May 2007
Vol 44, No 3. Selected articles and reviews available online to all. Full issue available online to subscribers.
Column
Key Stage 3 - teachers' choice
QCA is offering a less prescriptive curriculum at KS3 that could be tuned by teachers to meet the needs of all students. What does this new found freedom mean for science teachers?...
US chemistry in question
Findings of a US National Research Council report suggest a problem of a sustainable supply of chemistry BScs will affect the future of US chemistry research
Lincoln adds to HE chemistry
More good news for the provision of chemistry in HE as the University of Lincoln announces that it will introduce a chemistry degree course in 2008
Blue Coat School wins Top of the Bench trophy
A team of students from the Blue Coat School, Liverpool, wins the final of the RSC's Top of the Bench national schools' competition
Science minister hears voice of the future
Science minister Malcolm Wicks and members of the Science and Technology Select Committee discuss science issues with young scientists at the RSC's Voice of the Future event
RSC funding for research
Members (and non-member school teachers) can apply for grants of up to £2000 from the 2008 RSC Research Fund to support research or chemical education research.
In brief
Items: Various short items
Soundbite molecules
Simon Cotton, teacher at Uppingham School, takes a look at those compounds that find themselves in the news or relate to our everyday lives. In this issue: sinigrin
Product review
In this column John Emsley, University of Cambridge, looks at the chemistry behind familiar, everyday products. In this issue: teeth whiteners
Medicinal compounds
John Mann, Queen's University Belfast, takes a look at drugs on the market. In this issue: biological implications of acetylation
Web watch
Tony Tooth takes a look at some websites that may be of interest to chemistry teachers. In this issue: the Chemical thesaurus, historical documents and ideas for chemistry clubs
Letters
The dehydration of sucrose
From David Tudela
Exhibition Chemistry
Decomposing hydrogen peroxide
Demonstrations designed to capture the student's imagination, by Colin Baker of Bedford School. In this issue: decomposing hydrogen peroxide
Features
Which chemistry course?
Selecting the right chemistry course and the right institution are paramount in a prospective chemist's life
Fighting skin cancer with prodrugs
Prodrugs - selective chemical agents - are beginning to show potential as a cure for skin cancer
Who really discovered the Haber process?
Although Fritz Haber's name is now attached to the process for the synthesis of ammonia from its constituent elements by using high pressure, who was responsible for this reaction?...
Making triazoles, the green way
Triazole synthesis provides an excellent example of a reaction that has the potential to illustrate principles of green chemistry to undergraduates
Reviews
Giant leaps. Mankind's greatest scientific advances... told by the Sun and the Science Museum
Jack Challoner and John Perry
Chemistry and medicines: an introductory text
J. R. Hanson
Lust and love: is it more than chemistry?
Gabriele Froböse and Rolf Froböse
Chemistry (3rd edn)
Rob Lewis and Wynne Evans
Distillates
GCSE for the 21st century
The first in a series of evaluations of the Twenty first century science GCSE course shows that the course is an improvement on traditional courses
Rate of reaction
To inform approaches to teaching about chemical change researchers from the UK and Turkey have studied young people's understanding of reaction rate
Science in South Africa
Researchers from South Africa and Australia have teamed up to introduce South African teachers to new teaching methods and to monitor how these affect students' performance
Infochem
