"NO!", hut there is a good chance that such a program dealt with the balancing of chemical equations, the subject of the three programs reviewed here. The programs in question, Chemical Reactions (CR), Reactions in Aqueous Solution (RAS) and Oxidation Reduction Reactions (ORR) are ell by the same authors and are availahle separately. Since they share many common features and pedagogical approaches I will discuss them as a package, giving examples from each program where appropriate. The level of chemical sophistication expected from the student increases from program t o program in the order above. Taken together, the three programs cover the balancing of chemical equations a t the level expected for students completing a year of college level introductory chemistry. Many college level courses that require one or more years of high school chemistry as prerequisites will assume that students are familiar with the suhject matter of these programs; consequently, they could he used in both the high school and college courses. All three programs use a common user interface, one that is fairly easy to master, and which is the suhject of a tutorial session on each of the disks. Unlike many programs dealing with equation balancing, these programs have very strict requirements regarding the use of super- and subscripts. Suhscripts, where required, are entered using the function keys; F1 for a subscript of 1etc. Superscripts are entered with a combination of the Alt key and a number of + or - as appropriate, e.g., AM, Alt+ for the superscript an calcium ion. Ions with more than one unit of charge must he mitten with the magnitude preceding the sign of the charge, the currently accepted practice. The screen in each program is divided into a region for the problems statement and an answerlinteraction response area. Each program also comes with a set of tables that can be recalled by the student a t any time. For CR those tables are common cations, common anions, diatomic elements, and common acids and common covalent compounds. RAS includes several of the ahove plus solubility rules and weak electrolytes and partially soluble gases. One of the few points about the chemistry in these programs with which I quihhle is found in the tahle of anions in RAS. The form shown for hypochlorite is OCI-, and that is the only form that the program will accept. A survey of recent introductory and inorganic chemistry texts shows CIO- as the accepted form by a margin of more than 21. Of course one could argue that there are many ways of writing the formulas of various oxyanions depending upon the point that one was trying to make. Any program which deals with formulas should contain asufficiently flexible thesaurus to recognize any acceptable variations an the theme of an ionic formula. The first program in the series, CR, is representative of all three. The user is presented with a menu of initial choices: a tutorialan the use of the keyboard, a tutorial on chemical reactions and five choices of problems: combination reactions, decomposition reactions, replacement reactions, ionic reactions, and general reactions. For each type of problem there are three choices of level: balance the equation given the formulas of reactants and products; given the names of reactants and products, write the formulas
and balance the equation, and given the names of the reactants, predict the products and halance the equation. These multiple levels of balancing are not availahle in the other programs. In RAS the student is asked to write the molecular, total ionic, and net ionic reactions for each equation. If desired one can proceed directly to the net ionic reaction. Choices in CR come from a data hase of 165 equations distributed over 12 categories, four reaction types, and three approaches to writing the equations. In RAS there are 239 different equations, mostly precipitation reactions with afew weakelectrolyte and partially soluble gas reactions. In ORR there are 70 reactions, 50 in acid, and 20 in hase. In CR the category "ionic reactions" is somewhat misleading as what is heing balanced are net molecular reactions, all of the classical double displacement type. In CR there is no requirement to enter the state of the products although that is essential in the other two programs. When an error is made in a problem a messagds) is produced that identifies the source of the errorb) in reactants andlor products and specifies whether a given error is in formula or coefficient. Other error messages include "you have tw many products" etc. In ORR, which uses the half-reaction method, students who tested the program were constantly getting error messages hecause they forgot to put a charge on the electron(s). If the error is repeated so is the messsaee. In some cases the oroeram eventually tffers help hut in athers, such as the charge on the electron, the same error message is repeated ad infinitum. The ESC key calls up a help menu which in the case of CR has the choices of the aforementioned tables, a keyboard review help with reactants or help with products. In the latter two cases the term help is somewhat specious, for the student is given the correct information with no further prodding. A case where students found the error messages somewhat misleading occurred in RAS where the state of the products must he specified. Correct entry of the formula far iron(II1) chromate produces a message "error in formula"when what was missing was the state of the suhstance. After that messaee was reneated three time the correct information wasgiven to the student. The documentation that comes with the program, intended far the instructor, is complete and unambiguous. It includes a listing of the equations in a given program by numher enabling the instructor to assign particular problems. If specific problems are assigned a printout of the numbers of successfully completed problems can he generated before the student leaves the program. My students and I have tried these programs on a variety of computers ranging from a generic IMB PC with cdor monitor toa 16 MHz R02Rfi AT clone. In all cases the programs have worked as advertised. The programs appear as "crash proof' as one can reasonahly expect. The students who used the programs ranged from those having just completed a semester of introductory chemistry toseveral seniors in an advanced inorganic chemistry course. All of them found the programs reasonably easy to use, once the keyboard layout was mastered, and saw that they would he useful at several levels in the eurriculum. The seniors felt that they would
