Media Reviews

The Republican War on Science. Chris Mooney. Basic Books, a Member of the Perseus Books Group: New York, NY, 2005 (http://www.waronscience.com/). ix + 342 pp, hardcover. 16.0 ´ 24.0 cm. $24.95. ISBN 0-465-04675-4; 351 pp, revised and expanded paperback edition. $14.95. ISBN 0465-04676-2.

Chris Mooney, Washington, DC correspondent for Seed, a relatively new popular science magazine, and senior correspondent for The American Prospect, is an investigative journalist specializing in the relationship between science and politics. He speaks regularly at academic meetings, bookstores, university campuses, and other events, and his blog, “The Intersection” [1], received Scientific American’s 2005 Science and Technology web award: “Science is lucky to have such a staunch ally in acclaimed journalist Chris Mooney.” He writes a weekly column for The American Prospect Online [2] and a monthly column for the online Skeptical Inquirer [3], for which he serves as a contributing editor. This, his first and controversial book, has received extensive media coverage, all of which has been uniformly positive except from those with a political bias against science, which is the theme of the volume.

On August 6, 2003 Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-California) released a 39-page report [4] that documented the Bush Administration’s manipulation of science and scientists for political advantage. Similar reports by the Union of Concerned Scientists [5], the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and other organizations followed. Mooney’s book evolved from these and from a series of his own similarly themed articles that appeared in the Boston Globe, Washington Post, American Prospect, Washington Monthly, Legal Affairs, and Mother Jones between October, 2003 and June, 2005.

Mooney begins his critically acclaimed bestseller with George W. Bush’s claim of August 9, 2001 that “More than sixty genetically diverse embryonic stem cell lines” (p 2) existed. Mooney considered this assertion “one of the most flagrant purely scientific deceptions ever perpetrated by a U.S. president on an unsuspecting public” (p 2) and “a textbook example of how bad scientific information leads, inexorably, to bad public policy” (p 4). Mooney states,

I believe that journalists, when approaching scientific controversies, should use their judgment to evaluate the credibility of different sides and to discern where scientists think the weight of evidence lies, without presuming to critically evaluate the science on their own (p vii).

In 14 chapters and an epilogue, “What We Can Do,” Mooney consistently applies this modus operandi to a variety of issues including global warming, climate change, the environment, carbon dioxide emissions, missile defense, biodiversity, the alleged causality between abortion and breast cancer, abstinence sex education, drug abuse, Darwinian evolution, “creation science,” “intelligent design,” contraception, the “morning after” pill Plan B, endangered species, air and water pollution by mercury and other toxic substances, ozone layer depletion by CFCs, needle-exchange programs, therapeutic cloning, food safety, fish populations, obesity, tobacco, second-hand smoke, peer review, public health, logging and the timber industry, ergonomics, and a host of others.

Mooney considers administrations earlier than that of George W. Bush, including Democratic ones, and admits that they too sometimes attempted to misuse and abuse science in their favor, but never to the extent of the present administration, whose war on science has been unprecedented.

Mooney’s book is almost unparalleled in a popular tome for the general public in the degree to which he meticulously documents every statement that he makes in a 62-page section of “Notes” in very small print. He also lists the hundreds of interviews that he conducted in a separate 8-page section, also in small print, which names persons under “Interview Requests Declined or Unanswered.” Newt Gingrich’s name heads this list. The book’s 14-double-column-page index makes it easy to locate information.

The revised and expanded paperback edition was selected by the Sunday New York Times for its “Paperback Row” section [6], and Glassbead Books, an imprint of Parlor Press, released a book about it titled Looking for a Fight: Is there a Republican War on Science?, which contains the contents of an online seminar conducted in March, 2006 on the Crooked Timber blog [7]. This book can be downloaded free of charge [8].

On July 19, 2006 George W. Bush casting his first-ever veto—and, as of this writing (December 28, 2006)—the only veto, in his five and a half-year presidency on a Congressional bill that would have expanded federal support for embryonic cell research and reversed the decision that Mooney chose as his first and prima facie exhibit in The Republican War on Science.

I am pleased to recommend most warmly The Republican War on Science to everyone with an interest in science-policy-making and society, which should include all of us.

References and Notes

1.        The Intersection. http://scienceblogs.com/intersection (accessed Jan 2007).

2.        The American Prospect Online Edition. http://www.prospect.org/web/index.ww (accessed Jan 2007).

3.        Committee on Skeptical Inquiry.http://csicop.org/si (accessed Jan 2007).

4.        Waxman: Politics and Science in the Bush Administration. http://arshermeneutica.org/besieged/Waxman:_Politics_and_Science_in_the_Bush_Administration (accessed Jan 2007).

5.        Scientific Integrity. http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity (accessed Jan 2007).

6.        Taylor, I. Paperback Row. New York Times, December 24, 2006.

7.        Archive for the “Chris Mooney seminar” category. http:// crookedtimber.org/category/chris-mooney-seminar (accessed Jan 2007).

8.        Looking for a Fight: Is there a Republican War on Science? http://parlorpress.com/pdf/lookingforafight.pdf (accessed Jan 2007).

