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Short Book Reviews
Short notes 1995
Title THE WORDS OF MATHEMATICS. AN ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF MATHEMATICAL TERMS USED IN ENGLISH. Author S. Schwartzman. Publisher Washington, D.C.: The Mathematical Association of America, 1994, pp. vii + 261, US$27.00. This is a reference book which describes the origins of over fifteen hundred mathematical terms used in English. The word "statistic" is defined as follows: "statistic (noun), statistics (noun), statistical (adjective), statistician (noun): the Latin verb stare meant the same as its English cognate stand; both are descended from the Indo-European root sta- "to stand." From the Latin verb came the noun status, literally "a standing, a condition." The word state, which comes from status, is therefore a synonym of condition. A nation as a whole is also called a state because it is composed of the set of all conditions in a certain geo-graphic area. As a result the term state came to be associated with government and politics. The German word Statistik was used in the 18th century to refer to political science, which has to do with states and governments. Since the study of political science involves the accumulation of data about the conditions in a country, each individual piece of data came to be known as a statistic, and the collective plural statistics came to refer to all the data and their collection and interpretation. Although the etymology of the word statistics is complicated, the meaning of the underlying Indo-European root is still apparent: statistics tell you how things "stand"."
Title THE BROKEN DICE AND OTHER MATHEMATICAL TALES OF CHANCE. Author I. Ekeland. Translated by C. Volk. Publisher Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press, 1993, pp. 183, US$19.95. From the book jacket: "The unpredictability of nature is both exhilarating and unnerving. Whether in science, the casino, or merely our everyday lives, chance is a mysterious force we do the utmost to control, usually with little success. Although scientists and philosophers have for centuries argued that the universe is governed by regular and necessary laws, nature quite frequently refuses to play by the rules. Why is it that even the most ingenious attempts to eliminate the free play of chance have failed? Is life really nothing other than the roll of dice or the toss of a coin?
In The Broken Dice, Ekeland contemplates these and many other questions concerning the randomness of nature. Here he extends his consideration of the catastrophe theory of the universe begun in his widely acclaimed Mathematics and the Unexpected, drawing upon rich literary sources (particularly myth) and current
topics in mathematics and physics, such as chaos theory, information theory, and particle physics. One central theme, the relationship between chance and fate, is explored through a thirteen-century Norse saga in which Saint Olaf become ruler of a village by the roll of a die. In this mythic episode, chance and devine providence compete as alternative and contra-dictory explanations of the same decisive event. Yet Ekeland argues that the contradiction is only apparent: both explanations are attempts to impose meaning on the inescapable uncontrollable flow of events. Chance, he concludes, is a fundamental given of the universe, one that the myth as much as science has struggled for millennia to understand."
The Norse saga is as follows: "Thorstein the Learned says that there was settlement on the Island of Hising which alternately belonged to Norway and to Gautland. So the kings agreed between them to draw lots and throw dice for this possession. And he was to have it who threw the highest. Then the Swedish king threw two sixes and said that it was no use for King Olaf to throw. He replied, while shaking the dice in his hand, "There are two sixes still on the dice, and it is a trifling matter for God, my Lord, to have them turn up." He threw them, and two sixes turned up. Thereupon Olaf, the king of Norway, cast the dice, and one six showed on one of them, but the other split in two, so that six and one turned up; and so he took possession of the settlement."
Title e THE STORY OF A NUMBER. Author E. Maor. Publisher Princeton University Press, 1994, pp. xiv + 223, US$24.95/,19.95. This is the story of "e". Maor gives the story of "e" from a human as well as a mathematical perspective. In doing so, he presents the history of mathematics from the early seventeenth to late nineteenth century.
Title TO BE A SCIENTIST. THE SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Author D. Braben. Publisher Oxford University Press, 1994, pp. xiii + 166, £9.99. From the book jacket: "What does a scientist do? How does one become a scientist? Why is science important? This book gives a light-hearted sketch of scientific enterprise. Long ago, scientists were free-wheeling philosophers who could turn their minds to whatever took their fancy. Today, however, their interests are regimented and controlled, and scientists struggle to preserve originality. The book advises on how to get a job, to publish, and to win major prizes. It points the way to vast, unexplored spaces that await the adventurous challengers of convention, and to the momentous discoveries that will transform our lives in
the future. But it offers more than amusement and excitement. It shows why diversity is vital to our future well-being, and how mankind can survive the severe storms that lie ahead by combining unconstrained scientific originality with industrial ingenuity in a novel way."
From a review by D. Herschbach of the book. "I think this book is beautifully written. There are a great many people who want to understand about how science works, and Braben has drawn on his unique experience to bring the subject alive. I remember a story about one of my favourite biographers, Catherine Drinker Bowern. Above her writing desk she had a card with the question 'will the reader turn the page?'. Here is a book written in such a way that guarantees the reader will!"
Title EINSTEIN LIVED HERE. Author A Pais. Publisher Oxford: Clarendon Press/New York: Oxford University Press, 1994, pp. xvi + 282, £14.95. This is a companion volume to Pais's previous book on Albert Einstein, "Subtle is the Lord". The pre-sent book enlarges on the way Einstein was perceived, how he lived, his family, contacts, views on religion, etc.
Title NO ORDINARY GENIUS. The Illustrated Richard Feynman. Author C. Sykes (Ed.). Publisher New York: Norton, 1994, pp. 272, US$29.95/Can.$37.50. From the book jacket: "If Richard Feynman had not existed it would not be possible to create him. The most extraordinary scientist of his time, a unique combination of dazzling intellect and touching simplicity, Feynman had a passion for physics that was merely the Nobel Prize-winning part of an immense love of life and everything it could offer. He was hugely irreverent and always completely honest-with himself, with his colleagues, and with nature.
'People say to me, "Are you looking for the ultimate laws of physics?" No, I'm not. I'm just looking to find out more about the world, and if it turns out there is a simple ultimate law that explains everything, so be it. That would be very nice to discover. If it turns out it's like an onion with millions of layers, and we're sick and tired of looking at layers, then that's the way it is.... My interest in science is to simply find out more about the world, and the more I find out the better it is. I like to find out.'
This intimate, moving, and funny book traces Feynman's remarkable adventures inside and outside science, in words and in more than one hundred photo-graphs, many of them supplied by his family and close friends. The words are often his own and those of family, friends and colleagues ... . It gives vivid insight into the mind of a great creative scientist at work and at play, and it challenges the popular myth of the scientist as a cold reductionist dedicated to stripping romance and mystery from the natural world. Feynman's enthusiasm is wonderfully infectious."
Title EDDINGTON'S SEARCH FOR A FUNDAMENTAL THEORY. A Key to the Universe. Author C.W. Kilmister. Publisher Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp. xii + 256, £35.00/US$59.95. This volume examines how Sir Arthur Eddington, the famous astrophysicist, came to write his last two books Relativity Theory of Protons and Electrons 1936 and Fundamental Theory 1946. Thus, this book describes the development of theoretical physics in the first half of the twentieth century.
