(as), (I), (g) to formulas. Its teacher-modification module insures that it will not go L'out-of-date" and adds much to its usefulness and versatility. Mike Barondeau Roscoe S c M Distrin P.O. Box 317 Roscoe, SD 57471 Serendipity: Accidental Dlscoverles In Sclence Royston M. Roberts. Wlley: New York. NY, 1989. mii 270 pp. Flgs. and photographs. 15.2 X 22.8 cm. $12.95 PB.
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Although this hook was written for the "general" reader, (preferably with some science background), Roberts thinks it more likely to be of interest to "teachers and students a t all levels.. .who may find these stores useful to enliven lectures and discussions." (Unfortunately those readers requiring additional background information must make aspecialrequest to the publisher to receive a technical supplement eontaining additional chemical formulas and equations. No order form or address is provided.) The reader will find the stories written in an informative and interesting manner. Manv of these accounts. however. have been puh&hed elsewhere-the best' known of which is in A.B. Garrett's The Flash of Genius. For those not familiar with the origin of the hook's title, the term "serendipity" was coined by Horace Walpole in 1794 to describe those types of unexpected unanticipated, accidental discoveries recounted in the fairy tale of "The Three Princes of Serendip (Ceylon, now Sri Lanka)"-the heroes of which "were always making discoveries, hy accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of. ."Roberts has found it necessary to coin a new term: pseudoserendipity "to describe accidental discoveries of ways to achieve an end sought f a r . . ."Although most of the appraximately 75 discoveries might be classified as pseudoserendipdtous, Roberts believes them somehow less than truly serendipitous: .in contrast to a few such pseudosereudipitaus discoveries: fortuitous accidents that led to new things totally unexpected and unsought for and which become discoueries through the sagacity of the person who encountered the accident.'' (For myself I would think the term, metaserendipity might hetter describe the altered or changed form of serendipity found in these accounts.) However that may be, the accounts of the discoveries are often engaging hut the more serious reader might have hoped for a more thoroughly researched bibliography to document some of the accounts. For example, although most readers will be familiar with the Archimedes "Eureka!" story, the only documentation for its authenticity cited by Roberts was to the 1878 and 1966 editions of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Pseudoserendipitous discoveriea that may have originated in dreams are discussed in
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connection with the "dreams" that August Kekul6 said led to the carbon-valency concept and structure of benzene. The controversy generated by the views of John Wotiz and Susanna Rudofsky on one side, and Alan Rocke and this reviewer on the other, are only briefly mentioned or documented in the hihliography. Aside from the issue raised by the former protagonists as to the veracity of the dream account, there has been a considerable divergence of opinion as to whether scientific diacoveries have or could have been made by this means. Much of theresearch that has been published in this area is not cited even though relevant to Robert's view that students might be educated to develop, or a t least benefit from serendipity. I would not wish to have these limitations deter the first-time readers, who may well he stimulated by this book to develop their own serendipitous thought processes. What is gained from theae historical accounts is the confidence that there is still much to he discovered dependent upon the discoverer's r re pared mind" (Pasteur) and "sagacity" (Walpole). And now I'd like to tell you about how I got this idea..
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0. Bertrand Ramsay Eastern Michigan University
Ypsilenti. MI 48197
Introductory Chemistry: A Foundatlon Steven S. Zumdahl. D. C. Heath and Company: Lexington, MA, 1990. xvi 698 pp. Figs. and tables. 21.7 X 24.2 cm.
