Chem Gems Physical and organic chemists have been carrying out goodnatured ,feu& at least since the days of Ostwa2d and Liebig. Thus were the following news items to appea? i n a local newspaper or periodical the reactions would be as jollouk: The firsf would con, film the worst suspicious of many organic chemists whereas few ph?/sical ehemisls wou!d doubt the ueracita, of the second. NEWS ITEM-Modern elect,ranic magic has scored another major advance in the high-speed computntionsl field. As is well known, the success or failure of physical chemical research depends on the nature of the graph resulting from the plot of one variable as n function of another, everything else except blood pressure held constant. If a curved line results progress is being made; a straight line portends the evolution of a new theory, and if the line goes through the origin-EUREKA. Previously, the only known sure-fire method of making the transition from progress to the Nobel prize was to introduce impurities to the system and keep plotting. No more, announces a spokesmsn for the Inter and National Burgeoning Machines Corporation. INBM's new,.inexpensive, stadium-sized desk digital computer, the Snark IVSLOR (Straight Line Origin Bender) makes i t possible to obtain a linear plot of any two variables which go through the origin. According to the INBM ~pakesman, it is not even necessary to hold anything constant unless purely theoretical results are desired. Furthermore, the introduction of impurities is unnecessary. Results are printed out by an ultra-high-speed electric typewriter on standard Scotch tape which can then be stared an blank wall spaces or used to hold up office periodic tahle.bles. A not-to-be-minimized advantage of this latter innovation lies in the release of valnsble filing cabinet space for inter-departmental directives, picnic announcements,
red tape, lunch boues, and back issues of . . magazines. The u ~ s h a tof the new develo~mentis that now everv ~hvslcal ciemist can puhlish a pape; with-a linear plot regardleis of the difficulty of his specialty. This should not only make i t easier t o make editorial decisions regarding prospective papers hut will contribute toward greater uniformity of articles as nell. NEWS ITEM-One of the problems confronting thoae who teach courses in organic chemistry concerns the excessive number of hours necessary for completion of the laboratory requirements of the course. In a normal five-credit, one-semester course students must spend around eight hours per week in order to carry out the required syntheses. Now all those long, grueling hours of watching reflux condensers are gone forever, Eays Dr. H. Jethro Knave of Pugwash University. Exhaustive experiments carried out a t PU over the last several years indicate that laboratory time can be reduced by as much as i 5 % by the simple expedient of providing lahoratory manuals with waxed pages. Dr. Knrtves points out that the waxed page cuts dawn on frictional losses involved while the student runs his finger along the page in search for the ingredient to he added next. Dr. Knave states that the idea occurred to him when he accidentdy picked up a physical chemistry text in the library and spotted a paragraph on frictional forces. "Nsturdly," said Dr. Knave, "since I am an organic chemist I had never heard of friction before.'' Asked by reporters to comment on the significance of his discovery, Dr. Knave would only sap that he regarded it merdp as another triumph of the discipline of organic chemistry. FRANK I,. PILAU OF NEW HAMPSHIRE UNIVERSITY DURHAM
Volume 37, Number 3, March 1960
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