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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Journal of Chemical Education
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 h i ~ 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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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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