{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.020251396648044692, 'fraction_numerical': 0.00558659217877095, 'mean_word_length': 4.984679665738161, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
125 years of liquid crystals

As founding editor of Liquid Crystals Today, it is a great pleasure to contribute an article to mark the 125th anniversary of the birth of our subject. On 3 May 1888, Friederich Reinitzer presented his paper on ‘Understanding Cholesteryls’ at the monthly meeting of the Chemistry Society of Vienna, and this traditionally marks the beginning of liquid crystal science. Despite the title of his paper, Reinitzer did not understand cholesteryls, and in some respects we still do not fully understand them today. But Friederich Reinitzer was not too proud to seek help, and he consulted a young microscopist and crystallographer Otto Lehmann to help, and, as we say, the rest is history (Figure 1). Tim Sluckin and I have chronicled the story in our two books [1,2], but of course there have been a number of other excellent accounts on various aspects of the history of liquid crystals, and these are listed in the references [3–7]. For practitioners of science, what matters are the facts, observations and measurements and then interpretation through theory. Actually, this is only half the story, and the results of what we like to call research have to be recorded and communicated to other scientists. The public also needs to be made aware of our work if it is to be used for the benefit of humankind. In matters of communication, not only the message but also the messenger counts. Can he be trusted, and does the message deserve our collective attention or even action? Let the facts speak for themselves we cry, but this is rarely enough. The acceptance of what the professionals might regard as scientific truths requires more than just the facts. The integrity of the work and its proponents must be established, and then as far as possible the processes of investigation must be explained. This is the work of journalists, a description that includes scientific commentators and, indeed, scientists when they write commentaries and reviews on the results of scientific study. Amongst this group of communicators we obviously include historians of science, and it is they who should examine the probity of scientists, the work and how various interactions result in durable and honest additions to knowledge (Figure 2). In this brief celebration of 125 years of liquid crystal science, I could not possibly give even a potted history of the subject. Obviously it has matured, but more importantly it has been accepted by the scientific world and increasingly the public. Liquid crystals are no longer a bizarre backwater of knowledge but figure strongly in the mainstream of physics, chemistry and materials science. It was not always like this, and the coming of age of liquid crystals has happened relatively recently, even within the past few decades (Figure 3). Liquid Crystals Today is the newsletter of the International Liquid Crystal Society (ILCC), which itself will soon be celebrating 25 years of existence. One might ask why is there a society for liquid crystals? There are no similar societies for gases or solids or liquids. What is special about liquid crystals? As liquid crystal scientists, we enthuse about our subject, but enthusiasm alone does not guarantee interest and acceptance. The early records chronicle the difficulties of persuading others of the importance of liquid crystal science and its applications. Nowhere was this more true than within the scientific community, which did not immediately grasp the significance of a new state of matter. The practising scientists had to operate on the fringes of their subjects, and support for their science and acceptance of the work through publications and conferences was a constant challenge. Disregard of their work by other scientists eventually resulted in liquid crystal scientists coming together in National Societies and then the International Society which spawned conferences, seminars and discussions devoted to liquid crystals. At last there were forums for like-minded scientists to meet and discuss and, most importantly, exchange ideas. In parallel with this was the launch of specialist journals such asMolecular Crystals and Liquid Crystals and Liquid Crystals, so that research could be readily published and was accessible to a specialist readership (Figure 4).