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According to the author "the aim of this text is to make introductory chemistry accessible to students who have little or no background in chemistry." I t contains over 700 pages of text including a chapter on organic chemistry and a chapter on hiochemistry. A companion text entitled Introductory Chemistry is the same in all respects except the organic and biochemistry chapters are not included. Many topics found in a typical introductory text have been left out of this hook. For example, there is no discussion of chemical kinetics, thermodynamics, electrochemical cell potentials, or transition metal chemistry. There are several noteworthy features that make this text distinctive. Discussion of atomic theory and bonding is delayed until the second half of the text. Full color is used throughout with photographs on almost every page. About 20 "Chemistry in Foeus" pages are provided to illustrate chemical applications such as lead poisoning in ancient Rome, the theory of firewalking, methyl alcohol as the fuel of the future, etc. Each chapter begins with a list of seetion titles and ends with a summary statement. The start of each section has a oneline statement of aim. Questions drilling factual recall are provided in each chapter.
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This text places great emphasis on helping readers Learn how to do basic chemistry problems. A completely worked out solution with considerable verbal annotation is presented for each problem type. A self-cheek exercise is provided after the discussion of each problem. Solutions to these exercises are given at the end of the chapter. This is an excellent feature which is unique with this text. The problems provided for student practice are very similar to the examples in the text and answers are provided for half of them. ~~~~. .~ Chemistry is an experimental science, but after a hriei discussion of scientific method in the first chapter there is no futher diacussion of experiments. Information is presented in a very authoritarian manner with scarcely a word about the struggles that were required to provide our present views of chemistrv. There is no discussion of the .~~~~~ way experiments are used to answer scien. tific questions. There are no exercises requiring students tu draw conclusions from experimental data. There is nothing to suggest that there are any unanswered questions in chemistry. There is nothing to d e serihe the excitement and challence of the quest to unravel the mysteries of nature. James E. Finholt Carleton College Nwthfield. MN 55057 ~~~~~
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R e a d l o n Oulde for organic Chemistry Michael J. MiNam. D. C. Heath: Lexington, MA. 1989. xx 204 pp. Figs. and tables. 21.6 x 27.5 cm.
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The Reaction Guide for Organic Chemistry by Michael J. Millam is written for students currently enrolled in the first-year course in organic chemistry. The Reaction Guide is designed to accompany any of the standard organic chemistry texts and is intended to aid students in developing an understanding of organic chemistry reactions. The author's stratew is to focus attention on the transformation of a partlrular funetional group into other functional groups. The emphasis is u, determine the reagmts and reaction conditions necessary to carry out a given transformation. To accomplish this, the text is organized into 32 sections according to functional group. Within each section, the characteristic reactions of a particular functional group are presented by writing the generalized equation for the reaction followed by one or more specific examples. The student is taught to examine the general reaction to see what the reagent does to the functional group. Careful study of the illustrative examples should enable the student to see the correspondence hetween the general equation and specific applications to real compounds. In the introductory section entitled "How to Use This Reaction Guide", the author outlines a systematic approach to problem solving consisting of five or six simple steps.
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December 1990
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The problems at the end of each section provide the student with a great deal of practice in applying the method and enable students to test their abilities to use what has been learned. Solutions to the problems are provided a t the end of the hook. This allows for self testing and immediate feedback which has been shown to be a very effective learning strategy. By organizing the vast array of organic chemical reactions in a convenient summary form, the author has created a valuable learning tool that will enable students to increase their skill in predicting the outcome of chemical reactions. Gloria Dimoplon Mankato State University Mankato, MN 56002 ChemlDtry Stanley R. Radel and Marjorie H. Navidi. West Publishing: St. Paul. MN. 1990. xxx 1153 pp. Figs. and tables. 22 X 26 cm.
