The Sociedade Brasileira de Química (SBQ) and the Sociedade Portuguesa de Química (SPQ) have released jointly, for the first time, a Portuguese translation (in the Brazilian and Portuguese variants) of the 3rd edition of the so-called IUPAC Green Book, i.e. Quantities, Units and Symbols in Physical Chemistry.
Students, professors and researchers have access to the translation from the SBQ website at www.sbq.org.br/livroverde. The translation from the original English edition was coordinated by Professor Romeu C. Rocha-Filho (Federal University of São Carlos) in partnership with Professor Rui Fausto (University of Coimbra), in a partnership between SBQ and SPQ.
The Green Book (Livro Verde, in Portuguese) is a definitive guide for scientists, organizations, and editors working across multiple disciplines that require internationally approved nomenclature in the field of Physical Chemistry. Accurate scientific language, codified by appropriate definitions of quantities, units, and symbols, is crucial to the success of international science and technology exchanges, with important consequences even for the modern industrial economy. Now, the Livro Verde provides a more homogeneous physicochemical nomenclature in Portuguese, agreed between the chemists of Brazil and Portugal, and with the joint seal of the SBQ and SPQ.

In a rapidly expanding scientific literature, where each discipline tends to use its specific language, the Green Book seeks to provide a compilation of widely used terms and symbols drawn from many sources along with simple brief definitions of understanding and explanations of best practice. It is a compilation of the names, symbols and units recommended for physicochemical quantities and includes tables of fundamental constants and conversion factors. In an e-book format, with 272 pages, and with the prospect of an interactive edition in the future, the Livro Verde is the first release of EditSBQ (SBQ’s book publishing division) in 2018. The printed version of the Livro Verde will be available in time for the 2018 SBQ Annual Meeting (21–24 May).
Considering that the original English version was published in 2007, this translation updated the values of most of the physical constants (and their conversion factors) as well as some properties of particles, elements and nuclides.
“This book translation is an interesting project because I witnessed for decades the conceptual confusion caused by sloppy terminologies,” says Professor Fernando Galembeck (Unicamp), one of the catalysts of this work. “The Green Book guides teachers and students in the use of an organized and uniform language, which facilitates the understanding and use of concepts, as well as contacts, collaborations and interactions in research and professional life.”
The Livro Verde in e-book (PDF) format is freely available for download at http://www.sbq.org.br/livroverde/
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