George B. Kauffman

California State University, Fresno, georgek@csufresno.edu

S1430-4171(07) 32039-3, 10.1333/s00897072039a

Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Technology, Concise 3rd Edition. Wiley-Interscience, A John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Publication: Hoboken, NJ, 2007. Figures, tables, photographs. xxv + 1462 pp. 22.2 ´ 28.5 cm. $350.00; €319. ISBN 978-0-470-04610-4.

In 1990 John Wiley & Sons published an inexpensive ($150.00) compact, one-volume desk reference [1] that contained condensed articles on all of the subjects covered in the 2nd edition of Herman F. Mark’s Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Engineering [2]. Therefore in my review of the next edition of this multi-volume encyclopedia set [3] from which this concise desk reference is extracted, I expressed the following hope:

Although Jackie Kroschwitz is no longer with Wiley, perhaps another editor will prepare a similar, modestly priced, condensed, one-volume version of the 12-volume 3^rd edition that will be within the price range of individual purchasers [4].

Now, less than two years later my desire has been fulfilled with the publication of the book under review here.

In 1964 Wiley began to publish the Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Engineering under the editorship of Herman Francis Mark (1895–1992) [5, 6], known as the father of polymer science because of his numerous contributions to polymer science education and research. Although Mark’s name does not appear in the title of the Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Technology, Concise 3^rd Editionas in the first three complete editions, his name does appear on the back of the title page in the “Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data.” No other editor’s name is given.     

All the subjects in the 12-volume set are contained in the new one-volume version. The abridged and condensed versions were written by professional writers, reviewed for accuracy by the original authors or their colleagues, and updated wherever necessary. This distillation, skillfully prepared so as to retain all the key data, tables, and factual matter of the origin version, is a complete and self-contained encyclopedia.

The more than 300 detailed, carefully edited, signed articles with extensive bibliographies were contributed by 499 industrial and academic authorities, many of whom are women and most of whom are located in the United States, with lesser numbers from Germany and the United Kingdom. The other countries represented, in order of decreasing number of authors, are Australia, France, the Netherlands, Israel, Japan, Italy, Greece, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, China, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, India, Korea, Finland, and Taiwan. The names and institutional affiliations of the contributors as well as the titles of their articles are listed in seven double-column pages.

Like the ten-million-word larger work, this one-million-word version provides both SI and common units, meticulously selected key references for each article, and hundreds of tables, figures, charts, and graphs. The coverage includes every important topic such as natural and synthetic polymeric materials; molecular, chemical, physical, electrical, mechanical, thermal, and biological polymer properties; morphology, stability, and compatibility of polymers; synthesis and reactions; characterization and analytical methods; physical processes; engineering; polymer processing; product fabrication; test methods; uses in adhesives, coatings, films, fibers, elastomers, and plastics composites; occurrence in natural products; historical perspective; and economics.

Specific reference to articles in the original version is not always provided, but further details, specific bibliographical citations, and much wider coverage of any topic can be found in the 12-volume edition [3], which is also available online for authorized users (http://www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com/epst/index.html). The practice of citing related articles in the text (see and see also citations) and secondary entries and cross-references that cite the synonym or entry term where a subject can be located is retained.

The entries, alphabetically arranged from Acetylenic Polymers, Substituted to Ziegler-Natta Catalysts, comprise 1398 double-column pages. An 11-page list of conversion factors, abbreviations, and unit symbols as well as a 60-page triple-column index are most useful tools for the reader.

Since the concise version provides quick access to all the key information from the complete 12-volume set in a condensed format, Jacqueline I. Kroschwitz’s evaluation of the longer version is equally true for the concise version:

an entirely new encyclopedia in a format familiar to those acquainted with the earlier editions. All of the articles…have been rewritten and updated and many new subjects have been added, reflecting the progress and evolution of polymer science and technology. The results, however, will be familiar to the users of the earlier editions: comprehensive, authoritative, accessible, lucid. The Encyclopedia is an indispensable information source for all producers and users of polymeric materials and those engaged in fundamental research regarding macromolecules ([3], p ix).

This relatively inexpensive, compact but comprehensive, accurate, and handy encyclopedia will be indispensable to students, scientists, engineers, and technologists seeking answers to questions on any aspect of polymer science and technology. It also belongs in every academic, industrial, and technical library. It should serve as a ready-reference source for many years to come.

References and Notes

9.        Concise Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Engineering; Kroschwitz, J. I., Ed.; John Wiley & Sons: New York, 1990. For a review see Kauffman, G. B. Am. Scientist 1992, 80, 82.

10.     Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Engineering, Second Edition. Herman F. Mark. Kroschwitz, J. I., Ed.-in-Chief; 17 volumes; John Wiley & Sons: New York, NY, 1985-1990. The set included a supplement, an index, and a CD-ROM version. With the 3^rd edition the title was changed slightly; the word “Engineering” was replaced by the word “Technology.”

11.     Encyclopedia of Polymer Science and Technology, Third Edition, Herman F. Mark. Kroschwitz, J. I., Ed.; 12 volumes; Wiley-Interscience, A John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Publication: Hoboken, NJ, 2003-2004; cccxlii + 9435 pp. The publication of Part 1 (the first four volumes) of this 3-part set in 2003, which was hailed by Polymer News as “a must for all libraries which want to have top-notch polymer science and engineering resources,” received the American Society for Engineering Education Libraries Division’s 2003 Best Reference Work Award.

