EDUCATION:
Hard Push for Change
Dr. Alan C. Nixon No political movement
ACS ELECTION:
From the Grass Roots :3d m i i n a p n A movement has ^ U n i U A U U b e e n iaunched to draft a grass-roots candidate for President of ACS. The nomination of Dr. Alan C. Nixon, retired research supervisor, Shell Development Co., and past chairman and councilor for the California Section, becomes offi cial when the nominating petition is received at Society headquarters. Financial backing for Dr. Nixon's campaign for ACS President-Elect is being provided in part by the Society's California Section, according to sec tion chairman Fred F. Rust. Leading the Nixon bid for the ACS office is campaign chairman Attila Ε. Pavlath, USDA Western Regional Laboratory, and Dr. Donald R. Baker, Stauffer Chemical Co. More than 600 signa tures have been secured on petitions, which are being sent to ACS headquar ters in groups of about 180 signatures each, explains Dr. Pavlath. Some members of the Society attend ing the 160th national meeting in Chi cago last week viewed attempts to bring "third-party" candidate Nixon into the election spotlight as an effort by disgruntled and unemployed chem ists to focus attention on member wel fare and professional interests. "No . . . it is not just a protest move ment," says Dr. Pavlath. "We feel that Dr. Nixon has an excellent chance of being elected. Our plans do not represent any political movement; we do not have any connections with na tional political organizations or groups. We are simply making democracy work" within ACS, he says. Competing in the Society's Novem ber elections are Dr. Lloyd M. Cooke, Union Carbide, of the New York Sec tion, Dr. Max Tishler, Wesleyan Uni versity, of the North Jersey Section, and Dr. Nixon. Statements by all candidates for ACS offices to be determined this year will appear in C&EN Oct. 26. 12 C&EN SEPT. 21, 1970
^ - C H I C A G O Committees, commis™ sions, and confer ences regularly disgorge thoughtful re ports aimed at one crisis or another, but the effects of such learned docu ments are often most remarkable for their scantiness. Chemistry's socalled Westheimer Report, for ex ample, though highly regarded within the chemical community, has never had the impact on the conduct and funding of chemistry its authors un doubtedly hoped for when it was is sued about five years ago. Panelists who took part in framing the preliminary report of the Inter national Conference on Education in Chemistry—a report compiled in a week of deliberations at Snowmass-atAspen, Colo., in late July (C&EN, Aug. 10, page 45) and made public at last week's Chicago ACS meetingtook an unusual step to ensure that their efforts result in action. The group, chaired by Yale University's Richard L. Wolfgang, discussed "Chemistry for Citizens," and assumed that "our responsibilities are not ended" until "an effective panel [is formed] to implement and further de velop our recommendations." Spurred by this firm stance, the ACS Division of Chemical Education has moved toward establishing such a panel. Certainly Dr. Wolfgang's group— and the four similar panels which dis cussed the structure of chemistry, graduate education, preparing chem ists to meet society's future needs, and international aspects of chemical edu cation—did not lack ambition. With its emphasis on broadening both the educational base and social outlook of chemists, the 103-page report is al most certain to be controversial. The Snowmass panelists hit upon two phrases that succinctly label the new directions they champion: The broadened chemist is called a "chem ical scientist," denoting an individual who will be increasingly concerned with what the panelists dub "systems chemistry." "Far too often the cur rent-day chemist is too content to practice his profession narrowly," the group, led by Cornell University's Dr. Franklin Long, concluded, "with too little concern and professional interest in societal problems, with low com petence in communicating to others about his science, and with negligible
The cartoon that appeared in C&EN last week (page 16) was reproduced copyright 1970 by Herblock in The Washington Post.
Cornell's Dr. Long Low competence in communications
ability to participate in effective multidisciplinary research." Though the five panels explored five different areas and were composed of people of all shades of opinion, their conclusions were nonetheless remark ably of one tone. What emerges is a clear call for change and innovation, for a return to a time when science seemed more a process of reaching out than of turning inward.
URETHANES:
Self-Skinning Market Rubicon Chemicals has high hopes for a tough-skinned polyurethane foam in the furniture market. The firm, a 50-50 joint venture of the U.K.'s Im perial Chemical Industries and Uniroyal, expects the growth of the selfskinning methanes to be spectacular. Furniture use alone will grow from 1 million pounds in 1970 to 150 million pounds by 1975, according to Jim M. McGinn, a plastics specialist at Uniroyal's chemical division. Uniroyal made the first public showing of the material at a furniture designer's studio in New York City last week. It comprises a rigid cel lular foam sandwiched between layers of dense, hard urethane plastic, which give the foam a mar-resistant surface and a lightweight core ideal for furni ture applications, according to the firm. The sui'face possesses both chemical resistance and dimensional stability. The heart of the Rubicast process lies in the fact that the skin is pro duced by chemical action in the mold. Mobay and Upjohn also produce skinned urethane, but in their proc esses the skin is produced by highpressure molding using excess material. Rubicon says that the foam is based on methylene-bis-phenyldiisocyanate (MDI) and a polyol with a function ality of at least 3 (i.e., containing at least three reactive hydroxyl groups). The foams can be made fire re-
