Images d Sclence: Sclence Practlce and the Publlc S. J. Doorman, Editw. Gower: Brookfield. VT, 1989. xi 237 pp. 13.7 X 21.3 cm. $56.95.
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Chemo~hobiaand the prevalent puhlic distrust of science and scientists have hecome topics of great concern to scientists, sociologists, philosophers, educators, and politicians. While writing a paper for Harry Szmant's symposium "Chemophobia-An Educational Challenge" (Divisionof Chemical Education, 198th National ACS Meeting, Miami Beach, Florida, September 1015, 1989), I encountered this recently puhlished provocative hook. Although science and technology play an increasingly prominent role in our daily lives as scientific knowledge and expertise more and more influence social and political developments, public perception and understanding of these fields lags far behind their relative importance. Recognizing the need to foster among the scientific community an awareness that a more general discussion of science and puhlic understanding and that the support of acience requires a reasonably well-informed puhlic, the European Science Foundation organized an international multidisciplinary conference, with some 55 participating scholars, devoted to the title of the volume under review here. The book contains the seven papers presented along with the keynote address by Gwrg Henrik van Wright, Finnish philosopher and past president of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science. Also included are the "Comments," which were prepared in advance and which followed each paper. These comments initiated general debates among the participants,
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whichare summarized in the hookunder the heading "Dilemmas". The editor, a professor of philosophy a t the Delft Technische Universiteit, has contributed a six-page introduction, seven pages of concluding remarks, and an eight-page index. The contributors to the hwk represent the fields of philosophy, journalism, mass communication, environmental studies, pathology, Literature, computer science, sociology, hiochemistry, physics, and astronomy, and the countries represented are the Netherlands, Israel, the United States, West Germany, England, Ireland, Austria, Sweden, Norway, and Finland. The essays raise and explore a numher of vital hut complicated questions such as: What is a "proper" puhlic understanding of science? Should scientists consider it their professional responsibility to encourage public understanding of science, and, if so, in what way? How can the complex imagea of the sciences be best communicated through literature or a maas medium like
TV? The contributors' concern6 can he seen from the contents of the v6hume: Part I, Images of Science and Forms of Rationality (pp 11-29); Part 11, Science aa Seen by Scientisb-The Image of PhysiegAn h i der's View (pp 37-51); Life Science--A Biological Viewpoint (pp 58-61); Heroism, Order and Collective Self-understanding: Images of the Social Sciences (pp 121-134); Part N, Images of Science and the PuhlicImages of Science in Literature (pp 1 5 6 181); and Science and the Media: The Case of Television (pp 181-211). This volume, which gathers the insights of an international collection of scientists and philosophers, should promote a deeper understanding of a variety of problems concerning the motivation for and realization of a better puhlic appreciation of science as
In This Issue-
S. J. Doorman, editor, Images of Science: Science Practice and the Public R. T. Sanderson, Simple Inorganic Substances: A New Approach Seyhan Ege, Organic Chemistry. Second Edition Frank B. Armsirong, Biochemistry, Third Edition Dana W. Mayo, Ronald M. Pike, and Samuel S. Butcher, Microscale Organic Laboratory. Second Edition George H Stout and Lyle H Jensen, X-Ray Structure Determination: A Practical Guide. Second Edition Sidney Harris, Einstein Simplified: Cartoons on Science New Volumes in Continuing Series Monographs Titles of Interest
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well as engender debate on these issues. It should be of great interest and utility to scientists, philosophers, educators, students, and anyone concerned with what is one of the major problems of our time. George 8. Kauffman CaliforniaState University,Fresno Freww. CA 93740
Slmple lnorganlc Substances A New Approach R. T. S a n d e m . Robert E. Krieger Publishing Co.: Malabar. FL. 1989. xxv 500 pp. Figs. and tables. 15 X 22.7 cm. $43.50 HB, $38.50 PB.
