Letters

Omnibus Language Proposal

Methanol: A New Fuel?

Most physical scientists, particularly

"Energy needs versus environmental
graduate students, need the "diction- pollution: a reconciliation?" (16 June,
ary-hunt" knowledge of two or three p. 1448) by Leon Green, Jr., proposed
foreign languages, despite the contrary a system of energy generation based
opinions and high costs cited by Nich- upon the use of ammonia as a fuel.
ols and Everson (Letters, 23 June). I The general thesis developed is attrachave a suggestion that may seem bi- tive in that it provides for conversion
zarre at first; it is based on comments
of fossil fuels into a chemical fuel in
made by Fritz Zwicky at a symposium such a way that waste products can
on Modern Methodology at Caltech
be readily controlled and contained at
recently. Briefly, Zwicky feels that lan- the point of release. On the other hand,
I think that Green's suggestions would
guages can best be taught several at a
time, as in his native Switzerland. He have been much more practical if he
claims that in this manner, similarities had given consideration to the producand differences would stand out and tion of methanol rather than ammonia.
The chemical process used to conbe more easily remembered by students. Several of us urged him to pre- vert fuel gas, petroleum fractions, or
even coal to methanol is essentially
pare a textbook so that his idea could
be tried, possibly in a special course the same as the process used for profor graduate students in the sciences. duction of ammonia. In both, the
No one seems to have given much original raw material is converted to
thought to a course in "scientific lan- a mixture of carbon monoxide and
guages," say, German, Russian, French, hydrogen which is then further procItalian and Spanish. A graduate stu- essed to produce the desired final proddent usually has had 2 years in one uct. The efficiency of conversion is
of these so that the comparative as- approximately the same in both cases,
pects of grammar would not be too and a substantial fraction of the cardifficult. As Zwicky points out, scien- bon originally present in the fossil fuel
tific terminology tends to be the same disappears from the system as carbon
in most languages, and the student spe- dioxide. In the case of ammonia, all
cializing in physics, for instance, is in of the carbon is separated in this manany case helped by equations and dianer; with methanol, about two-thirds
is removed.
grams. The purpose of such a course
would be to give a student confidence
The cost of erected facilities for the
in finding and reading articles in for- production of ammonia or methanol
eign journals about his own thesis top- are roughly comparable. Once very
ic, without spending the time to learn large plants are designed for productwo or three languages thoroughly. The ing methanol, the relative simplicity
linguists will undoubtedly object to possible in handling the product as
such shallow treatment, but they may compared with the requirements for
be reassured that regular language liquifying and pressurizing the amcourses will still be needed for other
monia product will probably result in
an advantage in the overall investment
purposes, and that the five-language
cost. Methanol can be stored at atmocourse may reduce the bored fringe
of disinterested students in regular lan- spheric pressure under all normal conditions and can be readily shipped by
guage classes. The major problem is
who can teach such a course? (other pipeline, by normal tank car, or tank
truck. Because of its very low freezing
than Zwicky)!
THORNTON PAGE point and low viscosity, it can be used
easily for all conventional fuel requireDepartment of Astronomy, Wesleyan
ments.
University, Middletown, Connecticut
22 SEPTEMBER 1967

It is interesting to note that, with

some adjustment to the carburetor,
methanol can be used as a fuel in
ordinary internal combustion engines.
It is a completely clean fuel requiring
no additives, lead, or other constituents which tend to aggravate atmospheric pollution problems. Of course,
it would be essential that the internal
combustion engine be adjusted properly to avoid formation of oxygenated
hydrocarbon compounds in the exhaust
gases.
Of even more interest is the possibility of utilizing methanol directly as
a fuel for a direct conversion fuel cell.
Substantial work in this direction has
been carried out at Institut Francais
du Petrole where demonstration cells
have already been built and operated
for many thousands of hours. Use of
methanol in this manner would permit a ready transition from hydrocarbon fuels inside of city areas with a
gradual replacement of internal combustion engines by electric motors
powered by fuel cells.
Production of methanol could be
taken over completely by large energy

companies currently refining petroleum

and distributing hydrocarbon fuels. The
investment required to produce enough
methanol to replace all existing fuels
would certainly be extremely high, but
may not be out of proportion to that
required for producing low-sulfur conventional fuels such as is being required by legislation currently being
enacted throughout the country.
RONALD G. MINET

Compagnia Tecnica Industrie Petroli

S.p.A., Piazzale G. Douhet 31 (EUR),
Rome, Italy

Computer Science
Professors of computer science are
often asked: "Is there such a thing as
computer science, and if there is, what
is it?" The questions have a simple
answer:

Wherever there are phenomena, there

can be a science to describe and explain those phenomena. Thus, the simplest (and correct) answer to "What
is botany?" is, "Botany is the study
of plants." And zoology is the study
of animals, astronomy the study of
stars, and so on. Phenomena breed

sciences.
There are computers. Ergo, computer
science is the study of computers. The
phenomena surrounding computers are
1373

