BOOKS
COURTING THE MIND
developments in the field of genetics; legal competency; and brain death. In terms of neurological techniques, the book covers both monitoring and imaging If this seemingly unlikely procedure ever NEUROSCIENCE AND THE LAW: technology as well as treatment and enbecomes possible, it too could be abused. Brain, Mind, and the Scales of Justice, hancement procedures, including such Tancredi warns: "Where improvement to edited by Brent Garland, Dana Press, 2004, the norm... is possible through computer methods as positron emission tomography 229 pages, $8.95 (ISBN 1-932594-04-3) functional magnetic resonance imaging, and programs, the downloading may empower transcranial magnetic stimulation. As indisocial institutions to insist that the indicated by the brain-downloading example, vidual accept corrections and additions to REVIEWED BY SOPHIE L ROVNER the book gives serious consideration to conhis intelligence and personality, which can cepts long familiar to science fiction fans. be achieved through uploading of altered E SURE TO HAVE A WARM SWEATER Although the technology described in sevmaterial. This would be tampering with the handy when you pick up "Neuroeral of the resulting scenarios may seem science and the Law: Brain, Mind, and individual's very identity" laughably far-fetched in 2005, the Scales of Justice," for it's a chilling read The Tancredi and Morse chapsome of the developments may about how future developments in neuroters, along with two other chapultimately be realized. The auscience could do more harm than good. % u ters in the book, are based on comthors believe it's better to tackle may also want to wait until you're by yourmissioned papers that the authors the sociological implications in self before you delve into this collection of prepared for an invited workshop advance rather than face them essays to avoid startling your companions convened by the American Assounprepared. with involuntary exclamations: "Oh my ciation for the Advancement of God!" or "I totally disagree!" or "They're Science (AAAS) and the Dana The book presents many of right—that's probably going to happen." Foundation, which supports neuthese implications as negative. Inroscience research. Trie SeptemTake this passage concerning the podeed, Henry T. Greely a law prober 2003 meeting drew together tential threat of neuroscientific investigafessor at Stanford University acrepresentatives from the legal and neurotive techniques to civil liberties: "The use knowledges that his chapter "may appear science communities to examine how deof techniques that permit genuinely accuto paint a gloomy picture of future threats velopments in neuroscience might interact rate lie detection and other valuable ends and abuses." But the truth is that the techwith the law The four papers are preceded may be so alluring that the temptation to nologies discussed will likely have benefits by introductory chapters that summarize use them will be great. One need only think far outweighing their harm, he adds. the main ideas and concerns that came up in about our nation's legal response to the war In the book's foreword, Mark S. Frankel, discussion among the meeting's participants. on terror to recognize that justifying the director ofAAAS's Program on Scientific use ofprivacy-invasive techniques may not Freedom, Responsibility & Law, writes that The book delves unblinkingly into such be so difficult after all.... neuroscience developments "hold great fraught subjects as free will; the effect of promise for improving our understanding "Neuroscientific techniques might also income on access to treatment; involunof disease and behavior and eventually reincrease the ability to make accurate pretary subjection to neurological techniques; ducing human suffering. But they also cardictions about various forms of future bemedications to enhance cognition or perry the danger that they will be misused in havior. ... There will be a temptation to use sonality; discrimination and privacy issues, ways that may thwart human potential, unsuch techniques for screening and interarenas in which parallels can be drawn with • fairly deny benefits to those in vention, which would also pose c need, or threaten long-standa civil liberties threat." x ing legal rights." These quotes are drawn | For instance, neuroscience from a chapter written by S may be able to uncover an inStephenJ. Morse, a professor of g dividual's predisposition to vilaw and professor of psycholo1 olence. Brent Garland, the gy and law in psychiatry at the § book's editor and an attorney University of Pennsylvania. 1 and senior program associate Laurence R. Tancredi, a clin| with FrankePs program, writes ical professor of psychiatry at § in the introductory section New^brk University School of I that such a revelation "would Medicine and an attorney con< pose a host of controversial tributed an equally provocative questions." These include chapter that, among many othwhether preemptive treatment er topics, discusses the potenis desirable, whether a person tial of improving neurological might be "marked" for infitness. In some distant age, creased surveillance by authis worthy goal could potenthorities and whether there tially be accomplished by FORESIGHT Benjamin J. Gully (right), who has a history of would be an increased risk for downloading the content of a mental illness, was found competent in a Utah court on Dec. discrimination against such a person's brain into a comput- 10, 2004, to stand trial for killing his father on a hunting trip. person, and whether substaner, editing that content, and up- Book based on a AAAS neuroscience workshop examines tial changes might occur in loading the revised material whether such incidents could be predicted and prevented without infringing upon civil liberties. how society approaches the back into the person's brain.
