Tropylium, chlorine isotopic abundances, monomeric metaphosphate anion, and conestoga wagon theory

As I look back over a career in mass spectrometry, three high points stand out especially prominently. These are associated with (1) the tropylium model for the CuH 7 (+) ion in the mass spectra of toluene and other alkylbenzenes, (2) revision of the previously accepted value for the natural abundance of the chlorine isotopes, and (3) the first direct observation of the monomeric metaphosphate anion, which had been for a quarter of a century an elusive, suspected reaction intermediate. Studies of organic ions in the rarefied atmosphere of the mass spectrometer, where only unimolecular processes are allowed, have deepened my appreciation of the role and ubiquity of bimolecular processes in more conventional chemical contexts. Consideration of the two categories of molecular behavior has prompted me to seek and find, for a selected system in the mass spectrometer, parallels both in condensed-phase chemistry and, by an anthropomorphic extension, in human behavior.