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artficial. henice are whatever thev are

maeo e. hience obey no inarale
laws, hence cantnot be described and
The objection is
explained. Anuswoer.
false,
sinice computerIMs andc
patently
compulLter, pr-ograms are beingy desci- bed
and expl'ained dailly. 2. Thie obj'ectioni
W~ould eqully11N ruLle ouit of' scienice large
portions of' orgaYnic chemistry (SubI-stiI''ones" f'or "comlpuIter-S"' phr StuIte "slk
iCS (SubStituIte "SuIpercondcLItisT its " for
"ComputerMS"). and even zoology (SubhStituite 'hbrdcor-n'f'or 1.comIputer-s').
The objectionl Wsould Certaints ruLeI ouIt
nmahematics, buIt in ansv esvcnt ItS StatuS
aIS a na'tural science is 'idis ertc
0bjecclio/n 2. The termi "comlpuIter,
is niot ssell dLefinled, an1d its mleanling,
sv Il c ha'tnce swith ness desvelopments.
henice COmIpulter science dloes niot hasve
a eli defined subject mlatter. Atmi o'r.
The phenomena of' all sciences Change
05 er tlime: the proCeSS Of ulnder-staindinc1 aSSuIreS tha'It thlis Will be the caise.
1Astronoms dlid niot or-icinally 1CInLude
ItheC StudsI Of Interstellar _gases; pbhysics
dId no0t linclue radioactiv its'; p55\chologs' didl- not inICILude the Study of' anias loce
mal behavior. Ma-thematics ssL1defined ats the "science of' quanltits.
()bjeeCtoll 3. ( omIpuIter Scienice is thec
StuIds Of algorithms or- procrams),
hoss inc(nt4c0mpuIteirs. Anuswcir.
someIcareSIght
thesc
In
thIIanI
dieleper
timeis ci edlitedi \sith. the f'ounIderS Of
the chilef pirofesslional1 orgranization forcomputeiIM scienice niamied 'It the Asso-

sen-

thlat needs

LRC' has 20-iniflisvott

So, miost of the tlii'ne, the
:iictded pre-a'nips.

What should you pay for

cans

asvcrager

an

Ttse

ity.

seilsi tis

er-

in

skeptics.
Objctionul I Only natUral phienomiena breed sceiences, bLut COMPuterS arie

many

averaging.?

Signal
cictc

varied. comiplex. r-ich. It r-emiains only

to 'answer the objections posed by

price

at

enices, but to furither Stuidy of comipuLters. Hence, the com1puiter is not

julSt an instrumient buIt a phenomienon
as well, requirinig description and explanation.
ObjeCCtionl 5. Com11puter- scienice is a1
branich of electr-onics (or mlathemnatics,
psychologv, and so f-or-th), Atiis s'er. To
studIL VC0II
computes, onie mayv needt t o

stmidIV somie or ,ill of these. P3heniomiena

diefinie the focuIS Of a1 SCience, not its
bouIndaries. Many of the phenomena
of' comIputer-s are a,,lso phenomena of'
some other- sciencee. The existence of'
hiochemistry dienies nieither the exisfenice of biologyv nor- of chemistry. BLut
:ill of' the phenomena Of computerS
arie no0t Sub_Sume1d undicer ains onec existin, science.

Objection
enliniieerina,

6.

ComIpLitCerS belong1 to
Ati,swoer. Thev

not science.

belong to bioth, like electricity (phy sics and electrical engineering) or plants
(botany antd agricultuIre). Tlime swill tell

wshat prof essionial specialization is dlesir:ible betwveen analysis anid synthesis,

aind betwveen the purie StudyI Of COm1puLterS andic their applicationl.
Com11pUter sclientists ~ivlll of teil jolin
hiandls s ith colleaigueS f'romi other- discipl ines in commiioni endeasvor. Mostly,
comp1-Uter scienitists sw Il tid lIvin
0

comipulters ssvitlh the

same plassion that

others hasve studied plants, Stars. cIla-

cier s, dvestutifs, :indc magnmetisi'n:an

55vith the same conifidience thLat initelligenit, persistent CuriositsVs\il I e lldila Suseful knossledg,e.
tciresting( and LIp
NLLEN Ni1sWriL
At AN J. PLRIS
Hi RBE RT A. SIoNIO
61,tac/ahir School of hit/u s,tria/
'Ad/mili-str/atiO/i. C aricegic Insltitute of

Ini the dieftini tion ,. 'COMPuterS mean1CWS

''Ising computers
OII
I-the ha;Id s a re,
theirl PrograImis or' algori-thms, andic all
t hat goes ssith themi. C omputeItl scienice

is

the StudsIN Of thle phenomenCIa

surrounIlding ComlpuIterS. "'0ComputerS

p1ILI alg'O th1IIns" "lisVing coptes."
III)L
o;- si I'npls-)I " Co0I-)nputeiIs" all1 coi'C to0
the Same11 th inc--the same pheleollme'.
O()ciuim10i 4. ( om pute; S, like the;ii n Ilci
I "-. areincIIStruLIMen1tS. n1O t pheno01meni InlStrumenICItS lead as stO theirLi-sci SL ences:1), the behasviois of' '1ust; L0
inenits areC subsumled as special topics
inl othie; scienices (not alws ass the uisers-cien1ces-electi on mlicroscopv belon cs
to pb1%sscs. nlot biologs%,. Au so cr. Thec
nosvel and camip-)IC\1iis',tiI-umenICit thiat Its b-)eh asRrIn is

Icoi'nputCet

/ U213
s/s
a_v1tiia

is Sueh

"The Big Trouible iwith

Scientific Writing
WhenI I see :irii1CleS, :is I freCquenItiV
dJo theseci(asvs. e xhoi tine( a ut1 horS to
ci cater Simplicity an11d c Ia"ri t (1v
thilink of the fiist little Scientific niote
I ss ote. \\ hen I ss as lan kidelistic gradsimplsad
tdt. 5 iote It ,isS11V
HtiCt sWi
dHi CCtlV aS COuIld. It beCgan1. he b)ig
rot1ible \\ ith difi LISIOIi CILoud Chambers)CP
is loss

rladiatitoni ecsistancci and

it

ssenlt

SubLImeSIIld undicer no othici science-, its

s'tulds doeS no0t leatd as~ to Lusc;sc

oressoik
thoughlt it needeId a litle
W
Scirctly I dlid niot agree, so I decided
to attempt to make it inito aI parods of,