LETTERS
CHEMICAL & ENGINEERING NEWS 1155—16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20036 (202) 872-4600 or (800) 227-5558 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Rudy M. Baum DEPUTY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: A. Maureen Rouhi MANAGING EDITOR: Robin M. Giroux SENIOR ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER: Marvel A. Wills NEWS William G. Schulz, Editor BUSINESS Michael McCoy, Assistant Managing Editor NORTHEAST: (732) 906-8300 Lisa M. Jarvis (Senior Editor), Rick Mullin (Senior Editor), Marc S. Reisch (Senior Correspondent), Alexander H. Tullo (Senior Editor), Melody M. Bomgardner (Senior Editor), Rachel Eskenazi (Administrative Assistant). HONG KONG: 852 2984 9072 Jean-François Tremblay (Senior Correspondent). HOUSTON: (281) 4863900 Ann M. Thayer (Senior Correspondent). GOVERNMENT & POLICY Susan R. Morrissey, Assistant Managing Editor Britt E. Erickson (Senior Editor), David J. Hanson (Senior Correspondent), Glenn Hess (Senior Editor), Cheryl Hogue (Senior Correspondent), Jeff Johnson (Senior Correspondent) SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY/EDUCATION BOSTON: (617) 395-4163 Amanda Yarnell, Assistant Managing Editor. WASHINGTON: Stuart A. Borman (Deputy Assistant Managing Editor), Celia Henry Arnaud (Senior Editor), Carmen Drahl (Associate Editor), Stephen K. Ritter (Senior Correspondent), Lauren K. Wolf (Associate Editor). BERLIN: 49 30 2123 3740 Sarah Everts (Senior Editor). CHICAGO: (847) 679-1156 Mitch Jacoby (Senior Editor). NORTHEAST: (732) 9068302 Bethany Halford (Senior Editor). WEST COAST: (925) 485-1034 Jyllian Kemsley (Associate Editor), (510) 870-1617 Elizabeth K. Wilson (Senior Editor), Aaron A. Rowe (Contributing Editor). BEIJING: 150 1138 8372 Jessie Jiang (Contributing Editor). JOURNAL NEWS & COMMUNITY: (202) 872-6039 Lila Guterman (Senior Editor), (626) 765-6767 Michael Torrice (Assistant Editor) ACS NEWS & SPECIAL FEATURES Sophie L. Rovner, Assistant Managing Editor Linda Wang (Senior Editor). DALLAS: (972) 529-4351 Susan J. Ainsworth (Senior Editor) EDITING & PRODUCTION Kimberly R. Twambly, Assistant Managing Editor Craig Bettenhausen (Assistant Editor), Emily Bones (Assistant Editor), Sophia L. Cai (Assistant Editor), Nader Heidari (Assistant Editor), Arlene Goldberg-Gist, Senior Editor Jeff A. Huber (Assistant Editor), Gail M. Mortenson (Associate Editor) ART & DESIGN Robert Bryson, Design Director Robin L. Braverman (Senior Art Director) Yang H. Ku (Associate Designer) C&EN ONLINE Rachel Sheremeta Pepling, Editor Tchad K. Blair (Visual Designer), Luis A. Carrillo (Production Manager), Ty A. Finocchiaro (Web Associate), Pamela Rigden Snead (Web Products Manager) PRODUCTION & IMAGING Renee L. Zerby, Lead Digital Production Specialist Tim Bauer, Richard C. Smith, and Steven J. Lovasz (Digital Production Associates) SALES & MARKETING Elise Swinehart, Assistant Director Elaine Facciolli Jarrett (Marketing Manager) Wendy Wise (Marketing Manager) Angela Yeo (Associate Marketing Manager) ADVISORY BOARD Paul J. Bracher, Jean-Claude Bradley, David Clary, Seth M. Cohen, Rita R. Colwell, Christopher C. Cummins, Daryl W. Ditz, Michael P. Doyle, Donald Hilvert, Malika Jeffries-El, Rohit Khanna, Roger LaForce, Derek Lowe, Michael W. Major, Andrew D. Maynard, Harold Meckler, Stephen A. Munk, Nick Roelofs, John M. Schwab, Francis X. Sherman, Thomas R. Tritton, Paul Turgeon, Paul A. Wender, Frank D. Wicks, Elias Zerhouni, David Zimmermann, Dorothy Zolandz Published by the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY Madeleine Jacobs, Executive Director & CEO Brian Crawford, President, Publications Division EDITORIAL BOARD: Kevin P. Gable (Chair); ACS Board of Directors Chair: Bonnie A. Charpentier; ACS President: Nancy B. Jackson; Ned D. Heindel, John N. Russell Jr., Leah Solla, Peter J. Stang Copyright 2011, American Chemical Society Canadian GST Reg. No. R127571347 Volume 89, Number 49
IN FAVOR OF LIVELY DEBATE I WOULD LIKE TO make two main points
