NEWS
Royce Murray Chosen Editor of ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY Royce W. Murray, Kenan Professor of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina, has been formally selected as the new Editor of ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY. AS of
January 1, Murray will succeed George Morrison of Cornell University, who has held the editorship for the past 11 years. Murray said he accepted the editorship because he feels a responsibility toward the discipline. "My chief priority is to take a JOURNAL that has a very strong tradition in publishing good science, publish even more good science, and attract an even wider circle of the best scientists as authors." He defines analytical chemistry as measurement science: "The intellectual turf of analytical chemistry cuts across all the disciplines." Murray is an internationally known electrochemist who recently was honored with the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Award in Electrochemistry and who will receive the ACS Award in Analytical Chemistry next year (see September 1 NEWS). He also has been active within the ACS, serving as an ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY Advisory Board member, as a councilor of the Division of Analytical Chemistry; and, until recently, as a member of the ACS Committee on Publications. Murray inherits a JOURNAL that has changed significantly during George Morrison's tenure as Editor. Under Morrison the JOURNAL has gone from a monthly to a semimonthly publication, instituted Associate Editors, initiated "Perspectives" to attract papers on analytical biotechnology, increased the number of A-page articles, launched an effort to attract research articles from abroad, and faced an increasingly competitive publication market. "The JOURNAL is strong," says Murray, "and it is viewed as the strongest in the field."
Spiders Spin Webs of Deceit To lure insects, common garden spiders weave into their webs flower-like patterns that are visible only in UV light. The patterns, which are shown in the accompanying photo graph, zigzag across the web, mimicking the UV reflectance from such flowers as daisies and marsh marigolds. The rest of the entrapping spider web is spun from a nonreflective silk, ensuring that prey will see only the duplicitous flower pattern. The UV-reflecting silk was discovered by Catherine Craig of Yale University. Gary Bernard, a vision specialist at the University of Washington, has also become involved in the project. Their studies have focused on Argiope ar-
gentata, a garden spider about 7 cm in length that is found as far north as Florida. In controlled experiments, they observed that spider webs inter cepted around 60% more insects per hour when the UV decoration was present than did webs where the pattern was removed. Further more, because the spider's body also reflects UV light, the spider's presence helps to attract prey. The floral patterns spun by Argiope are larger than the actual flowers, possibly to attract insects from greater dis tances. In addition, the web decorations vary among indi vidual spiders and many create new designs with each new web. This behavior is believed to have evolved from primitive spiders that spun only UV-bright silks. Because some in sects can detect and avoid webs spun with UV-bright silk as thin as 1 μιη in diameter, evolution favored garden spi ders that introduced nonreflective material. The flower patterns then solved the problem of attracting insects to the nearly invisible webs.
Nominations Sought for Hirschfeld Award Nominations are requested for the Tomas Hirschfeld Award in Near-Infrared Analysis, sponsored by Bran + Luebbe. The award consists of $3000, a plaque, and paid expenses to the 1991 Pittsburgh Conference and Exposi tion. The nominee must be a graduate or postgraduate stu dent at a North American institution conducting unique work in the field. A letter of recommendation, curriculum vitae, publication reprints, and supporting documents de scribing current and planned research should be sent to Roy Weedon, Bran + Luebbe, 103 Fairview Park Dr., Elmsford, NY 10523-1500 (914-524-8000; FAX 914-5248080). Deadline is October 15.
For Your Information The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published the first of a series of books discuss ing chemical instrumentation for researchers unfamiliar with experimental chemistry. The Basics of Chemical In strumentation, Vol. 1—Sépara tion Methods discusses molecular properties involved in separations, GC, HPLC, SFC, and electrophoresis. For more information, contact the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA 22161.
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 62, NO. 19, OCTOBER 1, 1990
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