CHEMICAL & ENGINEERING NEWS 1155—16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 872-4600 Letters to Editor:
[email protected] C&EN home page: http://pubs.acs.org/cen EDITOR: Madeleine Jacobs MANAGING EDITOR: Rudy M Baum SENIOR CORRESPONDENTS: Lois R. Ember, Wilbert C. Lepkowski NEWS EDITOR: Richard J. Seltzer ACS NEWS EDITOR: William G. Schulz EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Michael Heylin CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: James H Krieger BUSINESS William J. Storck, Assistant Managing Editor Northeast: (908) 906S300. Marc S. Reisch (Senior Editor), Elisabeth Kirschner (Associate Editor), George Peaff (Associate Editor), Rachel Eskenazi (Administrative Assistant). Houston: (713) 558-2912, Susan Ainsworth (Bureau Head); (713) 486-3900, Ann M. Thayer (Senior Editor). Hong Kong: 852-2984-9072 JeanFrançois Tremblay (Associate Editor). London: 44 181 87CXS884. Patricia Layman (Senior Editor). GOVERNMENT Janice R. Long, Assistant Managing Editor Washington: (202) 872-4495. David J. Hanson (Bureau Head), Bette Hileman (Senior Editor), Linda R. Raber (Associate Editor) SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY/EDUCATION Pamela S. Zurer, Assistant Managing Editor Washington: (202) 872-4505. Rebecca L. Rawls (Senior Correspondent), Stuart A. Borman (Senior Editor), Mairin B. Brennan (Senior Editor), Doron Dagani (Senior Editor), A. Maureen Rouhi (Associate Editor). Northeast: (908) 906^301. Stephen C. Stinson (Senior Editor). West Coast: (510) 849-0575. Elizabeth K. Wilson (Assistant Editor). London: 44 1256-811052. Michael Freemantle (Senior Editor). EDITING & PRODUCTION Ernest L. Carpenter, Assistant Managing Editor Robin M. Giroux (Associate Editor), Stephen K. Ritter (Associate Editor), Julie Grisham (Assistant Editor), Arlene Goldberg-Gist (Head, Editing Services), Rita E. Johnson (Assistant Editor). ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT Patricia Oates (Administrative Assistant), Diana L. Higgins (Program Assistant) GRAPHICS & PRODUCTION Alan Kahan (Head), Phillip Payette (Art Director), Linda Mattingly (Staff Artist) Composition Systems: Vincent L. Parker (Manager), Robin L. Braverman (Assistant) ADVISORY BOARD Jeannene Ackerman, Steven W. Baldwin, Marvin Cassman, E. Gary Cook, Debbie C. Crans, Samuel J. Danishefsky, James E. Evans, Slayton A. Evans Jr., Michael J. Ferris, Marye Anne Fox, Mary L. Good, Carlos G. Gutierrez, Dudley R. Herschbach, J. Roger Hirl, Robert J. Huggett, Stephen J. Lippard, Leo E. Manzer, Gary L. Mossman, Hans C. Noetzli, Jane Margaret O'Brien, Don H. Olsen, Janet G. Osteryoung, Gregory A. Petsko, Alan Schriesheim, Peter J. Stang, Kathleen C. Taylor, David A. Tirrell, Tamae Maeda Wong Published by AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY (202) 872-4600; TDD (202) 872-4432 John Kistler Crum, Executive Director Robert D. Bovenschulte, Director, Publications Division EDITORIAL BOARD Michael P. Doyle (Chairman); ACS Board of Directors Chairman: Joan E. Shields; ACS President: Paul S. Anderson; Ronald Breslow, Lura J. Powell, Eisa Reichmanis, Paul H. L. Walter
4 JANUARY 6, 1997 C&EN
LETTERS Harmful discharges In her Government Insights, "Information can be quite uninformative,'' Linda Raber takes issue with the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) because at a joint news conference a spokesman promoted a policy that requires companies to report "everything they're discharging" (C&EN, Nov. 18, 1996, page 23). In fact, the policy is not as stringent as that proposed by U.S. PIRG's New York affiliate, N.Y. PIRG. In 1986, N.Y. PIRG issued a report ("A Citizens' Guide to Toxic Dumps in New York City") that urged New York State to "adopt a policy designed to end all air, land, and water toxic discharges." It is lucky for all living organisms—which would be banned because of their unfortunate need to discharge harmful waste—that N.Y. PIRG's policy recommendation requires repeal of a law that even influential environmental groups would find hard to eliminate: the Second Law of Thermodynamics. David E. Seidemann Brooklyn College and Yale University Linda Raber's Government Insights, which mocks efforts by environmental groups to inform the public about toxic chemical releases, is both irresponsible and dangerous. Even with recent reductions, U.S. industry still discharges billions of pounds of thousands of chemicals into lakes and streams. The long- and even short-term human toxicity of most of these chemicals is largely unknown. More than likely, some of these chemicals are currently causing disease in people as well as aquatic animal and plant life. For example, a study by the Nature Conservancy found that more than 60% of different species of freshwater mussels and crayfish are at risk of extinction, in part because of poor water quality. Since many chemical pollutants eventually find their way into our water and food supply, we are at risk as well. I would suggest that C&EN publish toxic chemical release data and encourage a discussion among the readership about the implications of these releases and how cleaner chemical processes might be developed. If the U.S. chemical industry doesn't make a greater efffort to reduce chemical pollution and inform the public of the risks, some day the American people will be asking (as for Watergate and tobacco), "What did they know and when did they know it?" Randal Shogren Peoria, III. I was struck by an ironic juxtaposition of articles in the Nov. 18, 1996, issue. It features a Government Insights column that ridicules a report issued by several environmental groups that publicized the amounts
