sibility for, its respective appointments. Moreover, each school will keep its own line of management, operation, and financial obligations. One member of the board of each institution will sit on the other's board, with all member's rights and privileges. As a rapidly expanding and extremely important interdisciplinary field, biomedical engineering is still somewhat of an infant; it lacks welldefined and uniform curriculums (C&EN, Nov. 7, 1966, page 8 6 ) . However, the two Philadelphia institutions' approach to the problem is one of combining strength to achieve the desired goal. Simply stated, Franklin has competence in the physical sciences—chemistry, engineering, mathematics, and physics—while Jefferson has competence in the life and health sciences. Thus, by combining talents, skills, and resources, each institution will be in a strong position to pursue applied research in an area such as biomedical engineering. Graduate studies leading to master's and doctoral degrees and the education of students in medicine, the physical sciences, and in the paramedical field will be undertaken through this joint affiliation. According to Jefferson's board chairman, James M. Large, the graduate degrees in biomedical engineering will be structured to make for easy and exact communication between medical and physical scientists who must understand one another enough to meet increasing demands of instrumentation in medical care. As of now, Franklin Institute does not confer degrees and, until it does, all degrees for work done on joint programs will be granted by Jefferson. However, master's and doctoral degrees in disciplines that require the work to be done primarily at Franklin will indicate that fact. The Journal of the Franklin Institute, established in 1826 and published continuously since, will now be used by both institutions for publication of articles on scientific and academic matters. It will be broadened to include biomedical engineering. The move to affiliate is indicative of Franklin's continuing effort and interest in biomedical engineering, according to the institute's chief executive officer, Dr. Wynn L. Le Page. Franklin, he points out, has been providing physicians from Delaware Valley institutions with physical science experience for about 10 years. This effort, he adds, centers on cooperative programs with Princeton, Pennsylvania Hospital, University of Pennsylvania Hospital, Hahnemann Medical College Hospital, and Temple University's center in Philadelphia. The institute, a nonprofit organiza14 C&EN MARCH 11, 1968
tion for education and research in science, was founded in 1824. Its main activities are centered in the Franklin Institute Science Teaching Museum, Fels Planetarium, Franklin Institute Science Library, the Journal of the Franklin Institute, Bartol Research Foundation, and its new $5 million research laboratory. Jefferson Medical College, also founded in 1824, has been (by law) an independent institution with a full university charter since 1838. Its primary mission has been the education of physicians. In 1949, Jefferson set up a graduate school in the basic medical sciences, and since then has awarded 146 master's and doctoral degrees. In 1967, it established a school of allied health sciences for paramedical education, leading to associate science and bachelor's degrees. At the same time, Jefferson declared its intention to become Thomas Jefferson University (in 1969). Enthusiasm is high; Dr. Le Page describes the move as a milestone in the historical development of Philadelphia's educational resources. The city, he notes, as well as the entire world of science, has gained a new research and teaching capability. In terms of its usefulness, it may serve as a national model, perhaps to be emulated by other physical and life science institutions in other metropolitan areas.
Ion exchange resin particles provide mass standards Ion exchange resins in the form of small spherical particles that can be used to provide mass standards have been developed at the National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, Md. The individual spherical particles contain extremely small and precisely defined quantities of matter, Dr. David H. Freeman of NBS's Institute for Materials Research said at the NBS Symposium on Future Standards for Analysis, held last week during the Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, in Cleveland, Ohio. The spherical ion exchange beads are chemically uniform. They can be loaded with one or a combination of electrically charged counterions. A bead's exchangeable counterion content is related directly to the bead diameter, which can be precisely measured. The ion exchange material is ideal for the stable localization of extremely small quantities of matter, Dr. Freeman says. Thus the individual beads can be used as chemical microstandards. With the ion exchange beads Dr. Freeman finds that it's possible to pre-
Dr. David H. Freeman As microstandards pare standards for as little as 10~12 gram of metals such as sodium, lithium, potassium, rubidium, beryllium, calcium, and uranium. The first series of these ion exchange microstandards containing sodium as the counterion should soon be available from NBS, he expects. The material used for making the ion exchange beads is a carefully sulfonated styrene-divinylbenzene copolymer, Dr. Freeman says. A variety of individual elements can be locked onto the resin bead. Beads can be prepared that vary in diameter from several hundred microns to less than 1 micron. A particular amount of counterion needed for a standard can be selected by picking the bead with the appropriate diameter. By measuring the bead diameter under a microscope, the amount of counterion present can be calculated. The ion exchange beads should have wide application as microstandards, Dr. Freeman believes. Possible applications include the convenient setting of analytical detection limits, micros cale calibration of chemical measurements, flux standards for neutron irradiation, and microspectrophotometric absorption standards involving chromophore-bearing counterions. The beads should find use as standards for instrumental techniques that require very small amounts of sample, such as electron probe microanalysis, the laser microprobe, and mass spectrometry. A definite need exists for standards for these techniques, according to a recent survey of 78 analytical laboratory supervisors in the U.S. made by the subcommittee on reference materials of the committee on analytical chemistry, division of chemistry and chemical technology, National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council [Anal Chem., 40, 24A ( 1 9 6 8 ) ] .