in regard to the long-standing uproar over Rudy Baum’s editorials. The first is that a lot of people react to Baum’s column with an exclamation of “Who does he think he is?” I occasionally ask myself this question, and recently attempted to seek out the answer on the Internet. I was surprised to find that besides Baum’s staff page and his educational background, there is no curriculum vitae; no publication record; no information about his past experience as an educator, scientist, policymaker, administrator, and/ or junior editor. I am quite certain that to become editor-in-chief of C&EN, Rudy Baum must have had an extremely productive and successful career. Perhaps it would help both his supporters and his detractors if they better understood his track record and his areas of expertise. The second is that I cannot understand the vitriolic reactions that Baum’s column seems to induce in so many scientists. I do not understand why the magazine prints response letters that attempt to fight fire with fire instead of fact. Many people are further inflamed given the context of the politically neutral tone of C&EN. My opinion is that this contrast between the “From the Editor” column and the measures that other contributors take to provide objective content is in fact a very wonderful thing. C&EN generally does a fantastic job of providing counterpoints and helping the reader to understand broader aspects of political, business, and environmental issues, a job that the mainstream media continually fail to accomplish. Whether or not I agree with Baum’s opinions, the first page of the magazine is never boring—and never should be. Readers are free to react however they please, but what a waste of time to threaten cancellation of subscriptions, to tell Baum how to write his column, or to attack him personally. I am currently a faculty coadviser for the undergraduate ACS affiliates at my university, and I continually encourage the undergraduates to read C&EN. I can think of no better way to inspire action and a thirst for deeper knowledge from the youngest (pre-) professionals in our field than to have lively debates and controversial opinions greeting them as soon as they open the cover of their first issue of C&EN. WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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No matter what the political leanings of Baum’s eventual successor are, I hope that his/her column is just as heartfelt/exciting/ irritating/revolting/intelligent/scandalous/ etc., as Baum’s! Nathan DeYonker Memphis CONSEQUENCES OF MISDIRECTED EVOLUTIONARY LOGIC THERE IS NO DOUBT that biomedical
research of today is very impressive and makes for fascinating reading. This was the case in C&EN articles on research concerning the fertilization mechanisms of the human egg (C&EN, Aug. 29, page 36, and Nov. 1, 2010, page 30). The level of complexity and sophistication is mind-boggling and its explantion thought-provoking, which to me demands a certain implied logic. The chemical mechanisms I have studied over the years as a physical chemist are
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LETTERS
THIS WEEK
ONLINE
cen-online.org/thisweek
RARE RARE-EARTH ELEMENTS THE WELCOME ARTICLE “Critical Mate-
rials Problem Continues” should have emphasized the needs of future generations (C&EN, Oct. 24, page 28). The theme of the article seems to mirror what we have done to the riches of petroleum that we lucked into—find it and extract it until it is gone.
ACS 2010 IRS FORM 990 AVAILABLE The American Chemical Society’s 2010 Form 990 is now available on ACS’s website. To access the information, go to www.acs.org and follow these instructions: Click on “About Us,” then click on “ACS Financial Information.” Go to the heading “ACS IRS Form 990” and click on “2010 IRS Form 990.” Please see also the related “Guide to Schedule J” for explanatory information regarding ACS Executive Compensation. If you have any access problems, contact
[email protected].