Title THE MAKING OF A SOVIET SCIENTIST. My Adventures in Nuclear Fusion and Space From Stalin to Star Wars. Author R.Z. Sagdeev. Edited by C. Sagan. S. Eisenhower. Publisher New York: Wiley, 1994, pp. xi + 339, US$24.95/,14.95. Roald Z. Sagdeev is Distinguished Professor of Physics and the director of the East-West Center for Space Science, University of Maryland in the United States of America. Sagdeev played a role during the first years of perestroika. His autobiography gives details of the cold war, science, etc. in the former USSR.
Title FRANCIS BACON AND THE POLITICS OF SCIENCE. Author J.E. Leary, Jr. Ames, Publisher Iowa: Iowa State University Press, 1994, pp. xii + 297. From the book jacket: "Leary traces revealing continuities between Francis Bacon's life, his political outlook, and his proposal for the renewal of scientific inquiry known as the Great Instauration. Leary shows that Bacon's plan is a blueprint for organizing and governing a highly disciplined and regimented community. The Baconian vision is not intended to free the human mind (which Bacon regarded as far too undisciplined already) but to tie it down with leaden weights.
Though Bacon's importance as an advocate of "organized" science has long been recognized, there has been little systematic exploration of the extent to which his principles were drawn from the civil sphere. As Bacon's ideas are set in the context of his Tudor political concepts, it becomes clear that Baconian sciences is not the "public" and "free" science of the Enlightenment. Instead, it is sequestered from the public view and fiercely disciplined from above. Beyond elucidating an important aspect of Bacon's thought, this book sheds light on important relations between science and society at a crucial moment in the emergence of the modern outlook."
Title NUCLEAR PURSUITS. THE SCIENTIFIC BIOGRAPHY OF WILFRED BENNETT LEWIS. Author R. Fawcett. Publisher Montreal, Quebec: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1994, pp. xiii + 210, Can.$34.95. Wilfred Bennett Lewis (1908-1987) was a nuclear physicist. For twenty-seven years he headed the nuclear research facility in Chalk River, Canada. Not only was he convinced that nuclear energy could be used economically for generating electricity, he also sup-ported a strong tradition for basic research.
Title RISK AND RESPONSIBILITY. Author W. Leiss and C. Chociolko. Publisher Montreal, Quebec: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1994, pp. xvi + 405. The authors show how and why controversies arise over the management of health and environmental risks and how to find solutions acceptable to all parties: industry, governments and individuals. They also show the difficulties of arriving at reliable scientific estimates of risk.
Title ENVIRONMENT, GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT. THE CONCEPTS AND STRATEGIES OF SUSTAINABILITY. Author P. Bartelmus. Publisher London and New York: Routledge, 1994, pp. xix + 163. This volume gives an analysis of sustainable, economic growth and development based on variables derived from "green accounting". The author proposes ways of evaluating social, cultural, aesthetic and ethical issues.
Title SILENT TRAVELLERS. Germs, Genes, and the "Immigrant Menace". Author A.M. Kraut. Publisher Scranton, Pennsylvania: BasicBooks, 1994, pp. xiv + 369, US$25.00. This volume puts together the histories of immigration and of medicine. It shows how the traditional boundaries between medicine and the culture and social attitudes of different groups are arbitrary.
Title DISEASE AND SOCIAL DIVERSITY. The European Impact on the Health of Non-Europeans. Author S.J. Kunitz. Publisher New York: Oxford University Press, 1994, pp. viii + 209, £37.50. From the book jacket: "This exploratory work examines the impact of European contact on the health of indigenous peoples of North America, Polynesia and Australia. The significant findings reveal that effects were widely varied, depending on the specific policies of the Europeans and on the culture and social organization of the indigenous peoples themselves. In this unique volume, Kunitz argues that in order to under-stand diseases in populations, it is first necessary to recognize the social, political, and cultural context as well as the biology of the disease. He demonstrates how local, historical knowledge of time and place is crucial to comprehending the morbidity and mortality of each disease. Case studies are used to illustrate such points as the importance of macro-social institutional forces, such as federalism, as well as micro-social forces, such as gender status in particular societies. Public health specialists, epidemiologists, medical anthropologists, sociologists, and physicians are sure to gain insight from the theory and evidence presented in this well-researched work."
Title SCIENTISTS AND THE STATE. DOMESTIC STRUCTURES AND THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT Author E. Solingen (Ed.). Ann Arbor, Publisher Michigan: The University of Michigan Press, 1994, pp. xii + 259, US$49.50. This volume discusses the influence of the domestic and international political and economic structures of the relations between the scientific community and the state. Case studies include the United States of America, the former Soviet Union, Japan, Germany (1920-1989), France, Israel, Brazil, China and India.
Title PUBLIC REACTIONS TO NUCLEAR WASTE. CITIZENS' VIEWS OF REPOSITORY SITING. Author R.E. Dunlap, M.E. Kraft and E.A. Rosa (Eds.). Publisher Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993, pp. xvi + 332, US$49.95 Cloth; US$24.95 Paper. This volume includes the proceedings of a symposium at the 1989 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The social and political factors associated with the disposal of high-level nuclear waste were discussed.
Title RENEWABLE ENERGY FROM THE OCEAN. A Guide to OTEC. Author W.H. Avery and C. Wu. Foreword by J.P. Craven. Publisher New York: Oxford University Press, 1994, pp. xxviii + 446, £50.00. From the preface: "After an introductory overview, the book reviews the history of ocean thermal energy conversion development and presents a discussion of the scientific and engineering fundamentals of the technology, including the technical options for electrical and chemical energy delivery. The engineering status, projected costs (which are favorable in comparision with other renewable energy alternatives),
manufacturing capabilities, and potential markets are then discussed. The book concludes with a critical examination of the economic implications and prospects of ocean thermal energy concession, including the environmental and social impacts of its large-scale commercial development."
Title PATRONAGE, PRACTICE, AND THE CULTURE OF AMERICAN SCIENCE. Alexander Dallas Bache and the U.S. Coast Survey. Author H.R. Slotten. Publisher Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp. xi + 228, ,30.00/US$44.95. From the book jacket: "In this book Hugh Richard Slotten explores the institutional and cultural history of science in the United States. The main focus is on the activities of Alexander Dallas Bache-great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin and of the acknowledged "Chief" of the American scientific community during the second third of the nineteenth century. Bache played a central role in the organization and management of a number of key scientific institutions, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, The Smithsonian Institution, and the National Academy of Sciences. But his dominance in these institutions was made possible through his control of an organization less well known today, the United States Coast Survey, which he superintended from 1843 until his death in 1867. Under Bache's command the Coast Survey became the eventual scientific institution in ante-bellum America.
