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Short Book Reviews
Short notes 1999
Title THE CAMBRIDGE DICTIONARY OF STATISTICS. Author B.S. Everitt. Publisher Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. viii + 360, £19.95 / US$39.95. Over three thousand terms are defined and over one hundred biographies are given of statisticians including G.M. Cox, E.G. Elving, F. Walton, I. Fisher, R.A. Fisher, M.G. Kendall, J. Neyman, B. Pascal, E.S. Pearson, K. Pearson, A. Wald, H.O.A. Wold, F. Yates and G.U. Yule.
The author has also published The Cambridge Dictionary of Statistics in the Medical Sciences [Short Book Reviews, Vol. 16, p. 12].
Title PROBABILITY TOWARDS 2000. Author L. Accardi and C.C. Heyde (Eds.). Publisher New York: Springer-Verlag,1998, pp. xi + 356. This volume includes papers given at a symposium with the same name, held at Columbia University, New York, from October 2-6, 1995 and some other papers that were not presented at the symposium.
Title STOCHASTIC DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS. An Introduction with Applications, 5th edition. Author B. Øksendal. Publisher Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1998, pp. xix + 324, US$34.95. [Original, 1985; Short Book Reviews, Vol. 6, p. 11]. Since the first appearance of this book in 1985, stochastic calculus has undergone a considerable evolution both in theory as well as applications. The various editions of this classic have followed this evolution closely. The main novelty of this, the fifth, edition is the addition of a twelfth chapter on "Applications to Mathematical Finance". In the author's word: "I found it natural to include this material as another major application of stochastic analysis, in view of the amazing development in this field during the last 10-20 years. Moreover, the close contact between the theoretical achievements and the applications in this area is striking."
Title BRIGHT COLLEGE YEARS. Inside the American Campus Today. Author A. Matthews. Publisher University of Chicago Press, 1997, pp. 288, US$14.00 Paper. [First published 1997; Simon and Shuster.] The author examines the culture of American Colleges and universities and the purposes they serve.
Title THE FUTURE OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM. Author L. Menand (Ed.). Foreword by L.R. Pratt. Publisher University of Chicago Press, 1998, pp. ix + 239, US$15.00, £11.95. The nine papers in the book are divided into three parts: 1. What does academic freedom protect; 2. The problem of hate speech; 3. The ethics of inquiry.
Title DOWNSIZING SCIENCE. Will the United States Pay a Price? Author K.M. Brown. Foreword by C.E. Burfield. Publisher Washington, D.C.: The AEI Press, 1998, pp. xi + 153, US$14.95. From the book cover: "Federal support for science and technology, after decades of growth, has been declining for several years and faces even deeper cuts as a result of future efforts to balance the budget. In this book, Kennet Brown assesses the likely consequences of tighter science budgets and suggests ways in which U.S. science can come to terms with downsizing.
"After discussing the traditional justifications for governmental support of science, the author analyzes their validity. What can we infer about a future in which the private sector will inevitably play a greater role in scientific research? he asks. The book focuses particularly on the effects of reduced support for research at universities and federal laboratories and considers ramifications for the future international standing of U.S. science."
Title CHEMICALS AND LONG-TERM ECONOMIC GROWTH. Insights from the Chemical Industry. Author A. Arora, R. Landau and N. Rosenberg (Eds.). Publisher New York: Wiley, 1998, pp. ix + 564, £45.50. From the book jacket: "The chemical industry has been one of the world's best managed and most consistently successful business performers for 150 years. Now, drawing together fourteen of the most respected economists and industry experts, the editors of Chemicals and Long-Term Economic Growth present one of the most extensive studies of this industry in order to uncover the secrets behind this remarkable track record.
"With economic and managerial insights supported by specific real-world examples, this book shows how the development of the chemical industry can provide insights for achieving and sustaining economic growth. Scientists and business leaders in the chemical industry and many other technological fields, and economists generally, may benefit from the history and analysis presented in this book.
"This book examines: the role of science, innovation, technology, and organization in creating economic growth and profits; chemical industry growth in Germany, Britain, the United States, and Japan, including an analysis of relative strengths and weaknesses; the impact of macroeconomics, legal and financial institutions, corporate finance, and other policies and institutions on the behavior of chemical companies; the principle of comparative advantage—why certain industries excel in certain areas."
Title POISON ON A PLATE. The Dangers in the Food We Eat—and How to Avoid Them. Author R. Lacey. Publisher London: Metro Books, 1998, pp. 282, £12.99. From the book cover: "… the author shows how the food industry threw away the 'wisdom of the ages' in the pursuit of profit and goes behind the scenes to show how the government failed time and again to protect the public interest.
"Having described these modern plagues and their causes, he offers advice on how to avoid them in a step-by-step guide to safe eating from the supermarket to the dining-room table. For everyone who is confused and anxious after more than a decade of food-poisoning scandals, this is the definitive guide to how those poisons got onto our plates… and how to keep them off our plates in the future."
Title WHICH WORLD? Scenarios for the 21st Century. Global Destinies. Regional Choices. Author A. Hammond. Publisher Washington, DC: Island Press, 1998, pp. xiv + 306, US$24.95. From the book jacket: "[The author] probes the consequences of present social, economic, and environmental trends to construct three possible worlds that could await us in the 21st century: Market World, in which economic and human progress is driven by the liberating power of free markets and human initiative; Fortress World, in which unattended social and environmental problems diminish progress, dooming hundreds of millions of humans to lives of rising conflict and violence; and Transformed World, in which human ingenuity and compassion succeed in offering a better life, not just a wealthier one, and in seeking to extend those benefits to all of humanity.
"Which World? ends with a discussion of the opportunities for creating a more hopeful world and the policies and changes that could help realize those opportunities."
Title THE ECONOMICS OF PROPERTY-CASUALTY INSURANCE. Author D.F. Bradford (Ed.). Publisher University of Chicago Press, 1998, pp. x + 203, US$37.50 / £29.95. From the book jacket: "The volume explores the industrial organization, regulation, financing, and taxation of this industry.
"The first paper, on external financing and insurance cycles, contains a wealth of information on trends and patterns in the industry's financial structure. The last essay, which compares performance of stock and mutual insurance companies, takes a fresh look at the way a company's organizational structure affects its responses to different economic situations. Two papers focus on rate regulation in the auto insurance industry and provide broad overviews of the structure and economics of the insurance industry as a whole. This volume also considers the system of regulating companies in the United States, who insures the insurers, and the effects of tax law changes in the 1980s on the prices of insurance policies."
