Editing Soman (section)

== History ==
After World War I, during which [[mustard gas]] and [[phosgene]] were used as chemical warfare agents, the 1925 [[Geneva Protocol]] was signed in an attempt to ban chemical warfare. Nevertheless, research into chemical warfare agents and the use of them continued. In 1936 a new, more dangerous chemical agent was discovered when  [[Gerhard Schrader]] of [[IG Farben]] in Germany isolated [[Tabun (nerve agent)|tabun]] (named GA for German Agent A by the United States), the first nerve agent, while developing new [[insecticide]]s. This discovery was followed by the isolation of [[sarin]] (designated GB by the United States) in 1938, also discovered by Schrader.

During World War II, research into nerve agents continued in the United States and Germany. In summer 1944, soman, a colorless liquid with a camphor odor (designated GD by the United States), was developed by the Germans. Soman proved to be even more toxic than tabun and sarin. Nobel Laureate [[Richard Kuhn]] together with [[Konrad Henkel]] discovered soman during research into the pharmacology of tabun and sarin at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research at [[Heidelberg]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Schmaltz|first=Florian|date=September 2006|title=Neurosciences and research on chemical weapons of mass destruction in Nazi Germany|journal=Journal of the History of the Neurosciences|volume=15|issue=3|pages=186–209|doi=10.1080/09647040600658229|issn=0964-704X|pmid=16887760|s2cid=46250604}}</ref> This research was commissioned by the German Army. Soman was produced in small quantities at a pilot plant at the [[IG Farben]] factory in [[Ludwigshafen]]. It was never used in World War II.<ref name="Lukey">{{cite book|title=Chemical Warfare Agents: Chemistry, Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Therapeutics|author1=Lukey, Brian J.|author2=Salem, Harry|publisher=CRC Press|year=2007|isbn=9781420046618|pages=10–13}}</ref>

Producing or stockpiling soman was banned by the 1993 [[Chemical Weapons Convention]]. When the convention entered force, the parties declared worldwide stockpiles of 9,057 tonnes of soman. The stockpiles were destroyed by 2018.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-11-19 |title=Report of the OPCW on the Implementation of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction in 2017 |url=https://www.opcw.org/sites/default/files/documents/2018/11/c2304%28e%29.pdf |access-date=2024-02-09 |publisher=Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons |page=45}}</ref>

The crystal structure of soman complexed with [[acetylcholinesterase|acetyl{{shy}}cholin{{shy}}esterase]] was determined by Millard et al. in 1999 by X-ray crystal{{shy}}lography: [https://www.rcsb.org/structure/1som 1som]. Other solved acetyl{{shy}}cholin{{shy}}esterase structures with soman bound to them include [https://www.rcsb.org/structure/2wfz 2wfz], [https://www.rcsb.org/structure/2wg0 2wg0] and [https://www.rcsb.org/structure/2wg1 2wg1].