From my Organic Chemistry days, I remember that the certain isomers (compounds with the same chemical formula but different structures), especially for cis and trans were italicized.

If you look on the Wikipedia page for cis-trans isomerism, it seems to follow this convention, as every cic and every trans is italicized.

Cis is Latin for same side. A cis bond is one where the the substituent groups are both on the same side of the carbon-carbon double bond. Trans is Latin for across, meaning the groups are on opposite sides of the double bond.

I don't know why it started, but it's been done and repeated for so long that it is now conventional to do this.

From my Organic Chemistry days, I remember that the isomers (compounds with the same chemical formula but different structures), for cis and trans, were italicized.

If you look on the Wikipedia page for cis-trans isomerism, it follows this convention, as every cis and every trans is italicized.

Cis is Latin for same side. A cis bond is one where the the substituent groups are both on the same side of the carbon-carbon double bond. Trans is Latin for across, meaning the groups are on opposite sides of the double bond.

I don't know why it started (maybe because it was a foreign word), but it's been done and repeated for so long that it is now conventional to do this. Indeed, it is wrong by IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) standards to write it any other way (except in contexts where italics are not available; then underlining is necessary.)

From my Organic Chemistry days, I remember that the certain isomers (compounds with the same chemical formula but different structures), especially for cis and trans were italicized.

If you look on the Wikipedia page for cis-trans isomerism, it seems to follow this convention, as every cic and every trans is italicized.

From my Organic Chemistry days, I remember that the certain isomers (compounds with the same chemical formula but different structures), especially for cis and trans were italicized.

If you look on the Wikipedia page for cis-trans isomerism, it seems to follow this convention, as every cic and every trans is italicized.

Cis is Latin for same side. A cis bond is one where the the substituent groups are both on the same side of the carbon-carbon double bond. Trans is Latin for across, meaning the groups are on opposite sides of the double bond.

I don't know why it started, but it's been done and repeated for so long that it is now conventional to do this.