Title IMPOSSIBILITY. The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits. Author J.D. Barrow. Publisher Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. xiii + 279, £18.99. From the book jacket: "What can we never do? The end of each century leads to a stocktaking of human achievement and our expectations about the future. This new book by John D. Barrow looks at what limits there might be to human discovery, and what we might find ultimately to be unknowable, undoable, or unthinkable. Science is a big success story, but where will it end? And indeed, will it end? Weaving together a tapestry of surprises, Barrow explores the frontiers of knowledge. We find that the notion of 'impossibility' has played a striking role in our thinking. Surrealism, impossible figures, time travel, paradoxes, logic and perspective, theological speculation about Beings for whom nothing is impossible—all stimulate us to contemplate something more than what is.
"Why should we find anything impossible? We explore the limits that may be imposed upon a full understanding of the physical Universe by limits of technology, computers, cost, and complexity. We ask why it is that the process of biological evolution should have equipped us to understand the deep structure of the Universe. We see how the Universe's structure prevents us from answering the deepest questions about its beginning, its structure, and its future. And finally, we delve into the deep limits imposed by the nature of knowledge itself. These deep limits have profound implications for any quest for complete knowledge. They take us into the debates over the problems of free will and consciousness. Gödel's famous theorem about inability to capture the truths of mathematics by rules and axioms is explored to see if it has any implications for science.
"This is no ordinary look at the limits of science. Using simple explanations, it shows the reader that impossibility is a deep and powerful notion; that any Universe complex enough to contain conscious beings will contain limits on what those beings can know about their Universe; that what we cannot know defines reality as surely as what we can know. Impossibility is a two-edged sword; it threatens the completeness of the scientific enterprise, yet without it, there would be no laws of Nature, no science, and no scientists."
Title THE BABYLONIAN THEORY OF THE PLANETS. Author N.M. Swerdlow. Publisher Princeton University Press, 1998, pp. xv + 246, US$39.95. From the book jacket: "In the second millennium BC, Babylonian scribes assembled a vast collection of celestial omens, believed to be signs from the gods about the political, military, and agricultural fortune of kings and regional kingdoms. The importance of these omens, regularly consulted by advisors to Assyrian kings, was such that from the eight or seventh century until the first century, the scribes observed the heavens nightly and recorded the dates and locations of ominous phenomena of the moon and planets in relation to stars and constellations. These collections, first of omens and later of observations, form the earliest empirical science of ancient times and were the basis of the first and most important mathematical science of antiquity: mathematical astronomy. For the scribes discovered that phenomena such as heliacal risings and settings of planets, although highly irregular and sometimes concealed by bad weather, recur within limited periods of time and follow cycles in which the same phenomena are repeated on nearly the same dates of the calendar month and in nearly the same locations.
"Modern scholars have long struggled to understand the sophisticated workings of Babylonian astronomy and, in particular, how the scribes derived from observation the numerical parameters of their planetary theory. In this book, N.M. Swerdlow offers a groundbreaking solution to that problem. He examines here the collection and observation of ominous celestial phenomena and of how intervals of time, locations by zodiacal sign, and cycles in which the phenomena recur were used to develop a purely arithmetical planetary theory by which the same ominous phenomena that were regularly observed were reduced to computation, thereby surmounting the single greatest obstacle to observation: bad weather."
Title FRESH WATER. Author E.C. Pielou. Publisher University of Chicago Press, 1998, pp. x + 275, US$24.00 / £19.25. From the book jacket: "With a true naturalist's curiosity, Pielou explores the remarkable ways of water. As the world's supply of clean, fresh water continues to dwindle, it becomes increasingly important that we understand the close connection between water and living forms."
Title THE NATURE OF THE BOOK. Print and Knowledge in the Making. Author A. Johns. Publisher University of Chicago Press, 1998, pp. xxi + 753, US$40.00 / £31.95. From the book jacket: "[The author] focuses on the interplay between the scientific and print revolutions and on their roles, both complementary and antagonistic, in the production and dissemination of knowledge. For while the advancement of knowledge depended on the accuracy and legitimacy of printed argument, print also could be—and sometimes was—used to manipulate those arguments and ideas for political, religious, or ideological reasons.
"Johns constructs an entirely original and vivid picture of print culture and its many arenas—commercial, intellectual, political, and individual. The Nature of the Book broadsides all of our assumptions about what books were at the genesis of print culture."
Title THE COMPUTER REVOLUTION. An Economic Perspective. Author D.E. Sichel. Publisher Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1997, pp. xii + 152, US$38.95. From the book jacket: "During the 1980s and into this decade, U.S. businesses poured billions of dollars into computers and other information technology. Many commentators pointed to this computer revolution as a key factor in boosting economic growth and productivity. With the advent of the Information Superhighway, hopes for the future rose even higher. Yet, in the midst of rapid computerization in recent decades, the productivity performance of the U.S. economy has remained lacklustre. And because of the tight link between improvements in productivity and a rise in living standards, whether and how much these new technologies will improve productivity will critically affect the nation's future living standards. Policymakers, opinion leaders, and others, therefore, must understand the contribution of information technology to the economy.
"This book provides a straightforward guide to the economic issues behind the debates about the role of computers in the nation's economy. To set the stage, Daniel Sichel reviews the essential facts about computers in the economy, with a particular emphasis on software. Using quantitative and historical analysis, supplemented by interviews with business leaders and other professionals, Sichel assesses the aggregate economic impact of computers in recent decades and looks ahead to their future impact.
"When compared with the size of the slowdown in productivity growth in the 1970s, he finds that recent contributions of computers to growth seem relatively modest. And, looking ahead, Sichel suggests it is doubtful that these contributions will surge in coming years. Thus, despite the importance of information technology, some caution is in order; computers may not be a magic bullet for productivity growth."
Title A NETWORK ORANGE. Logic and Responsibility in the Computer Age. Author R. Crandall and M. Levich. With a foreword by H. Rheingold. Publisher New York: Copernicus, 1998, pp. xvi + 130, US$25.00. From the book: "The title of this book is derived from the Cockney folk expression "as queer as a clockwork orange," which means, in the words of author Anthony Burgess, "the queerest thing imaginable." We take the folk expression to describe an entity that, although it appears ordered and natural on first inspection, is ultimately chaotic within. A secondary, anthropomorphic meaning has thrived since the appearance of Burgess's horrific novel A Clockwork Orange, in which the human mechanism, organic but capable of brutal, robotic behaviour, is the clockwork orange. We intend the original folk meaning: The modern network, already vast but integral to an even vaster computer revolution, is a strange and chaotic thing, at the fringe of unimaginable, giving rise to profound problems of logic and responsibility."
From the book jacket: "As the computer emerges as an elemental force in our society, the claims made for it grow more and more astonishing. Machine consciousness will be achieved; virtual reality will become so convincing you'll literally forget you're in an unreal world; computers in every classroom will revolutionize education. It's becoming hard to tell where technology forecasting leaves off and hype begins.