12.     Kauffman, G. B. Chem. Educator 2005, 10, 243–244; DOI 10.1333/s00897050924a.

13.     Kauffman, G. B. Herman Mark (1895-1992): American Polymer Chemist and Educator. In World of Chemistry; Young, R. V.; Sessine, S., Eds.; The Gale Group: Farmington Hills, MI, 2000; pp 669–670.

14.     Mark penned his autobiography shortly before his death less than a month short of his 97th birthday: Mark, H. F. From Small Organic Molecules to Large: A Century of Progress; Profiles, Pathways, and Dreams; Seeman, J. I., Series Ed.; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1993. For a review see Kauffman, G. B.; Kauffman, L. M. Angew. Chem., Intern. Ed. Engl. 1994, 33, 1117–1118.

George B. Kauffman

California State University, Fresno, georgek@csufresno.edu

S1430-4171(07) 32034-6, 10.1333/ s00897072034a

A Walking Tour of the Elements. James L. Marshall. JMC Services, 120 Cobblestone Row, Denton, TX 76207, 2007. CD-ROM, $10.00 including shipping. Special Offer: For the remainder of 2007 this CD-ROM and the book, Discovery of the Elements: A Search for the Fundamental Principles of the Universe, can be ordered from JMC Services ($35.00 + $5.00 shipping or $10.00 for international shipping). Alternatively, orders may be placed with Dr. James L. Marshall, Box 305070, University of North Texas, Denton, TX 76203-5070 (jimm@unt.edu).

Jim Marshall received his B.S. degree from Indiana University in 1962 and his Ph.D. degree from Ohio State University in 1966. He joined the University of North Texas faculty in 1967 and spent the period 1981–1987 working at Celanese and Motorola. He produced this CD-ROM disk to allow one to visit vicariously his collection of elements and minerals described in his article, “A Living Periodic Table” [1]. The disk also includes additional information and slides developed during his American Chemical Society lecture tours [2]. With more than 400 slides, it is intended to be used as an educational tool, either in its present form, which can be presented as a slide show or as a source of text and graphic project material for instructors or students. The graphics, which are the original work of Jim and his wife Virginia (“Jenny”) [3, 4], sometimes supplemented with modified clip art from Corel gallery (Corel Corporation), can be copied by the usual “copy” function of Windows programs and can be used by students in their classroom projects. This collection of elements and minerals is the same as that noted by Oliver Sacks during his recently described visit to the University of North Texas [5].

The disk includes photographs of all the elements and associated minerals from the original discovery sites from hydrogen (At. No. 1) through uranium (At. No. 92). Not only is the element collection complete, but also the mineral collection includes the correct mineral for all elements from the exact mine from which each was collected during historical times. For example, a specimen of vermilion-colored crocroite (PbCrO₄) from Beresov, Ural Mountains, Russia, is presented (This was the “red lead from Siberia,” from which Vauquelin discovered chromium); blackish argyrodite (Ag₈GeS₆) from the Himmelfürst Mine, Germany (Winkler's discovery of germanium); apple-green strontianite (SrCO₃) from the Strontian Mine, Scotland (Cruikshank and Crawford's discovery of strontium); emerald-colored torbernite (Cu(UO₂)(PO₄)₂.11H₂O, “Grüneruranglimmer”) from Johanngeorgenstadt, Germany (Klaproth's discovery of uranium), etc.

Additional associated minerals of interest are included as well; for example, samples of quartz and feldspar from the Ytterby Mine in Sweden, which were mined for the porcelain trade in England and Poland in the 1700s, are included along with the famous rare earth minerals. These minerals were collected by the Marshalls over the past decade during their worldly travels. The artificially produced elements through element 116 are also discussed (Photographs of elements beyond uranium are not available since exhibition of these elements is prohibited).

The disk also includes the properties of elements and minerals of scientific or commercial interest, including colorful and informative exhibits on flame spectra, coinage, radioactivity, mining, magnetism, special treatment of the rare earths, fluorescence, transuranium elements, superheavy elements, and the island of stability. Because of limited space in a PowerPoint presentation, more detailed biographical sketches of the associated scientists, from Philip Hauge Abelson to William Hyde Wollaston, are presented in separate text files. In addition to a standard periodic table, an “iconic” periodic table with a key to “hook” students on elements and their applications as well as a relativistic periodic table designed by the Darmstadt, Germany scientists are included. Finally, there is a “History of the Periodic Table,” an educational PowerPoint tour developed by the authors and described at a recent American Chemical Society meeting as a basis for a nonscience majors chemistry course [6].

The Microsoft PowerPoint files and text files (both Microsoft and WordPerfect formats) are readable on all CD-R/CD-RW drives and MultiRead CD-ROM drives running Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 3, Windows XP, and future Windows versions. The relatively large main PowerPoint file (54 MB) may be run automatically without interruption or may be viewed manually at the user's discretion. For those wanting to work with smaller files because of computers with smaller RAM, this 54-MB file is also divided into smaller files which may be viewed serially.