Using richly detailed archival records, Slotten pursues an analysis of Bache and the Coast Survey that illuminates important historiographic themes. We gain a better understanding of the particular style of nineteenth-century American science by examining the role of the Coast Survey as a source of patronage. Perhaps most important, this study explores the ways in which scientific knowledge and practice are embedded with local contexts. Although Bache sought to use the Coast Survey to raise the status of American science partly by emulating European scientific elites, his efforts also reflected the cultural and political values of antebellum America. Slotten thus analyzes the interrelationship between political culture, patterns of patronage, and the institutional practice of science in the United States."
Title PROFITS OF SCIENCE. THE AMERICAN MARRIAGE OF BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY. Author R. Teitelman. Publisher New York: BasicBooks, 1994, pp. xi + 258, US$23.00. The following quotations are from Chapter 1 of the book: "This book takes a journey through the past forty-odd years of the American technological economy."
"The interplay among science, technology, and capital produces a strange music, like wind chimes on a blustery day. Is it just noise, or is there a harmony, a pattern to the song? Economists have been struggling to define the relationship between innovation and organizational structures since the late Harvard economist Joseph Schumpeter raised this issue during World War II. What kinds of companies-large or small, atomistic or monopolistic-drive innovation most effectively?"
"Once the gap between science and technology begins to narrow, various forces are unleashed. Early on in this process, the large corporation may well increase its hegemony. After all, only the largest corporation will have the resources to exploit the small number of opportunities tossed up by scientific advance, as Du Point exploited nylon or as IBM dominated the mainframe computer business. At this stage, the cost of research and development is high partly
because corporations must pursue extensive scientific research and engineering at the same time, as drug companies today pursue molecular biology and traditional chemical screening simultaneously."
"As the gap continues to narrow, however, the advantages of capital erode. Science begins to build more powerful models, allowing engineers and applied scientists to extrapolate from a given set of conditions. Scientists and engineers begin to think alike; the lines between applied and pure science blur, as they did for the scientists at the Rad Lab, at the Manhattan Project, and at Bell Labs with the invention of the transistor. The pace of technological change accelerates. Costs fall not only because of capital-saving economies but because the time required to move from lab to market dramatically shrinks and the risk of slamming into a previously unknown pitfall declines."
"Science and technology, not to mention the economy at large, remain cyclical. Despite a clear acceleration over the past forty years-and a long ascendance of living conditions over four centuries- economic progress as we know it has less to do with mastering technology's inner-most secrets than with the effect of an immensely larger scale and more capital on the technological enterprise."
Title COMPARABLE WORTH. IS IT A WORTHY POLICY? Author E. Sorensen. Publisher Princeton University Press, 1994. pp. xiii + 166. The author examines the various approaches states in the U.S.A. have taken to reduce wage desparities.
Title THE MASS-EXTINCTION DEBATES: How Science Works in a Crisis. Author W. Glen (Ed.). Publisher Stanford University Press, 1994, pp. xiv + 370, £35.00 Cloth; £12.95 Paper. From the preface: "This book is the first to examine the arguments and behavior of the scientists who have for so long been locked in conflict over the competing hypotheses of mass-extinction cause. The debates-triggered in 1980 by the advent of meteorite-impact hypothesis put forth by the Alvarez-Berkeley group-have grown into a broad interdisciplinary up-heaval, one of the most dramatic in the recent history of science. The controversy raging around this issue has provided an exceptional opportunity to observe, firsthand, the workings of science that in quieter times are hidden from view.
In 1991, in the midst of the conflict, scientists embroiled in the debate came together for the first time with historians, philosophers, and sociologists who were trying to learn how science works in such a time of crisis. This diverse volume, which was seeded at the meeting-The Mass-Extinction Debates, July 12, 1991, Biannual Meeting, of the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology, North-western University-circles the conflict from a variety of vantage points in a novel mode of presentation, thereby to examine many aspects of the conflict. The contributors to this volume-essayists, interviewees, and the panel discussants alike-were selected so as to represent the very wide range of thought underlying the conflict, and to provide balance in discussions of the conflicted issues."
Title BLACK HOLES AND TIME WARPS. Einstein's Outrageous Legacy. Author K.S. Thorne. Foreword by S. Hawking. Publisher New York: Norton, 1994, pp. 619, US$30.00/Can$35.00. S. Hawking writes in the foreword: "This book is about a revolution in our view of space and time, and its remarkable consequences, some of which are still being unravelled. It is also a fascinating ac-count, written by someone closely involved, of the struggles and eventual success in a search for an understanding of what are possibly the most mysterious objects in the Universe-black holes."
Sir Roger Penrose has written of the book: "A vivid and readable account of general relativity and its impact on modern astrophysics and cosmology by one of the leading experts in these areas."
Title SIX ROADS FROM NEWTON. Great Discoveries in Physics. Author E. Speyer. Publisher New York: Wiley, 1994, pp. xi + 196, US$19.95/,14.95. This volume reviews six developments in physics for the layman: wave theory, field theory, statistical physics, spherical relativity, quantum theory and qeneral relativity.
Title THE MATHEMATICAL UNIVERSE. An Alphabetical Journey Through the Great Proofs, Problems, and Personalities. Author W. Dunham. Publisher New York: Wiley, 1994, pp. vi + 314, £16.95. This book gives an interesting look at the beauty of mathematics from A to Z. The titles of the chapters are: Arithmetic, Bernoulli trials, Circle, Differential calculus, Euler, Fermat, Greek geometry, Hypotenuse, Isopersimetric problem, Justification, Knighted Newton, Lost Leibniz, Mathematical Personality, Natural Logorithm, Origins, Pure Number Theorem, Quotient, Russell's Paradox, Spherical Surface, Trisection, Utility, Venn diagram, Where are the Women, X-Y plane, Z.
Title REGIONAL ADVANTAGE. Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128. Author A. Saxenian. Publisher Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1994, pp. xi + 226, US$24.95. Silicon Valley and Route 128 are similar regions. Both regions floundered and then had down-turns. Silicon Valley is floundering again; Route 128 continues to decline. The difference appears to be that Silicon Valley encouraged experimentation, collaboration and learning among various companies.
Title UNIVERSITY POLITICS. Cornford's Cambride and his advice to the young academic politician. Author G. Johnson. Publisher Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp. vii + 112, £25.00/US$29.95 Cloth; £8.95/US$12.95 Paper. The book contains the complete text of F.M. Cornford's 1908 satire, Microcosmographia Academica, on university politics along with an account of the controversies that gave rise to it.
Title CAMBRIDGE MINDS. Author R. Mason (Ed.). Publisher Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp. xiii + 237, £25.00/US$39.95 Cloth; £9.95/US$15.95 Paper. This collection of essays is addressed to the non-specialists. The subjects include: philosophy, economics, anthropology, molecular biology, radio-astronomy and palaeontology.
Title DIMENSION ESTIMATION AND MODELS. Author H. Tong (Ed.). Publisher Singapore: World Scientific, 1993, pp. vii + 223, US$53.00. This is the first volume of the series "Progress in Nonlinear Time Series and Chaos". The papers presented in this volume are: A review of the theory and estimation of fractal dimension, C.D.