"In a remarkably clear-eyed look at some of the major unexamined assumptions of our times, technologist Richard Crandall and philosopher Marvin Levich look at the ideas underlying the Information Revolution, with the belief that it is time for sharper scrutiny of a revolution that gives rise to profound problems of responsibility for computer users, educators, and designers.
"The six essays making up A Network Orange provide new views of such subjects as: Why market forces make your computer clumsy and inefficient; Why we must differentiate between machine intelligence and machine consciousness; Why the educational value of bulletin boards, chat rooms, and other network forums is essentially nil; Why the concept of virtual reality is fraught with logical absurdities.
"Lucid, penetrating, and relentlessly logical, A Network Orange is a much needed antidote to the dreamy hype surrounding so many aspects of modern computing."
Title SECRET MESA. Inside Los Alamos National Laboratory. Author J.A. Shroyer. Publisher New York: Wiley, 1998, pp. 230, £19.99. From the book jacket: "Created as a top-secret outpost on a desolate mesa in the New Mexico desert—exclusively for the purpose of assembling the world's first atomic weapon—Los Alamos was transformed during the Cold War into a high-powered science complex and full-blown 'company town', with a population of 20,000, covering forty-three square miles and including schools, stores, churches, and a private ski slope. But even today, the town is tightly guarded by a 400-strong special security force, and glinting barriers of razor wire encircle research facilities protected by motion detectors and patrolled by armed guards.
"Secret Mesa ultimately offers a unique perspective on the complex questions surrounding the appropriate role, if any, for nuclear weapons in our future as well as the role of government-sponsored 'big science' in spearheading much of the basic research so important to scientific progress."
Title THE LAST DINOSAUR BOOK. The Life and Times of a Cultural Icon. Author W.J.T. Mitchell. Publisher University of Chicago Press, 1998, pp. 321, US$35.00 / £25.00 The author shows why the public has such an attachment to the myth and reality of the dinosaur.
Title ISAAC NEWTON. Eighteenth-Century Perspectives. Author A.R. Hall. Publisher Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 215. From the book jacket: "This new work, a comparative study of Newtonian biography—by one of this century's most eminent Newtonian scholars, Rupert Hall—brings together for the first time, in a single volume, the early eighteenth-century biographies of Sir Isaac Newton. The centrepiece of the book is a completely new translation of Paolo Frisi's biography of Newton published in 1778. Also included are the biographies by Fontenelle (1727), Thomas Birch (1738), Charles Hutton (1795), and John Conduitt—making two of the most important eighteenth-century biographies accessible in a contemporary English translation. Each translation is accompanied by illuminating introductions and commentary by Professor Hall and, to help orient the reader, a brief biography of Newton and a bibliography have been included."
Title EDISON. A Life of Invention. Author P. Israel. Publisher New York: Wiley, 1998, pp. viii + 552, £24.95. This is a biography of Thomas Alva Edison (1847–1931). He had only three months of formal education, but became one of the greatest inventors. His inventions included the phonograph, the first successful electric light bulb, and laid the groundwork for movies, telephones and the sound recording industry.
Title MY BRAIN IS OPEN. The Mathematical Journeys of Paul Erdös. Author B. Schechter. Publisher Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 224. Excerpts from the book jacket: "[Paul] Erdös was sustained by the generosity of colleagues and by his own belief in the beauty of mathematics.
"Born in Hungary, Erdös was a member of a generation of remarkable Hungarian scientists (among them, John von Neumann, Edward Teller, and Leo Szilard) who shaped the twentieth century. By age seventeen he had gained international recognition as a prodigy.
"Erdös believed that the meaning of life was to prove and conjecture. He was fascinated by numbers and became one of the century's leading number theorists. He worked in fields of mathematics that would prove pivotal to the development of computer science, even though he had never touched a computer. He was the most prolific mathematician who ever lived, writing or collaborating on more than 1,500 papers with over 450 different collaborators."
Title N IS A NUMBER. A Portrait of Paul Erdös. Author G.P. Csicsery. Publisher Wellesley, Massachusetts: A K Peters, 1993, 57 minutes. This is a video of the famous mathematician Paul Erdös (1913–1996). Erdös "eschewed the traditional trappings of success" and dedicated his life to mathematics.
Title EMPIRE OF LIGHT. A History of Discovery in Science and Art. Author S. Perkowitz. Publisher Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press, 1998, pp. ix + 229, £12.95. Albert Einstein wrote: "For the rest of my life I will reflect on what light is." In this volume, the author discusses the nature of light, how the eye sees, and how an understanding of these phenomena has emerged over the years.
Title FROM WHITE DWARFS TO BLACK HOLES. The Legacy of S. Chandrasekhar. Author G. Srinivasan (Ed.). Publisher University of Chicago Press, 1999, pp. xiii + 240, US$40.00. From the book jacket: "From White Dwarfs to Black Holes chronicles the extraordinarily productive scientific career of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, one of the twentieth century's most distinguished astrophysicists. Over the course of more than six decades of active research Chandrasekhar investigated a dizzying array of subjects, including stellar structure and dynamics, the theory of radiative transfer, hydrodynamic and hydromagnetic stability, the equilibrium and stability of ellipsoidal figures of equilibrium, the general theory of relativity and relativistic astrophysics, the mathematical theory of black holes, and the theory of colliding gravitational waves and non-radial perturbations of relativistic stars.
"G. Srinivasan notes in the preface to this book that "the range of Chandra's contributions is so vast that no one person in the physics or astronomy community can undertake the task of commenting on his achievements. Thus, in this collection, ten eminent scientists evaluate Chandrasekhar's contributions to their own fields of specialization. The volume closes with a historical discussion of Chandrasekhar's interactions with graduate students during his more than quarter century at Yerkes Observatory.
"The contributors are: James Binney, John L. Friedman, Norman R. Lebovitz, Donald E. Osterbrock, E.N. Parker, Roger Penrose, A.R.P. Rau, George B. Rybecki, E.E. Salpeter, Bernard F. Schutz, and G. Srinivasan.
"The essays in this book were originally published by the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1996 in a special issue of the Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy."
Title SCIENCE WITHOUT LAWS. Author R.N. Giere. Publisher University of Chicago Press, 1999, pp. x + 285, US$25.00. From the book jacket: "R.N. Giere argues that it is better to understand what scientists actually do as developing more or less abstract models of specific aspects of the world. Giere's approach resolves the issues underlying the science wars: the critics of science are correct in rejecting the Enlightenment idea of science, and its defenders are correct in insisting that science does not produce genuine knowledge of the natural world. Giere is utterly persuasive in arguing that to criticize the Enlightenment ideal is not to criticize science itself, and that to defend science one need not defend the Enlightenment ideal.
