a Proposal

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• 作者：Karina Ap. F. D. Souza ; Paulo A. Porto
• 刊名：Journal of Chemical Education
• 出版年：2012
• 出版时间：January 1, 2012
• 年：2012
• 卷：89
• 期：1
• 页码：58-63
• 全文大小：782K
• 年卷期：v.89,no.1(January 1, 2012)
• ISSN：1938-1328

文摘

The history of the quinine synthesis can be used as a case study to emphasize that science is influenced by social and historical processes. The first efforts toward the synthesis of this substance, which until recently was the only treatment for malaria, were by Perkin in 1856 when, trying to obtain quinine, he synthesized mauveine. Since then, the quest for the total synthesis of quinine involved several characters in a web of controversies. A major step in this process was made in 1918 by Rabe and Kindler, who proposed the synthesis of quinine from quinotoxine. Twenty-six years later, after obtaining the total synthesis of quinotoxine, Woodward and Doering announced the total synthesis of quinine. However, the lack of experimental details about Rabe and Kindler鈥檚 process, associated with Woodward and Doering鈥檚 failure to reproduce it, raised a series of doubts about the synthesis. Stork and colleagues questioned the veracity of the experimental data and even the scientific reputation of the involved researchers. Doubts remained alive until 2008, when Williams and Smith reported, not without reservations, the reproducibility of Rabe and Kindler鈥檚 protocol. The scientific knowledge as a social and historical development, its legitimating process, and the absence of neutrality in science constitute aspects that can be discussed from this case study, providing significant contributions to science education, in particular, to the initial or continued training of chemistry teachers.
<h4>Keywords: h4> Graduate Education/Research; Upper-Division Undergraduate; History/Philosophy; Organic Chemistry; Chirality/Optical Activity; Drugs/Pharmaceuticals; Synthesis