Chemical Education Today edited by
Book & Media Reviews
Jeffrey Kovac University of Tennessee Knoxville, TN 37996-1600
Encyclopedia of Analytical Science, Second Edition edited by Paul Worsfold, Alan Townshend, and Colin Poole Elsevier Academic: San Diego, 2005. 10 volumes, ISBN 0127641009. $4570 reviewed by Robert Q. Thompson
When I was asked to review the 10-volume Encyclopedia of Analytical Science the task seemed impossible, like “numbering sands and drinking oceans dry” as Shakespeare put it. Reading all 5000 pages or so would certainly wreak havoc on my busy spring semester, so I decided to use the review to my advantage and to read just those sections of the encyclopedia that were pertinent to the courses I was teaching. The courses were: Trace Analysis, an advanced analytical chemistry course for chemistry majors, and Chemistry and Crime, a forensic chemistry class for non-specialists. I hoped the sampling would be reasonably representative and revealing. The analytical course began with a discussion of general aspects of and approaches to trace analysis and then examined five major analytical techniques: anodic stripping voltammetry (ASV), atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS), spectrofluorometry, mass spectrometry (MS), and capillary electrophoresis (CE). The encyclopedia covered all of these topics well. For instance, the section on MS–MS methods was complete (it discusses selected reaction monitoring, precursor ion scanning, and constant neutral loss scanning), current (mentions atmospheric pressure photoionization in the LC–MS section), and detailed (lists reactions with a reagent gas that lead to negative ion formation). My reading provided both review and new information, such as the fact that negative chemical ionization may best distinguish the spectra of isomers through differences in proton affinities and reactivities. For nearly all of the major analytical techniques, an overview is followed by a chapter on principles and then several chapters that describe applications. Take fluorescence as an example. The encyclopedia devotes about 100 pages to the subject, beginning with a helpful overview that includes briefs on principles, applications, instrumentation, and methods. Then each of several important methods is described in greater detail—multi-dimensional methods, time-resolved fluorescence, fluorescence labeling, and derivatization. Finally,
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the discussion turns to applications, in this case clinical, environmental, and food applications. I was pleased to note the focus on current methodology with coverage that includes quantum dots, molecular beacons, and green fluorescent protein. Throughout the encyclopedia, most of the end-of-chapter literature references are from 1995 to 2003, including some URLs. My forensic science course dealt with some important criminal cases—Kennedy assassination and OJ Simpson case—and important societal issues—drinking and driving and drug testing. The encyclopedia supported most of these topics, including DNA profiling, polymerase chain reaction, drug screening in sport, fingerprint techniques, neutron activation analysis, and alcohol in body fluids. It helped that the editors and authors are international. I learned that blood alcohol to breath alcohol ratios vary among countries—2100 in Germany and the U.S., 2000 in Japan, and 2300 in the UK, and I learned that a subset of the 13 short tandem repeats adopted for DNA profiling in the U.S. are obligatory in Europe. Both were answers to questions raised in class. (Thanks to the encyclopedia my course questionnaires may be more glowing this semester!) A short (half-page) but illuminating section on the recent development of single nucleotide polymorphism kits for DNA profiling is another example of the currency of the work. The editors should be congratulated for maintaining a fairly uniform writing style and common organization in the set of 550 articles contributed by about 300 authors. Volume 10 is more than an excellent index; it also contains a table of contents, a list of contributors, and some very useful appendixes (e.g. properties of particles, elements, and nuclides). I have few complaints. While studying ASV and other electrochemistry topics, I failed to find mention of Osteryoung square wave or much on any other square wave methods, and isobutene was used interchangeably with isobutane as a chemical reagent gas for GC–MS. On the whole, though, the encyclopedia appears to be almost entirely devoid of typographical and content errors, and the topics list is nearly exhaustive. I strongly recommend the Encyclopedia of Analytical Science for a reference shelf near you. Our first edition in the Oberlin science library has seen lots of use, and the second edition should see the same. The benefit to faculty and students, both undergraduate and graduate, will be more than worth the price. Robert Q. Thompson is in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH 44074;
[email protected] Vol. 82 No. 9 September 2005
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