"Science without Laws thus stakes out a middle ground in these debates by demonstrating a more powerful way of seeing science."
Title PHYSICISTS IN CONFLICT. From Antiquity to the New Millennium. Author N.A. Porter. Publisher Bristol: Institute of Physics, 1998, pp. xv + 275, £25.00/US$39.50. From the book jacket: "Dialogue in science is essential for progress. But when dialogue becomes conflict, or further intensifies to persecution, the situation is harmful not only to science, but also to the wider society in which science exists. This is true whether the conflict is internal, as in the case of Boltzmann, or external, as with Galileo or Oppenheimer against their respective authorities.
"This book examines the nature of conflict in science through examples chosen from the history of physics. These cases fall into three broad themes: physicists in conflict with religion; conflict between physicists on significant scientific issues; physicists in conflict with each other and politicians on matters of public policy with scientific content. Conflict is singled out as a common element in otherwise disparate areas precisely because it has characteristics which are common to the different cases, and sometimes the similarities are remarkable. The cases of Galileo and Oppenheimer, in particular, are examples of this."
Title CULTURAL BOUNDARIES OF SCIENCE. Credibility on the Line. Author T.F. Gieryn. Publisher University of Chicago Press, 1999, pp. xiv + 398. This volume shows how the definition of what is science can shift. The author discusses also how science and its interpretation are shaped by society and vice versa.
Title HOLDING ON TO REALITY. The Nature of Information at the Turn of the Millennium. Author A. Borgmann. Publisher University of Chicago Press, 1999, pp. 274, US$22.00. From the book jacket: "Drawing on the history of ideas, the details of information technology, and the boundaries of the human condition, Borgmann explains the relationship between things and signs, between reality and information. His history ranges from Plato to Boeing and from the alphabet to virtual reality, all the while being conscious of the enthusiasm, apprehension, and uncertainty that have greeted every stage of the development of information."
Title DRAWBRIDGE UP. Mathematics — A Cultural Anathema. (ZUGBRÜCKE AUSSER BETRIEB. Die Mathematik im Jenseits der Kultur — Eine Aussenansicht.) Author H.M. Enzensberger. Publisher Natick, Massachusetts: A K Peters, 1999, pp. 47, US$5.00. This is a very small book written side-by-side in two languages, English and German. The author, a poet and essayist, discusses the problem of the mathematician as an isolationist, divorced from reality and the mathematician who feels that mathematics is the underpinning of technical developments.
Title STATISTICS IN SOCIETY. The Arithmetic of Politics. Author D. Dorling and S. Simpson (Eds.). Publisher London: Arnold, 1999, pp. xxvi + 484, £16.99. The papers in this volume are divided into eight parts: 1. Collecting statistics; 2. Models and theory; 3. Classifying people; 4. Counting poverty; 5. Valuing health; 6. Assessing education; 7. Measuring employment; 8. Economics and politics.
Title STATISTICS, SCIENCE AND PUBLIC POLICY. II. HAZARDS AND RISKS. Proceedings of the Conference on Statistics, Science and Public Policy held at Queen's University, Kingston, Ont Author A.M. Herzberg and I. Krupka (Eds.). Publisher Kingston, Ontario: Queen's University, 1998, pp. xiii + 163, Can.$30.00. Approximately forty leading scientists, politicians, senior public servants and journalists from several countries met at Queen's University to consider how to promote better understanding between scientists and policy-makers by focusing on the issue of hazard and risks. This volume consists of the edited version of the proceedings of the conference.
Title ON SCIENCE, INFERENCE, INFORMATION AND DECISION-MAKING. Selected Essays in the Philosophy of Science. Author K. Szaniawski, A. Chmielewski and J. Woleñski (Eds.). Publisher Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1998, pp. xiv + 242, Dfl.240.00/US$130.00/£82.00. From the book jacket: "There are two competing pictures of science. One considers science as a system of inferences, whereas another looks at science as a system of actions. The essays included in this collection offer a view which intends to combine both pictures. This compromise is well illustrated by Szaniawski's analysis of statistical inferences. It is shown that traditional approaches to the foundations of statistics do not need to be regarded as conflicting with each other. Thus, statistical rules can be treated as rules of behaviour as well as rules of inference. Szaniawski's uniform approach relies on the concept of rationality, analyzed from the point of view of decision theory. Applications of formal tools to the problem of justice and division of goods shows that the concept of rationality has a wider significance."
Title BRAVE NEW WORLDS. Staying Human in the Genetic Future. Author B. Appleyard. Publisher London: HarperCollins, 1999, pp. 188, £16.99. The author discusses the promise and dangers in genetic manipulation and the moral and ethical implications. "In the end, Brave New World is a public appeal, a plan to realign technological advances with human values."
Title THE TROUBLED HELIX. Social and Psychological Implications of the New Human Genetics. Author T. Marteau and M. Richards (Eds.). Publisher Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp. xx + 359, £40.00/US$69.95 Cloth; £18.95/US$29.95 Paper. This volume surveys the problems which arise from the new human genetics, such as the knowledge that because of one's genetic make-up one will suffer from an incurable disease.
Title ECONOMIC THEORY AND SUSTAINABILITY. Author G. Heal. Publisher New York: Columbia University Press, 1998, pp. xiii + 226, US$75.00/£52.00. From the book jacket: "With issues like global warming and the loss of biodiversity becoming increasingly important to policy-makers and scientists world-wide, sustainability is a growing concern.
"The sustainable management of the biosphere has recently been the subject of much attention among ecologists, environmental engineers, and other members of the scientific community. Yet, although these issues are clearly rooted in economic behaviour and organization, economists have not directly addressed the question of sustainability."
The author presents a model for understanding the future of the earth from an economic perspective.
"Heal's model begins by reconciling the time horizons of the economist and the environmentalist in economics, discussions of the 'long run' generally refer to a much shorter period than do those of the earth sciences. This book shows the benefits of viewing the environment as an economic asset that should be understood as part of a national income and explains how this approach can lead to more conservative use of resources."
Title SOCIAL SECURITY AND RETIREMENT AROUND THE WORLD. Author J. Gruber and D.A. Wise (Eds.). Publisher University of Chicago Press, 1999, pp. ix + 486, US$62.00/£49.50. From the book jacket: "In nearly every industrialized country, the population is ageing rapidly and individuals are living longer, demographic trends that have strained the financial viability of these countries' social security systems. The financial strain has been compounded by another trend: workers are leaving the labour force at increasingly younger ages.
"What accounts for this striking decline in labour force participation? One explanation is that social security programs actually provide incentives for early retirement. Social Security and Retirement around the World examines this explanation. This volume houses a set of remarkable papers that present information on the social security systems, and labour force participation patterns, in Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States."
