Picture News

Although comic books had long been proud of their "nonfiction" titles, the educational wing of the industry never turned much of a profit. After only ten issues, Picture News died in 1947. Air Ace succumbed the same year. True Comics did not last beyond 1948. Real Fact expired in 1949. Although Classic Comics continues today, industry leaders quickly realized that the comic book functioned far better as a source of entertainment than as a means of instruction. 

If the announcement was designed to attract the notice of the scientific press, it did just that. For example, M., Jacoby, Picture Perfect Orbitals, Chemical Engineering News, 77 8, 1999. 

Mezey, P.G. (1997) Computational microscopy pictures of proteins, Pharmaceutical News, 4, 29. 

He took my picture and seemed favorably impressed. The resulting article appeared in The Deseret News, a newspaper widely circulated in the Salt Lake area. My theory that openness was the best policy seemed vindicated by the positive coverage given to the Edgewood program. It definitely appeared to be a beneficial bit of PR for the Chemical Corps. 

Newspaper photos make great practice tools. News photos are action-oriented and usually include more than one person. Sit down in a quiet place, clear your mind, remind yourself for several minutes that you will retain all the details you need when you study the picture, and then turn to a picture and study it for about five minutes. At the end of the time, turn the picture over, get a piece of paper and a pencil, then write... 

Working in the chemical industry is safer than most individuals realize. We shall provide a perspective of the risks of working within this industry by comparing that risk with actual statistical dangers encountered with other well-understood occupations, commonplace activities, and life-styles. Later chapters will focus on costly errors in the chemical industry along with practices and procedures to reduce the occurrence and severity of such incidents. Viewed in isolation, case histories alone could easily lead to the inaccurate picture that the chemical industry is dangerous. In fact, the chemical industry has an impressive safety record that is considerably better than most occupations. The news media does not often speak of the safety of the chemical plants because these passive truths lack news-selling sizzle. 

Pearson, R. G. Crystal Field Explains Inorganic Behavior, Chem. and Engineering News, June 29, 1959, 72 (excellent pictures). 

The SCHC News is published for distribution to members. It includes pictures, meeting information, articles, and news of general interest to SCHC members and others interested in hazard communication issues. 

There is more good news. Anyone who has stared at the periodic table and has taken basic chemistry knows that the orbital structure postulated for atoms is the same for all kinds of atoms. And all atoms exhibit a line spectrum that is independent of the viewer s position. So there is no reason, in principle, why you couldn t solve this problem for other sorts of atoms too. The basic ideas are indeed the same. Of course, problems arise in interpretation. For example, if we are interpreting our little electron as a wave, then what are we supposed to do with two electrons After all, a wave plus a wave is still just a wave. As near as I can tell, quantum mechanics still has a way to go before it replaces the old fashioned pictures of helium, lithium and other, more complex, atoms. And any physicist can tell you that molecules, stripped of their pretty spherical symmetry, are trouble indeed. 

The program of information and education has made extensive use of all news media, motion pictures, nontechnical and technical publications, training courses and conferences, and briefings for industry, associations, and the general public. 

India currently has a better record of environmental compliance, although one need only look at the covers of back issues of Chemical Engineering News to find pictures of polluted effluent from Indian manufacturers. The industrial accident followed by the airborne dispersal of methyl isocyanate at Bhopal was not so long ago and was perhaps the event that triggered the Indian industry to better manage its processes and effluent. 

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