Advent of spin chemistry

In 1976, Atkins 1) wrote a short review entitled “Magnetic field effects” and described at its beginning “The study of the effect of magnetic fields on chemical reactions has long been a romping ground for charlatans”. Until then, so many papers had reported magnetic field effects (MFEs) on chemical and biological reactions. Almost all of such results, however, lacked reproducibility and/or theoretical interpretation. Thus, most scientists at that time believed that ordinary magnetic fields could not exert appreciable influence on chemical and biological reactions. Here, ordinary magnetic fields mean those less than 2T, which can be generated by usual permanent and electric magnets.