of toxic chemicals released to the nation's waters. The very next page—actually, the flip side of page 23—is devoted to an article on rising levels of unexplainable deformities in frogs, found especially "in those [species] that spend more time in water." Maybe there is something to that report after all. Adam Browning Berkeley, Calif.
Carothers and polymers The review of "Enough for One Lifetime: Wallace Carothers, Inventor of Nylon," was very interesting and convinced me to buy the book (C&EN, Aug. 19, 1996, page 39). It brought back memories of my graduate career, when I worked under Carl Shipp (Speed) Marvel. During my second year, he asked me to move into the lab next to his office and stated that I had to do as well as the last occupantWallace Carothers. I was extremely flattered, even realizing that the air in the hood was drafted by the heat of a Bunsen burner. After my second year with Marvel, he came into the lab and asked me if I would change my research problem to one about polymers. He saw my hesitation. "Think it over and let's talk tomorrow," he said. Now I knew about Carothers and hardly anything about polymers at that time. I thought it was too much of a gamble and told Marvel that I was so far along in my synthesis problem that I would prefer to continue. Fifty years later, I keep wondering if I made a mistake. Perhaps I could have sailed on the crest of the wave of interest in the polymer field. Maybe I will change now. Donald E. Pearson Nashville
Bewildering noise Those who enjoyed the fine vignette into the past and future in the editorial "On Turning 50" (C&EN, Nov. 11, 1996, page 5) may be intrigued by a further look "back to the future." Vannevar Bush's view of the forthcoming Information Age and the "memex" machine was perhaps anticipated by both Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) and Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716). The latter is better known among chemists for his contributions in math, physics, and chemistry, but both German philosophers devoted considerable energies to the questions of information technology and man/machine interactions. Their original thoughts, often expressed by Leibniz in French, and by Heidegger in German, have English translations that cannily parallel Madeleine Jacobs' views. Leibniz said, "We need to bridge the gulf between groups in the service of commerce, and to advance the pace of scientific discovery. Facilitating the production of new ideas would require coordinated efforts of learned
LETTERS academies from all over the world. A Spécieuse Générale [universal language] could be read without any dictionary . . . and be composed of many geometricfigures. . . of a kind of pictures. . . . If we find characters that express our thoughts we can do all we can do in arithmetic and calculus." Today, we acronym-talk about ATP, the W W , and IMM (all used in the Nov. 11, 1996, issue, incidentally), but the thoughts are the same. Heidegger thought that "the effect of a work does not consist of itself, but a change in the unconcealment which results from the work," but cautioned that "the mind is where thought and reality meet in language. The impression is that man is the master, but the truth might well be that the language machine [Heidegger's sprachmaschine or Bush's memex] might manage the language and master the human essence." It is appropriate that the issue that begins with Jacobs' provocative editorial ends with the Newscripts column's caustic quotes on the state of the Internet taken from "Dave Barry in Cyberspace"—a most delightful gamut. Perhaps Edward M. Arnett put it all best, in a previous letter (C&EN, May 22, 1995, page 45). "Electronic gadgetry, however sophisticated, enhances but never replaces chemical knowledge, experience, and intuition. There is also an irreducible limit to the creative process . . . namely, the ability of a person to assimilate and integrate it. This problem has scarcely been affected except for the speed of delivering the pile of potentially significant documents for study. The present deep concern... is, therefore, linked directly to the effective application of the information revolution to science. Without a facile ability to fit new information into the basic structure of chemistry, it will simply be bewildering noise." Raymond Dessy Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University Blacksburg, Va.