Jim Marshall will be a speaker invited by Texas Instruments for the ChemEd 07 Conference to be held at the University of North Texas, Denton TX, July 29-August 2, 2007. The presentation, “Rediscovery of the Elements,” at 6:00 P.M. on July 29, 2007, will give a glimpse of the next product of the Marshalls soon available to the public, which will allow one to visit vicariously each of the “Rediscovery” sites themselves, including detailed travel maps for those who want to make the trip on their own sometime in the future [7].

I am pleased to recommend this versatile, inexpensive CD-ROM, along with the book, Discovery of the Elements [8], to students, chemical educators, and anyone interested in the “central science.” Immediately adaptable as a teaching tool by teachers or students, it also makes an ideal gift for youngsters interested in chemistry.

References and Notes

1.        Marshall, J. L. A Living Periodic Table. J. Chem. Educ. 2000, 77, 979–983. This article describes his permanent element collection and how it is used in demonstrations and presentations.

2.        Marshall, J. L. The Living Periodic Table—the Real Thing; paper presented at the 125^th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Dallas, TX, March 30, 1998; CHED 0096.

3.        Ritter, S. K. Rediscovering the Elements. Decades-long effort to collect the elements and chart their discovery nears completion. Chem. Eng. News August 23, 2004, 82 (34), 28–29.

4.        Witze, A. In their element. At first it was just an unusual, geeky hobby. But by combining their twin passions of chemistry and history, Jim and Jenny Marshall are now running an acclaimed project in science education. Nature 2005, 436, 1082–1083.

5.        Marshall, J. L., Oliver Sacks in Mendeleev’s Garden. J. Chem. Educ. 2003, 80, 879.

6.        Marshall, J. L. The Periodic Table as a Basis for an Introductory Chemistry Course. Chemical Education Symposium, Southwest Regional ACS Meeting, October 20, 2006, Houston TX.

7.        Dobson, G. R. Rediscovery of the Elements: Discovering “Rediscovery”: A brief conversation with James L. Marshall. The Hexagon Fall, 2000, 91 (3), 42. Also log on to http://www.jennymarshall.com/rediscovery.htm (accessed May 2007).

8.        Marshall, J. L. Discovery of the Elements: A Search for the Fundamental Principles of the Universe,2nd ed.; Pearson Custom Publishing, 75 Arlington St., Suite 300, Boston, MA 02116, 2002. For a review see Kauffman, G. B. Chem. Educator 2007, 12, 133–135; DOI 10.1333/s00897072015a.

George B. Kauffman

California State University, Fresno, georgek@csufresno.edu

S1430-4171(07) 32035-5, 10.1333/ s00897072035a

Heinrich Caro and the Creation of Modern Chemical Industry. Carsten Reinhardt and Anthony S. Travis. Kluwer Academic Publishers: Dordrecht/Boston/London, 2000. Figures, tables, xxii + 453 pp; 16.5 ´ 24.5 cm.; hardcover. $243.00; ISBN 0-7923-6602-6.

This first book-length scientific biography of Heinrich Caro (1834–1910) is Volume 19 in Kluwer’s “Chemists and Chemistry” series—“a series of books devoted to the examination of the history and development of chemistry from its earliest emergence as a separate discipline to the present day….The series will describe the personalities, processes, theoretical and technical advances which have shaped our current understanding of chemical science.” This account of Caro’s life and career is much more than a biography of the man best known today as the inventor of new chemical processes, which in the two decades beginning in 1869 made the Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik (BASF) the preeminent European and even international manufacturer of organic chemicals. The book was awarded the prestigious ABB Wissenschaftspreis 2000 of the Landesmuseum für Technik und Arbeit, Mannheim.

The authors of this volume are eminently qualified for their task. Carsten Reinhardt of the University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany, is a prominent historian of German chemical industry, while Anthony S. Travis is Deputy Director of the Sidney M. Edelstein Center, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, which houses the world’s leading library on dyestuffs and dye technology. In their definitive study they have been fortunate that Caro’s historical sense led him to preserve his writings, notebooks, reminiscences, and correspondence, which delineate both his successes and failures, especially during his formative and most interesting years. The authors have made use of and quoted extensively from the Caro Nachlass, organized by his daughter Amalie and stored at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, one of the largest archival holdings in chemistry in that world-famed museum.

Caro recorded otherwise rare background material on natural dyes and calico printing during the 1850s, when he entered industry. He preserved the letters that he had received from business contacts during the 1860s, a period when natural dyes were succeeded by synthetic dyes. For the years 1870–1890, the period of the emergence of the modern dye and organic chemical industry to which Caro contributed so much, Reinhardt and Travis supplemented the Caro Nachlass with archival material held at BASF, Ludwigshafen and other places. In short, they have left no stone unturned in unearthing valuable source material.

In their meticulous documentation the authors provide 64 pages of notes and a 13-page bibliography of books, monographs, major historical papers, obituaries, reports, company histories, and dissertations dealing mainly with historical topics. They also include a 2-page “Chapter Location of Major Dye Classes, Important Individual Dyes, Dye-Intermediates, and Raw Materials.” In addition to many structural formulas and reaction schemes, the book contains numerous illustrations such as photographs or drawings of equipment, factories, and buildings, as well as notebook pages, letters, product labels, printing samples, individual and group portraits, even music (“Indigo March,” p 187), Caro in his coffin (p 341), and the Caro Medallion (p 355). The “Name Index” (eight double-column pages) and the “Index of Companies, Partnerships, Academic, and Legal Institutions, and Trade and Professional Associations” (five double-column pages) make the book exceptionally user-friendly.