Title ENSURING SAFE FOOD. From Production to Consumption. Committee to Ensure Safe Food from Production to Consumption. Author Institute of Medicine/National Research Council. Publisher Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1998, pp. xi + 194. The effectiveness of the food safety system is discussed and evaluated.
Title THE FINANCING OF CATASTROPHE RISK. Author K.A. Foot (Ed.). Publisher University of Chicago Press, 1999, pp. x + 477, US$68.00. From the book jacket: "Is it possible that the insurance and reinsurance industries cannot handle a major catastrophe? Ten years ago, the notion that the overall cost of a single catastrophic event might exceed $10 billion was unthinkable. Yet, in today's dollars, the combined costs of just two recent events, the Northridge Earthquake and Hurricane Andrew, exceed $45 billion. With ever increasing property-casualty risks and unabated growth in hazard-prone areas, insurers and reinsurers now envision the possibility of disaster losses of $50 to $100 billion in the United States. Against this backdrop, the capitalization of the insurance and reinsurance industries has become a crucial concern. While it remains unlikely that a single event might entirely bankrupt these industries, a big catastrophe could place firms, policy holders, and investors under stress.
"The crux of the problem lies in the financial system, whose job it is to redistribute risk. Insurance companies retain the vast majority of their catastrophic risk, rather than spreading potential costs evenly across investors. Furthermore, only a small fraction of large-event exposures is covered by reinsurance, and the percentage of reinsurance coverage declines markedly with the size of the event. While reinsurer capital has expanded, there remains concern that it may be more beneficial for catastrophe risks to be shared directly with investors."
Title EVERYTHING FOR SALE. The Virtues and Limits of Markets. Author R. Kuttner. Publisher University of Chicago Press, 1999, pp. xx + 410, US$15.00. From previous reviews of the book: "The best survey of the limits of free markets that we have.... A much needed plea for pragmatism: Take from free markets what is good and do not hesitate to recognize what is bad." (J. Madrick, Los Angeles Times).
"The most readable and important book about the economy I have read in a long time.... I have never seen the market system better described, more intelligently appreciated, and more trenchantly criticized than in Everything for Sale." (R. Heilbroner).
"Demonstrating an impressive mastery of a vast range of material, Mr. Kuttner lays out the case for the market's insufficiency in field after field: employment, medicine, banking, securities, telecommunications, electric power." (N. Lemann, New York Times Book Review).
Title BOGGS: A Comedy of Values. Author L. Weschler. Publisher University of Chicago Press, 1999, pp. xiv + 160, US$22.00. From the book jacket: "[The author] chronicles the antics of J.S.G. Boggs, a young artist with a certain panache, a certain flair, a certain je ne payes pas—an artist, that is, whose consuming passion is money, or perhaps, more precisely, value. What Boggs likes to do is to draw money—actual paper notes in the denominations of standard currencies from all over the world—and then to go out and try to spend those drawings. Instead of selling his money drawings outright to interested collectors, Boggs looks for merchants who will accept his drawings in lieu of cash payment for their wares or services as part of elaborately choreographed transactions, complete with receipts and even proper change—an artistic practice that regularly lands him in trouble with treasury police around the globe.
"Boggs: A Comedy of Values teases out these transactions and their sometimes dramatic legal consequences, following Boggs on a larkish, though at the same time disconcertingly profound, econo-philosophic chase. For in a madcap Socratic fashion, Boggs is raising all sorts of truly fundamental questions—what is it that we value in art, or, for that matter, in money? Indeed, how do we place a value on anything at all? And in particular, why do we, why should we, how can we place such trust in anything as confoundingly insubstantial as paper money?
"In passing, Weschler frames a concise, highly entertaining history of money itself—from cowrie shells through hedge funds—such that Boggs will delight and fascinate both general readers and seasoned professionals, especially amidst the chaos currently roiling financial and art markets throughout the world."
Title IDENTIFYING THE POOR. Papers on Measuring Poverty to Celebrate the Bicentenary of the Publication in 1797 of "The State of the Poor" by Sir Frederick Morton Eden. Author F.G. Pyatt and M. Ward (Eds.). Publisher Amsterdam: IOS Press, 1999, pp. iv + 233. The ISI Cutting Edge Conference in November 1997 provided the background to this volume which includes papers from the conference and some others. The late Dr. Z. Kenessey, former director of the International Statistical Institute, convened the conference. The abstract of his paper "Sir Frederick Morton Eden's The State of the Poor (1797–1997)" is:
"The three magisterial volumes of Eden's classic work were published 200 years ago in 1797. Sir Frederick Morton Eden was not only the author of this inestimable work, which reviewed poverty in England from the Norman Conquest until the end of the 18th century, he was also instrumental in establishing the Globe insurance company which was the first insurance company in Britain. During his short life (1766–1809) he put his education from Oxford University to good use and authored works on subjects other than about poverty (which was the theme of his magnum opus). In his childhood Eden spent time in Maryland, where his father Sir Robert Eden was the last colonial governor."
Title THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING FUZZY. And Other Insights from the Border between Math and Computers Author A. Sangalli. Publisher Princeton University Press, 1998, pp. xvi + 173, £18.95. From the book jacket: "How has computer science changed mathematical thinking? In this first ever comprehensive survey of the subject for popular science readers, Arturo Sangalli explains how computers have brought a new practicality to mathematics and mathematical applications. By using fuzzy logic and related concepts, programmers have been able to side-step the traditional and often cumbersome search for perfect mathematical solutions to embrace instead solutions that are 'good enough.' If mathematicians want their work to be relevant to the problems of the modern world, Sangalli shows, they must increasingly recognize 'the importance of being fuzzy'."
Title MODERN MATHEMATICS IN THE LIGHT OF THE FIELD MEDALS. Author M. Monastyrsky. Publisher Wellesley, Massachusetts: A K Peters, 1999, pp. xv + 160, US$19.95. From the book cover: "This short book examines the evolution of certain areas of modern mathematics by recounting the past winners of the international Fields Medal, the 'Nobel Prize' of mathematics. Subjects like topology, complex analysis, number theory, and mathematical logic are brought to life through the personalities of those who fundamentally contributed to their development."
Title THE MATHEMATICS OF MEASUREMENT. A Critical History. Author J.J. Roche. Publisher London: Springer-Verlag, 1998, pp. x + 330, US$79.95 This is the first history of the branches of mathematics which have been developed for the handling of measurements, including the calculus of error analysis.
Title AN IMAGINARY TALE. The Story of Ö–1. Author P.J. Nahin. Publisher Princeton University Press, 1998, pp. xvi + 257, £18.95. From the book jacket: "Today complex numbers have such widespread practical use—from electrical engineering to aeronautics—that few people would expect the story behind their derivation to be filled with adventure and enigma. In An Imaginary Tale, Paul Nahin tells the 2000-year-old history of one of mathematics' most elusive numbers, the square root of minus one, also known as i, re-creating the baffling mathematical problems that conjured it up and the colourful characters who tried to solve them.
