Several recent publicly contested issues revolve around the failure of investigators to keep clear, complete, and contemporaneous records. The need for good record-keeping is becoming painfully more evident in academic and government laboratories, as well as industrial. Rather than curse the darkness, let us recognize the existence of a candle already lit. There is an excellent remedy for this often-neglected side of scientific training in H.M. Kanare’s Writing the Laboratory Notebook (American Chemical Society, 1985). With examples from several disciplines and contexts, this thin volume is much richer in content than its modest title suggests
DONALD B. WETLAUFER
Department of Chemistry and
Biochemistry
University of Delaware
Newark, Del.