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Tom Sanderson, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry a t Arizona State University, needs no introduction to readers of this Journal. For more than half a century hia articles on chemical honding, electronegativity, polar covalence, the periodic table and chemical periodicity, the use of models in teaching, and philcaophy of chemical education have appeared in the Journal of Chemical Education and other periodicals. His previous terthwks-Introduction to Chemistry (1954). Chemical Periodicity (1960), Teaching Chemistry with Models (1962), Principles of Chemistry (1963), Inorganic Chemistry (1961), Chemical Bonds and Bond Energy (1911), Fundamentals of Modern Chemistry (1911), and Polar Coualence (1983)-hear witness to his lifelong goal of making chemistry a meaningful, logical, and exciting experience for students. His latest hook-an unconventional texthook of inorganic chemistry--stresses the eause-and-effect relationship between the structures of atoms and the properties of (Continued on page A28)
Revlewer George B. Kauffman
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Joe C. Grwver Melvin Fried Leroy G. Wade, Jr.
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Reuban Rudman
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George B. Kauffman
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their compounds, with an emphasis on providing a thorough understanding of the most familiar and important inorganic comoo1,na.. . FoUowing the launching of Sputnik on Ortohrr 4,1957, in an attempt ta"upgrade" chemiraleducation, the emphasis ingeneral and inorganic chemistry changed from a predominantly descriptive approach to a predominantly theoretical one. In an oftenquoted, provwative article, "The Grim Silence of Facts," published in this Journal [1970,47,271], Derek A. Davenport warned that even graduate students were woefully ignorant of descriptive inorganic chemistry. He "was startled to discover that [a] student believed silver chloride to he a pale green gas". Since then, in an accelerating trend others have advocated the restoration of descriptive inorganic chemistry to its former prominent place in the chemical curriculum. The relative importance of "description" versus "theory" has been debated for years with the consensus favoring a sumhle blend of the two. Moat textbook authors have vaid liv service to this ideal, but in the bookunder-review here Sanderson has systematically integrated observations with theory on the basis of polar covalence, electronegativity equalization, and several other general concepts. A true labor of love, this hook is intended "to fill a void left by other current textbooks of inorganic chemistry, which deal dutifully with whatever seems fashionable without providing the real insight and understandine that are now uossihle." Sanderson's aim isrto helo the reader acouire the broadest possihle perspective of inorganic chemistry as wellma real depthof understanding". He f m l y helieves that "all chemists should he helped to appreciate the cause-and-effect relationship between the inherent nature of atoms and the properties of their cambinations and compounds, for this is what makes chemistry a beautifully logical and intellectually satisfying science". He thinks that "highly specialized details, except as they may shed light on general principles, can come later," but he does not neglect practical, industrial chemistry or relevant prohlems such as those associated with natural ahundance of compounds and their availability and reuse. He also considers timely problems of health and pollution. In the author's words, "this hook could he subtitled, 'What I Think Every Chemist Should Know about Simple Inorganic Chemistry'". Thus, in a sense, it is a very "personal" hook. Yet few of the topica usually dealt with in more traditional texts are neglected. However, the "new approach" of the suhtitle oresents old chemistrv in a new context. permitting students to see and understand how the strength of a chemical hund originates in the structure of i t s atoms and thus to learn why bonds tend to form and rearrange as they do. Some idea of the author'sapproachcan he gleaned from the titles and lengths of the 11 chapters-(1) The Natwe of Atoms (46 pp); (2) The ChemicalElements, I. The Nonmetals (44 pp); (3) The Chemical Elements, 11. The Metals (38 pp); (4) The Energy of Polar Covalence (18pp); (5) The Chemistryof Hydrogen (46 pp); (6) The Oxygen Chemistry ~
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of Major Group Elements (115 pp); (7) Binary Halides and Oxyhalides (50 pp); (8) Same Binary Chemistry of the Transitional Elements (36 pp); (9) Coordination Compounds (17 pp); (10) The Solid State (52 pp); and (11) What Else Is There? (10 pp)a brief consideration of the many areas of inorganic chemistry not detailed in the book. In keeping with the author's emphasis on visualization, the volume is replete with 81 figures and 134 tables. Each chapter concludes with several thought-provoking questions in a section titled "Self Service," and the hook concludes with a detailed 26page index. With the exception of one tahle, no references are included, hut the text is a student-oriented one, and how many students make use of references? Sanderson rejects the new IUPAC system of numbering periodic tahle groups, hut he presents its pros and cons and uses his own system of primes and