About the Cover:

Celebrating National Chemistry Week (NCW). The Herbert and Katherine Jacobs House II in Middleton, WI, was the first house built under architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s concept of the “Solar Hemicycle”, based on arcs, radii, and circles, and is a dramatic example of this year’s NCW theme: Your Home—It’s All Built on Chemistry. The house’s passive solar design includes a floor-to-roof glass wall oriented toward the sun; the overhang lets sun flood the house to the back wall at the winter solstice, but the midday sun does not get beyond the window wall in summer. In addition, an earth berm protects three sides of the house from winter winds, and the concrete floor and more than 400 tons of limestone moderate the temperature year-round. Look for articles throughout this issue to help you make the most of National Chemistry Week (October 22–28, 2006).