Volume 1, Number 3

Editor Neil Gordon encouraged teachers to adopt the metric system in both their teaching and their purchasing of chemicals and supplies. D. H. Kilheffer, an associate editor of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, reported on ten talks that were given by members of the New York Section of ACS via the new medium of radio - one that he thought had great potential for reaching the general public with the message of the importance of chemistry. With "World Wide Web" or "Internet" substituted for "radio", Kilheffer's paper might fit our pages today, and with many other substitutions it has been published again and again in this Journal since 1924.

In a paper titled "The High School Chemistry Course versus the College Requirement", Charles H. Stone of English High School, Boston, argued that college entrance requirements (College Boards) practically forced the high school teacher to "give the routine course, however much it may be against his better judgment". Stone argued for inclusion of the chemistry of agriculture, of the local industries, of household products, of photography, and of the automobile - -all topics "which make so strong an appeal to the interest of all pupils" and "enable them better to understand their environment and the means by which it can be controlled."

Volume 25, Number 3

Editor Norris Rakestraw recommended that readers should "try to make the atom less theoretical", particularly in light of the "events of Alamogordo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Bikini". He closed with the idea that "A study of the way in which science has developed should be much more instructive than a series of rules for logical thinking."

The Journal was calling on the expertise and experience of industrial chemists to a considerable degree. Authors of four of eleven full papers had industrial affiliations. One example is the paper by Sidney M. Edelstein of Dexter Chemical Corp. on "The Role of Chemistry in the Development of Dyeing and Bleaching".

By 1948 technology related to what would become digital computers had advanced to the point that Bailar, Heumann, and Seiferle of the University of Illinois prepared a paper, "The Use of Punched Card Techniques in the Coding of Inorganic Compounds". One of the aims of such coding was "the correlation of molecular structure with biological activity."

Volume 50, Number 3

By 1973, environmental problems had received a great deal of attention. Editor W. T. Lippincott argued emphatically that students should be provided with "a perspective on the environment that is intellectually honest and scientifically sound." This theme was also evident from nearly a dozen advertisements for textbooks whose titles included "environment" or "chemistry and society". It also carried into a paper by Douglas C. Neckers, "Photochemical Reactions of Natural Macromolecules", that dealt with the interactions of UV light with proteins and amino acids, including the chemistry of vision.

Three Mexican authors, Lehmann, Bolivar, and Quintero, provided another example of the impact that chemistry can have on society - a brief but fascinating scientific biography of Russell E. Marker, who discovered a plentiful source for steroids and pioneered the steroid industry in Mexico. Marker was also involved in setting up the octane rating scale when he worked for Ethyl Corporation, did research on hydrocarbon rearrangements, and studied optical rotation. As an undergraduate at the University of Maryland, he served as the first paid employee (at 25¢/hour) of Neil Gordon's brand new Journal of Chemical Education, providing to the editor a student's perspective on submitted papers.

Marjorie Gardner, also from the University of Maryland, presented a list of 11 trends and issues in chemical education in an outline of her presentation to the New England Association of Chemistry Teachers in August 1972. These appear on page 207 of Volume 50. They are well worth reading, because in the intervening 25 years we have moved far less in the direction of many of the trends than one might have expected. It would be worthwhile to reiterate these ideas. Certainly it would be worthwhile for all of us to renew our efforts on behalf of many of them.

As in the issue you are reading, Volume 50, Number 3 contained the program of the next ACS National Meeting - to be held in Dallas. One of the speakers was Stanley G. Smith, on "Computer-Based Teaching in Chemistry". Twenty-five years later his work in this field is being honored with the George C. Pimentel Award in Chemical Education Sponsored by the Union Carbide Corporation. Congratulations to Stan, Maria Walsh, Zafra Lerman, and Rabindra Roy, all of whom will participate in this year's DivCHED Awards Symposium.