Cutler; A review of some limit theorems of Markov chains and their applications, K.S. Chan; Nonlinear modeling of multivariate and categorical time series using multivariate adaptive regression splines, P.A.W. Lewis and B.K. Ray; Threshold ARMA processes in continuous time, P.J. Brockwell; Bilinear time series models, P.D. Tuan.
Title THE DYNKIN FESTSCHRIFT. Markov Processes and their Applications. Author M.I. Freidlin (Ed.). Publisher Boston: Birkhäuser, 1994, pp. xxxii + 413, DM.188.00/ ÖS.1,466.40/Sf.fr.158.00/,69.00. This volume is a Festschrift to E.B. Dykin on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Dynkin studied under
Title IRVING FISHER. A Biography. Author R.L. Allen. Publisher Cambridge, Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1994, pp. xv + 324, £45.00/US$39.95. Irving Fisher (1867-1947) was one of the greatest American economists.
From the book jacket: "Fisher was one of the greatest and certainly one of the most colorful American economists. Widely acknowledged as the chief architect of modern neoclassical economics, he was a writer and teacher of prodigious scope and output whose business career included the earning of a fortune from the invention of a card index system, and its sub-sequent loss in the Great Crash. He was also an active campaigner for numerous causes, including world peace, prohibition, preventative medicine, eugenics, and 100 percent deposit reserve money.
"This biography, focusing both on Fisher's personal life, as well as his intellectual contributions, will be of wide interest to economists and of particular interest to American economics scholars who regard him as their pre-1950 giant of the discipline."
Title NATURALIST. Author E.O. Wilson. Publisher Washington, D.C.: Island/Shearwater, 1994, pp. xii + 380, US$24.95. E.O. Wilson is not only the winner of two Pulitzer prizes but is also a champion of biodiversity. In this, his autobiography, Wilson, [from the book jacket] "describes for the first time his growth as a scientist and the evolution of the science he has helped define. He traces the trajectory of his life - from a childhood spent exploring the Gulf Coast of Alabama and Florida to life as a tenured professor at Harvard - detailing how his youthful fascination with nature blossomed into a lifelong calling. He recounts with drama and wit the adventures of his days as a student at the University of Alabama and his four decades at Harvard University, where he has achieved renown as both teacher and researcher.
"As the narrative of Wilson's life unfolds, the reader is treated to an inside look at the origin and development of ideas that guide today's biological re-search. Theories that are now widely accepted in the scientific world were once untested hypotheses emerging from one man's broad-gauged studies. Throughout Naturalist, we see Wilson's mind and energies constantly striving to help establish many of the central principles of the field of evolutionary biology.
"The story of Edward O. Wilson's life provides fascinating insights into the making of a scientist and a valuable look at some of the most thought-provoking ideas of our time."
Title HUXLEY: THE DEVIL'S DISCIPLE. Author A. Desmond. Publisher London: Michael Joseph, 1994, pp. xvii + 475. Thomas Henry Huxley was born May 4, 1825 and died June 29, 1895. This biography of Huxley tells of his life, his battles with Darwin, his talk of ape ancestors and agnosticism, a word he coined. The biography ends with Huxley's presidency of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
Title JOSEPH BANKS AND THE ENGLISH ENLIGHTENMENT. Useful Knowledge and Polite Culture. Author J. Gascoigne. Publisher Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp. xi + 324, £35.00/US$59.95. Joseph Banks (1743-1820) was a long-time president of the Royal Society of London, Privy Counsellor and adviser to the British Government.
From the book: "Banks's importance lies not in his own scientific contributions-which were few and slight-but rather in his ability to publicise the possibilities of science when linked with sympathetic patrons, particularly government. For, to Banks, science above all meant useful learning which could, as Bacon had put it, contribute to 'the relief of man's estate.' The origins of Banks's belief in the possibilities of science as an agent for improving the wealth of nations and the welfare of humankind more generally lie in the cultural ambience of his age and class rather than in the influence of any specific institution or individual-though the long-term influence of the Baconian tradition was doubtless an important, if imponderable, factor."
Title THE VALUES OF PRECISION. Author M.N. Wise (Ed.). Publisher Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1995, pp. viii + 372, US$49.50. This volume consists of thirteen essays on values of precision from a workshop sponsored by the Program in the History of Science at Princeton University. From the book jacket:
"Beginning with the late eighteenth century and continuing into the twentieth, the essays in this volume support the view that centralizing states CC with their increasingly widespread bureaucracies for managing trade, taxation, and armies CC and large-scale commercial enterprises CC with their requirements for standardization and mass production CC have been the major promoters of numerical precision. Scientists and engineers, pursuing their own interests in the virtues of precision for knowledge of nature and for techno-logical control, have taken advantage of the resources available, thus entering a symbiotic relationship with state and industry that promotes ever more refined measures in ever-widening domains of the natural and social world. At the heart of this book, therefore, is an inquiry into the capacity of numbers and instruments to travel across boundaries of culture and materials."
Title IN AN AGE OF EXPERTS. The Changing Role of Professionals in Politics and Public Life. Author S. Brint. Publisher Princeton University Press, 1994, pp. x + 278, US$29.95. This volume shows that claims about the politics and values of the professional stratum have been overstated and that the political preferences of these professionals are linked to those of business owners and executives.
Title THE HUBBLE WARS. Astrophysics Meets Astropolitics in the Two-Billion-Dollar Struggle over the Hubble Space Telescope. Author E.J. Chaisson. Publisher New York: HarperCollins, 1994, pp. xi + 386, US$27.50. The Hubble telescope, named after the distinguished astronomer Edwin Powell Hubble (1889-1953), is the largest, most complex and most powerful observatory ever deployed in space.
From the day in 1990, when it was launched, the Hubble telescope has been involved in the controversy as to who was responsible for its failure and what could be done about it. This book tells the story of the controversy of the two-billion-dollar telescope.
Already in 1936, Hubble wrote in Realm of the Nebulae:
"From our home on the Earth, we look out into the distances and strive to imagine the sort of world into which we were born. Today we have reached far out into space. Our immediate neighbourhood we know rather intimately. But with increasing distance our knowledge fades, and fades rapidly, until at the last dim horizon we search among ghostly errors of observations for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial. "The search will continue. The urge is older than history. It is not satisfied and will not be suppressed."
Title TWENTY YEARS OF SCIENCE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST. A History of the Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship Program. Author J.K. Stine. Foreword by W.T. Golden. Publisher Washington, D.C.: American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1994, pp. xiii + 192. This volume describes the history and the benefits of the Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship Program.
Title ETHICAL ISSUES IN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. An Anthology. Author E. Erwin, S. Gendin and L. Kleiman (Eds.). Publisher New York: Garland, 1994, pp. xii + 416, US$ 6.00 Cloth; US$18.95 Paper. This edited volume is divided into six sections with several essays in each part. The titles of the sections are Science and Values, Fraud and Deception in Scientific Research, Experimentation on Humans, Animal Research, Genetic Research and Controversial Research Topics.
