This historical review of the development of the Oregonator model of the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction is based on a lecture Dick Field presented during IrvFest2015—Celebrating a founding father of chaos!, a meeting in commemoration of Irving R. Epstein’s birthday. For Dick’s birthday festschrift, we focus here on the five papers in the series named “Oscillations in chemical systems,” published in 1972 [Noyes et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 94, 1394–1395 (1972); Field et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 94, 8649–8664 (1972); Field and Noyes, Nature 237, 390–392 (1972)] and 1974 [Field and Noyes, J. Chem. Phys. 60, 1877–1884 (1974); Field and Noyes, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 96, 2001–2006 (1974)].
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A similar scientific discussion at that time involved “Polywater,” a new form of water with peculiar properties (e.g., denser and freezing at a lower temperature than ordinary water). This belief resulted from the 1969 Science paper Structure of “Polywater.”48 Many following papers appeared and conferences were held supporting the existence of this new form of water, despite disbelief among a majority of the scientific community.49 In the end, “Polywater” was determined to be contaminated by silicates from the capillary tubes in which it was found.50,51
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