The recent publications by Creger2 have reported the a lithiation of aliphatic carboxylic acids using lithium diisopropylamide in tetrahydrofuran. The a-lithiated acid salts thus formed have been shown to react with alkyl halides and with epoxides.

One of the major problems with traditional undergraduate instruction in chemistry is that students can successfully complete the curriculum and not know how to write a technical paper or report. A major complaint from industry is that the novice chemist is unable to write clearly and precisely. This is unfortunate because professional chemists at all levels, both in and out of industry, are required to write all the time. The need to write research reports, technical articles, proposals, dissertations, procedures, and memos requires that the aspiring chemist be an effective writer.

A report on a statistical study of how guessing affects test scores found that their results are contrary to expectations: average students are actually poorer at 'guessing' than students at the bottom of the class.

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Carbonsäuren (I) werden zu (II) lithiiert und dann mit den Ketonen (III) zu den β‐Hydroxy‐carbonsäuren (IV) umgesetzt und zu (V) dehydratisiert.