Title EVOLUTION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE. Author P.W. Ewald. Publisher Oxford University Press, 1994, pp. vii + 298, £27.50. From the preface: "More generally, I am trying to use this book to reach people in the health sciences who are interested in looking beyond the currently prescribed boundaries of their fields. But I am also writing to reach biologists with an interest in the health sciences, and anyone else who shares an enthusiasm for learning why we are the way we are. I want people to see that evolution is not just something we should learn about to make us more broadly educated. It is that, but it is also going on around us all the time and is having deeply relevant effects-effects that could determine whether we and our loved ones will live or die. And no organisms are evolving faster with pressing consequences than are the parasites among us: from the parasites of our agricultural resources, to the vectors of our lethal diseases, to the protozoa, bacteria and viruses that will kill millions of us this year. If we want to understand and manage our world better, we had better try to understand the evolution of infectious disease."
And a quotation from page 181:
"He who has only once through his own efforts tried to trace back the long path trod by his predecessors, who has felt how clear and luminous his own knowledge becomes as he grows aware of the historical circumstances out of which it has arisen, and who discovers the basis of the error by which even genuine investigators have been misled, he who has learned that a kernel of truth sticks in every error, will not place himself with those who despise historical studies."
(Virchow 1877/1962)
Title CANCER FROM BEEF. DES, Federal Food Regulation, and Consumer Confidence. Author A.I. Marcus. Publisher Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994, pp. x + 235, US$38.50. Diethylstilbestrol, stilbestrol or DES, is a growth-promoting homone for cattle. Mass production began in 1954. Gradually it was suspected that cattle given DES might cause cancer in humans. Because of this the United States Government imposed regulatory legislation and new risk assessment models were developed. This volume shows the interaction between science and government policy and public attitudes to these.
Title AAAS, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY YEARBOOK, 1994. Author A.H. Teich, S.D. Nelson and C. McEnaney (Eds.). Publisher Washington, D.C.: American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1994, pp. xii + 447, US$24.95. This volume is composed of both original and previously published articles. It includes selected papers from the 1994 American Association for the Advancement of Science and Technology Policy Colloquium held in April 1994. A selection of papers contained herein are: Can scientists provide credible advice in Washington? F. Press; Science-The endless frontier: A report to the president on a program from postwar scientific research. V. Bush; New relationships between industry, academia, and government in science and technology. E. Bloch; Congressional management of national research policies. J. Brademus and D.Z. Robinson.
Title GREATNESS. WHO MAKES HISTORY AND WHY. Author D.K. Simonton. Publisher New York: The Guilford Press, 1994, pp. x + 502, US$29.95. This volume describes the psychology of greatness, that is how psychology helps one to understand the personalities and events that have shaped the past and present.
Title THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION. A Historiographical Inquiry. Author H.F. Cohen. Publisher Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago Press, 1994, pp. xviii + 662, US$26.95. In this volume, the intellectual, social and cultural origins of early modern science are discussed. The book begins with two quotations:
"It is not by renouncing the apparently impossible and unattainable goal of knowing the real, but on the contrary, by boldly pursuing it that science progresses on its endless path towards truth." A. Koyré.
"It is better for a historian to be wrong than to be timid." L. White, Jr.
Title THE DISCOURSES OF SCIENCE. Author M. Pera. Translated by C. Boltsford. Publisher Chicago, Illionois, University of Chicago Press, 1994, pp. xi + 250, US$29.95. The author's aim in this volume is to under-stand the place of science between culture and nature and to appreciate science "For what it can give, with-out blaming it for what it cannot offer."
Chapter 1, The Paradox of Scientific Method, begins with two quotations.
"Descartes wrote and rewrote his book, On Method, many times; and yet, as it is now, it is useless. Whoever perseveres over a period of time in scruptulous inquiry, will nave to change method sooner or later." J.W. Goethe, Maximen und Reflexionen.
"All good scientists, doctors, observers, and thinkers do what Copernicus used to do: they turn data and methods upside down to see if they are any better." Novalis, Fragmente.
Title WHO WILL DO SCIENCE? Educating the Next Generation. Author W. Pearson, Jr. and A. Fechter (Eds.). Foreword by L.S. Wilson. Publisher Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994, pp. xxii + 169, US$31.95. From the book jacket: "The question "Who will do science?" is one of growing urgency in the United States. Fewer U.S. college students are choosing to study math, science, and engineering CC and half of those who do eventually switch to non-science majors. Moreover, U.S. Students do not perform well on science and math achievement tests or in international com-petitions. If current trends continue, there will be a shortage of qualified candidates to fill the vacancies when scientists trained in the 1950s and 1960s retire.
"In Who Will Do science? scholars and policy analysts from a variety of disciplines describe the present demographic situation, analyze the effective-ness of current programs for recruitment and retention, and examine policies that will improve the education of tomorrow's scientists and engineers. Topics discussed include the motives of students as they consider careers; the attitudes and influence of parents, teachers, and peers; the challenges faced by women and minorities; and the need for financial support during the lengthy training required to pursue careers in science."
Title THE RESEARCH UNIVERSITY IN A TIME OF DISCONTENT. Author J.R. Cole, E.G. Barber and S.R. Graubard (Eds.). Publisher Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994, pp. ix + 404, US$15.95. The papers given in this volume are:
1. Balancing Acts: Dilemmas of Choice Facing Research Universities*, by J.R. Cole
2. The Politics of Ambivalence: Diversity in the Research Universities*, by N.J. Smelser
3. Rationality and Realism, What Is at Stake?* by J.R. Searle
4. Making Choices in the Research University*, by D. Kennedy
5. Presidential Leadership, by S. Muller
6. Competition and the Research Universities*, by S.M. Stigler
7. The Mission of the Research University*, by N.O. Keohane
8. The Place of Teaching in the Research University, by F.H.T. Rhodes
9. Can the Research University Adapt to a Changing Future? by W.E. Massey
10. America's Research Universities under Public Scrutiny*, by K. Prewitt
11. In Defense of the Research University, by S.M. Lipset
12. The Research University as a Setting for Undergraduate Teaching, by A. Jamison and N.W. Polsby
13. Current Criticisms of Research Universities, by H. Brooks
14. The Appropriate Scale of the Health Sciences Enterprise*, by W.C. Richarson
15. Federal Science Policy and Universities: Consequences of Success*, by R.W. Nichols
16. Governing the Modern University, by R.M. Rosenzweig
17. The Distinction and Durability of American Research Universities, by F.X. Sutton
18. Knowledge without Borders? Internationalization of the Research Universities*, by E.B. Skolnikoff
19. The Research University: Notes towards a new History, by S.R. Graubard
The papers marked with an asterisk appeared in the Fall 1993 issue of Daedalus, Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Science.
