Each month feature editor Hal Harris recommends readings for teachers of chemistry and related sciences. Hal maintains a file of articles, pictures, and references coordinated with the topics that come up in his curriculum. Examples from that file make up this eclectic list of items he has read recently and which he thinks might be of interest to other teachers of science, especially chemistry.
Poisons are among the favorite weapons of mystery writers, if not murderers. Guns may be quicker, but poisons have a cachet that you really can't beat. On the other hand, murder by poison has become increasingly dangerous - to the perpetrator! Despite the fact that incredibly small amounts of certain chemicals constitute a lethal dose, resourceful forensic scientists have pushed the limits of quantitation to even smaller values. It is amazing that a person can be killed with only micrograms of a few substances (think about what a microgram would look like), but even more so that they are always detectable in a corpse. "Molecules of Murder" recounts some of the most infamous murders by poison in a style that will appeal to chemists and students of chemistry. While he does not provide chemical structures for the toxins (so as not to put off the non-chemical reader), skilled science writer John Emsley [author of other Hal's Picks in November 2001 and July 1998] deftly describes the murders and the murderers in a case-by-case style that never speaks down to his audience.
The Presidential campaign to this point has been waged so devoid of issues that one might think that there is nothing to discuss other than lipstick and the number of houses the candidates own. Beyond such trivialities as foreign policy, health care, immigration and the war(s), there a few minor issues that have something to do with science. One could make the case that the most important questions facing the new President will be ones in which science is key. The candidates should be asked - or they should be asking one another - about technological aspects of terrorism, global warming and alternative energy sources, stem cell research, nuclear power, and space exploration, to mention a few. The rest of us should demand that the campaigns address these questions and the candidates ought to be expected to know something about science, even if their degrees are from a military academy, or are in law or communications-journalism, it is not too much to expect that they understand something of science. Univesity of California Professor of Physics Richard Muller has put together a course just for them, but the rest of use can benefit from it as well. If it is not convenient for you to attend Cal Berkeley, you can either pick up this excellent book, or you can view his course on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=095393D5B42B2266.
Whether you are trying to choose a school for your child (or deciding which district to move into), evaluate a student or a teacher, comply with the requirements of No Child Left Behind, admit students or apply for admittance, or compare the educational systems of different countries, there is likely to be some kind of a test involved. The design and interpretation of tests is fraught with pitfalls, and Daniel Koretz points out many of the ways in which they are misued and misinterpreted. Contrary to the quote from GWB, "A reading comprehension test is a reading comprehension test. And a math test in the fourth grade - there's not many ways you can foul up a test ... It's pretty easy to norm the results", there are many, many ways to foul up a test, and we see them every day. Incredible as it might seem, Koretz has managed to write an engaging and wry book about testing and measurement, which is often considered a dry subject. I strongly recommend this book, but only to teachers, parents, school board members, principals, college faculty, legislators, voters, and others concerned about teaching and learning. It is the best book on education that I have read in a long time.
George Gamow introduced me to Monte Carlo methods in a chapter of "One Two Three ? Infinity" (Hal's Pick of April, 2001) that I first read when I was about twelve. His vivid description and witty illustration of the path of a staggering drunk comes clearly to mind even these many decades later, and it surely inspired my research on a number of projects. Leonard Mlodinow has written a book that could well have a similar effect on its readers. Without using equations, he addresses some serious ideas, such as conditional probabilities and Bayesian statistics. His chapter on Measurement could be used for any of several science courses, and would be better than what is usually found. A scenario on conditional probability: Given that a couple with two children has one girl, the probability that they have two girls is 1/3. Maybe you were aware of that. But did you know that, if it is given that they have one girl named Florida, that the probability that they have two girls is 1/2? "The Drunkard's Walk" is full of many such seductive examples, that are not only theoretically interesting but also important in everyday life.
The July 2008 isue of Physics Today has a special focus: "Energy Today and Tomorrow". It features three articles of interest to chemists and physicists, "Grand Challenges in Basic Energy Sciences" by Graham R. Fleming and Mark A. Ratner, "Energy Efficiency and the Built Environment" by Leon Glicksman, and this one by Thomas Murphy Jr. There is a lot of very glib talk about how how future will be full of photovoltaic electricity and not a lot of "nuts and bolts" about what is required to make it happen. Thomas Murphy does an outstanding job of describing two small photovoltaic systems that he has designed and built himself, using off-the-shelf components. It is a cautionary tale; this is a project that is modestly demanding in its technical difficulty. More sobering is the fact that the systems he built produce less than 200 watts at maximum solar intensity, for about five effective hours per day in San Diego. How long would it take to recover the cost, when a KWH of electricity sells for $.15 in San Diego? Of course, the point is not to make a practical energy generator, but to investigate what it takes to make one work.
