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"An Algebraic Approach to Unification." S.H. Shakman
Anticipated by Newton* and sought by Einstein**, a mechanical/algebraic approach to unification of chemistry, physics & biology may be found in Lewis H. Flint's description of hydrational potentiality. Flint's initial discovery (hypothesis), that the sum of atomic number and hydration number for each of the lighter element ions may total 23, was
(1) based on a combination of principles advanced during the 19th Century***: (a) Graham's law of diffusion (gases), (b) Kohlrausch's and van't Hoff's works relating to solute ions and behavior analogous to gases, and (c) Abegg and Bodlander's observation that the hydration potential of solute ions varies inversely with ionic weight; and
(2) derived from information in W.M.Bayliss' PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY (1915) concerning the K+, Na+ & Li+ ions: (a) Nernst conductivity values of 65.3, 44.4 & 35.5****, and presumably (b) Bousfield's proposed hydration nos. of 4, 8 & 16. Flint used alternate hydration nos. of 4, 12 & 20; multiplied each by 18 (for weight per water molecule); added these values (72, 216 & 360) to atomic weight values of 39, 23 & 7 for K, Na & Li to derive hydrated weight totals (111, 239 & 367); calculated inverse square roots of these totals (.0949, .0647 & .0522) and found these relative values to correlate well with relative Nernst conductivity values.
*NEWTON, I.(1686), in Principia (1687), Preface to 1st Ed. "I am induced by many reasons to suspect that they [the phenomena of Nature] may all depend upon certain forces by wihch the particles of bodies by some causes hitherto unknown, are either mutually impelled towards one another, and cohere in regular figures, or are repelled and recede from one another."
**EINSTEIN, A.(1954), in Relativity (Princeton 1956),App.II. "From the quantum phenomena it appears to follow with certainty that a finite system of energy can be completely described by a finite set of numbers (quantum numbers). This does not seem to be in accordance with a continuum theory, and must lead to an attempt to find a purely algebraic theory for the description of reality."
***FLINT, L., Behavior Patterns of Hydration (1964), 15-30.
****FLINT, L.H., J. Wash. Acad. Sci., 22 (1932), 99.
Presented on 17 February 1987 at the 153rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in conjunction with four abstracts - [B],[G],[M], and [N] herein (#110-113 in BOOK OF ABSTRACTS,p.92-93). Proposed for 1988 AAAS Meeting, AAAS # 0925.16; withdrawn 25 Sept. 1987.
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