reviews Advanced Organic Chemistry: Reactions, Mechanisms, a n d Structure, Fourth Edition
T h e Periodic Table a n d t h e
Human Element
text of principles and examples of the reactions, useful far access
Six 28min. VHS videocassettes. A co-production of BBC Continuing Education & Training and Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 1991-92. Series consultant, John Emsley, Imperial College. Distributed by Films for the Humanities, P.O. Box 2053, Princeton, NJ 08543-2053. To order or for information call toll free 1-800-257-5126. Purchase $149 each, rental $75; purchase $795 for the entire series.
to the current literature of organic chemistry, appeared in 1968. Subsequent, and steadily popular, editions have appeared in 1977 (1328 pp.), 1985 (1346 pp.), and 1992. While the organization and level of topic treatment is designed for *. . . Students who have had the standard undergraduate organic and physical chemistry courses". it is useful for anv nrofessional who wants to review a stnndnrd topic in the field. Contemporary review and summary artdrajudged tu be useful entrees to the field arc rrfrrrnmd, ns are important citations from the last five y m s . Over 5110(1 new references have replaced citations in the third edition. The structure and approach of this text has not essentially changed since the second edition: 19 chapters divided into two sections. The first section. of nine chanters. . . deals with the structure of organic compounds'(five chapters, including one introducing five reactive intermediates: earbacatians, carbanions, free radicals, carbenes, and nitrenes). The second part, 10 chapters, deals with major mechanistic patterns: five chapters of substitution r e actions (aliphatic, aromatic, and free-radical varieties), two chapters on additions (to carhon-carhan, and carbon-heteroatom multiple bonds), and one chapter each on eliminations, rearrangements, and oxidation-reduction mechanisms. Two important appendices remain: a brief, but current and useful, introduction to chemical literature, and a very useful summary of reactions classified for use in synthesis. Mareh has been uncomnmmisine in his search for elaritv and utilitv* in oresentations of a wide varietv r ~-~~~~~~~ ~ , of essential organic rhemlstry. It remains an accessihlc and uarful rod for hnth specialistsand nonspecialistsin the field. It does anexcellenrjub both as a text far first-year graduate students and a handy reference for others
This series of personal stories, narrated by working scientists, successfully provides the human perspective so often lacking in many accounts of science, in general and chemistry, in particular. Suitable for science and chemistry classes as well as far a general audience, it was inspired by the late Primo Levi's popular book, The Peridic Table. Each videaeassette is prefaced by the declaration, %very element has a set of properties that distinguishes it from all the others. But for the chemist, each element is often distinguished by a personal story." Two programs are of particular interest to chemical educators, for they deal with topics ordinarily considered in most general, organic, or biochemistry courses, while adding a biographied-historical dimension usually neglected in standard textbooks. In The Atom That Makes the Difference (Carbonj Carl Djerassi, Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University, 1992 Priestley medalist, novelist, poet, art collector, and, in his own words, the mother of "the pill," explains to viewers the conduct and goals of synthetic organic chemistry, the nature of steroids, and the relationship of structure to properties. Who Found the Missing Link? (Umniumj is a veritable onewoman show for Ruth L. Sime, Professor of Chemistry a t Sacramento City College. This program is the only one in the series to have only one narrator. For the last 15 years, Sime has carried out research on Austrian physicist Lise Meitner (1878-1968), who played a crucial role in the discovery of nuclear fission, which changed forever the world in which we live. In her account of the research leading to nuclear fission, Sime, who sneaks from various Eurooean Locations where the work was enrrird out, not only tells Mcitner's story hut also relaks the cont r ~ b u t w nof~ Plantk, Einstein, and Fernmi a s well as of Hahn and
Jerry March. Wiley: New York, NY, 1992. xv + 1495 pp. Figs. and tables. 16.2 x 24 cm. Cloth $59.95. The first edition of this monumental and scholarly one-volume
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Bruce E. Norcross Binghamton University Binghamton, NY 13901
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The remaming pruwams in this highly recommended series are The S r r n l of hhupuleon's Hbllpoper ,Arsenio, fi.'xplorion on the
Reviewed in this Issue Reviewer Jerry March, Advanced Organic Chemistry: Reactions, Mechanism, and Structure, Fourth Edition John Emsley. Series Consultant, The Periodic Table and the Human Element (a videocassette series) James M I , 1001 Things Everyone Should Know about Science MikuliiS Teich with Dorothy M. Needham, A Documentary History of Biochemistry 1770-1 940 Mary Ellen Bowden a n d Theodor Benfey. Robert Bums Woodward and the Art of Organic Synthesis Carl Djerassi, The Pill, Pygmy Chimps, and Degas' Horse: The Autobiography of Carl Djerassi Tobern Bergman (Editor) and J. A. Schufle (Translator), Chemical Lectures of H. T. Scheffer David Knight, Ideas in Chemistry: A History of Science
Bruce E. Norcross George B. Kauffman and Laurie M. Kauffman George B. Kauffman and
Laurie M. Kauffman George B. Kauffman George B. Kauffman George B. Kauffman and Laurie M. Kauffman George B. Kauffman George €3. Kauffman
Volume 70
Number 2
February 1993
A51
