PREFACE TO VOLUME 78

摘要

Nitrogen is everywhere! Molecular nitrogen is the largest single component of the Earth's atmosphere (78%); it constitutes 4% of the dry weight of plant matter and 3% by weight of the human body and is absolutely essential for life. In addition, over 90% of pharmaceutical substances contain at least one nitrogen atom. Nitrogen boasts the strongest homoatomic bond rendering it chemically rather inert, but yet its fixation into plant material can be accomplished under the mildest of conditions. In his marvelous book, The Disappearing Spoon, Sean McKean eloquently summed up the idiosyncratic character of nitrogen, "That combination of plentitude, ineptitude and importance proved a natural target for ambitious chemists." The three chapters in this volume find a common theme in that they involve the introduction (and in one case, removal) of nitrogen from organic compounds.