WHAT INERT GAS HAS...
L E T T E R S Which Chemistry Teachers Are Interested in Teaching? DEAR SIR:
So much has been said and written about the relationship between com petent teaching and active participa tion in research that some pertinent facts might at least provoke thought. I found such facts by comparing three recent lists of chemist-teachers. One was the 1961 list of members of the ACS Division of Chemical Education. A second was the 1961 Directory of Graduate Research in Chemistry, Bio chemistry, and Chemical Engineering. The third was the annual book list published last September in the Journal of Chemical Education. One might reasonably suppose that ACS members would choose to affili ate themselves with those divisions in which they have special professional interest. For example, an organic chemist working on elastomers might well belong to both the Division of Organic Chemistry and the Division of Rubber Chemistry. Yet of the more than 3800 teachers listed in the Di rectory of Graduate Research, only about 321, or a little more than 8%, are members of the Division of Chem ical Education. Could this possibly mean that over 907c of the chemistry faculty who are involved in training of graduate as well as undergraduate students are not especially interested in their teaching duties? I think not, for I am personally acquainted with many researchers who are fine and dedicated teachers and who are not members of the Division of Chemical Education. But it is something to think about. A comparison of the Division of Chemical Education membership with the list of authors of chemistry text books is equally interesting. I counted only the authors of general chemistry textbooks, about 106 authors. Only 43, or 4 1 % , of these authors are mem bers. Nonmembers include some of our most successful authors. Could something other than an interest in chemical education have inspired these authors to perform their labors? Not necessarily; I doubt if anyone would do all that work if not enough interested in chemical education to want to contribute to it. But again, it is thought-provoking.
One final figure: About 16% of the membership of the Division of Chemi cal Education is included in the Di rectory of Graduate Research. R. T.
SANDERSON
Iowa City, Iowa
Atom Bomb Story DEAR SIR:
The review of "The New World, 1939-1946," a book by Hewlett and Anderson (C&EN, Nov. 12, 1962, page 72) mentions that the atom bomb project was "instigated" by a letter from Dr. Einstein to President Roosevelt in October 1939. This ap pears to imply that the project origi nated with this letter. The same state ment has been made in a number of places before and seems to have be come . . . established. . . . My recollection of the bomb story which was first made public was that work on the bomb was initiated in England and that completion of the work there with U.S. help was seri ously considered, but because of the danger of facilities being bombed out it was decided to transfer large-scale work to the U.S. The Smyth Report, pages 52 and 53, says that beginning in 1940 there was some exchange of information with the British indicating that they must already have done sub stantial work on the project. Ex changes by Cockcroft and Fowler, visits of Oliphant to the U.S. and of Pegram and Urey to England in 1941 when they "confirmed and extended" information already received, are also noted. Again on page 68, Fowler's further contacts with the British are referred to, and on pages 70 and 71 Pegram and Urey report that, at the time of their visit to England, exten sive work on diffusion had been done by the British. . . . Would it not be more accurate historically to make clear that Dr. Einstein's letter assured continuation on a grand scale in the United States of work already instigated and initi ated in England? It is perhaps also possible that this would conform better to the sentiment expressed by the old Chinese proverb "If you wish your merit to be known acknowledge that of others." EDWARD F.
Baton Rouge,
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