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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 1999  > January  >
Chemistry Everyday for Everyone
John Norman Collie: Chemist and Mountaineer
Ronald Bentley
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Cover
January 1999
Vol. 76 No. 1
p. 41
Abstract
The late Victorian Age produced many remarkable individuals. One such truly fascinating character was John Norman Collie (1859-1942), who had a life in two worlds. In one career, he was a distinguished mountain climber and explorer in many parts of the world. Two mountains, one in Canada (Mount Collie, 3124 m) and one in Scotland (Sgurr Thormaid [Norman's Peak], 927 m) bear his last or middle name. Many first ascents are credited to him, as is the discovery of the great Columbia ice field in Canada. In a second career, he was a distinguished and versatile chemist. He collaborated on the investigation of the inert gases, created the first neon lamp, and was probably the first to use X-ray photography in the service of surgery. In organic chemistry, he proposed a dynamic structure for benzene and discovered the oxonium salt of dimethylpyrone (the first example of such a salt). Of considerable interest today is his proposal that compounds with multiple ketomethylene groups plays a major role in the biosynthesis of various natural products. This theory was finally vindicated in 1955, almost half a century after he had proposed it. He invented the term polyketide to describe these compounds; although ignored for many years, it is now extensively used today in the fields of secondary metabolism and biotechnology.

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More Information
*  Citation
 Bentley, Ronald. J. Chem. Educ. 1999 76 41.
*  Keywords
 Biochemistry; History / Philosophy; Organic Chemistry; Aromaticity / Aromatics; Bioorganic Chemistry; Natural Products; Bioinorganic Chemistry
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 June 15, 1999
June 22, 2005
Link to Cover added (April 2004).
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