Title MINDS FOR THE MAKING. The Role of Science in American Education, 1750-1900. Author S.L. Montgomery. Publisher New York: The Guilford Press, 1994, pp. x + 316, US$18.95. This volume on the history of science education in the United States of America consists of ten essays:
1. Science and democracy: Emerging trends of faith
2. Science in the New Republic: Faculty, family, and the failure of idealism
3. The Age of Jackson and After, Part I: Popular imagery and public reformers
4. The Age of Jackson and After, Part II: Professionalization of science and the role of higher education
5. Science as "Culture": Education and modernism in the late 19th century
6. Science and the progressiveness: Standards, and standard bearers in the age of reformism
7. What bearing it may have: Legacies of progressivism in the early 20th century
8. The postwar era: The return of academism and the sputnik revolution
9. New voices and old limits: Reformism in the late1960s
10. Troubled Symbolisms: Science and the curriculum at the Century's end.
Title EXPLAINING SCIENTIFIC CONSENSUS. THE CASE OF MENDELIAN GENETICS. Author K.-M. Kim. Publisher New York: The Guilford Press, 1994, pp. xxiv + 239, US$37.95 From the last paragraph of the preface: "Through a detailed sociological-historical study of the community of evolutionary biologists and geneticists at the turn of this century, I will show in this book how scientists with radically different scientific, social, and even metaphysical backgrounds come to agree on the Mendelian principle of segregation, which is central to the whole notion of Mendelian genetics. After briefly reviewing the main arguments and empirical findings of the Mertonian research pro-gram, I shall explore the historical and philosophical contexts that gave rise to the so-called relativist/ constructivist sociology of scientific knowledge. I will show that the identification of the area that has been neglected by both of these research programs offers a solution of the problem of consensus formation in science. In particular, I will argue that the failure of these two research programs to explain the dynamics of the consensus formation in the genetics community in the early twentieth century is due to their exclusive emphasis on the role played by the elite protagonists of scientific controversies. In contrast to these two research programs, this book develops an approach to the formation of scientific consensus in a research network of English and American geneticists of the early twentieth century bringing to the fore the critical role played by the two groups of biologists whom I will call the paradigm articulators and the critical mass, respectively. Their presence as critics, experimenters, reviewers and validators curbs the excesses and biases of scientific elites and makes validity-enhancing scientific change possible. In the second part of this book, I will provide a detailed sociological-historical analysis of the reception of Mendelian genetics in the early twentieth century-and, thereby, will attempt to test my hypothesis about the role played by the two groups of biologists in a scientific consensus change."
Title STATISTICAL METHODS FOR PHYSICAL SCIENCE. Author J.L. Stanford and S.B. Vardeman (Eds.). Publisher San Diego: Academic Press, 1994, pp. xix + 542, US$99.00. This volume is a self-contained introduction to methods on probability and statistics that are applicable and important in the physical sciences. The seventeen chapters are written by different authors and are:
1. Introduction to probability modelling, by W.R. Leo
2. Common univariate distributions, by L. Hodges
3. Random process models, by C. Chatfield
4. Models for spatial processes, by N. Cressie
5. Monte Carlo methods, by P. Clifford
6. Basic statistical inference, by J. Kitchin
7. Methods for assessing distributional assumptions in one- and two-sample problems, by V.N. Nair and A.E. Freeny
8. Maximum likelihood methods for fitting parametric statistical models, by W.Q. Meeker and L.A. Escobar
9. Least squares, by G.A.F. Sever and C.J. Wild
10. Filtering and data preprocessing for time series analysis, by W.T. Randel
11. Spectral analysis of univariate and bivariate time series, by D.B. Percival
12. Weak periodic signals in point processes data, by D.A. Lewis
13. Statistical analysis of spatial data, by D. Zimmerman
14. Bayesian methods, by H.F. Martz and R.A. Waller
15. Simulation of physical systems, by J.M. Hauptman
16. Field (Map) statistics, by J.L. Stanford and J.R. Ziemke
17. Modern statistical computing and graphics, by F.L. Hultin and A.P. Jaworski
Title CASE STUDIES IN DATA ANALYSIS. Author J.G. Gentleman and G.A. Whitmore. Publisher New York: Springer-Verlag, 1994, pp. 262, DM.69.00/ÖS.530.40/Sw.fr.65.50. This volume is a collection of eight case studies in data analysis that appeared in issues of the Canadian Journal of Statistics between 1982 and 1993. One follow-up article is also included. Each case study gives the analysis of real sets of data by two or more analysts or teams of analysts working independently. The subjects include iceberg paths and collision risks, wind speeds and environmental chemicals.
Title THE ART OF CASE STUDY RESEARCH. Author R.E. Stake. Publisher Thousand Oaks, California: Sage, 1995, pp. xv + 175, US$17.95. From the introduction: "A case study is expected to catch the complexity of a single case. A single leaf, even a single toothpick, has unique complexities CC but rarely will we care enough to submit it to case study. We study a case when it itself is of very special interest. We look for the detail of inter-action with its contexts. Case study is the study of the particularity and complexity of a single case, coming to understand its activity within important circumstances." Various research methods are discussed.
Title WHATEVER HAPPENED TO "EUREKA"?. Cartoons on Science. Author N. Downes. Publisher New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1994, pp. 157, US$10.95. This volume consists of over one hundred and fifty cartoons about science, medicine, technology, the environment, human nature and dogs. All the cartoons have previously appeared in many journals including, Science, Punch, Sky and Telescope.
Title EQUATIONS OF ETERNITY. Speculations on Consciousness, Meaning, and the Mathematical Rules that Orchestrate the Cosmos. Author D. Darling. Publisher New York: Hyperion, 1993, pp. xvi + 190, US$10.95. The title of this book "Equations of Eternity" comes from one of Einstein's sayings "Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity".
The author's introduction begins: "You are roughly eighteen billion years old and made of matter that has been cycled through the multimillion-degree heat of innumerable giant stars. You are composed of particles that once were scattered across thousands of light-years of interstellar space, particles that were blasted out of exploding suns that for eons drifted through the cold, starlit vacuum of the Galaxy. You are very much a child of the cosmos.
"In giving birth to us, the universe has performed its most astonishing creative act. Out of a hot, dense melee of subatomic particles-which is all that once existed-it has fashioned intelligence and consciousness. Some of those tiny, primordial pinpoints of matter from the infant cosmos have become temporarily arranged to make your brain and mine. Your thoughts at this very moment derive from energy transactions between particles born at the dawn of time. Somehow the anarchy of genesis has given way to exquisite, intricate order, so that now there are portions of the universe that can reflect upon them-selves and ask: Why am I here? What is the purpose of life, consciousness, and reality?"
From the book cover: "How and when did human intelligence evolve? Is it possible that consciousness will exist after the body has been rendered obsolete? These are the central questions Darling addresses in this mind-bending journey. Along the way the reader is treated to a stimulating discussion of evolution, the relationship between mathematics and physical reality, the genesis of the right and left brains, God, the meaning of language, and the nature of quantum physics."
