This month's cover, though perhaps inappropriate for those of us who live in northern climes such as Wisconsin, emphasizes a major theme of this issue: the interaction of light with matter. Kimbrough (page 51) discusses the photochemistry of sunscreens and the effects of UV radiation on human skin. Continuing the sunscreen theme, Walters, Keeney, Wigal, Johnston, and Cornelius (page 99) describe an experiment for college freshmen on spectrophotometric analysis of sunscreens. Photoionic supermolecules, such as the systems in your eyes that allow you to read these words, are explained on pages 53-58 by de Silva, Gunnlaugsson, and McCoy. Photoionic supermolecules have a variety of uses, and a number of synthesized systems have been studied thoroughly. Macomber (page 65) has developed a unified approach to absorption spectroscopy at the undergraduate level, concentrating on the match between frequency of radiation and frequency of some motion within a molecule. Carrière and Abouaf describe how color can be used to interest high school students in chemistry, and Thoben and Lowry provide a new analogy that helps students learn splitting patterns in NMR spectra.

Each year the James L. Waters Symposium at Pittcon explores the origin, development, implementation, and commercialization of scientific instruments whose significance is well established. On pages 37-50 you will find three papers from the Sixth Waters Symposium, which was devoted to high-performance liquid chromatography. Beginning on page 37, Snyder reports on the birth of HPLC and its subsequent development into a general technique that can be applied to any kind of sample. Karger (page 45) provides perspectives on key developments that led to effective use of HPLC in the biological sciences. Van Arman and Thomsen (page 49) describe the use of HPLC in undergraduate laboratories as part of a curriculum where instrumental techniques are incorporated into the context of core courses instead of being segregated within an instrumental course. Everyone with an interest in this powerful analytical technique will find these papers extremely informative.

Textbook authors will find applications that will make their offerings more down-to-earth in several of the papers listed in both sections above. The exciting advances in photoionic supermolecules, for example, will certainly turn students on and should be considered for inclusion in texts at several levels. On page 123, Wheeler indicates that many textbooks include outdated information regarding electron affinities for alkaline earth metals, and he argues that the electron affinity should be defined as it was originally, rather than the way most current general chemistry texts define it. Pope (page 129) develops the idea that the typical textbook derivation of the Bragg equation leaves a good deal unexplained. He provides an alternative derivation and several examples that indicate its utility. Glukhovtsev's discussion of aromaticity, beginning on page 132, includes energetic and structural criteria for aromaticity that are also of potential use to textbook authors.

A major curricular innovation has been carried out at the University of Michigan over the past half dozen years. It is reported in detail in two papers by Ege, Coppola, and Lawton that begin on page 74. The philosophy behind the new curriculum, the nature of the changes made, and the instructional and assessment strategies used are all described. Another curriculum is described in the paper by Davis and George on page 59, this time for elementary and middle school teachers who want to use hands-on activities in their classrooms. In this case the program consists of summer workshops at Mansfield University rather than academic-year courses. Wheeler, Wheeler, and Wright (page 72) relate how they are using NSF support to incorporate electrochemical techniques throughout their curriculum at Furman University. Those interested in changing or fine tuning their curricula will find all of these papers useful.

In Chemical Education Today, Bell reports on a AAAS- and NSF-sponsored conference Seizing Opportunities: Collaborating for Excellence in Teacher Preparation (page 14) that was designed to begin the process of restructuring the curriculum for preparation of pre-college science and mathematics teachers. Although no formal recommendations have yet come from this effort, Bell lists some common ideas that came out of the discussions and surely will be of interest to readers of the Journal.

This issue marks the transition from Mickey Sarquis to Emory Howell as editor of the high school section of the Journal. Mickey's article beginning on page 17 provides an overview of the history and aims of the section and indicates challenges for all of us for the future. This is must reading for everyone. On page 7 Emory provides his usual overview of the portions of this issue that will be especially interesting for high school teachers, as he will continue to do throughout his tenure as high school editor.

Every issue of the Journal contains several feature columns. Some appear more often than others, but all are important. On pages 24-28 feature column editors describe their goals and the types of submissions they are interested in. We hope that this will provide guidance for prospective authors regarding some of the possibilities for papers to prepare.