Having just returned from a science education conference in Brazil I can confirm that there is a great deal of interest in the history and philosophy of chemistry in this country that will be hosting the next ISPC meeting in Rio de Janeiro between July 28th and 30th, 2015. The organizer is Professor Waldmir Araujo Neto who can be contacted at waldmir.neto@gmail.com for further details.

The present issue of Foundations of Chemistry has an even more international flavor than usual with articles from Mexico, Argentina, New Zealand, Israel, Spain, Russia and the United States in order of appearance. We begin with Octavio Novaro’s further analysis of the placement of elements in the periodic table. Next comes a debate between Olimpia Lombardi in Argentina and Hinne Hettema in New Zealand concerning the reduction of chemistry which arose from Hettema’s recent book on the subject. Amihud Gilead, who gave a presentation for the first time at the recent ISPC meeting in London, contributes an article on “possibility” in the philosophy of science. Juan Bengoetxea has an article concerning similarity, a topic that lies at the boundaries of philosophy of chemistry and mathematical chemistry, and that has found many applications in chemistry over the years. Naum Imyanitov from Russia takes up a topic concerning the periodic table and the way in which it is arranged in blocks that are governed by the electronic configurations of the atoms in question. The issue closes with three book reviews by the US historian of chemistry George Kauffman.