Much of Caro’s career involved detailed chemistry that will not be understood by nonscientists. Therefore, except for Chapters 1, 2, 10, 11, and 12, the authors presuppose some chemical knowledge. However, they “made every effort to spare the reader the need to struggle through the more technical material in chapters 3 through 9 in order to appreciate how Caro became such an internationally recognized inventor” (p xiii).

Chapter 1, “Chemistry and Revolution” (24 pp), deals with Caro’s social and cultural background as a member of an assimilated Jewish family that placed great importance on education, drawing on his own accounts of his childhood and adolescence that include his decision to make chemistry his life’s work and his activities in a radical association of Berlin schoolboys during the period leading up to the failed March 1848 revolution.

Chapter 2, “Calico Printing in Mülheim” (24 pp), briefly describes Caro’s vocational and academic education in Berlin (1852–1855) and in more detail his difficult years as an apprentice calico (cotton) printer in the C. & F. Troost printing factory in Mülheim (1855–1859). Each of the next three chapters, Chapter 3, “The Manchester Years, 1859–1866” (40 pp), Chapter 4, “Negotiating Science-based Technology” (20 pp), and Chapter 5, “Chemical Theory from Chemical Industry” (15 pp), explores a major focus of the authors’ book—Caro’s English years in Manchester (1859–1866), where he was employed by Roberts, Dale, & Co.—a firm that specialized in manufacturing chemicals for the textile industry. Here, in “a true blend of craft, industrial experience, and scientific knowledge,” he overcame the problems of applying novel dyes, maintaining close contacts with academic chemists in Manchester and London, bringing together a team of Germans, and circumventing patents of rival firms. By the time that Caro left England (1866), he had contributed to the new method by which dye-making practice and chemical theory developed together and were mutually reinforcing.

The next three chapters describe Caro’s career at BASF, Ludwigshafen and how science and technology promoted economic development in Germany. Chapter 6, “The Chemist as Inventor” (52 pp, the longest chapter), shows how BASF, making use of Caro’s inventiveness, moved quickly into the realm of science-based invention. Caro devised a commercially viable synthesis of indigo from Carl Graebe and Carl Liebermann’s patents, which initiated the use of the structure of organic molecules as a method for rational synthesis and the collaboration between academic chemists and industrialists. Chapter 7, “Academic-Industrial Collaboration” (42 pp), deals with Caro’s academic collaborations, especially with Adolf Baeyer at the University of Strasbourg and from 1875 at Munich. In collaboration with Baeyer, Caro inaugurated the two-decade-long industrial search for synthetic indigo. Chapter 8, “The Industrial Research Laboratory” (38 pp), describes how Caro was instrumental in the founding of the modern industrial research laboratory, of enormous significance for the future of industry in general and of the chemical industry in particular. During the 1880s Caro transformed his laboratory into the central research laboratory, in which separate sections were responsible for invention and patents.

Chapter 9, “Patents and Agreements” (34 pp), recounts how in 1883 Caro, then 49 years old, was relieved of his duties as inventor but remained at the Ludwigshafen factory until the end of the decade, dealing almost exclusively with patents and associated litigation during 1888–1889. In England BASF opposed Ivan Levinstein, the leading Manchester dye-maker and a fellow Jew, to whom Caro became a close friend.

Chapter 10, “Ambitious and Glory Hunting…Impractical and Fantastic” (13 pp), describes how life in the factory was not always conflict-free. In particular, Carl Glaser, Caro’s colleague and future adversary, claims that Caro was not the typical exemplary, thorough, and orderly German inventor, which gives the authors the opportunity to weigh Caro’s shortcomings against his achievements. Chapter 11, “A Chemical Celebrity” (39 pp), sketches the two decades from 1890, when Caro left Ludwigshafen but joined the BASF Advisory Board and became an active observer of the dye industry, its first historian, a source of advice, and a celebrity.

Chapter 12, “Heinrich Caro: Genius and Myth” (13 pp, the shortest chapter), points out the necessity for revising and correcting the versions of Caro’s and other German dye pioneers promulgated between 1900 and the 1920s by British industrialists and chemists, who rewrote the history of the industry in the years following Caro’s death in 1910 and the early stages of World War I, when an abrupt stoppage of German-produced dyes occurred. The authors discuss why and how Caro became an “icon” among British chemists as much as among their German counterparts. They thus “deconstruct part of the legend, though without detracting in any way from the incomparable achievements of the romantic, complex, and extraordinary German inventor who was responsible for the growth of the most innovative of the 19th century’s chemical industries” (p xix).

Reinhardt and Travis assert that their biography

embraces much more than its ostensible subject. It intertwines Caro’s upbringing, education, apprenticeship, and inventive streak with the evolution of science-based technology, at first in England and then in Germany. In contrast to the much-studied German influence on British chemistry of August Wilhelm von Hofmann at London’s Royal College of Chemistry, the English influence on the early development of German organic chemical technology, particularly the transfer of information and skills through Caro, is less well known (pp x–xi).

