BOOK REVIEWS Oudify Science for Secondary Schools
Prepared by a committee of the National Science Teachers Association. Nat,iond Science Teachers Association, 1201 16th St., N. W., Washington 6, D. C., 1960. 210 pp. 15.5 X 23.5 cm. 8 per single copy. This hook contains a, series of reporte prepared by the National Assnciatian of Secondary School Principals with the help of the NSTA. Written hy outstanding science educators, the reports attempt "to define the kinds of attitudes and understandings that science teachers need if they are to engage effectively in planning and directing improvements in science programs." The high 8school principal, as the chief school sdministrator, must understand these attitudes if he is t o maintain his role a8 educational leader. His thinking must not he limited to the traditional high school science areas hut must encompass the total K-12 seience program. Finally, the school sdministrabor must also consider those area8 that "influence or duplicitte parts of the science program," for example, social studies and health education. The reports &re gene~.dy brief but not parallel in treatment. Each of the major divisions of t,he K-12 organization is treated in terms of ohjertives and guiding principles for the improvement of the science program. Current trends in the high school science areas are included in the discussion. The role of laboratory experimentation and the use of audi*visusl materiala me also evaluated. A complete chapter is devoted to the ar~demically talented in seience. Unlike some of our educational materials that deal with prohlems in vacuum, this volume is alive t o the pressures canfrontiog science programs in a postSputnik era. I t is written by practicing teachers rather than by theoreticians. Thus, it provides the school administrator wit,h a wealth of practical suggestions for enhancing his sciener program. Skillfully set up in bold-face type, under the heading "A Tip For Administrators,'' these suggestions are most effectively presented. Considerable documentation and bibliography will afford the moE serious reader many opportunities far further study. The hook is small and compact enough to attract the busiest sdministrator. Two areas of science instruction have not been emphasized sufficiently for our school administrators. No seience program can he effective and meaningful without sufficient labboratory time, especially in the high schools. The sdministratar must espouse a science program dedicated to a douhle laboratory period and four or five additional instructional periods. The alarming emphasis on the seience project, not as an instrument of the pupil's self-expression and development, hut rather as a source of publicity for the school may well he attributed to the efforts of over-zeallous and misguided (Continued m page A557)
A554
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Journal of Chemical Education
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BOOK REVIEWS administrators. Science fairs and talent searches have yet t o prove to be the sole criteria for evaluating the effectiveness
school administrator. Thereare toomany books there already. Instead, its contents should be an integral part of his qualifications and training.
SAULL. GEFFNER Toleest Hills High Schol Forest Hills. N w York
An Algorithm for Translating Chemical Names to Molecular Formulas
Eugae Gal.field, Institute for Scientific Information, Philsdelphia. Institute for Scientific Information, Philadelphia, 1961. ix 68 pp. Tables. 21.5 X 28 cm. SF.
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This monograph, which is derived from s doctoral dissertation in linguistics, explains an algorithm which may be used to calculate the molecular formula to an organic compound from its chemioel name. The use of this algorithm, upon numerous examples both manually and with an electronic digital computer, illustrates the ~rinciplesand techniques involved.
The paper begins with s discussion of the nature and usage of systematic chemical nomenclature and of the problems of representing chemical structures. The author speaks with knowledge on these matters from his experience as editor of the "Index Chemicus." The linguistir approach to the prohlem is then explained. I n this case this means the study of a large body of chemical names and isolating by this method the basic units of the English language that are used in chemical nomenclature. These units, termed morphemes, are rather less than words and are rather more syllabic in character. The meanings, and relationships, and implications toward molecular formulas, of these morphemes are then studied and an inventory list of 60 such terms presented. Examples are: "aYaa used in ethanal. Implies the presence of one oxygen atom and one double band. "Yne"-ss used in butyne. Implies no atoms, but, doos imply the equivalent of two double bonds. These implications are termed the dictionary or eslculation values of the morpheme. Even within this s m d l lint (which was derived from relatively restricted classes of organic campounde) different classes of morphemes appear, such as bonding, multiplicative, and synomic ( a h ) morphemes. In addition various ambiguities exist and must he recognized and properly treated within the framework of the algorithm. The pentmct ambiguity (ituthor's terms) is a case in point. The
ambiguity here may be illustrated by the name: penta chloro pmtane I t is obvious that here the two uses of the morpheme "pent," have different meanings and are derived from different sources. The algorithm itself is a set of eight rules for systematically recognizing the morphemes in 8 name and substituting for the morphemes their dictionary values in a. multiplying and summing formula. This formula gives the atoms of carbon, of nitrogen, of oxygen and of sulfur, in the molecular formula when the indicated arithmetic is carried out. The hydrogen atoms are then calculated by a separate formale using the indicated atoms and the double bond values from the morphemes. The derivation, in part, of these formulas from previous published work of Soffer (Scimce. 127: 880, 1958) is acknowledged. The paper is very interesting from several standpoints. I t does illustrate the advantages of an interdisciplinary approach to what many might consider strictly a chemical problem, and it does open the door s little wider for the entrance of the computer into these problem itreas. There is no doubt that thousrtnds of compounds of considerable complexity can be G U C C ~ S S ~processed UII~ by the procedures so far devised. The reviewer doubts that m y sizeble fraction of the (Continued on page A558)
Volume 39, Number 7, July 1962
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