"In 1878, when two brothers stole a mathematical papyrus from the ancient Egyptian burial site in the Valley of Kings, they led scholars to the earliest known occurrence of the square root of a negative number. The papyrus offered a specific numerical example of how to calculate the volume of a truncated square pyramid, which implied the need for i. In the first century, the mathematician-engineer Heron of Alexandria encountered i in a separate project, but fudged the arithmetic; medieval mathematicians stumbled upon the concept while grappling with the meaning of negative numbers, but dismissed their square roots as nonsense. By the time of Descartes, a theoretical use for these elusive square roots—now called 'imaginary numbers'—was suspected, but efforts to solve them led to intense, bitter debates. The notorious i finally won acceptance and was put to use in complex analysis and theoretical physics in Napoleonic times."
Title THE COLLECTED WORKS OF F.A. HAYEK. Volume V. Good Money, Part I. The New World. Part II. The Standard. Volume VI. Good Money. Author S. Kresge (Ed.). Publisher University of Chicago Press, 1999, pp. xi + 259; pp. x +259, US$45.00 each. F.A. Hayek (1899–1992) was the co-recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1974 and was awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1991. These two volumes bring together Hayek's major essays on money and monetary theory.
Title OPEN PROBLEMS IN MATHEMATICAL SYSTEMS AND CONTROL THEORY Author V.D. Blondel, E.D. Sontag, M. Vidyasagar and J.C. Willems (Eds.). Publisher London: Springer-Verlag, 1999, pp. xii + 288, US$99.00. More than fifty open problems have been collected together. They include topics such as chaotic observers, non-linear local controllability and neural network learning.
Title A CENTURY ROUNDED UP. Reflections on the History of the Central Bureau of Statistics in the Netherlands. Author J.G.S.J. van Maarseveen and R. Schreijnders (Eds.). Publisher Amsterdam: Stichting beheer IISG/Voorburg: CBS, 1999, pp. 207. From the book cover: "A Century Rounded Up is a popular account of the fascinating history of the Central Bureau of Statistics in the Netherlands (CBS), as told by current and former employees of the Bureau. The book describes the history of economic and social statistics and how the information has been made public in the course of the years; it also examines the Bureau's important contributions in the area of international statistics. The book is richly illustrated with material from the Bureau archives."
Title A CENTURY OF STATISTICS. Counting, Accounting and Recounting in the Netherlands. Author J.G.S.J. van Maarseveen and M.B.G. Gircour (Eds.). Publisher Voorburg: CBS (Statistics Netherlands)/Amsterdam: Stichting beheer IISG, 1999, pp. 558. From the book cover: "A Century of Statistics describes how statistics are made at the Central Bureau of Statistics in the Netherlands (CBS), currently called Statistics Netherlands. The book focuses on the methodological and organisational aspects of the work: data collection from companies and from households, sample surveying, mechanisation and computer techniques in the statistical process, the co-ordination and integration of statistics, the calculation of indicators and prices indices, confidentiality and publication of information, and, lastly, international statistics. The book gives an overview of the development of social and economic research in the Netherlands, and the official statistics used in this research."
Title CHANCE RULES. An Informal Guide to Probability, Risk, and Statistics. Author B.S. Everitt. Publisher New York: Copernicus, 1999, pp. xiv + 202, US$26.00/DM49.00/£16.20. From the book cover: "Chance Rules tells the story of our appreciation of chance through history and the various ways it impacts our lives."
Title THE POLITICS OF LARGE NUMBERS. A History of Statistical Reasoning. Author A. Desrosières (Translated by C. Naish). Publisher Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, pp. 368, £27.95. From the book jacket: "Statistics-driven thinking is ubiquitous in modern society. In this ambitious and sophisticated study of the history of statistics, which begins with probability theory in the seventeenth century, Alain Desrosières shows how the evolution of modern statistics has been inextricably bound up with the knowledge and power of governments. He traces the complex reciprocity between modern governments and the mathematical artefacts that both dictate the duties of the state and measure its success.
"The book is a critical, scholarly, and accurate synthesis of an extremely broad spectrum of the history of statistics. Desrosières' treatment is not highly technical, although he does exhibit an easy competence with the technical side. A significant strength of the work is its discussions of the relationship of the development of statistics to national and international statistical agencies, and the relationship of economic ideas to the statistical constructs employed to measure them. No other work exhibits the same breadth."
S.M. Stigler, University of Chicago
Title DISEASE MAPPING AND RISK ASSESSMENT FOR PUBLIC HEALTH. Author A. Lawson, A. Biggeri, D. Böhning, E. Lesaffre, J.-F. Viel and R. Bertollini (Eds.). Publisher Chichester, U.K.: Wiley, 1999, pp. xix + 482, £125.00. From the Editors' Preface: "Disease mapping and risk assessment is now a major focus of interest in the area of public health. The geographical distribution of the incidence of disease has an important role to play in the development of understanding the origins and causes of many diseases, and its role should not be underestimated. One of the earliest examples of the important role of geographical analysis of disease was the analysis of cholera outbreaks in the East End of London by John Snow in 1854. Snow constructed maps of the locations of cholera deaths and noted the particular elevated incidence around the Broad Street water pump, a source of water supply for the local area. Subsequently, the local water company was tasked with improving the supply quality. More recent examples of the use of geographical analysis can be found. The incidence of asbestos-related lung cancer amongst shipyard workers in Georgia, U.S.A., was established by large-scale comparative mapping of the geographical distribution of the disease. Only once the mapped incidence had been examined did the link between shipyard employment and asbestos exposure risk become established. More recently, outbreaks of asthma in areas of Barcelona during the 1980s have been traced by geographical analysis to the unloading of soybean cargo in Barcelona harbour. Some examples of geographical analysis of clusters are provided. ...
"Besides the application of a geographical approach to the assessment of local excesses of disease incidence, there are now many branches in the study of geographical distribution of disease incidence. These branches reflect the varied needs of public health analysts and epidemiologists in their quest for the assessment of disease aetiology and the relationship between disease and factors contributing to its occurrence."
From the book jacket: "This book includes a broad variety of statistical techniques, and where appropriate examples are included on topical issues, such as the analysis of putative health hazards. For easy reference the text is presented in five distinct sections, each with an introductory review: disease mapping; clustering of disease; ecological analysis; risk assessment for putative sources of hazard; public health applications and case studies."
