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Environment
Beware O' Words
December 3, 2007
| A version of this story appeared in
Volume 85, Issue 49
Kudos to Ron Dagani for his article, "Neutral Diborene Is a First" (C&EN, Oct. 1, page 10). In it he writes: "The chemists treated this compound with a reducing agent ..." So often, even in C&EN, one sees statements such as, "The chemists reacted this compound with ..."
As Bruce Rickborn at the University of California, Santa Barbara, would often point out, chemists treat chemicals with one another; it is the chemicals which react, not the chemists (at least in this context). To paraphrase Robert Burns, "O wad some Power the giftie gie us" to react chemicals, but we're not there yet.
Bego Gerber
Campbell, Calif.
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