Title SIMPLE AND DIRECT. A Rhetoric for Writers. Revised edition. Author J. Barzun. Publisher University of Chicago Press, 1994, pp. xi + 291, US$14.95. This offers sound advice to writers old and new. The text begins with three quotations, namely:
"Words, therefore, as well as things, claim the care of an author. Every man has often found himself deficient in the power of expression, big with ideas which he could not utter, and unable to impress upon his reader the image existing in his own mind." Dr. Johnson.
"I sometimes think that writing is like driving sheep down a road. If there is any gate to the left or right, the readers will most certainly go into it." C.S. Lewis
"... here and there a touch of good grammar for picturesqueness." Mark Twain
A sample of advice from page 170 is: "The old cookbook said: "Take enough butter." I say: "Do not take too many notes." Both recommendations are hard to interpret except by trial and error. If you take too many notes, they will swamp you. You will shuffle and review them over and over and be left bewildered. It will be almost as bad as having all the relevant books and encyclopedias piled on your desk. So take notes only upon what you judge to be: the main new points, the complex events or ideas, the striking statements (for quoting), and also your own thoughts as they pop into your mind while reading in preparation. Do not omit these last-they will not come back at will, even when you return to the item that gave them birth, and it is galling to have to say, "Now, what was the bright idea I had about this?" "
Title EMPIRE OF WORDS. The Reign of the OED. Author J. Willinsky. Publisher Princeton University Press, 1994, pp. viii + 258, US$22.95. From the book jacket: "What is the meaning of a word? Most readers turn to the dictionary for authoritative meanings and correct usage. But what is the source of authority in dictionaries? Some dictionaries employ panels of experts to fix meaning and prescribe usage, others rely on derivation through etymology. But perhaps no other dictionary has done more to standard-ize the English language than the formidable twenty-volume Oxford English Dictionary in its 1989 second edition. Yet this most Victorian of modern dictionaries derives its meaning by citing the earliest known usage of words and by demonstrating shades of meaning through an awesome data base of over five million examples of usage in context. In this fascinating study, John Willinsky challenges the authority of this imperial dictionary, revealing many of its inherent prejudices and questioning the assumptions of its ongoing re-vision. "Clearly, the OED is no simple record of language 'as she is spoke,'" Willinsky writes. "It is a selective representation reflecting certain elusive ideas about the nature of the English language and people. Empire of Words reveals, by statistic and table, incident and anecdote, how serendipitous, judg-mental, and telling a task editing a dictionary such as the OED can be."
Willinsky analyzes the favored citation records from the three editorial periods of the OED's compilation: the Victorian, imperial first edition; the modern supplement; and the contemporary second edition composed on an electronic data base. He reveals shifts in linguistic authority: the original edition relied on English literature and, surprisingly, on translations, reference works, and journalism; the modern editions have shifted emphasis to American sources and periodicals while continuing to neglect women, workers, and other English-speaking countries.
Willinsky's dissection of dictionary entries exposes contradictions and ambiguities in the move from citation to definition. He points out that Shakespeare, the most frequently cited authority in the OED, often confounds the dictionary's simple sense of meaning with his wit and artfulness. He shows us how the most famous four-letter words in the language found their way, one hundred years later, through a belabored editorial pro-cess into the supplement to the OED. Willinsky sheds considerable light on how the OED continues to shape the English language through the sometimes idiosyncratic, often biased selection of citations by hired readers and impassioned friends of the language. Any-one who is fascinated with words and language will find Willinsky's tour through the OED a delightful and stimulating experience."
Title ON TIME. Lectures on Models of Equilibrium. Author P.A. Diamond. Publisher Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp. xiii + 120, £18.95/US$24.95. From the book jacket: "In these two lectures Peter Diamond explores how time is modeled in theoretical analyses of individual industries and of an entire economy.
In the first lecture he considers equilibrium in a single market by examining the distinction between the short run and the long run in Marshallian analysis. He proposes an explicit modeling of time in place of Marshall's use of different temporal models for different time frames. A model with different expansion paths for different firms and models of price competition with incomplete information are presented. Data on job creating and destruction and data on price changes are examined.
In the second lecture he turns to models of an entire economy, and begins by considering how and why models of an entire economy should differ from models of a single industry. Both cyclical and seasonal data on the behavior of macro-economies are examined. The Arrow-Debreu and Hicksian ISLM models are compared with explicit-time models of the command over purchasing power.
Professor Diamond ends by indicating a direction for future research that might yield a more integrated economics."
Title BUSINESS SURVEY METHODS. Author B.G. Cox, D.A. Binder, B.N. Chinnappa, A. Christianson, M.J. Colledge and P.S. Kott (Eds.). Publisher New York: Wiley, 1995, p. xvii + 732, £96.00. From the preface: "A nation's official statistics are directly affected by the quality of the data derived from its surveys of businesses, farms, and institutions. Yet methodology and standards for these surveys vary tremendously across countries and statistical agencies C unlike the situation for surveys of persons and households. Reasons for this disparity are diverse, but most relate to the difficult design and execution problems such surveys encounter for which solutions are not readily available in the research literature. The International Conference on Establishment Surveys (ICES) was organized to address this problem. This monograph is a product of that conference."
The papers in the volume are divided into six parts: 1. Frames and business registers; 2. Sample de-sign and selection; 3. Data collection and response quality; 4. Data processing; 5. Weighting and estimation; 6. Past, present and future directions.
Title THE FOUNDATIONS OF ECONOMETRIC ANALYSIS. Author D.F. Hendry and M.S. Morgan (Eds.). Publisher Cambridge University Press, 1995, pp. xvi + 558, ,40.00/US$59.95. From the preface: "Despite being a relatively young discipline (the Econometric Society was founded in 1931), econometrics already has a substantial intellectual history concerned with making sense of empirical economic evidence. Reading the early studies in quantitative economics and econometrics highlighted the wealth of material that was no longer well remembered, and revealed the insights it could cast on current debates as well as the historical perspective it automatically provided."
The book contains previously published and unpublished papers with commentaries by the editors. Papers of special interest to statisticians include: W.S. Jevons. On the study of periodic commercial fluctuations. Investigations in currency and finance, (1884) pp. 3-10; G.U. Yule. Why do we sometimes get nonsense correlations. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 89, (1926) pp. 2-9, 30-40; G.U. Yule. On a method of investigating periodicities in disturbed series, with special reference to Wolfer's sunspot numbers. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, A. 226, (1927) pp. 267-273; A. Wald. Calculation and elimination of seasonal fluctuations. Berechnung und Ausschaltung von Saisonschwankungen, (1936), Chapter 1; J. Tinbergen. Statistical testing of business cycle theories: A method and its application to investment activity. League of Nations, Geneva (1939) I, pp. 27-33; T.C. Koopmans. When is an equation system complete for statistical purposes. Statistical Inference in Dynamic Economic Models, Wiley, New York (1950) pp. 393-409.
