Who is a Jew? familiar with and willing to vouch for the Jewishness of their maternal lineage or the validity of their conversion. There have been several attempts to convene representatives of the three major movements to formulate a practical solution to this issue. To date, these have failed, though all parties concede the importance of the issue is greater than any sense of rivalry among them. Ethnic Jew is a term generally used to describe a person of Jewish parentage and background who does not necessarily actively practice Judaism, but still identifies with Judaism or other Jews culturally or fraternally, or both. The
Chemistry: A Volatile History than a decade earlier in 1661, a year after the Royal Society opened, Boyle deposited "The Sceptical Chymist" in its vaults. This book is usually regarded as the turning point that signaled the transition from alchemy to chemistry. "The Sceptical Chymist" was innovative in several ways: it was not written in Latin, as had been the tradition for alchemist books, but in English; it dispensed with the old chemical symbols for various elements, using English names instead; and most crucially it was actually published, as opposed to kept secret. Boyle was willing to share his discoveries to allow others to