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Chem. Commun., (1996)845] haveshown that polyleucine can catalyze the asymme- tric oxidation of a variety of enones, an enynone, selected enediones and an un- saturated ester. They report enantiomeric excesses up to 98% and show that the reactions proceed in yields of up to 92%. This is clearly a very promising system that has general application for a,8-unsaturated carbonyl and dicarbonyl compounds. With yields and enantiomeric excesses of these orders, it can be anticipated that this sys- tem will find commercial application soon.

Graham J. Hutchings

Catalysis In the Hot Spot

The 'Chemistry Chronicles' is publish- ed by the Institute for Scientific Information. In this appears a section on 'What's Hot in Chemistry' which lists the top 10 papers in chemistry as based on citation impact. Catalysis occupied the number7 and num- ber 9 slots in the issue dated 25-29 August 1996. These papersare: P. yon Matt et al., 'Enantioselective allylic amination with chiral (phosphino-oxazoline) Pd cata- lysts', Tetrahedron Asymm., 5 (4) (1994) 573-584 [This paper received 8 citations in the period March-April 1996]; A. Corma et al., 'Acidity and stability of MCM-41 crystal- line aluminosilicates', J. Catal., 148 (2) (1994) 569-574 [This paper received 7 ci- tations in the same period]. For interest, the most cited paper, on combinational or- ganic synthesis, received a total of 23 cita- tions.

Graham J. Hutchings

Irreproduclble results and poor mass balances explained

A recent article in New Scientist caught my eye. Itwas by John Gribbin entitled 'Not with a bang, but with a grapefruit' [New Scientist, 3 August 1996, p. 47]. This ar- ticle, along with many this summer, ad- dresses one of the remaining unsolved big mysteries, i.e., where did the universe come from? Gribbin points out that quan- tum physics can be used to explain the origin of the universe. According to the general theory of relativity, it is possible for the entire universe to have appeared at a single point with all of its collosal mass energy exactly cancelled out by negative energy of its gravitational field. Apparently, George Gamow had pointed this out to Einstein who 'stopped in his tracks' - - which, as they were in the middle of a busy road, could have proved dangerous.

Well, I am sure there is a flaw some- where, but quantum physics is not my field. However, such an effect may help to ex- plain all those irreproducible results and poor mass balances. I'm off to order a gravity meted Of course, the effect could also explain all the X files, UFO's, etc., which is a bit of a shame for CSICOP (Committee of the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal) who have built a new Centre just outside Buffalo. [New Scientist, 13 July 1996, p. 47]. I ex- pect they will be enrolling for the new quan- tum physics courses.

Graham J. Hutchings

When thoughts of catalysis turn to re- tirement

No matter how great our interest in cata- lysis, at some point each of us will become

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concerned with financing our retirement. A recent article attracted attention to this sub- ject. A former student (of B. Davis) rose to director of research and then took early retirement as his company was merged into another company. Rather than just retire, the student started a second career as a financial consultant.

This student utilized the results ob- tained by two North Carolina State Univer- sity professors, C.P. Jones and J.W. Wil- son, to determine the probability of suc- cess in our quest for financial security through the U.S. stock market. These two professors calculated the probabilities of various returns being earned for invest- ments by the U.S. stock market. Their cal-

culatJons were based on the frequency of actual past returns of the Standard & Poor 500 Index between the years 1926 and 1993, a period of 67 years. These data have been utilized to construct the graph shown in this article.

A surprising feature of the graph is that we have one chance in two of obtaining a 10% return per year irrespective of when we entered the stock market. It was pointed out that returns higher than 10% are more probable over the shorter time period than over longer periods and, conversely, re- turns lower than 10% are more probable over longer periods of time. There is a relatively high probability (about 1 in 3) of realizing a 20% gain in any one year. Un-

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fortunately, the former student did not indi- cate how one can decide which year one should invest in order to obtain the 20% return. Presumably knowing, or at least exhibiting the appearance of knowing, this secret is the reason for the existence of financial consultants.

B.H. Davis

Another View of the 11th ICC

Like many of my colleagues I enjoyed a visit to Baltimore in mid-summer and en- joyed excellent American hospitality. The International Congress is a major meeting, attracting well over 1000 delegates. During the course of the meeting, five plenary lectures were delivered together with two keynote addresses, 138 oral presentations and many hundreds of posters. Luckily, all but the posters are reproduced in two vol- umes of Studies in Surface Science and Catalysis, [101 A&B (1996)] and so any- one interested in the scientific detail has an excellent reference source. The large num- ber of presentations given ensure that an individual scientist: (a) cannot attend everything; and (b) rapidly achieves a state of conference overloadJ A large number of topics were addressed, including: cata- lysis on carbides, nitrides and sulphides; catalysis on acids and bases; oxidation catalysis; synthesis of fine chemicals; en- vironmental catalysis; catalysis by metals; catalysis by zeolites and microporous solids; research on model catalysts; the application of theoretical methods in cata- lysis; catalyst characterisation; catalyst synthesis; the oxidation of methane; syn- thesis gas conversion; and catalyst deac- tivation. For details, I referyou tothewritten texts.

The plenary lectures were given by lan Maxwell (Shell, Amsterdam), James Stevens (Dow Chemical Company), Yasu- hiro Iwasawa (University of Tokyo) and Affons Baiker (ETH, Zurich). Sadly, Kiril Zamaraev, who was to deliver a lecture, died a few clays before the Congress, so this plenary lecture was given by his long time colleague, V.N. Parmon. Professor Sir John Meurig Thomas wrote a moving obi- tuary to Kiril (see The Independent, Lon- don, 22 July 1996) that summed up the mood of the meeting on hearing of his death. I, like many of my friends and col- leagues, was numbed to hear of the loss of this great scientist.

One feature of this conference is that it was the 40th anniversary of the first con- ference. A number of now eminent scien- tists were present who had attended the first conference and these were honoured at the conference banquet with commem- orative diplomas; they also held their own 40th Anniversary lectures and panel dis- cussions.

The social programme provided for the delegates was unparalleled in recent con- ferences. The high spot for many --out- side of the science, that is-- was the visit to the Baltimore Aquarium on the Monday evening. We were entertained with a dol- phin show and then we were able to ex- plore the aquarium at our leisure and to sample excellent seafood delicacies. The oysters were fantastic; I am not sure that everyone realised that there were two queues for the oyster stand since I seemed to be the only person in the second queue and it took a lot of willpower to drag myself away!

I found Baltimore to be a very friendly city with an interesting blend of restaur- ants, bars and shops. The inner harbour

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