In my opinion they have succeeded in rectifying the situation, and I am pleased to recommend their monograph to historians of chemistry, science, and technology; industrial chemists and research directors; and anyone concerned with the evolution of the European dye and chemical industry during the second half of the nineteenth century.

George B. Kauffman

California State University, Fresno, georgek@csufresno.edu

S1430-4171(07) 32036-4, 10.1333/s00897072036a

Water Encyclopedia. Jay Lehr, Editor-in-Chief; Jack Keeley,  Senior Editor; Janet Lehr, Associate Editor; Thomas B. Kingery III, Information Technology Director. 5 volumes;Wiley-Interscience, A John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Publication: Hoboken, NJ, 2005. Figures, tables, photographs. lxxi + 4128 pp. 22.2  ´ 28.5 cm. $1,575.00. Individual volumes have individual ISBNs and are available at $370.00 each. ISBN 0-471-44164-3.

From its purity and availability to its usage and potential, water has become a major world issue of the twenty-first century. In accordance with its importance and its impact on societies worldwide, in 2005 the United Nations created the International Decade for Action, “Water for Life,” a collective effort by the UN and governments to halve the number of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015. Water Encyclopedia, an in-depth exploration of the scientific, technological, and social aspects of our most crucial natural resource, provides an extensive collection of the most current information available.

According to the editors of this largest and most comprehensive compilation of information on water published to date,

No one really questions that water is the life blood of humankind. We all remain amazed that the existence of water separates our planet from every other we have thus far viewed in our universe. We can arguably do without every naturally occurring molecule on the earth except water. Life was clearly formed within water and exists in one way or another on water (Vol. 1, p ix).

After receiving his degree in geological engineering from Princeton University and several years in the U.S. Navy’s Civil Engineering Corps in the Western Pacific, Jay H. Lehr (b. 1936) received the nation’s first Ph.D. in ground water hydrology—from the University of Arizona—in 1962. He taught at the University of Arizona and the Ohio State University before becoming Executive Director of the National Ground Water Association and the Association of Ground Water Science and Engineering for a quarter-century. He has served as Editor of the Journal of Ground Water and the Well Water Journal as well as Co-editor of Ground Water Monitoring Review. The author or editor of 19 books [for example, 1–6] and more than 700 journal and magazine articles, he is a Senior Fellow and Science Director of the Heartland Institute, an independent nonprofit organization based in Chicago. An internationally renowned speaker, scientist, and author, he has testified before the U.S. Congress on environmental issues more than three dozen times and has consulted with nearly every agency of the U.S. government and with many foreign countries, and he travels more than 150,000 miles annually. He has spoken before more than a thousand audiences on topics ranging from global warming and biotechnology to business management and health and physical fitness. He is an outspoken proponent of sane environmental regulation that does not distort problems to the economic detriment to society [1].

When he was forced to use crutches and knee braces, Lehr was featured in Ripley’s “Believe It or Not” for completing the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon in leg braces. The developer of the L*Bo Aid (http://www.elbowaid.com/Dr.JayHLehr.htm) in 1996 while he was suffering from severe elbow pain, at age 71 he still bikes more than 200 miles per week, racewalks about 30 miles per week, and swims over three miles per week.

Jack Keeley is the former Chief of Groundwater Research of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Water Resource Research Laboratory in Ada, Oklahoma. Janet Lehr is Jay’s wife, and Thomas R. Kingery III is his son.

This international venture is a collaborative effort of hundreds of prominent authorities from dozens of countries. Because the editors often sought overlapping information presented from different points of view, the reader may find various approaches or different levels of scientific sophistication to the same subject matter. Discussions of the role of water in science, engineering, and society as well as practical treatments of critical concepts and expert narratives are provided.

The 997 signed articles, most of which include extensive bibliographies of articles, books, government documents, and websites, offer rapid access to the various fields covered. Concise entries are cross-referenced to more extensive articles, which enables the reader to locate the desired information quickly and at the desired level of detail. Each of the five volumes, which are separately paginated and may be purchased separately, contains a list of contributors for that volume, along with their affiliations and article titles, and a triple-column index for that volume. The final volume also includes a detailed 136 triple-column page cumulative index.

Volume 1, “Domestic, Municipal, and Industrial Water Supply and Waste Disposal” (xvi + 952 pp, the longest volume; 217 articles; ISBN 0-471-73687-2), deals with the actual delivery of water to the home by the home owner (disinfection, corrosion control, nitrates, gray water, septic tanks, windmills, etc.), from the municipal supplier (and their challenges, including distribution, filtration, zebra mussels, reverse osmosis, Cryptosporidium, arsenic, and public confidence), to industry and its special needs (such as microfiltration, effluent discharge, reuse, energy, nuclear reactor coolants, and even golf course irrigation), and the disposal of used water in a safe and efficient manner (air stripping, bioassays, flotation, sludge, bioavailabiliy, wetlands, etc.).

