On the Origin of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction

The Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction (BZ reaction) is a far-from-equilibrium reaction involving bromine and citric acid that results in the establishment of a nonlinear chemical oscillator. In addition to providing a paradigmatic chemical model of nonequilibrium biological phenomena, the mathematical models of the BZ reaction are theoretically interesting. The present article concentrates on the personal trajectory of Boris Pavlovich Belousov (1893–1970); it attempts to explain what, in his routine work in applied and industrial chemistry, could have induced his discovery. The second section describes Belousov’s reaction as presented in his short paper in the proceedings of the institute where he was employed (Belousov 1959), this being the only paper on his reaction that he was able to publish during his lifetime. The third section presents Belousov’s biography. I then discuss Belousov’s biography in the light of the paper representing his reaction. I have tried to find the prerequisites of Belousov’s discovery in his research in analytical chemistry (fourth section) and in toxicology and radiation medicine (fifth section). The sixth section attempts an explanation of the ideological underpinning of Belousov’s reaction—the dialectics of continuity and discontinuity popular among Soviet scholars at that time. © 2010, Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research.