Title TORNADO ALLEY. Monster Storms of the Great Plains. Author H.B. Bluestein. Publisher New York: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. xii + 180, US$35.00. From the book jacket: "Tornadoes are one of the most violent, magnificent, and utterly unpredictable storms on earth, reaching estimated wind speeds of 300 mph and leaving swaths of destruction in their wake. Using his own spectacular photographs, Bluestein documents the exhilaration of hair-raising encounters with as many as nine tornadoes in one day, as well as the crushing disappointment of failed expeditions and ruined equipment. Most of all, he recreates the sense of beauty, mystery, and power felt by the scientists who risk their lives to study violent storms. ... [The book] provides not only a history of tornado research but a vivid look into the origin and effects of one of nature's most dramatic phenomena."
Title THE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON THE UNITED STATES ECONOMY. Author R. Mendelsohn and J.E. Neumann (Eds.). Publisher Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp. xi + 331, £35.00/US$59.95. From the book jacket: "This book applies advanced new economics methodologies to assess possible impacts of climate change on the U.S. economy: agriculture, timber, coastal resources, energy expenditure, fishing, and outdoor recreation. It improves our understanding of key issues raised in the influential Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, and will serve as an important reference for the scientific, economic, and policy-making communities."
Title STATISTICS, SCIENCE AND PUBLIC POLICY. III. SCIENCE AND THE PUBLIC TRUST. Proceedings of the Conference on Statistics, Science and Public Policy held at Herstmonceux Castle, H Author A.M. Herzberg and I. Krupka (Eds.). Publisher Kingston, Ontario: Queen's University, 1999, pp. xiii + 165, Can.$30.00. Approximately forty leading scientists, politicians, senior public servants and journalists from several countries met at Herstmonceux Castle in the U.K. to consider how to promote better understanding between scientists and policy-makers by focussing on the issue of science and the public trust. This volume consists of the edited version of the proceedings of the conference.
Title TWO– AND THREE–DIMENSIONAL PATTERNS OF THE FACE. Author P.W. Hallinan, G.G. Gordon, A.L. Yuille, P. Giblin and D. Mumford. Publisher Natick, Massachusetts: A K Peters, 1999, pp. viii + 262. From the book cover: "The human face is perhaps the most familiar and easily recognized object in the world, yet both its three-dimensional shape and its two-dimensional images are complex and hard to characterize. This book ties together applied mathematics, applied statistics, and engineering by applying general theories and concepts to the specific and familiar of the human face. The authors include fully worked out examples of two approaches to face recognition, demonstrating the power of pattern theory and suggesting interesting new mathematics in the two- and three-dimensional aspects of the face."
Title STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF MEDICAL DATA. New Developments. Author B.S. Everitt and G. Dunn (Eds.). Publisher London: Arnold, 1998, pp. xi + 340, £29.95. From the book cover: "Over the past two decades the field of medical statistics has grown rapidly and the number of medical statisticians has increased accordingly. At least two specialized journals, Statistics in Medicine and Statistical Methods in Medical Research have arisen to publish accounts of the methodological advances being made. Adequate coverage of the whole range of medical statistics could only be achieved in a text containing many hundreds of articles; therefore, the editors of this book have commissioned articles that are of clear importance to the developments of the subject and that cover areas in which there is currently active research. The chapters split into four main research areas: Survival Analysis, Longitudinal Data Analysis, Bayesian Methods and Statistics in Imaging."
Title ECONOMIC GAMES AND STRATEGIC BEHAVIOUR. Theory and Application. Author F. Stähler. Publisher Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar, 1998, pp. xii + 259, £55.00. From the book jacket: "Economic Games and Strategic Behaviour is a seminal collection which introduces a model providing solutions to economic games subject to repeated play. It develops a link between strategic bargaining and the theory of self-enforcing contracts to give insights into the long-term relationships between two parties, such as firms or governments, who meet in a negotiating situation.
"The author provides an original approach to strategic bargaining to find a solution to economic games in which co-operation cannot be enforced by a third party. He then applies this approach to a wide range of real-life situations including international environmental agreements, bilateral trade agreements, collusion between firms in industry and bargaining between buyers and sellers in the market place. The author also discusses important policy implications as well as setting an agenda for future research."
Title MONETARY POLICY RULES. Author J.B. Taylor (Ed.). Publisher University of Chicago Press, 1999, pp. ix + 447, US$70.00/£49.00. From the book jacket: "Should we raise interest rates, lower interest rates, or keep them the same? This is the most difficult, yet the most important question that Federal Reserve policy-makers face. One decision could cause recession or inflation while another could cause continued economic expansion. Investors anticipate the Federal Reserve's decision as it affects bonds, stocks, and foreign exchange rates.
"This volume results from a unique co-operative research effort between nearly thirty monetary experts and policymakers from central banks and universities who evaluated different policy rules using a variety of techniques. Their striking findings on the potential response of interest rates to an array of variables, including alterations in the rates of inflation, unemployment, and exchange, illustrate that simple policy rules are more robust and more efficient than complex rules with multiple variables."
Title ERDÖS ON GRAPHS. His Legacy of Unsolved Problems. Author F. Chung and R. Graham. Publisher Natick, Massachusetts: A K Peters, 1999, pp. xiii + 142, US$25.00/£13.50. From the book cover: "This book is a tribute to Paul Erdös, the wandering mathematician once described as 'the prince of problem solvers and the absolute monarch of problem posers'. It examines—within the context of his unique personality and lifestyle—the legacy of open problems he left to the world of mathematics after his death in 1996. Unwilling to succumb to the temptations of money and position, Erdös never had a home and never held a job. His "home" was a bag or two containing all his belongings and a record of the collective activities of the mathematical community. His "job" was one at which he excelled: identifying a fundamental roadblock in some particular line of approach and capturing it in a well-chosen (often innocent-looking) problem, whose solution would likewise provide insight into the underlying theory. By cataloguing the unsolved problems of Erdös in a comprehensive and well-documented volume, the authors hope to continue the work of an unusual and special man who fundamentally influenced the field of mathematics."
Title THE MOMENT OF PROOF. Mathematical Epiphanies. Author D.C. Benson. Publisher New York: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 331, US$30.00. From the book jacket: "When Archimedes, while bathing, suddenly hit upon the principle of buoyancy, he ran wildly through the streets of Syracuse, stark naked, crying 'eureka!' In the Moment of Proof, Donald Benson attempts to convey to general readers the feeling of eureka—the joy of discovery—that mathematicians feel when they first encounter an elegant proof."
Title GNOMON. From Pharaohs to Fractals. Author M.J. Gazalé. Publisher Princeton University Press, 1999, pp. xiv + 259, US$29.95/£17.95. From a review by Martin Gardner: "Midhat Gazalé's Gnomon, handsomely illustrated by the author, is a splendid introduction to the surprising properties of gnomons, spirals, and their closely related number sequences, especially the famous golden number. Gazalé's elegant explorations lead him into fractals and triangular spirals that generate another famous irrational that he calls the "silver number." You put down his book with a heightened sense of awe and wonder at the gold and silver of pure geometry and its astonishing applications to the material world."
