Neuman

John von Neuman, one of the greatest mathematicians of the twentieth century, believed that the sciences, in essence, do not try to explain, they hardly even try to interpret they mainly make models. By a model he meant a mathematical construct that, with the addition of certain verbal interpretations, describes observed phenomena. The justification of such a mathematical construct is solely and precisely that it is expected to work. Stephen Hawking also believes that physical theories are just mathematical models we construct and that it is meaningless to ask whether they correspond to reality, just as it is to ask whether they predict observations. 

In 1786 William Nieholson wrote A Dictionary of Practical and Theoretical Chemistry. In this work Nicholson mentions that a chemist named Neuman, on distillation of storax (a balsam derived from the tree Liquambar orientalis), had produced a fragrant empyreumatic oil . In 1839 E. Simon carried out some similar experiments, apparently quite independently, and again obtained this essential oil which he ealled styrol. In 1845 M. Glenard and R. Boudault reported on the production of styrol (now known as styrene) by dry distillation of dragons blood, a resin obtained from the fruit of the Malayan rattan palm. 

In the 1950s, biologists (notably Francis Crick and James Watson) discovered the molecular basis for information coding in DNA and established that the workings of cells were molecular machines tvith understandable structure and function. Mathematician John von Neuman developed a mathematical theory of self-reproducing machines based on the biological theories. 

A transargononic structure for sulfur, with six bonds formed by sp3d2 hybrid orbitals, was suggested for sulfur in the octahedral molecule SF6 long ago, and also for one of the sulfur atoms, with ligancy 6, in binnite (Pauling and Neuman, 1934). Some transargononic structures of metal sulfides have been proposed recently by Franzen (1966). 

In binnite, Cui2As4Su, one of the 13 sulfur atoms is ligated to six copper atoms, which lie at the corners of an octahedron about it (Pauling and Neuman, 1934). The other sulfur atoms have tetrahedral ligation, and are presumably argononic (as in sphalerite, chalcopyrite, and other tetrahedral sulfides). These six copper atoms have... 

Neuman, M. Vademecum Degli Antibiotici ed Agenti Chemioterapici Anti-Infettivi, Editrice Sigma Tau, Roma, 1994 5th ed., p. 133. 

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