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provide an effective review, prior to the inorganic course, of both equation balancing and some of the descriptive inorganic chemistry they had not seen, and had generally forgotten, since their first year. Students in the introductory chemistry course were also enthusiastic about their use in a course where no lecture time is devoted to this tonic. While agreeing with the students in all respects, and while I would recommend that chemistry departments have these programs available for their students to use, I have several reservations. There is no ohvious way of adding extra equations to the programs. This is particularly problematic in ORR where there are only 70 equations and the difficulty level remains relatively low, hut my concern is applicable to all of the programs. Secondly there is the matter of cost. I find the programs to he relatively expensive and certainly would find it difficult torecommend that any department buy mare than one copy. That alone limits the utility of the programs in very large courses. Finally let me return to the query of the opening paragraph and close with another rhetorical question. Given the time and hardware and software advances since the early CAI programs were written, should we expect more than these programs? While I am not sure of the answer, it seems a point that must he kept in mind whenever such programs are written or reviewed. William F. Coleman Wellesley College Wellesley. MA 02181
Essentials of Medlclnal Chemistry, Second Edltlon Andrejus Korolkovas. Wiley: New Ywk. NY. 1988. xii 1204 pp. Figs. and tables.
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19 X 26 cm. $125.00.
The second edition of Essentials of Medicinal Chemistry by Andrejus Karolkovas is such a major revision of the first edition which was coauthored with Joseph H. Burckhalter in 1976 that it is more nearly a new treatise on the suhject. The first edition was nearly 700 pages. This edition is 1200 pages in length. The reason for the broad reorganization of the material is that the author has onted to use the latest World oharmaeoloeieal clasHealth ~re&ization -~ "~~ ~-~~~~~ aifiration of drugaratierrhan theolderclassification used in the first edition and other texts. He has also included the methods of chemical synthesis for numerous drugs as well as brief historical sketches that were not included in the first edition. The weakest point of the text is an extremelv brief table of contents which consists of one pageof titles fur the 22 chapters. As in the first edition, the first three chapters cover the principles of medicinal chemistry. The remaining 19 chapters cover the various drugs, using the major World Health Organization classification headings. The division of the material according to the major headings of the WHO classification results in a wide divergence of chapter lengths from nine pages for Chapter 14, Gastrointestinal Tract Drugs, to 291 pages for Chapter 16, Antidefective Agents. Internally, Chapter 16 is divided into 18 major topic headings. The brevity of the tahle of contents is more than compensated for by (Continued on page A174)
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Volume 66
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an extensive index which has almost 15,000 entries. Chapter 1has been expanded to include a chronologic table of the more important contributions to medicinal chemistry from Lister's use of phenol as an antiseptic in surgery in 1861 to the present. I t also includes an explanation of the anatomic therapeutic chemical classification (ATC) used in Nordic countries. In the discussion of the nomenclature of drugs, the author gives a fairly comprehensive treatment of t h e Warld Health Organization's rules for devising international nonproprietary names for pharmaceuticals. The criteria for the Warld Health Organization of Essential Drugs and a model list of essential drugs follows therulesof nomenclature in Chapter 1. The chapter concludes with a hihliography of codices, reference works, textbooks and professional journals for medicinal chemistry and related fields. Chapters 2 and 3 are greatly expanded treatments on the development of drugs and the development of drugs and theory of drug action. The remaining 19 chapters are devoted to the description of nearly 5000 pharmaceutical agents. The essential drugs considered to be of greater interest to the medical and pharmaceutical orofessions are covered in detail. This covimge includes the history, the ge. nerir name*, pmpriemry names, the chemical name, obtention, chemical and physical properties, uses, hiotransformations, incompatibilities, bioavailahility, dosage, storage, and assay for each major drug. Each chapter ends with an extensive hihliography divided into sections according to each maior chanter division. Each section starts with current e n t r i e ~and continues in reverse chronological order. The author's intended purpose for this book is as a text in undergraduate and graduate courses in pharmacology and medicinal chemistry as well as a reference for professionals in the fields of medicine, veterinary medicine. dentistrv. He has .. and nharmacv. . succeeded in writing a thorough up-to-date book that fulfills his stated intentions well. Karl F. Kumli Callfanla State University Chico. CA 95929 ~~~
Proflles of Emlnent Amerlcan Chemists RaymondB. Seymourand Charles H. Fish er. Litarvan: Sydney, Australia, 1988; Available from LitaNan Literature. 12949 W. 68th Ave.. ANada. CO 80004. xx 519 pp. 155 portraits. 13.6 X 21.2 cm.
