A look at academic family trees branches out to consider whether chemists need to take a leaf out of mathematicians' book of numbers.
Academic lineages — tracing your 'family tree' back through your supervisor's supervisor's supervisor's supervisor's... (you get the picture) — were raised by Jeremy on the ChemBlog (http://go.nature.com/HmZNsB) and carried on by Sam on Everyday Scientist (http://go.nature.com/NdhxoH). Jeremy has traced his “as far back as Breslow”, but Sam goes a good few steps further. Climbing his PhD supervisor's tree, he passes Helmhotz and Leibniz's father on as far as Gerard van Swieten (1700–1772). Using the roots of his postdoc adviser he gets to Justus von Liebig and then even further, to Niccolò Leoniceno in the fifteenth century. For those interested in researching their own trees, the ChemBlog suggests several chemistry departments that have resources, including the University of Texas at Austin (http://go.nature.com/DwoEXJ) and the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (http://go.nature.com/ri4DSe).
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