used only for the initial part of the program. Many students found this introduction to be annoying and wished that the program would boot directly to the main menu. The authors do not claim that the software will tutor students in TLC methodology. TLC principles would have to be explained using other methods of instruction. This piece of software is a viable alternative to typical labs in undergraduate chemistry on TLC. It does allow the student to use more plates and fully explore the determination of an unknown amino acid. The time required is of the order of three to five minutes per plate with most students requiring three to eight plates per determination. With less time required as compared to an actual lab, the program does allow the student to practice the logic involved in thinlayer chromatography. Students' skills and laboratory techniques would still be lacking unless they had seen actual chromatograms and could relate the simulation to the real apparatus. Students who had done a traditional TLC lab exercise on amino acids appreciated the time compression provided by the software package. As one student stated. "The two minutes for the simulated plate development sure beats the two hours of waiting in the laboratory". The program does not give complete coverage of analysis of amino acids using TLC, but the primary emphasis of the software is on the development of logic skills in thin-layer chromatography. I feel that the program accomplishes this objective well.
Ernest Ferguson Southwest Baptist University Bolivar, MO 65613
G. J. Marco, R. M. Hollingworth, and W. Durham, Editors. American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1987. xviii 214 pp. Figs. and tables. 15.1 X 22.7 cm. $29.95 HB, $17.95 PB.
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In 1962 Silent Spring, the classic environmental book of our time, which warned of the dangers of pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals to all life on our planet, appeared. (See Bill Kieffer's editorial, J. Chem. Educ. 1963,40(2), 53.) It led to much discussion and controversy among both scientists and the general public and resulted in the U.S. Congress's establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency. So great was the influence of this landmark volume on our everyday lives that its author, the late American author and marine biologist Rachel Carson (1907-1964), was recently honored by having her portrait appear on a 17$ U.S. postage stamp. Now, 25 years later, the American Chemical Society has published Silent Spring Revisited, based on a symposium sponsored by the Pesticide Subcommittee of the Committee on Environmental Improvement "to address the issues that Rachel Carson raised and focus on their pertinence for the past,
Journal of Chemical Education
tive ion complexation; the rationale for the design of superstructure macrocycles capable of altering the properties of coordinated iron and cobalt to permit the binding of dioxygen; the rationale for the design of new cyclic reagents that have predetermined properties, enabling them to interact selectively with "heavy metal" cations; the rationale for the design of calixarenes-macrocycles that afford the opportunity to build "molecular baskets" capable of interacting with both ions and molecules in enzyme-like fashion; and a coordinated, theoretical-synthetic rationale for the design of artificial ionosphores based on the use of nonactin, enniatin, and valinomycin as models.
Titles of Interest
Chemical Reactor Design, A Volume in the Wiley Series in Chemical Engineering E. B. Nauman. Wiley: New York, NY, 1987. xxx 426 pp. Figs. and tables. 16.6 X 24 cm. $53.70.
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Seven Clues to the Origin of Life, A Scientific Detective Story A. G. Cairns-Smith. Cambridge University Press: New York, NY, 1987. xii 131 pp. 13.2 X 21.5 cm. PB $8.95.
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Continuing Series
Advances in Heterocyclic Chemistry. Volume 40
Silent Spring Revisited
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present, and future". This 12-chapter book by 20 experienced and knowledgeable authorities from government agencies (eight from t h e EPA), universities, medical schools, and industrial corporations reports that almost all the problems explored by Carson are currently in some stage of correction. Technologies are now evaluated in terms of benefits versus risks, rather than on the basis of benefits alone, and concerns about the effects of pesticides on health have led to improved analytical procedures and instrumentation and to a carefully managed approach to pesticide development involving chemical design, controlled formulation, and use, all with human safety in mind. This balanced volume presents both sides of the debate concerning the dangers and benefits of pesticides and the conflict of values between high agricultural production and environmental costs. This provocative book is easy to read and understand; nine of the chapters are provided with glossaries, and an appendix lists 51 pesticides by trade or common name, chemical class, and principal use. Thoroughly up-to-date, including references as late as 1986, it should combat the chemophobia rampant in today's society. As such, it should be of interest to science instructors, environmental scientists, government administrators, and concerned citizens. George B. Kauffman California State University, Fresno Fresno, CA 93740
Alan R. Katritzky, Editor. Academic Press: Orlando, FL, 1986. viii 4- 320 pp. Figs. and tables. 15.5 X 23.4 cm. $85.00.
The questions concerning the origin of life are full of paradoxical difficulties as well as clues and red herrings. To disentangle these can lead to a new view of the whole problem. This book about how life may have arisen on the Earth is written as a detective story, relying on the methods of Sherlock Holmes -especially on Holmes's principle that one should use the most paradoxical features of a case to solve it. Much of this book is devoted to seeking out, and making as stark as possible, the difficulties in the "Case of the Origin of Life on the Earth", a technique often used by that great detective.
Synthesis of Macrocycles, The Design of Selective Complexing Agents. Progress in Macrocyclic Chemistry. Volume I1 Reed M. Izatt and James J. Christensen, Editors. Wiley: New York, NY, 1987. xi 447 pp. Figs. and tables. 15.8 X 23.9 cm. $59.95.
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This monograph describes state-of-theart strategies and procedures in molecular design, citing specific work examples from the current literature reflecting the thought processes that led them to the creation of new molecules for particular uses. Extensively illustrated throughout, it presents a member of important general strategies: fundamental concepts that must precede the design of macrocycles capable of selec-
Genes, Third Edition Benjamin Lewin. Wiley: New York, NY, 1987. xx 761 pp. Figs. and tables. 21.1 X 24.2 cm.
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The third edition of this book, like its predecessors, is intended to provide a coherent view of genetics from the perspective of the gene. A summary of current knowledge in molecular biology, the volume reflects a rethinking of the view of genetics as a whole in the light of recent discoveries and techniques. In the authors view, the study of genetics now essentially means dealing with DNA.