I would like to have seen raised as an important issue the recovery of all these irreplaceable metals from waste, as in the pile of spent automotive catalytic converters shown. In my view, such efficient recovery should be a requirement for the use of all these materials and its cost included in their price. As it is, the article left me very worried about our casual husbandry of important, irreplaceable elements. Victor J. Reilly Aiken, S.C.
Bacteria’s Kryptonite? When bacteria form slimy biofilms, they extrude polysaccharides and other molecules to weave a matrix that helps them adhere to surfaces, evade the immune system, and communicate with each other. Researchers have now synthesized a chemical that breaks through this microbial goo. They hope the compound can render resistant bacteria vulnerable to annihilation by antibiotics. cenm.ag/bio3
Lab On A Bubble
MORE ABOUT CHEMICAL NAMES
To detect a chemical of interest in solution, analytical chemists sometimes scavenge for it by tossing in antibodycovered beads. To analyze their captured chemicals, chemists have to herd the beads using centrifugation or mag-
I ENJOYED JEFF HUBER’S Newscripts
article “Arsenic Sells, Molecules Tickle the Funny Bone” and always laugh at the creativeness exhibited by scientists in naming chemical molecules (C&EN, Oct. 17, page 80). In this article, Paul W. May is given credit for literally writing “the book” on molecules with funny names. May’s website is extensive and contains a humorous collection of curious names. I wish him continued success. It is not clear, however, if Huber was aware of earlier works that record the inventive names and terminology coined by chemists. In 1987, Alex Nickon (Johns Hopkins University) and Ernest F. Silversmith (Morgan State University) published a book entitled “Organic Chemistry, the Name Game: Modern Coined Terms and Their Origins” on this very topic. The contents of their book detail many peculiar names of molecules found in the literature and of some molecule names that did not make it into the literature. As a former graduate student of Nickon’s, I know both authors spent many years of patient and careful detective work combing the literature and following up with authors to obtain and confirm the background story as to why a molecule was christened with its particular name. Although their book takes a lighthearted look at the naming of molecules, these authors also attempted to accurately record the historical context surrounding the naming of these molecules. As the book was published before the widespread acceptance of the Internet, one can appreciate the amount of effort that went into contacting chemists worldwide by letter and phone to obtain the stories surrounding the various names found in the book. James A. Kenar Peoria, Ill.
WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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J. AM. CHEM. SOC.
all acceptably explained in terms of natural thermodynamic driving forces. Similarly, in theories of human development, evolution also is readily understandable in natural selection terms driven by environmental forces that favor specific traits. However, when I turn to reading about genetic research, the terminology seems to differ somewhat and authors appear to fail to see the implications of their statements. For example, Karolinksa Institute’s Luca Jovine says, “I wouldn’t be surprised if evolution has introduced a bit of redundancy into the fertilization process. It’s very dangerous for a species to rely on a single mechanism.” The article continues, “If this were the case, then a single mutation could wipe out the next generation.” The logic of such a statement is inconsistent with evolution and implies intelligence. Do we now think DNA developed artificial intelligence along with everything else? Without intelligence appearing somewhere in this logic, evolution can never provide safeguards for unforeseen future situations. It can only develop efficient mechanisms for continued survival in its currently encountered environment. Keith Schofield Santa Barbara, Calif.
netic fields. Now researchers report a faster, simpler method to concentrate their samples that relies on silica spheres that float in a bubble (shown). cenm.ag/anl49
Soft Robots Inch Forward With air inflating each of its four legs, a small white robot inches along like a starfish on the ocean floor. But unlike most robots, this one’s body is made of elastomeric polymers, not metal. Researchers think these soft robots could be a simple, cheap alternative to conventional ones. Watch C&EN’s YouTube channel to see the soft robot crawl and undulate. cenm.ag/vid12
Solar-Powered Outreach In September, a chemistry professor packed a U-Haul truck with science demonstration equipment and drove along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border from California to Texas. By teaching elementary school children about solar energy, he hoped to excite Hispanic students about science and technology (page 40). Check out a video of his demonstrations in one Texas school. cenm.ag/vid11
