Introduction to Modern Inorganic Chemistry, (Mackay, KM; Mackay, RA)

Introduction to Modern Inorganic Chemistry, Third Edition (Mackay, K. M.; Mackay, R. A.). J. J. Zuckerman. J. Chem. Educ. , 1985, 62 (7), p A206...
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Starting with the chapter on acids and bases, students are drawn in by increasing references to their own lives and experiences. By the end of the first third of the hook, this approach is firmly in place far the remainder of the text, permitting substantial chapters on organic chemistry, polymers, foods and food additives, air and water, household chemicals, cosmetics, legal and illegal drugs, and toxicology. Absent from the hook are a numher of topics commonly found in other texts. Among these are the gas laws, chemical equilibrium, solutions, and the topics often classified as "baby P-ehem." Equation balancing and stoichiometry are treated in a most ahhreviated fashion. Thermodynamic and kinetic concepts are examined extremely briefly, although the implications of both catalysis and the first and second laws are made sufficiently available t o permit their application in subsequent chapters. Errors are few and not very serious-a flawed structure or a misspelled word here and a reference to the previous edition there. I was disappointed with the sloppy use of "cyanide" in the toxicology chapter, however. End-of-chanter orohlems remain unmadmarwe, hut c ompirte answers are provrded in both a Study (;uidr and an Instrucwr ofolr. tor's Gu~dr.'Ph~formerconta~n~n jeetives for each chapter with far too many m few "he able &'s." "know t h a e ' s " and t A laboratory manual is available. This hook is eneaeinelv written with ma,. . . trriai seirctrd to gmsp and maintain the non-majur's attenrwn. For a course directed toward generating scientitirally rarpunible college graduates, i t deserves serious consideration. Quentin R. Petersen Central Michigan University Mt. Pleasant. MI 48859

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Applesofl BASIC: A Teach-Yourself introduction B. M Peake. John Mclndoe Limited. Dunedin. New ieaiand, 1984. 126 pp.. Figs. and tables. 15.2 cm X 21 cm. "Applesoft BASIC" is an introduction t o BASIC programming for the Apple I1 Plus and Apple IIe microcomputers. The use of this book requires very little knowledge about programming, as stated in the foreword. I t is designed t o teach the fundamentals of the Annlesoft BASIC laneuaee. ...Z pplesoit HASIC':'IS Gmnged in order of increasing complexity. Chapter I d~acrilws how to use the Apple I1 microcomput~rsystem: irum t h e i m o f f w i t c h to thr kevhonrd. Chaoterq 2 and R n,wr the nimule HASlC stakments, such as numbers,. variables, arithmetic onerators. and assienment statemcnta, and how to inmrporatr those statrmenu int*,a running pngram. Chapters 4.5, and 6 arr concerncd with looping, arrays, ~

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A206

Journal of Chemical Education

character strings, formats, and multi-statement lines. Chapter 7 is devoted to functions and subroutines. Chapter 8 exemplifies the has~csof aranhies, hut, as stated in the foreword, is 'bomewhat independent of the remainder of the text" and is merely an introduction to some basic ideas. The hook also contains Appendices covering the peripheral devices. One feature of "Applesoft BASIC" is the inclusion of numerous exercises a t the end of most sections. Answers to many of the exercises are given in an Appendix. In mv, aoinion. the author accomnlishes what heselvout todo. Hr hns witten"atext to introduce student* with i ~ t t l e o no r background in pny,ramming w usmg the Apple I I Plus microcomputer system." Amy Zeilinger Eastm Michigan University Ypsilanti, MI 48197

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Continuina Series

Afflnlly Chromatography, Template Chromatography of Nucleic Acids a n d Proteins: Chromatographic S c i e n c e Serles, Volume 27 Herbert Schon, Marcel Dekker, Inc.. New York. NY. 1984. x 256 pp. Figs. and tables. 16 X 23.5 cm. $49.50.

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List of Contents: Immobilization of Nucleoside Phosphates, Nucleosides, and Nucleohases; Immobilization of Oligonucleotides; Immobilization of Polynucleotides and Nucleic Acids; Chromatography of Oligonucleotides; Isolation of DNA and Its Fragments; Isolation of RNA; Isolation of Messenger RNA; Isolation of Proteins; Enzymic Synthesis or Degradation of Polynucleotides Using Polymer-Bound Primers, Templates, or Substrates; Studies of Peptide-Nucleotide Interactions

Chemistry, Third Edition K. M. Mackay, and R. A. Mackay. International Textbook Co.. London. England, Distributed by International Ideas, lnc. Philadelphia, PA, 1984. xiv 349 pp. Figs and tables. 21.8 X 27.5 cm. $24.00 PB.

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With distinguished committees of elders in the learned societies calling for curricular reform in inorganic chemistry, one semester, nost-freshmen level courses are beeinnine - - to appear a t most American universities to meet the challenge. The question of what t o teach the students enrolled in such courses exercises the leaders in the discipline, who bewail the plight that now confronts them a t periodic symposia organized t o elicit the answer. Is i t to be Cause and Theorv or Result and Fact? Principles or descriptive chemistry? The challenge must first he met by the teath w k writers who can shape curriculum most directly. Authors and publishers entering the fast moving currently do so a t their peril since no one can predict the future situation with certainty. Now Mackay and Mackay enter the fray with the third edition of their popular text [seeTHlSJOURNAL,47,A229 (1910) for my review of the first edition]. This British-based hook (the Scottish husband and wife team of authors were educated a t Cambridge and now live in New Zealand) first aooeared in 1968with a second edition in 1 9 l i . ' ~ h elaree-format hut slim rurtlwund trat is rnst at a level which would make it ideal for a me-reme-ter post-frrshman course as is currently being recommended by leading inorganic chemists as a response t o the dictates of the American Chemical Society Committee on Professional Trainine. The tone. readine level. and necessit). tor prerrquisite knowledge placr the mnterinldiscuwed in rhiswxr p t o u w i d e t h e scope of the traditional trcshmnn curriculunl, and, hence, appropriate for the average American sophomore. The pedagogy is, however, clearly on the side of Cause and Theory rather than the firmer ground of Result and Fact. J. J. Zuckerman University of Oklahoma Norman. OK 73019 ~~

Catalyst Polsoning: Chemical Industries Series, Volume 17 L. Louis Hegedus, and Robert W. McCabe, Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, NY, 1984. vii-114 pp. Figs. 15.8 X 23.5 cm. $39.75 US: $47.50 F. List of Contents: Mechanism and Kinetics; Intra- and Interparticle Transport Effects: Desien of Poisan-Resistant Catalvsts:

Methods In Molecular Biology, Volume 1: PROTEINS John M. Walker, (Editor). The Humana Press, Inc., Clifton, NJ, 1984. xii-384 pp. Figs. and tables. 16 X 23.5 cm. $45.00. List of Contributors: G. S. Bailey; Graham B. Divall; Wim Gaastra; Keith Gooderham; Makoto Kimura; Per Klemm; Harry R. Matthews; E. L. V. Mayes; Jeffrey W. Pollard; Bryan J. Smith; John M. Walker; Jaap H. Waterborg; Brigitte WittrnannLiehold; J. N. Woad

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M a s s Transfer: Fundamentals a n d Applications Anthony L. Hines and Robert N. Maddox, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ. 1985. xiii 542 pp. Figs. and tables. 16 X 23.5 cm. $37.95. (International Series in the Physical and Chemical Engineering Sciences)

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