asterisks and of designating main and transitional groups by M and T, respectively [Sanderson, R. T. J. Chem. Edue. 1964,41,187; Chem.Eng. News June 15,1987,65(24), 21. He also uses prime Arahie numerals to designate oxidation numbers. The hook lucidly explains many impor&t and familiar facts of descriptive inorganic chemistry, e.g., the existence of air as a gas rather than as a mixture of polymeric nitrogen and oxygen, why carbon dioxide is gaseous while silicon dioxide is solid, why fluorine seems anomalous, why carhonic acid is unstable, why the nitrogen oxides differ so much fromthe oxides of the heavier Group 5 elements, why chemical elements occur principally as compounds, why the higher oxidation states of some first-row transitional elements are less stable than those of heavier elements of these groups, and why and how protonic and hydridic hridging differ. The book contains a few minor errors in nomenclature such as ethylene diamine for ethylenediamine, ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid for ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (p 399), and dicyclopentadienyl iron for his(cyc1opentadienyl)ironlI1) lo .. 4661.. Thid book may not be everyone's cup of tea. However, the instructor dissatisfied with current textbooks who is looking for a novel approach to inorganic chemistry from a systematic, consistent, and unified point of view should carefully consider this unusual textbook. which revresents a distillation of more than 50 year'erperience of a dedicated and experienced chemical educator. George B. Kauffman California State University, Fresno ~~
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Organic Chernlstry, Second Edition Seyhan Ege. D. C. Heath: Lexington, MA. 1989. uv 1311 pp. Figs. and tables. 21.2 X 26.2 cm.
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This text is written for a full year or more first course in organic chemistry. It suffers from a common malady among organic chemistry texts in that it is composed of 28 chapters and 1200 plus pages. As is true of manv of the texts eurrentlv available in organic chemistry there is no way that the instructor can present nor that the student can comprehend the information covered in the text in a one-year course.
The organization of the f i t part of the book is unique. A great emphasis is placed on developing basic concepts needed in the mastery of organic chemistry. Many mstrudors will find the organization useful, hut those who take a more traditional functional group approach to teaching the suhject will probably object to the fact that alkanes are found in chapter 5. The chapters are well written and easy to read. The "A Look Ahead" section of each chapter gives the reader a brief introduction to what the author intends to do in the chapter. The "Problem-Solving Skills Section" is an excellent teaching idea. The step-by-step analysis of synthesis problems allows the student to learn firsthand how organic chemists think through the preparation of an organic compound. Stating reaction conditions aids the student's understanding of the reactions. The problems in and a t the end of each chapter are fairly standard fare. A nice addition to the book would have been the inclusion of answers to a t least some of the assigned problems. The "table" of reaetiona at the end of chapters in which a functional group is discussed is useful, hut somewhat too detailed. The use of four colors in the printing of this text does make it more attractive than a traditional black and white format. The shading to show planes of symmetry in chapter 6 is very effective. In the reviewer's opinion, the publisher could have done a better job of making the colors more vivid. There are several similar texts with better use of color. In an attempt to develop a unique format the author has made some changes which may not fit into traditional organic chemistry courses. For example, the chapter on acids and hases seems rather lengthy. There is no doubt that the discussions of acids and hases are imvortant: however, this much detail in an introductory text seems unnecessary. Delaying the discussion of aromatic chemistry until chapter 19 does not add to the flow of the text. Synthesis of aromatic compounds should he covered with aromatic chemistry or a t least in the next chapter. In this text three chapters separate these two related topics. In the reviewer's opinion, the author's goal of designing a text that does not require the student to develop an "encyclopedic knowledge" of reactions has not been met. Most of the synthesis problems do require such an "encyclopedic knowledge" of organic reactions. The "table" section at the end afthe chapters reinforces the apparent comnlexitv and number of reactions. ' hi; text will he of rea at interest to those instructors who are seeking a new approach t o teaching organic chemistry. However, the student using this text may not benefit from the unique format presented. Joe C. Greever Delta State Universlky Cleveland, MS 38733 Biochernlstry, Third Edition Frank 8. Armstrong. Oxford Unlverslty 675 Press: New Ywk, NY, 1989. u l i l pp. Figs. and tables. 21.2 X 24.2 cm. $47.50 HBIS23.95 PB.
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The third edition of this textbook cantinues the evolution in content and limited increase in size observed in the second edition six years ago. The orifinal purpose of the ~
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