Spectral lines: Caveat lector

In a recent issue of Chemtech, the results of an opinion survey of chemical engineers conducted during what we suspect may have been a fictitious meeting of the American Chemical Society were presented. Also, the methodology through which a responsible, respectable, and representative sample was achieved was described: "...only members of the society over 50 years of age who voted for Reagan in 1980 were asked to participate. Respondents were asked to check those words on [a] list that they felt applied to all splendid scientists (i.e., those most like themselves). To avoid any bias whatsoever, the inquiry was conducted on a double-blind basis: the [pollsters] subjected themselves to a high-alcohol-content diet for three days prior to the experiment, and each respondent was required to consume a minimum of one double martini before his responses were recorded." The authors concluded that, beyond question, the poll "demonstrated that chemists, if not actually better than all other human beings, are, to say the least, a credit to their race and a damned fine group of upstanding and patriotic Americans, all of whom embody the finest attributes that can be attributed to those to whom those attributes can be attributed."*