Cities, towns, states, and nations need to manage their water resources wisely from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective. Humans and other living creatures contribute to our water quality problems, and Volume 2, “Water Quality and Resource Development” (xiv + 717 pp, the shortest volume; 172 articles; ISBN 0-471-73687-2), describes a host of problems relating to individual bodies of water as well as to geographic water resources and their management dilemmas. It also contains ideas and case studies related to areas of water quality and resource management problems. Among quality problems are acid mine drainage, bioabsorption, colloids, eutrophication protozoa, and recalcitrant compounds, while resource management features drought studies, flood control, river basin management, perennial overdraft, water banking, and other subjects.

Volume 3, “Surface and Agricultural Water Supply” (xiv + 781 pp; 189 articles; ISBN 0-471-73686-4), addresses topics related to our basic needs for food, fiber, power, transportation, and recreation. Surface and agricultural water must be used efficiently and protected to assure their productiveness far into the future. Efficiency is discussed from various viewpoints with respect to irrigation technology, and river basin technology is approached in diverse ways including stream classifications, watershed hydrology, modeling, erosion control, and water conservation. Other articles deal with assessment of pollution outflow from agricultural areas; quality of reclaimed irrigation (from both chemical and microbial standpoints); watershed areas according to their contribution and vulnerability to contamination, flooding, sediment transport, and trace elements; fish growth; fisheries; fishponds; and use of fish scales in toxicological studies. Articles on practical problems include those on salt tolerance of plants, irrigation wells, weed control, tile drains, moisture content, riparian systems, reservoir design, wetlands, lakes, levees, and the unit hydrograph. The association of surface water and agricultural water is reinforced by articles on specific bodies of water such as the Aral Sea, the Ganga River of India, the Great Lakes in the United States, and the Yellow River in China.

Volume 4, “Oceanography; Meteorology; Physics and Chemistry; Water Law; and Water History, Art, and Culture” (xiv + 832 pp; 244 articles; ISBN 0-471-73684-8), explores water in the life of humankind on a personal level. It describes water’s unique and unusual physical and chemical properties including the impact of a wide variety of chemicals occurring in water, osmosis, diffusion, hydration, isotope exchange, and the Mariotte bottle. Oceanographic topics include tidal changes, benthic nutrients, the sea floor, El Niño, sea level, and ocean-climate relationships, while metereological topics include water spouts, hurricanes, monsoons, droughts, sublimation, and barometric efficiency. Also described are the history of water; its role in art, culture, and the development of civilizations; the beliefs held about it; laws to supervise its distribution; medical theories; and early water clocks.

Volume 5, “Ground Water” (xvi + 846 pp; 175 articles; ISBN 0-471-73683-X), deals with the greatest reservoir of water that has played a major role in providing our resource needs, i.e., water that lies underground (Ground water accounts for 97 percent of the world’s freshwater and serves as the base line for all streams, springs, and rivers). This volume attempts to erase the ignorance that existed in the early years of ground water science by presenting the most current knowledge provided by contributors from around the globe (for example, the United States, England, Nigeria, India, Iran, Thailand, and Greece). Articles on basic ground water concepts include drawdown around pumping wells, hydraulic head, field capacity, and flow, while those on more complex subjects include isotope technologies, aquifer tests, in situ remediation, tritium dating, modeling, and geophysical properties. Articles on practical applications include those on well maintenance, subsurface drainage, nitrate contamination, tracer tests, well yields, and drilling technology. More whimsical topics include the sound of windmills at night, use of qanats (underground tunnels that convey water by gravity from highland aquifers to the ground surface at lower elevations) in ancient Persia (article by an Iranian) to provide sustainable ground water resources, and the development of French engineer Henri Darcy’s law (the mathematical expression describing the flow of water through sand filters) of 1856, which is still one of the cornerstones of ground water hydrology.

The editors ask readers to suggest topics that have been omitted, neglected, or insufficiently dealt with by contacting them via their website. Like many Wiley books, the Water Encyclopedia is available online (http://www.mrw. interscience.wiley.com/eow). Institutional customers may license reference works for access on an annual basis, and select titles offer a one-time fee option. Prices depend on the type of institution, user population, and the collection of Wiley InterScience resources selected. They may also vary based on the size and type of any existing license a Customer holds with Wiley InterScience.

This detailed, informative, and interesting encyclopedia dealing with a wide range of subjects from a variety of viewpoints is a one-stop quick, easily accessible source of information on the very important topic of water. It should be an excellent reference for wastewater, drinking water, and groundwater professionals; hydrologists; water chemists; oceanographers; earth scientists; geologists; chemical engineers; process engineers; and meteorologists. It will also be useful to students, researchers, professionals, and anyone interested in our planet’s most precious natural resource. With its updating on the Internet, it should be definitive for many years to come.

References and Notes

1.        Lehr, J. H., Ed. Rational Readings on Environmental Concerns; Van Nostrand-Reinhold: New York, NY, 1992; a compilation of papers by almost 50 leading scientific and political writers on the entire range of environmental concerns.

2.        Lehr, J. H.; Hyman, M.; Gass, T.; Seevers, W. J., Eds. Handbook of Complex Environmental Remediation Problems; McGraw-Hill: New York, NY, 2001.

3.        Lehr, J. H., Ed. Wiley’s Remediation Technologies Handbook: Major Contaminant Chemicals and Chemical Groups; Wiley-Interscience: Hoboken, NJ, 2004.

