CHEMTECH... because a chemist leads so many lives
There are dozens of journals de voted to chemistry, but only ONE magazine devoted to chemists — C H E M T E C H . This stimulating monthly m a g a z i n e reports on world c o n c e r n s and p e r s o n a l ones — technology, economics, energy, environment, and much more — as they concern chemists. And it covers the field of chemistry itself with insight, per s p e c t i v e , a flair for s e l e c t i n g what's important and packaging it in authoritative, readable form. For a clear-eyed view of all the facets of a chemist's life — sub scribe to CHEMTECH now! CALL TOLL FREE: 800-424-6747(usoni,) CHEMTECH 1983 American Chemical Society 1155 16th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 ' Sign me up for a one-year subscription to C H E M TECH magazine. I have indicated subscription category and payment preferences below. U.S. Foreign** ACS Members* Π $ 22 D $ 28 Non-members (Personal) Π $ 33 Π $ 39 Institutions, Companies • $155 D $161 ! . : Bill me '.J. Bill company D Payment enclosed (Make check payable to American Chemical Society) Charge my: . : MasterCard : VISA Card Number Interbank Number
Expire Date (MasterCard only)
Signature Name Job Title Employer Address City State, ZIP 'Member rates are for personal use only. '* Foreign payment must be made in U. S. currency by international money order, UNESCO coupons, U. S. bank draft or order through your subscription agency. Allow 60 davs for first copy to arrive. 2239N
sampling; 3) elimination of interfer ences; 4) measurement; 5) data pro cessing; and 6) solution of the problem. Analytical chemists have often been regarded as problem solvers, and stress has been placed on the generali ty and novelty of the solution. At times, it appears that Murphy's law for analytical chemistry is that any problem we are faced with could be solved if only we had one more instru ment, and the corollary—the instru ment we should have purchased to do the job will be offered next week. Con sequently, it appears reasonable to offer a maxim for evaluation of an an alytical procedure: The supreme ex cellency in analysis is simplicity. Take, for example, a situation that took place at a baking company. Somehow, •sugar became contaminated with bak ing soda. Because this halted produc tion, the immediate need was to iden tify the contaminated material. You could easily dissolve the samples in water and run them through a flame photometer or atomic absorption in strument. You could use a sodium ion selective electrode, or you could set up an X-ray diffractometer to check for the two theta angles for sodium bicar bonate. However, the ingenious proce dure that does the job nicely is just to add some dilute HC1 to a sample and see if it fizzes. Similarly, in the past few years rapid semiquantitative tests have been developed for determining blood sugar by adding a drop of blood to an enzyme-color reagent test strip. This is one of the greatest advances in the treatment of diabetes. Contrast this with the situation that occurred about 10 years ago at Fort Leonard Wood, an Army base in Missouri. A comatose patient had his blood sugar tested by a newly developed chemical analyzer. The analyzer reported a blood sugar level of around 40, indi cating insulin shock. A simple urine test showed a very high sugar level in dicating diabetic coma. Faced with this information, should you trust the instrument and give sugar or the urine test results and give insulin? The choice was made—give sugar. It killed the patient. Why was the instrument wrong? Because, similar to the odome ter on a car, it reset to zero after it hit a thousand. Thus the blood sugar level was 1040 rather than 40. The instru ment, by the way, was thereafter rede
248 A · ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 55, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 1983
signed. Such an error could hardly happen with a simple test strip. Once again, the supreme excellency in ana lytical chemistry is simplicity. The calculator with its digital dis play has displaced the slide rule. Again, simplicity in use. In the earlier confirmatory test for cocaine, what could be simpler than adding a drop of reagent to a sample and watching for crystal formation? And what could be easier than adding twice as much bis muth solution and seeing if you get twice as much precipitate as we did in the study with dimethylglyoxime? You may need complex equipment to get the work done, but the key to suc cess appears to be simplicity. Remem ber, pH paper needs no calibration. References
(1) Lott, P. F.; Vitek, R. K. Anal. Chem. 1960,32,391-99. (2) Lott, P. F.; Cukor, P.; Moriber, G.; Solga, J. Anal. Chem. 1963, 35, 1159-63. (3) Cukor, P.; Lott, P. F. J. Phys. Chem. 1965,69,3232-39. (4) Foster, R. L.; Lott, P. F. Microchem. J. 1979,24, 184-91. (5) Foster, R. L.; Lott, P. F.; Howell, G. R. J. Forensic Sci. 1980, 25, 671-74. (6) Foster, R. L.; Lott, P. F. Environ. Sci. Technol. 1980, 14, 1240-44. (7) Foster, R. L. PhD Thesis, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 1980. (8) Lucchesi, C. A. Am. Lab. 1980, 12, 113-19. (9) Sabine, D. B. Microchem. J. 1979, 24, 265-74. (10) Sabine, D. B. Chemistry 1969,42, 2-15. (11) Benedetti-Pichler, A. A. "Essentials of Quantitative Analysis"; Ronald Press Co.: New York, 1956.
Peter Lott, professor of chemistry at the University of Missouri—Kansas City, received his BS and MS degrees from St. Lawrence University and his PhD degree from the University of Connecticut. Lott joined the staff at the University of Missouri—Kansas City in 1964 to establish a PhD pro gram in analytical chemistry. His re search interests include development of new methods of analysis and their applications to diverse systems such as quality control for gasohol or fo rensic analytical work. Lott has also been active in work on the applica tion of X-ray techniques for air par ticulate identification, computer techniques, and physicochemical measurements.