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$29.95.
The American Institute of Chemirta was founded in 1923 to improve puhlic recogniA174
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tion of the chemieal profession. In 1926 it established the AIC Gold Medal, its highest honor and one of the three major awards in American chemistry, "given annually to a person who has stimulated activities of service to the science of chemistry or the profession of chemist or chemical engineer in the United States." Recognizing the need for a more specialized honor, Charles H. Fisher was instrumental in getting the AIC to initiate its annual Chemical Pioneer Program, beginning in 1966, to recognize four "chemists, chemical engineers, and their associates who have made outstanding contributions which have had a major impact on advances in chemical science and industry and/or the chemical profession.. .with an emphasis.. .on creative innovation, often by invention, in the world of chemical technology." The authors of this hook, both Chemical Pioneers themselves-Ray Seymour in 1985 and "Hap" Fisher in 196& have compiled profiles, either original work or based on information from reliable sources, ranging in length from 2 to 7 pages, each accompanied by a portrait, of all 154 AIC Gold Medalists and Chemical Pioneers from the inception of the awards through 1988, arranged alphahetically from Roger Adams to Howard Elliot Zimmerman. Because the authors are or have been personally acquainted with many of the individuals profiled, the biographies go beyond the usual statistics to include intimate, peraonal details on their Lives, families, and nonscientific interests and activities. Although the majority of the awardees are industrial or governmental chemists or chemical entrepreneurs, many prominent academic chemists are featured, including Nobel laureates Herbert C. Brown, Melvin Calvin, Paul J. Flory, Willard F. Lihhy, Linus C. Pauling, Glenn T. Seahorg, and Harold C. Urey. In keeping with sociologist of science Robert K. Merton's Matthew effect (named after St. Matthew 252-"For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance"), most of the hiographees are recipients of numerous other awards; 15 received the National Medal of Science, the highest award given by the United States government, and 14 of the living honorees are members of the National Academies of Sciences or of Engineering. A number of the stories recounted here are of the Horatio Alger, inspirational type. Many of the versatile scientists profiled here were horn during the Great Depression in humble circumstances in small midwestern towns and by dint of hard work and diligence,these admitted workaholics raised themselves to positions of national and international importance. Not all are chemists, e.g., financiers and philanthropists Andrew William Mellon and Richard Beatty Mellon and lawyer and foundation president Francis Patrick Garvan, who made valuable contributions t o the American chemical industry, are included. The one black (Percy Lawn Sherman) and five
Chemical Education
women (Rachel FuUm Brown, Mary Lowe Good, Elizabeth Lee Hazen, Isabella Lugoski Karle, and Stephanie Louise Kwolek) included show that much more progress needs to he made in attracting minorities to the chemical profession. Unlike Wyndham D. Miles' American Chemists and Chemical Engineers (American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1976), all of whose 517 hiographees are deceased, this hook, the first in a series titled "Discovering the Discoverers," includes numerous living scientists. I t reads like a Who's Who of American chemistry with its useful, interesting, and authoritative studies of those remonsible for manv of America'sadvanees in scienceduring the 20th century. Fur a book of its length the error3 are few,mostly typographical, withonly a few of fact ("Teflon" wan named in 1944 nut 1949). Its ertrcmely attractive price makes it a "must" for the personal bookshelf of practicinp. chemist and chcmical cdurntor alike. George B. Kauffman California State University, Fresno Fresno. CA 93740
A Gulde to Materials Characterhation and Chemlcal Analysls John P. Sibilia, Editor. VCH: New York, NY, 1988. x 318 pp. Figs. and tables. 16.2 X 24.2 cm. $34.50.
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Atomic a n d Molecular Beam Methods Giacinto Smles, Editor. Davide Bassi, Udo Buck, and Derek Laine, Associate Editors. Oxford University: New York, NY. 1988. xiii 721 pp. Figs. and tables. 20.2 X 26 cm. $95.00.
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Carbocycle Construction In Terpene Synthesls Tse-Lok Ho. VCH: New York, NY, 1988. viii 768 pp. Tables. 16.5 X 24.3 cm.
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$125.00.
Carbon Dloxlde Actlvatlon b y Metal Complexes Amo Behr. VCH: New York. NY. 1988. xiii 161 pp. Figs. and tables. 17.5 X 24.3 cm. $98.00.
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