How likely is it that an asteroid or a comet of significant size will impact the earth, and what would be the consequences? It is now widely accepted that the dinosaurs were wiped out by such an event, and recent research suggests that previous estimates of the number of asteroid impacts may have been much too low. I only recently learned that it is often possible to see asteroids striking the moon during the annual meteor showers. A video of such an impact is available on the NASA Website, http://www.spaceweather3.com/swpod2006/14jun06/movie760.gif. The impact of even a relatively small object could wipe out a city, and a large one could end human life on earth. Environmentalist-writer Gregg Easterbrook argues that NASA should be expending far more than 0.1% of its budget studying this threat, and what might be done about it. NASA and Congress seem to think that the involvement of astronauts is necessary for the public to support space science, but I think that interest in the Hubble telescope, the Mars Rovers and the brand-new Phoenix lander shows that not to be the case. Why spend billions on the scientifically barren ISS, whose main purpose seems to be as an adventure destination for wealthy tourists, when a possible danger like this looms? When was the last time you heard about real science from ISS? The next problem for it may be how to bring it down without killing anybody.
Lists of "the best" movies, books, sports stars, American Idols, etc. etc. are often intriguing and controversial. Science has its own lists, be they Nobelists or most-cited publications. Just a little while ago (could it really have been November, 2005?) Philip Ball's list of "elegant" chemistry experiments was my choice of the month. George Johnson chooses from a wider range of disciplines, but his "top ten" has no overlap with those in Ball's list. This rather short book does an outstanding job of describing the experimental science, with an adequate minimum about the personalities and the times of the scientists themselves. I think it is an excellent list: Galileo's laws of motion, Harvey's study of blood circulation, Newton's color experiments, Lavoisier (see my pick for January 2007, too), Galvani's connection of nerves to electricity, Faraday and electromagnetic radiation, Joule and the mechanical equivalent of heat, the Michelson-Morley experiment, Pavlov and his dogs, and Millikan's measurment of electron charge. The last is an experiment that Johson actually recreated himself (a man after my heart). This is an excellent, concise book - one in which the science speaks. You can read it in an hour or two, well-spent.
Robert Bryce is a respected commentator on the energy industry. He writes for Atlantic Monthly, the Guardian and The Nation, and he has written books about Enron and about the oil industry in Texas. In "Gusher of Lies", he confronts politicians and entrepeneurs who claim that the United States should/could become "energy independent" at any time in the forseeable future. He shows why biofuels, wind, and solar power cannot make a significant difference, and how E85 "Flexfuel" cars and SUV's increase gasoline consumption while allowing manufacturers to claim higher gas mileage. Advocates of wind power nearly always talk about the amount and cost of installed capacity, and seldom about the amount of power actually generated, or the need to have equivalent amounts of base power generation available when the wind isn't blowing. While providing lots of useful facts and statistics about energy, for arguments with ethanolics, this book could change you from skeptical to a cynical about energy.
Global warming is no joke, but that does not mean that humor should not be encouraged. Sidney Harris is joined by twenty of his cartoonist colleagues to provide somewhat more than the promised 101 cartoons about global warming (there are no page numbers - I had to count!). They are not all funny, however. Some are sardonic comments on political figures such as Tom DeLay, Sonny Bono, Dick Cheney, Dan Quayle, and others (all of these by Harris), and some of the others are more like editorial cartoons than the ha-ha kind that we expect of Harris (no relation, unfortunately). You may need some cheering after my other Pick this month.
I have noticed a significant decline over the years in the ability of my students to estimate quantities, and have attributed it to an increased reliance on calculators and computers, but it may be a consequence of more subtle differences in brain development. In this article, Jim Holt describes the research of Stanislas Dehaene, a young Frenchman who is trying to find the loci of arithmetic ability in the brain. Using studies across cultures and species, with heavy reliance on high-resolution brain scans, he has evidence that different number abilities are carried out in three different parts of the brain; "number sense" is evolved and is found in other species, "numerals" and "number words" are linked to culture. Chinese four year olds can usually count to 40 (in Chinese, of course) while English speakers of the same age can make it only to about 15. Dehaene thinks that Piaget seriously underestimated the arithmetic abilities of young children, and he doesn't think much of "New Math" approaches to teaching. Dehaene's research is more pertinent to the learning of arithmetic than higher mathematics, but perhaps this approach will disclose why my students aren't much good at calculus (after passing three semesters worth of courses).
You know Ira Flatow as host of Science Friday on NPR. I don't often get to listen "live" because the broadcasts occur while I am (supposed to be) working, but I subscribe to the podcasts and catch up on them later from an RSS feed. "Present at the Future" is a collection of essays inspired by conversations with recent guests on the show, and it is written from the point of view that Ira (I call him Ira because I met him once and am therefore entitled) brings to his program - that of an interested and well-read layman. The topics in the book are all over the map - nanotechnology to wind power, and cognitive science to why an airplane flies (not the Bernoulli explanation). The book is as eclectic as the radio show. You will surely find something of interest in it, and it would be appropriate to recommend to students.
This is the second book of chemical demonstrations by Herbert Roesky that I have purchased. The first, "Chemical Curiosities: Spectacular Experiments and Inspired Quotes" should have been a Hal's Pick when it was published in 1996. It is a beautifully crafted book, with excellent photographic illustrations of the phenomena described, and (somewhat) related quotations from science and literature. "Spectacular Chemical Experiments" is a continuation in the same spirit. It is a somewhat shorter book, but it still describes eighty-six chemical demonstrations. Most of these were already familiar to me, but there were some new ones and even the familar ones inspire this teacher when they are so creatively presented. Most of the demonstrations require more than a little preparation, so don't expect to often be able to throw something together for this afternoon's lecture.