Title MEASURING THE MIND. Education and Psychology in England, c.1860-c.1990. Author A. Wooldridge. Publisher Cambridge University Press, 1994, pp. ix + 448, £45.00/US$69.95. From the introduction: "In Some Thoughts Concerning Education, John Locke made an uncharacteristic but striking observation:
God has stampt certain Characters upon Men's Minds, which, like their shapes, may perhaps be a little mended; but can
hardly be totally alter'd and tranformed into the contrary. He therefore, that is about Children, should well study their Natures and Aptitudes, and see by often Tryals, what turn they easily take, and what becomes of them; observe what their Native Stock is, how it may be improved, and what it is fit for...Everyone's Natural Genius should be carried as far as it could, but to attempt the putting another upon him, will be but Labour in vain.
This study deals with a group of the late nineteenth and twentieth century psychologists who spent their lives carrying out Locke's injunctions. ...
"The argument focuses on three main themes: the emergence of the profession of educational psychology; the history of ideas about children's mental development, in particular the development of the sub-normal and the gifted; and the role of psychological experts in formulating educational policy."
Title AMERICAN HIGHER EDUCATION. A History. Author C.J. Lucas. Publisher New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994, pp. xxi + 375. The author answers the question: How did the modern American College or university come to be what it is today?
Title MAKING WAVES. Engineering, Politics, and the Social Managem ent of Technology. Author E. Wenk, Jr. Publisher Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1995, pp. xiii + 269. Edward Wenk Jr. was the first science advisor to the United States Congress. He was also an advisor to Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. In this book Wenk shows how science and technology affect social, economic and political issues.
Title RISK, SCIENCE, AND POLITICS. Regulating Toxic Substances in Canada and the United States. Author K. Harrison and G. Hoberg. Publisher Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1994, pp. xiii + 235, Can.$17.95. The authors examine the regulation of toxic substances in Canada and the United States by analyzing particular studies of controversial substances.
Title ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH RISKS AND PUBLIC POLICY. Decision Making in Free Societies. Author D.V. Bates. Publisher Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press, 1994, pp. xii + 117, US$30.00 Cloth; US$12.95 Paper. The author discusses how industrial societies have created goods and services which not only add productivity and pleasure but also have hazardous side effects. A major concern here is a pollution which has been linked to chronic illness.
From the book cover: "As society's awareness of environmental effects on public health has grown, scientists (especially epidemiologists) have been increasingly drawn into the public arena. The design of studies, the manipulation of statistics, and additional risk factors influence the acceptance of "hazards" as clearly causing certain diseases. ...
"The book offers conclusions about the central role of environmental epidemiology as the "detective" science in elucidating health effects of human technological advances, and examines the different, often conflicting, sometimes colluding roles of government, industry, and the general public in the debate over public health hazards."
Title CONVERSATIONS ON MIND, MATTER, AND MATHEMATICS. Author J.-P. Changeux and A. Connes. Edited and translated by M.B. DeBevoise. Publisher Princeton University Press, 1995, pp. xii + 260, US$24.95/,19.95. [Originally published in 1989]. This volume consists of a conversation between the two authors, one a neurobiologist and one a mathematician, about the development of the human brain as a function of natural selection and variation, and the character of human intelligence.
Title REINVENTING NATURE? Responses to Postmodern Deconstruction. Author M.E. Soule and G. Lease (Eds.). Publisher Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1995, pp. xvii + 186. This volume contains nine chapters by writers in many fields including philosophy, history, public policy, forestry and on the conflict between perception and reality of nature.
Title NOTHING IS TOO WONDERFUL TO BE TRUE. Author P. Morrison. Publisher Woodbury, New York: The American Institute of Physics, 1995, pp. xi + 446, £23.95. Philip Morrison is a famous physicist. Victor Weisskopf has written about this book: "Listening to Phil Morrison's conversations and talks or reading his articles leave you not only better informed, but also more inspired. Morrison fills scientific information with enthusiasm and love of nature in all its forms. You can spend hours of pleasure and enlightenment reading it. You will love it".
Title HYPATIA OF ALEXANDRIA. Author M. Dzielska. Translated by F. Lyra. Publisher Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1995, pp. viii + 157, US$29.95. Hypatia was a brilliant mathematician and renowned for her beauty. She was murdered by a group of Christians in 415 AD. Since then Hypatia has been a legend. The author gives the real story behind the legend of Hypatia's life and death.
Title THE CHILDREN OF TIME. Causality, Entropy, Becoming. Author R. Lestienne. Translated from the French by E.C. Neher. Publisher Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1995, pp. xiii + 220, US$45.95 Cloth; US$17.95 Paper. The author is a philosopher and a physicist. This is an account of how time has been understood, defined and perceived. The French edition was published in 1990.
Title THE PHYSICS OF CHANCE. From Blaise Pascal to Niels Bohr. Author C. Ruhla. Translated from the French by G. Baiston. Publisher Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992, pp. xi + 222, Can.$43.50. [First French edition 1989, Reprinted 1995]. In the preface the author asks the following question: "Is chance merely an expression of our ignorance, or is it an inherent characteristic of natural phenomena?"
From the back cover: "This is an introduction to the ideas of randomness that are central to much of modern physics and have overthrown the 'clock-work universe' conceptions of earlier centuries. The author shows how the laws of probability and statistics were developed by such mathematicians as Fermat, Pascal, and Gauss, and how they received their first major appli-cation in physics in the kinetic theory of gases deve-loped by Maxwell and Boltzmann."
Title INDUSTRY'S FUTURE. Changing Patterns of Industrial Research. Author H.I. Fusfeld. Publisher Washington, D.C.: American Chemical Society, 1994, pp. xiv + 369, US$39.95 Cloth; US$24.95 Paper. This volume on industrial research discusses industrial research, the influences that shape such research and its place in society as a whole.
Title THE PHYSICS OF IMMORTALITY. Modern Cosmology, God and the Resurrection of the Dead. Author F.J. Tipler. Publisher London: Macmillan, 1995, pp. xxvi + 528, £20.00. This volume presents a scientific argument for the existence of God.
Title IMPACTS OF THE EARLY COLD WAR ON THE FORMULATION OF U.S. SCIENCE POLICY. Selected Memoranda of William T. Golden, October 1950 - April 1951. Author Edited with an Appreciation by W.A. Blanpied. Foreword by N. Land. Publisher Washington, D.C.: American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1995, pp. xliv + 97. W.T. Golden was a key figure in the establishment of a Presidential Science Adviser's office in the Truman administration. During that time, Golden inter-viewed a number of leading scientists and government officials including V. Bush, J.B. Corant, J.R. Oppenheimer and J.J. Rabi. Golden kept detailed memoranda of that period. Some of these are reported in this volume.
Title FRONT PAGE PHYSICS. A Century of Physics in the News. Author A.J. Meadows and M.M. Hancock-Beaulieu. Publisher Bristol: Institute of Physics, 1994, pp. 221. This book demonstrates how science was reported to the public from the 1890's to 1989 by showing the actual newspaper articles.
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