B
62
C&EN
/ JANUARY
1 7,
2005
HTTP://WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
SHORT
TAKES
History's Hidden Fire GUNPOWDER: Alchemy, Bombards & Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive That Changed the World,
by Jack Kelly, Basic Books, 2004,261 pages, $25 (ISBN 0-465-03718-6)
mong books that strive to show how a single substance changed the course of history, Jack Kelly's new history of gunpowder makes a com pelling case. By Kelly's account, the de structive power of gunpowder—an explo sive mixture of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal—fueled the West's imperial as pirations, spurred the creation of mod ern nation-states, and helped usher in the Industrial Revolution. In tracing gunpowder's story, Kelly— an accomplished novelist and an experi enced author of popular history—paints a vivid picture of the alchemists who creat ed the substance and the chemists who tried to understand and manipulate it. Gunpowder dates back to the ninth century, when Chinese alchemists searching for an elixir of immortality were dismayed to find that a mixture of saltpeter (potassium nitrate), honey, sulfur, and arsenic sul fide erupted in smoke and flame. A modified version of this curious concoction soon found use as a magician's trick. It wasn't until the early-11th century that the Chinese began to find military purposes for gunpowder, using it to make incendiary and smoke bombs. But by the 13th and 14th centuries, the Chinese were wielding cannons and guns that har nessed the explosive power of gunpowder to hurl projectiles at enemy forces.
A
Europeans soon learned of gunpowder and sought to make it themselves. But the availability of saltpeter, gunpowder's pri mary ingredient, remained the sticking point: Saltpeter is a by-product of soil bacteria that decompose decaying organic material, and China had plenty of it. Eu rope was not so lucky. Hoping to lessen their dependence on imported saltpeter, European powder makers began to "farm" saltpeter by composting human feces, horse dung, urine from drunks, and lime. After the dung heap had aged, what remained was soaked in water, and the
resulting CaN03-enriched liquor was mixed with K2C03-rich wood ashes to give a KN03-enriched solution that could be evaporated to yield mostly KN03. But as Kelly points out, this process was the result of trial and error, not ra tional scientific experiment. Powder makers had also relied on trial and error to identify what turned out to be the ideal gunpowder recipe: 75% saltpeter, 15% charcoal, and 10% sulfur. In fact, up un til the mid-17th century, scientists still believed that fire was an element hidden within gunpowder. Kelly provides a com pelling if not detailed description of the chemists who dispelled this theory and sketches a succinct explanation of the chemical mechanism of the explosive. Eventually, world demand for gunpow der skyrocketed—both for military and commercial purposes—pushing gunpow der manufacturers to rationalize produc tion. In describing the industry's matura tion, Kelly recounts the earliest days of the chemical company DuPont, which be gan its life as a gunpowder manufacturer in 1804 During the Civil War, DuPont chemists devised a chemical process to convert dirt-cheap and abun dant NaN03 from Chile into KN03. Sodium nitrate worked nearly as well as KN03 in gun powder but readily absorbed moisture, preventing ignition. Later, the company patented a way to make NaN03-based gunpowder moisture resistant. The book also gives a strik ing account of chemists' struggle to find a chemical replacement for gunpowder. Eventually, dynamite (a mix of nitroglycerin and diatomaceous earth) supplanted gunpowder for blast ing mines and tunnels. By the 1890s, "gunpowder" had come to refer to a smokeless synthetic powder made of ni troglycerin, nitrocellulose, and petrole um. Today, smokeless powder is the propellant of choice in guns. Traditional gunpowder—now known as "black pow der"—is still used in fireworks, antique guns and cannons, and modern muzzleloading rifles. If you are a history fan or a military buff, you will find a lot to love in Kelly's book. But even if you're not, it's worth a read for the fascinating chemical story he has woven.-AMANDA YARNELL
BASF didn't invent trialkylborohydrides, we make them better Θ
Ινίβ
. r\. ^ R -
H
M©
MTEBH
MTSBBH
Triethylborohydrides are excellent alternatives to IJAIH4. Tri-sec-butylborohydrides exhibit enzyme like selectivity. Sodium, Potassium and Lithium derivatives are available.
TsO OH
„A NR'
Κ
2
Partner with us from lab to launch. Contact us at: 1-866-4BORANE, or www.basf.com/inorganics
Helping Make Products Better™ \,
Ο ^ BASF Request more at AdlnfoNow.org
HTTP://WWW. CEN-0NLINE.ORG
C & E N / J A N U A R Y 1 7. 2005
63
imi
^^$ΰ&βφ®^
OPPORTUNITY
Join the
km^^^^^^^/^Ê^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^tÇhaa.