Fischer-Tropsch correction The article on the Fischer-Tropsch reaction contains the statement that "hydroformylation [is a] heterogeneously catalyzed
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reaction of synthesis gas with alkenes" (C&EN, Aug. 12, 1996, page 31). Hydroformylation, or the OXO reaction, is a homogeneously catalyzed reaction of synthesis gas with alkenes. This is so when using either cobalt-containing or rhodiumcontaining catalysts. Harold Greenfield Green Valley, Ariz.
Terms in transition Patricia L. Layman reports on the market situation in "Eastern" European countries (C&EN, Dec. 2, 1996, page 9). These are listed in alphabetical order starting with Armenia, ending with Ukraine and containing, among others, the Czech Republic and Poland. Were it not for unified Germany, I suspect that the list would also contain East Germany—a term that at one time had at least a geographically accurate meaning as it was indeed situated east of West Germany. The term "Eastern Europe" was coined as a political rather than geographic descriptor, and it has no meaning at the present time unless one accepts the continuation of the Cold War for economic rather than strategic reasons. Most educated people realize that the geographic border to the east of Europe is defined by the Ural Mountains. Another way East and West is easily divided would be along the border of Christian and Eastern religions. To refer to the Czech Republic as an Eastern European nation is ridiculous since its capital, Prague, is located west of Stockholm, west of Vienna, and almost directly south of Berlin. Furthermore, no citizen of the Czech Republic or (formerly) Czechoslovakia would have ever defined his or her genetic roots as "Eastern." Regardless of political regimes and artificial alignments, this nation has always been "Western" in culture, history, arts, and sciences, and its people have spoken a Slavic language by choice, not lingual inheritance, for more than 1,400 years. It is indeed high time to stop using terminology that not only distorts geographic and cultural facts but also breeds continuing ignorance and deeply insults those of us who hail from the intersec-
Chemical & Engineering News (ISSN 0009-2347) is published weekly except for the last week in December by the American Chemical Society at 1155—16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036. Preferred postage paid at Washington, D.C, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to C&EN, Member & Subscriber Services, P.O. Box 3337, Columbus, Ohio 43210. ACS assumes no responsibility for the statements and opinions advanced by the contributors to its publications. C&EN is published in print format, and may be published in other formats, methods and technologies of distribution, now known or later developed. For all illustrations submitted to and used in C&EN, it is understood and agreed that they may appear in other formats, methods and technologies of distribution, including but not limited to reprints of the articles to which they apply.