Title MODERN COMPUTER ALGEBRA. Author J. von zur Gathen and J. Gerhard. Publisher Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp. xiii + 753, £29.95/US$59.95. From the book cover: "Computer algebra systems are gaining more and more importance in all areas of science and engineering. ... Special features include: detailed study of algorithms including time analysis; implementation reports on several topics; complete proofs of the mathematical underpinnings; a wide variety of applications (among others in chemistry, coding theory, cryptography, computational logic and the design of calendars and musical scales). Some of this material has never appeared before in book form. Finally, a great deal of historical information and illustration enlivens the text."
Title THE SUN, THE GENOME, AND THE INTERNET. Tools of Scientific Revolutions. Author F.J. Dyson. Publisher New York: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. xvi + 124, US$22.00. From the book jacket: "In this visionary look into the future, Freeman Dyson argues that technological changes fundamentally alter our ethical and social arrangements and that three rapidly advancing new technologies—solar energy, genetic engineering, and world-wide communication—together have the potential to create a more equal distribution of the world's wealth.
"Dyson begins by rejecting the idea that scientific revolutions are primarily concept driven. He shows rather that new tools are more often the sparks that ignite scientific discovery. Such tool-driven revolutions have profound social consequences—the invention of the telescope turning the Medieval worldview upside down, the widespread use of household appliances in the 1950s replacing servants, to cite just two examples. In looking ahead, Dyson suggests that solar energy, genetics, and the Internet will have similarly transformative effects, with the potential to produce a more just and equitable society. Solar power could bring electricity to even the poorest, most remote areas of third-world nations, allowing everyone access to the vast stores of information on the Internet and effectively ending the cultural isolation of the poorest countries. Similarly, breakthroughs in genetics may well enable us to give our children healthier lives and grow more efficient crops, thus restoring the economic and human vitality of village cultures devalued and dislocated by the global market.
"Written with passionate conviction about the ethical uses of science, The Sun, the Genome, and the Internet is both a brilliant interpretation of the scientific process and a challenge to use new technologies to close, rather than widen, the gap between rich and poor."
Title GOODBYE, DESCARTES. The End of Logic and the Search for a New Cosmology of the Mind. Author K. Devlin. Publisher New York: Wiley, 1997, pp. x + 301, £12.99. From the back cover: "What are the laws of thought that allow human beings to reason and communicate so effectively? Can rules of thought and language be written down and programmed into computers that will one day think and communicate as well as we do? ... Devlin chronicles scientists' centuries-old quest to discover the laws of thought, from the astonishingly adept efforts of the ancient Greeks, to the invention of the first primitive "thinking machine" in the late nineteenth century, to radical findings that are challenging the very notion that the mind follows logical rules."
Title CITY OF LIGHT. The Story of Fiber Optics. Author J. Hecht. Publisher New York: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. xii + 316. From the book jacket: "City of Light tells the story of fiber optics, tracing its transformation from 19th-century parlor trick into the foundation of our global communications network."
Title HOW THE LASER HAPPENED. Adventures of a Scientist. Author C.H. Townes. Publisher New York: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp. 200. From the book jacket: "Nobel laureate Charles Townes provides a highly personal look at some of the leading events in twentieth-century physics. Townes was co-inventor of the maser, of which the laser is one example; an originator of spectroscopy using microwaves; and a pioneer in the study of gas clouds in galaxies and around stars. Throughout his career he has also been deeply engaged with issues outside of academic research. He worked on applied research projects for Bell Labs; served on the board of directors for General Motors; and devoted extensive effort to advising the government on science, policy, and defense.
"This memoir traces his multifaceted career from its beginnings on the family farm in South Carolina. Spanning decades of ground-breaking research, the book provides a hands-on description of how working scientists and inventors get their ideas. It also gives a behind-the-scenes look at the scientific community, showing how scientists respond to new ideas and how they approach a variety of issues, from priority and patents to the social and political implications of their work. In addition, Townes touches on the sociology of science, uncovering some of the traditions and values that are invisible to an outsider.
"A towering and energetic figure, Townes has explored or pioneered most of the roles available to the modern scientist. In addition to fundamental research, he was actively involved in the practical uses of the laser and in the court cases to defend the patent rights. He was a founding member of the Jasons, an influential group of scientists that independently advises the government on defense policy, and he played an active part in scientific decisions and policies from the Truman through the Reagan administration."
Title DARWINISM COMES TO AMERICA. Author R.L. Numbers. Publisher Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1998, pp. 216, £24.95 cloth/£11.95 Paper. From the book cover: "Why do so many Americans still resist the ideas laid out by Darwin in On the Origin of Species? Focusing on crucial aspects of the history of Darwinism in America, Ronald L. Numbers gets to the heart of this question.
"Judiciously assessing the facts, Numbers refutes a host of widespread misconceptions: about the impact of Darwin's work on the religious ideas of scientists, about the character of the issues that exercised scientists of the immediate post-Darwin generation, about the Scopes trial of 1925 and its consequences for American schools, and about the regional and denominational distribution of pro-evolutionary and anti-evolutionary sentiments.
"Displaying the expertise that has made Numbers one of the most respected historians of his generation, Darwinism Comes to America provides a much-needed historical perspective on today's quarrels about creationism and evolution—and illuminates the specifically American nature of this struggle."
Title A MATHEMATICAL MYSTERY TOUR. Discovering the Truth and Beauty of the Cosmos. Author A.K. Dewdney. Publisher New York: Wiley, 1999, pp. vi + 218, £17.99. From the book jacket: "Ïn this delightfully thought-provoking reading adventure, acclaimed author A.K. Dewdney takes us on a fictional journey around the world in search of the solution to one of the greatest ancient mysteries of mathematics.
"From the Temple of Apollo to the Arabian desert, and from the winding canals of Venice to the medieval halls of Oxford, Dewdney searches through highlights in the history of mathematics for an answer to the timeless question: Why is it that the cosmos—from the tiny world of atoms to the shape of the universe itself—is so miraculously governed by mathematical laws? Could it be that our world is in some sense made of mathematics, as Pythagoras famously proposed? Or is it we (or the mathematicians among us) who make mathematics? Are the remarkable theorems and equations that describe the world around us discovered, or are they created? Is mathematics the very fabric of the cosmos...or does it exist only in the human mind?
"This inventive and entertaining odyssey, written by one of the mathematics' most gifted expositors, offers fresh insight into the amazing power of the mathematics all around us and a new appreciation of the mathematical mysteries of the cosmos."
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