ISI - INTERNATIONAL STATISTICAL INSTITUTE
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Short Book Reviews
Short notes 2005
Title A BASIC COURSE IN STATISTICS, 5th edition. Author G.M. Clarke and D. Cooke. Publisher London: Arnold. 04, pp. xxv + 734, £24.99. [Original, 1978]
From the preface: "The fourth edition contained two new chapters and much additional new material. We have not made any changes of that nature in this fifth edition. Instead we have substantially altered, and increased, the material on computing. Previously we included hints on how to carry out the computing exercises using MINITAB, though the computing exercises, to be found at the end of most chapters, are not tied to any particular statistical package. We have now added sections throughout giving detailed instructions on how to use MINITAB to carry out the statistical procedures introduced in the book. The hints have been completely revised. We have taken advantage of the substantially improved version of the package, MINITAB 14, introduced in December 2003, though users of other packages will still find better ways of handling some of the exercises."
Title METHODS AND MODELS IN STATISTICS. In Honour of Professor John Nelder, FRS. Author N. Adams, M. Crowder, D.J. Hand and D. Stephens (Eds.). Publisher London: Imperial College Press. 04. xiii + 246.
The papers in this volume are those presented at a symposium in March 2004 in honour of Professor John Nelder's eightieth birthday. The papers reflect the wide range of Nelder's work in many areas and are accessible to non-specialists.
Title HANDBOOK OF COMPUTATIONAL STATISTICS. Concepts and Methods. Author J.E. Gentle, W. Hardle and Y. Mori (Eds.). Publisher Berlin: Springer-Verlag. 04, pp. xii + 1070, US$299.00.
From the back cover: "The Handbook of Computational Statistics -Concepts and Methods is divided into 4 parts. It begins with an overview of the field of Computational Statistics, how it emerged as a separate discipline, how it developed along with the development of hard- and software, including a discussion of current active research.
"The second part presents several topics in the supporting field of statistical computing. Emphasis is placed on the need for fast and accurate numerical algorithms, and it discusses some of the basic methodologies for transformation, data base handling and graphics treatment.
"The third part focuses on statistical methodology. Special attention is given to smoothing, iterative procedures, simulation and visualization of multivariate data.
"Finally a set of selected applications like Bioinformatics, Medical Imaging, Finance and Network Intrusion Detection highlight the usefulness of computational statistics."
Title COMPACT HANDBOOK OF COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY. Author A.K. Konopka and M.J.C. Crabbe (Eds.). Publisher New York: Dekker. 04, pp. viii + 560, US$89.95/£49.99.
From the back cover: "The Compact Handbook of Computational Biology contains detailed coverage of methods for pragmatic analysis of nucleic acid and protein sequences and structures ... definition and detection of motifs in nucleic acid and protein sequences ... protein structure prediction ... discrete modeling of biopolymers ... computer-assisted research on protein folding ... computer-assisted studies of DNA-protein interactions ... computer-assisted genomics, proteomics and comparative genomics ... and computer-assisted studies of genome evolution at the molecular (DNA) level.
"Designed as a reliable, integrated reference for specialists, as well as an instructional manual for students and trainees in computational biology, bioinformatics, proteomics, molecular genetics (sometimes referred to as functional genomics), and related fields, the handbook can also serve as a practical resource for industrial executives in charge of bioinformatics, genomics, and proteomics, as well as for science administrators in universities and scientific foundations. Lawyers, journalists, historians of science, forensic scientists, and medical professionals can also find this text useful as a desk reference and as a guide to the literature."
Title LESOTHO ATLAS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. Author D.M. Bohra. Publisher India: D.M. Bora. 03. xxxvii + 480, US$95.00.
A note by the author: "The Lesotho Atlas of Sustainable Development is an attempt to map the state of sustainable human development in the country. The quality of life and the level of human well-being, in terms of a range of indicators, have been cartographically portrayed across districts, geographical zones, rural and urban areas and across gender base. Each map is accompanied by an analytical text in sufficient detail. Maps are simple and meaningful. The Atlas conveys a strong message for sustainable development for Lesotho: things are getting worse, quickly. It acknowledges the relationship between resource base, environmental conditions, and population. The Atlas is also an authoritative data source.
