book reviews
wondered what I can add in the lecture room t o that which the students have already read in the text. But I'm heginning to w o w .
Editor: W. F. KIEFFER College of Woorter Woorter, Ohio
Chemistry: Imagination and Implication
A. Truman Sehwartz, Macalester Colleee. Academic Press. New York. 1973. x q + 571 pp. Figs and Tables. 2 4 ' ~16.5 cm. $10.95. A. %man Schwartz has written a hwk. This is not as trivial a statement as i t may seem, for many of what are being produced in the current explosion of nonmajor and "social conscience" works in elementary callege chemistry are neither bwks nor have they been written. Rather than hooks, they are pasted-together eolleetions of hip topics, and rather than expository writing (a difficult art), they are mere dutiful strings of words, intended only to get all the facts dawn on paper. Dr. Schwartz's work, however, is a fresh and original text far the non-science major. It is a purposeful, meaty, and thoroughly readable hook. One of the salient features of the work is that it is not a t all patronizing or pontifical. But neither does it try to appear as if produced by "one of the gang." It is directed to a reader of a n intelligence level (as distinguished from a n interest level) which is willing to appreciate the culture and beauty of science if only i t be presented sensibly. The book nourishes this appreciation without the condescension of either preaching an the one hand or cuteness on the other. In place of preaching Schwartz uses skillful reasoning, and in place of cuteness he uses genuine wit. But most important of all, the hook does a fine job of actually teaching chemistry. Too many teatbwks appear to have been produced for the sole purpose of getting "the material" between covers, leaving the actual teaching t o he done in the classrwm. But Schwartz's hook explains, and it does so with skill and clarity. It differs from most textbooks in the same way a well-written encyclopedia differs from a dictionary. It is never dogmatic; i t never uses words or concepts which have not yet been defined; it never gets hung up on a tree, losing sight of the forest. And shining through all the carefully constructed ex-
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Reviewed in this Issue
planations is the recurrent and almost inspirational theme of the scientist's need to know, his urge toreason things out. The words which Schwattz chooses in explaining the chemistry are fresh and colorful-much more meaningful to the nonscientist than some of our tired old scienceteaching cliches. Electromagnetic radiation, for example, is said to be "grainy"; aren't we all sick to death of telling each other i t "comes in packets?" And after displaying the time-independent Schradinger equation, Sehwartz writes, "I trust I will be panloned if I do not devote the rest of this book to providing the translation of [this equation]." He then begs t o say a few words about the equation because "you might decide to memorize it for future use as erudite graffiti, and you should know what the symbols mean." After thus thoroughly disarming the reader, he sneaks in a beautifully clear and concise explanation of the significance of the equation and its solutions. This technique, which in his preface Schwartz calls "talking my way around equations," is used frequently in the book. It will endear him to the non-science major without sacrificing the concepts behind the mathematics. But what about the chemical subjeetmatter itself? As Sehwartz recognizes, there is no inflexible catechism for nonmajar courses. If the author and the instruetor do their own things and do them well, the students are well served. Nevertheless, Schwattis choice of topics is not terribly different from the traditional. There are chapters on the varieties of matter; atoms; formulas, equations and stoichiometry; periodicity; electrons, radioactivity and x-rays; atomic structure; waves and orhitals; bonding; gases, liquids and solids (including a section an the anomalous water controversy); solutions, pollution; thermodynamics ( 3 chapters); the chemistry of life; and nuclear energy. All are quite solid chemistry, well explained and far from superficial, yet told in a way which can "grab" a nonscientist. Schwartz's book stands out on the nonmajor scene. It teaches. I have never yet
Robert L. Walke University of Pittsburgh Pittsb~rgh,Pennsylvania 15260
Short Course in Biochemistry
Albert L. Lehninger, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Worth Publishers, Inc., New York, 1973. xi 420 pp. Figs. and tables. 24 x 18.5 cm. $12.95.
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"A blessed companion is a hook," quoth Jerrold. Blessed indeed is a good texthook. This one is very good. I approached i t with some misgivings, I must admit; I feared an emasculated "book far the course" version of the author's more comprehensive teat, "Biaehemistry," which is without doubt one of the most delightful books I have ever read. I need not have worried. The "Short Course in Biochemistry" is in every way a worthy companion to its big hrather. The material is divided into four parts: I. Biomolecules; 11. Catabolism and the Generation of Phosphate-Bond Energy; 111. Biosynthesis and the Utilization of Phasphate-Bond Energy; and N. Replication, Transcription, Translation of Genetic Information. It is a happy subdivision. The marginal three-fifths of each page is occupied by running text while the spinal twofifths is reserved for structures, diagrams, pathways, and the like. This is a brilliant organization. It makes for untiring reading and the easiest of cross-reference from text t o structures and hack again. The production quality is superb; the print is clear, the drawings sharp, and the use of color is ample to stress key features without being garish or confusing. Above all, Professor Lehninger's prose is a sheer delight. I spotted a dozen or more trivial errors, for example the structure of reduced FMN (p. 142), the arrows in NAD+ (p. 202), the repetition of the last paragraph of p. 155 on p. 156 and so on. A few points are more serious. Molal solutions of acetone and ethanol in water do not boil a t 100.54' (p. 19) and would not even if they exhibited ideal hehaviour. The non-volatile salutes glycerol and glycol would make better familiar companions t o glucose in this example. The Bronsted-Lowry theory is presented as having HA dissociate to H + A(which is really the Arrhenius presentation) rather than react with water to give Ha0+ + A-. Nodoubt this is done with the best of intentions, simplification (the road to Hell is paved with such!), hut it invsriably leads to ambiguity, confuses the student, and leaves him with concepts which inevitably he must unlearn later. It takes no more space to do the job properly. My most serious objection is to the masquerade of simple planar formulae as (plane) projection formulae. This practice seemingly is becoming comrnonplacc, not only in biochemistry but even in organic chem(Continued on page A554)
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I
A. Truman Schwartz, Chemistry: Imagination andlmplicstion
. . . A553
Albert L. Lehninger, Short Course in Biochemistry
. . . A553
ManuelM. Boiner, Organic Electrochemistry. An Introduction and a Guide
. . . A554
John Pearson, Dennis Stone, and Richard Swindell, Math Skills for First Year Science
. . . A555
GeorgeB. Kauffman, editor, Teaching the History of Chemistry. A Symposium
. . . A555
Volume 50, Number 11, November 1973
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