This booklet and its accompanying instructor's manual promise to hasten the day when the chemical education warid realizes the challenge thrown down to them hy Dr. Libby.
BOOK Rmdioirotope Experiments for the Chemistry Curriculum
Prepared for the Office of Isotopes Development United States Atomic Energy Commission by Nuclear-Chicago Corporation. Edited by N o r m a n R d i n , Sorthaestern University, Evanston IIlinaip. Figs. and tables. 21 X 27 cm. Paperhoond. Readers may obtain one copy free on request to Nuclear-Chicc~go Corporation, 333 East Howard Avenue, Des Plaines, Illinois. Multiple copies can be purchased a t 52.00 per copy, plus $1.00 per copy for instructor's notes. .4vailahle also from the Officeof Technical &vices, Kashington 25, D.C. Willard S. Libby challenged chemistry teachers severel gears ago to make the use of radioisotopes in the classroom as eommonplace as theuseof the balance. Eamest teachers of chemistry have been writing in the pages of TEIs JOURNAL reports of their own laboratory experiences with radioisotopes in a n attempt to fulfill this challenge. The advent of this booklet, Radioisotope Experiments for the Chemistry Curriculum, promises to quicken the pace with whieh this rhallenge is met for any teacher who avails himself of its lucidly presented directions. The real road block to wider introduetion of radioisotope experiments in t h e chemistry curriculum has been the absence of radioisotope experiments that teach fundan~ental chemical principles rather than illustrate phynics of isotopes. Radin and his group through this publication push aside this road block by presenting a series of experiments whieh incorporate rsdioisotope procedures to bring out basic chcmieal ideas. They recognize plainly that new techniques must find their --a?
-Reviewed
ROBERTH. XAI-BURY-
REVIEWS into the chemistry curriculum, not so much by pushing out important basic material or by being crowded into the chinks between the classical material, but by being utilized as means for presenting fundanentals. This they have achieved to a. remarkable degree through their efforts to create radiochemical experiments suitable for all chemistry courses. Inevitably in any collection of experiments a certain amount of unevenness can be expected. There are teachers who will pass over some of the suggested experiments in this booklet considering them less informative for the student than the corresponding classical experiments. On t,he other hand every instructor should find here a t least one experiment which represents a distinct improvement over any possible classical procedure. For example, by employing an isotopic analysis technique for the determination of phosphate in rock, ca-precipitation is minimized and t h e time for the experiment is cut considerably. In the section on organic chemistry, radioisotope procedures provide insight into mechanisms as an added dividend of their employment. Some foresight is required in this matter of introducing rttdioisotope experiments into the curriculum. Sample preparation techniques, fundamentals of nuclear physics, and acquaintance with the counting apparatus are necessary preliminaries to the successful conduct of these experiments. Just how these preliminaries can be worked out for a class tax the ingenuity, the patience and the resomcefulness of n teacher. "Radioisotope Experiments for the Chemistry Curriculum" provides one very real assist in the form of ten preliminary experiments on GM counting, calibration, and sample preparation procedures.
in This Issue
Sorn~anRadin, Editor, Radioisotope Experiments for the Chemistry Curriculnm Mog-ntis Pyke, About Chemistry
Richard D. O ' B & z , Toxic Phosphorous Esters Rudolf Soehtleben and Armin ~ e r & n n ; Von der Alchemie znr Grossynthese. Grosse Chemiker
Islvan Naroy-Szabo, Anorganische Chemi?. Band 1
J . H. de Boer, Editor, The Mechanism of Heterogeneous Catalysis R;land S . I.oung, Editor, Cobalt: Its Chemistry, M e t d u r g y and Uses
C. R. Bwton and H . Sheldon Jackson, Russian for Scientists
University of Redlalids Redlaah, Cal$wnia
About Chemistry
Afagnus Pyke. The Macmillan Co., X e w Park, 1960. viii 219 pp. Figs. and tables. 15 X 22.5 cm. $4.50.
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On the second page of this book tliu author states, " . . .although no one must expect to be able to turn himself or herself into a qualibed chemist by simply reading this book, I think t h a t it is p o s sible a t least to set out the logical process of observation and thinking by which the trained chemist, who is heir to all the scientists who have lived before him, is able to do the things we see him doing today." hleasored by this yardstick the book is, to a large degree, successful. The title, "About Chemistry," describes the book adequately for it is, by any standard, superficial. One should not hesitate to assign it for rezding to a hright seventh grade student. Its greatest value probably will be far junior high or high school students, in spite of the fact that it includes numerous formulas and terms commonly reserved for general chemistry or more advanced chemistry courses. In most respects the subject matter is quite up-to-date. Gas chromatography, Ziegler catalysis for tailored polymers, rhemisorptian, the nature of the DS.4 molecule, ete. are described in modem terminology. In contrast, the d r a ~ ~ i n g s are poorly done, uninspiring, and uninformative. Tho format, type, paper, and kinding are also poor according to Ameriran standards. Many of the British terms will prove amusina - Mention of the - or confusins. elements coiumbium, cassiopeium, and mawriu'm may leave some scientifically literate people wondering when these "new" elements were discovered. A d i s tressing implication is found in the statement made after a description of the operation and use of modern spectrographs " . t h e operation in fact epitomises the basic procedures of science." Statements such as this in a book to be read primarily by young students and laymen create a false image of science which is detrimental to its true understanding. The author ~rovidesseveral excellent examples which emphasize the importance of odserva.tim, reasoning, and capitalizing on the "lucky accident" in seientihe investigation. The story of Griess' discovery of the diaeotizatition process while he was employed in a brewery and the story of the discovery of the techniques necessary for polymerizing ethylene should have beneficial effects on inquiring young minds. After introductory chapters entitled What Chemistry Is All About and m a t Things Are Made Of, the book is composed
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Volume
38, Number 7,July 7967
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379