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In the preface of this book, the authors say they have written for all audiences; the students who intend Chemistry as a major, those who enjoy sciences, and finally, for those who are nonscience majors who enjoy and wish to know something about chemistry to make them a wiser consumer and a more effective citizen. Today's demographics indicate the latter two groupings, if they elect chemistry a t all, are the major audience. On first observation, this textbook would seem awesome in its size, weight, and amount of material that is presented to an audience that intends chemistry as an elective. As a reviewer, I don't know if I would think any differently. The authors obviously have attempted to ease the "pain" of learning chemistry by creating a format for the text that is helpful to the student. A cautionary note: T h e instructor should spend time to explain how the materials presented flow from section to section beenuse of all the solved ~ r o h l e msets... oractice nrnhlnmr. color dates. eraohics.,demonstrar ... tions and survey sections that are presented in the body of the text. Otherwise, it is felt that "helpful" information can disrupt the flaw of the chapter. Chapter 1is prohably the most important chapter for the beginning student with minimal science background and marginal math and reasoning (scientific) abilities. The pattern of examples-practice exercises give the student ample exposure to the kinds of problem solutions he will he faced with later. Certainly the amount of material covered in this chapter can he overwhelming to the underprepared student and must he approached as such. For example, chemistry departments at many institutions require students (in a one-semester course) to master these 33 oaees of informatmn before con~. tinu~ngon to Chapwr 2. The units covrred range f n m the concept of chemistry, rnrrgy and matter to the collection of data and all that it implies to: accuracy, precision, random error, rounding off, significant figures, conversion factors, dimensional analysis, concepts of density, force (and all that implies) and finally heat, work and energy. Is this amount of material to he learned before proceeding? I t is substantial, but, again, well done. The format for the remaining 22 chapters is set in Chapter 2. The authors start with a chapter outline and ~ r o c e e dto a preview of ~~~~
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the material to he covered. They then proceed with the body of the text in the traditional manner. When necessary, there is a digression in the text entitled, "Digging Deeper." This is a section of material that orohahlv would be used for the better studenti. For rrample, in Chapter 2. "Digging D~eper"folluws 1 hr srction on "The D w o w ery of the Electrons." and deals with how electrons charges and masses were determined. As observed earlier, solved examples and practice examples are sprinkled throughout and a t the end of the chapter, a great number of "final exercises" are available for assienments. Interesting inclusions called "demonstrations" appear throughout the text. The culorphvtuyraphs may be usrd to accompany a verbal explanation of the "demonstration." I t is assumed an enterprising instructor could actually perform the procedure accompanying each demonstration. At the end of the chapter, the authors supply a chapter review hy section, key terms by section, important equations, and final exercises. Final exercise questions numbered in blue have answers that can be found in the appendix. The authors follow the abovementioned format in presenting the materials that are traditionally found in a General Chemistry textbook that covers two semesters. Rearrangements of topics is permissible to fulfill departmental philosophies in their approach to the teaching. The liberal use of diagrams, pictures, graphics and tables lengthens the page numbers to well over 1,000. I t is a "heavy" text. I can't think of anything else that could he added to the text short of an interesting set of laboratory exercises to replace the demonstrations used. I would recommend a very serious look a t this text before adoption. The reason far the lab statement is this: All indication for future direction for General Chemistry (first two semesters) is away from M.O., thermodynamics and other difficult theoretical information. Chemistry should be understandable and interesting for the nonscienee major. Most of what is in this text, though well presented, is a hit overwhelming for this level of student. Out of 23 chapters, the authors have included four "Survey Sections." They are similar to applied chemistry information that one finds in most chemistry texts. The difference is that these are noted as such. They are well done but less of the tough theorv. e h a ~ t e r sof which I would count 10. 2nd an increased the underrtandahle "easy .tuff," cuuld help excite the nunscience stu. dent into thinking about chrm:*try swiuusIY. Harry G. Hajian
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students in the allied health sciences. Of 29 chapters, the first 11 are devoted to basic chemical principles, the next eight to organic chemistry and the final 11to hiochemistry. In compressing this material, which normally fills three substantial hooks, it isohvious that many important topics will receive onlv limited attention. Holum has. however. in this rdition.expnnded the text tu rnclude a n m chapter on redux rhemirtry. Other changes are smaller but do serve to improve the book significantly. Holum has introduced a discussion of hybridization in organic molecules in an early chapter on honding and has included new "Special Topics" on environmental chemistry, w-3 fatty acids, DNA fingerprinting, biological redox reactions, and ester condensations.