— Speakers — Madeleine Jacobs Chief Executive Officer, American Chemical Society
RudyWLBaum Editor-in-Chief, Chemical & Engineering News
Joseph G· Acker President, Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association (SÛCMA)
For details, contact your host: Benjamin WJones · Executive Vice President ·• · Centcom, Ltd. Advertising Management for Chemical & Engineering News Publisher of CPhl and INFORMEX Show Dailies Phone:610-964-8061 · Fax:610-964-3618 · E-mail:
[email protected] CHEMICAL p | | l l i l l l & Engineering News i l '
O P P O R T U N I T Y
JSOCMAI
ISIi|llll!::||l
punishment and rehabilitation ofcriminals. Garland adds that "generally in the le gal system, we punish people based on be havior, not on thoughts or 'tendencies.' The idea of imposing treatment, or even making decisions regarding employment, based on some test results, and in the ab sence of prior violent behavior, is deeply disconcerting." Of course, the U.S. legal system pro vides safeguards that might protect citi zens from the downside of invasive neu rological procedures. For example, the Fourth A m e n d m e n t of t h e Constitution forbids un warranted searches and seizures. The Fifth Am endment protects de fendants and witnesses against self-incrimina tion. Conceivably, the scope of both of these protections could be stretched to include a person's mind. The relation between neuroscience and the law is a subject ofwidespread interest. A particularly hot topic deals with the le gal implications of insights provided by neuroscience into the bases for violent be havior. President George W Bush's Coun cil on Bioethics took up this issue at a meet ing in September during which Morse made a presentation. The subject is ofimmediate importance because neuroimaging data are already find ing their way into criminal trials, notes the council's chairman, Leon R. Kass, a bio chemist turned sociologist. One example includes brain scans that show how a neu rological condition might affect behavior. Given the current state of the science, such data are still open to interpretation, much like the traditional evaluations of defen dants that are provided by mental health professionals. ^Ybt the more scientific trap pings ofneurological scans may prove more persuasive to a jury—even though the ju rors' faith may be unwarranted—and hence the potential impact of these scans on a ju ry may affect prosecutors' tactics. Morse describes a case in which a de fendant claimed that he had killed his wife because of a cyst in his brain. According to the defense, the cyst pressed on the de fendant's brain and impaired his ability to differentiate right from wrong. The de fendant had been charged with second-de gree (intentional but unplanned) murder. But after the judge ruled that PET images of the defendant's brain were admissible evidence, the prosecution settled for a plea
agreement to involuntary manslaughter on the eve of the trial. As neuroscience develops, it's likely that the interpretation of such neurological da ta in terms of their relationship to a person's mental capacities will become more accu rate. Nevertheless, Morse emphasizes that questions such as how rational a defendant must be in order to be held legally respon sible for his actions will continue to be an swered on moral rather than scientific grounds. Society's stance on the source of behavior will affect such deci sions. At one extreme, it can be argued that an individual's actions are controlled by free will. At the other extreme, it can be postulated that a person's neurochemistry fully determines behav ior, that a person is at the mercy of his or her bio chemistry One scientist quoted in the AAAS book carries that thought to its logical conclusion: "Is the free will we seem to experience just an illu sion, and if the free will is an illusion, must we revise our concept of what it means to be personally responsible for our actions?" In other words, Morse asks, "Is it possi ble we're all just automatons?" He doesn't believe that's likely Nor does he believe that neuroscience will let the average per son off the hook of responsibility But he does believe that advances in science will reveal the ways in which different brain states and disorders curtail an individual's capacity for rationality and, by extension, legal responsibility for his actions. With its combination of science, the law, and philosophy, the book is, on occa sion, heavy going. Ύοιι may find yourself skipping the details in some sections to get to the meat. But in total, "Neuroscience and the Law" provides a fascinating and frightening glimpse at our possible future and a guide to the issues we should con sider as that future grows closer. As Tancredi puts it: "Neuroscience ad vances have far outstripped the ability of social institutions, especially the law, to ac commodate their principles. ... It may not be long before technologies will provide a window not only into the process but the very content of the functioning brain."
"Neuroscience advances have far outstripped the ability of social institutions... to accommodate their principles."
H T T P : / / W W W . C E N - O N L I N E . ORG
Sophie L Rovner is a Wishington,D.C.-hased senior editor for C&EN who writes about de velopments in neurochemistry and human health, among other topics.
BASF didn't invent asymmetric synthesis, we make it better
"'BCI
Me.
MeCBS
DPC
Both enantlomers are available.
Reduce prochiral ketones in high yields. Provide excellent enantioselectivity and high purity. Allow introduction of chirality in later stages of synthesis.
MeCBS (2-10 mole%) BH3-L
OH Ar-^R
0
Ar
—*•
K-
or OH
DPC, THF -20°C
Ar^R
Partner with us from lab to launch. Contact us at: 1-866-4BORANE, or www.basf.com/inorganics
Helping Make Products Better™
BASF The Chemical Company Request more at AdlnfoNow.org C&EN
/
JANUARY
1 7,
2005
65
