Reconstruction of Wave-Particle Duality and its Implications for General Chemistry Textbooks

Niaz and C. Marcano, Reconstruction of Wave-Particle Duality 

Postulation and understanding of wave-particle duality was a controversial topic from the very beginning and is closely enmeshed with the origin and development of the photoelectric effect based on Einstein s hypothesis of light quanta and quantum theory. De Broglie (1924) in a seminal paper explored the reconciliation 

Many students seem unable to see the ideas of previous generations as anything other than wrong, or even absurd—a perspective that is too often reinforced by school science textbooks. .. These problems remind us just how important it is that a history of science approach directs explicit attention to key NOS items, lest they be submerged in what we might call historical noise (p. 232). 

Philosopher of chemistry Trevor Levere (2006) has expressed a similar concern, ... many authors of science textbooks still write as if there were such a thing as the scientific method, and use labels like induction, empiricism, and falsification in simplistic ways that bear little relation to science as it is practiced (pp. 115-116, original italics). Indeed, teaching science as practiced by scientists is an important guideline for textbook analyses based on historical reconstructions (cf. Niaz 2010). 

Importance of the tentative NOS within a historical perspective and the need for change in science and consequently in textbooks has been strongly endorsed by Kenneth G. Wilson (Nobel Laureate in physics)  

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