tion of the 15th meridian east with the 50th parallel. The intent of this letter is to correct erroneous usage of the term Eastern Europe. I realize that the information contained in the article originates in sources outside C&EN ("Transition Report 1996: Economic Transition in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union," European Bank for Reconstruction & Development, Nov. 4, 1996) and that the views and nomenclature expressed are not those of C&EN editors and staff. In no way should my letter be construed as a critique of the C&EN staff. Tomas Hudlicky University of Florida, Gainesville
More education C&EN's Employment Outlook 97" shows a continuation of the degradation of the chemical profession (C&EN, Oct. 28, 1996, page 37). It prompts me to relate my experience of a few years ago. I hold an M.S. degree in chemistry from Texas Christian University, Fort Worth (1976). In 1988, I left my job as manager of quality assurance and distillery operations at the Virgin Islands Rum Distillery on St. Croix on good terms, and not as part of a downsizing. I returned to the U.S. mainland seeking a future preferably in lab work. I was unable to find a job that would pay much more than 75% of my previous salary. The position I eventually accepted was hardly worth having. At age 40,1 decided to go to law school, secure in the knowledge that, with such a degree, I would be able to find work even if only by hanging out my own shingle. I am now a patent attorney, specializing in chemical patent practice and patent litigation. Sometimes, I long for the lab, but I am glad I don't have to face the ever-present possibility of the economic limbo in which many chemical professionals find themselves when the bottom line so demands. The message is simple: There are other things one can do with a chemistry degree and, more important, with the underlying education and intelligence required to obtain such a degree. Certainly, law school is Continued on page 75
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LETTERS Continued from page 5 not for most chemists. Nevertheless, I would urge those unfortunate members of the American Chemical Society who have been "downsized" or otherwise laid off and who are seeking a new future to consider the other avenues available. It is never too late for more education. Tom Adams Houston
Citation accuracy I applaud Ljubisa R. Radovic's letter ex posing the sloppiness that we give to our assembled lists of references of our publica tions (C&EN, Oct. 28, 1996, page 6). While in graduate school and now as a National Science Foundation/Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellow, I have experienced (and will continue to ex perience) many frustrations searching for er roneous references. Unfortunately, this has been the experience with almost every jour nal that I have read. With the time pressure to write an orals proposal, dissertation, or research grant, it was a nuisance to realize that a cited page number was 1485, not 1845; that the year was 1989, not 1986; that
INDEX TO ADVERTISERS IN THIS ISSUE 15th American Peptide Society Covance Inc +Dow Corning Corporation Ferro, Grant Chemical Division
15 15-16 IBC 58
+Nissan Chemical Industries Ltd
76
Parr Instrument Company
58
+Recombinant BioCatalysis, Inc Silicon Graphics Computer Systems University of California, Davis
OBC IFC 22
The Audit Bureau
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ed spacecraft, only one of these, the Mars Ox idation Experiment, was of U.S. origin (C&EN, Nov. 25,1996, page 40). I know of at least one more U.S. instrument, the Gamma Ray Burst Detector, which was developed jointly by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Lawrence Berkeley Lab; the Uni versity of California, Berkeley; and the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The instrument was to become one of three com ponents of the Interplanetary Network, which locates interstellar gamma ray bursts by using multiple spacecraft widely separated from each other. Rob Schmidt Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Livermore, Calif.
Editor's note: The National Aeronautics & Space Administration and other U.S. facilities contributed to several instruments aboard the Mars 96 mission. In addition to the Mars Ox idation Experiment and the Gamma Ray Burst Detector, US. participation included other projects, such as a radiation counter ex Clarification periment developed atJohnson Space Center, In the science/technology concentrate, as well as funding contributions to various "Russian Mars 96 Mission Fails," it was stated other instruments, according to NASA spokes that of the 24 instruments onboard the ill-fat man Douglas IsbelL
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authors' names were misspelled or omitted; or, too often, that a citation did not have relevance to the paper. My favorite block buster was the citation that I could not un cover after playing with the page number or the year andfinallymeeting a dead end after browsing the journal's author index. Radovic asks if we are up to the task of assembling our list of references with great care. Yes, I think we are. As my experience demonstrates, a few trips to the library to check the accuracy and appropriate content of our citations, and then scrupulously typ ing them, assembling a perfect list of refer ences is possible. As ACS members we take great pride in our profession. Let's take greater responsi bility the next time we are assembling our list of references for our publications and give proper credit where credit is due. Salvador G. Alvarez Waseda University Tokyo, Japan
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