4.        Bisson, R. A.; Lehr, J. H. Modern Groundwater Exploration: Discovering New Water Resources in Consolidated Rocks Using Innovative Hydrogeologic Concepts, Exploration, Drilling, Aquifer Testing and Management Methods; Wiley-Interscience: Hoboken, NJ, 2004.

5.        Down, R. D.; Lehr, J. H., Eds. Environmental Instrumentation and Analysis Handbook; Wiley-Interscience: Hoboken, NJ, 2004.

6.        Kazemi, G. H.; Lehr, J. H.; Perrochet, P. Groundwater Age; Wiley-Interscience: Hoboken, NJ, 2006.

George B. Kauffman

California State University, Fresno, georgek@csufresno.edu

S1430-4171(07) 32037-3, 10.1333/s00897072037a

Fine Chemicals: The Industry and the Business. Peter Pollak. Wiley-Interscience, A John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Publication: Hoboken, NJ, 2007. Figures, tables, xiii + 234 pp; 16.0 ´ 24.1 cm.; hardcover. $99.95; ISBN 978-0-470-05075-0.

Chemicals can be divided into commodities, fine chemicals, and specialty chemicals. Commodities are large-volume, low-priced, homogeneous, and standardized chemicals produced in dedicated plants and used for a large variety of applications. Fine chemicals are complex, single, pure chemical substances produced in limited quantities (less than 1,000 metric tons annually) in multipurpose plants by multistep batch chemical or biotechnological processes. Specialty chemicals are formulations of chemicals containing one or more fine chemicals as active ingredients.

The primary purpose of the fine chemical industry is to satisfy the product and process development needs of specialty chemicals, especially the life science—mainly pharmaceutical and agrochemical—industry. The fine-chemical industry has evolved mainly because of the rapid growth of the Anglo-Saxon pharmaceutical industry, which has been more inclined to outsource chemical manufacturing than the continental European one, and the increasing complexity of drug molecules. In fact, the roots of both the term “fine chemicals” and the emergence of the industry as a distinct entity date from the late 1970s, when the overwhelming success of the histamine H₂ receptor antagonists Tagamet (cimetidine) and Zantac (ranitidine hydrochloride) created a strong demand for advanced intermediates used in their manufacturing processes.

Peter Pollak, the author of this in-depth view of the industry, is a consultant for the modern pharmaceutical fine chemicals industry and an internationally recognized pioneer in its development. He worked for Lonza in Switzerland and the United States for more than three decades in positions including senior Vice President and General Manager of fine chemicals.

Like Caesar’s Gaul, Pollak’s book is divided into three parts, each of approximately equal length and each of which includes a bibliography.

• Part I, “The Industry” (75 pp, the shortest part), introduces the technologies underlying the fine chemical industry and the range of products and services that it provides. It deals with the different types of manufacturers, their plants, and their facilities; the role of research and development; and the challenges faced by management.

Chapter 1, “What Fine Chemicals Are” (5 pp).

Chapter 2, “The Fine-Chemical Industry” (14 pp).

Chapter 3, “Products” (5 pp).

Chapter 4, “Technologies” (13 pp).

Chapter 5, “Facilities and Plants” (17 pp).

Chapter 6, “Research and Development” (7 pp).

Chapter 7, “Cost Calculation” (4 pp).

Chapter 8, “Management Aspects” (8 pp).

• Part II, “The Business” (78 pp, the longest part), explores the key markets for fine chemicals such as the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and animal health industries, as well as relevant marketing strategies. It also considers pricing, distribution channels, intellectual property rights, account management, and promotion.

Chapter 9, “Market Size and Structure” (5 pp).

Chapter 10, “The Business Condition” (7 pp).

Chapter 11, “Customer Base” (30 pp).

Chapter 12, “Marketing” (35 pp, the book’s longest chapter).

• Part III, “Outlook” (77 pp), looks at trends, including globalization and outsourcing, and it forecasts future growth and development by industry segment. It concludes with a discussion of the prerequisites for success in the field.

Chapter 13, “General Trends and Growth Drivers” (2 pp, the book’s shortest chapter).

Chapter 14, “Globalization” (11 pp).

Chapter 15, “Biotechnology” (4 pp).

Chapter 16, “Ethical Pharmaceutical Industry/Custom Manufacturing” (10 pp).

Chapter 17, “Generics Industry/API-for-Generics” (3 pp).

Chapter 18, “Agro Fine Chemicals” (2 pp).

Chapter 19, “Contract Research Organizations” (2 pp).

Chapter 20, “Conclusion: Who Is Fittest for the Future?” (4 pp).

Pollak’s book is replete with a host of figures, tables, and structural formulas and includes 16 full-color plates of laboratories and plants between pp 122 to 123. In addition to a four-page list of abbreviations, the volume contains nine short but useful appendices and an 11-double-column-page index.

This slim reference book provides an insightful first-hand understanding of the technology, business, and future of the fine chemicals industry by one of the field’s most prominent authorities with his unique insider’s perspective. I recommend it to employees, suppliers, consumers, investors, students, educators, media representatives, public officials, neighboring communities, and anyone concerned with the industry.

George B. Kauffman

California State University, Fresno, georgek@csufresno.edu

S1430-4171(07) 32038-2, 10.1333/s00897072038a