"The choice of indicators has been governed by the need to evaluate the sustainable development process in terms of its overall impact on the quality of life and the standard of living of people. Today, there is a broad-based consensus to view sustainable human development in terms of, at least, three critical dimensions of well-being. These are related to longevity, education, and command over resources. Efforts have been made to portray through maps these dimensions in terms of the specific indicators which are used to reflect the specific socio-cultural conditions that prevail at the levels of districts, geographical zones, rural and urban areas and at gender level at a specific period of time. From these indicators, a core of composite indices, namely the Human Development Index (HDI) and poverty deprivation indices have been portrayed at the levels of geographical zones of the country. These indices have been shown separately for rural-urban and at gender levels.
"Lesotho's gender related development index (GDI) of 111 is 9 places higher than its HDI rank of 120. Lesotho's gender empowerment measure (GEM) of 50 is advantageous in relation to other developing countries. Males are less educated than females. In the age groups over 5 years of age who have never attended school, two-thirds are males, and only one-third are females. The greatest disparity is found in mountain areas where some 30 per cent more girls than boys attend school.
"Poverty is greater in rural than in urban Lesotho. About 54 per cent of rural households are poor, compared with a Maseru average of 28 per cent. The poorest 20 per cent of the population spends nearly two-thirds of its resources just on food and a further nearly one-fourth on minimal other basic needs. Among those with farming as their main source of income, 74 per cent are poor and 43 per cent are ultra poor.
"The compilation of indicators in the Atlas covers such aspects of social environment that influence individual and collective well-being. This includes indicators on the adolescents' health, child labor, violence against women, etc. Besides, physical environment also has a bearing on the quality of life. Accordingly, selective environmental indicators have also been included.
"The HIV/AIDS epidemic is without a doubt the greatest threat to sustainable development facing Lesotho. The HIV epidemic has multiple and complex effects on sustainable human development. As a result of AIDS, deaths of prime-age working adults will rise by a multiple of 2 to 10.
"The current primary school enrolment is nearly 70 per cent. As a result of unabated spread of HIV/AIDS epidemic, nearly one-half of children who lose their parents to HIV/AIDS drop out of school and teachers die, gains in literacy and enrolment ratios are being quickly eroded. The epidemic is putting a brake on economic growth by at least 1 to 2 percentage points a year, greatly jeopardizing efforts to reduce poverty through equitable growth. The Atlas includes the maps to indicate the effects of HIV/AIDS on crude death rate, infant mortality rate, life expectancy and on human development for the periods of 1996 and 2010 for Lesotho. The Atlas provides a telescopic view, through the medium of maps, of the socio-economic impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and it argues that the unabated spread of the epidemic with deepening poverty will put a brake on reaching the Millennium Summit development goals in Lesotho as in much of Africa."
Title THE NEW CONSUMERS, THE INFLUENCE OF AFFLUENCE ON THE ENVIRONMENT. Author N. Myers and J. Kent. Publisher Washington, D.C.: Island Press. 04, pp. xv + 199, US$24.00.
From the book jacket: "[This book] takes up an issue of extraordinary significance: the rise of consumption on a world scale and what it means for all our futures.
"[The authors] concentrate not on nations like the United States but on the stunning increase in what they term "new consumers"-people in developing and transition nations who have achieved sufficient affluence to enjoy middle-class lifestyles, including buying cars, eating meat regularly, and using a host of household electrical appliances. Even in the midst of great inequity, these New Consumers have already gained purchasing power equal to that of the United States, and the cumulative impact on the environment is enormous.
"Myers and Kent have distilled the results of their remarkable research to reveal the patterns of increasing consumption in twenty developing and transition nations, with particular attention to China and India, whose surging economies and large populations account for much of the recent exceptional growth in humanity's ecological footprint. New consumers generally have been following a path established in long-developed nations of needlessly overusing limited natural resources. As the authors document, this course is clearly unsustainable on a world scale. When India's economy doubled, its air pollution rose eightfold. Were each person in China to consume as much grain-fed beef as today's average American, it would require more grain than the entire U.S. harvest.
"If the developed nations have set a dangerous precedent by overconsuming, innovative policies offer some reason for hope. China, for example, has now written sustainable consumption into law and begun promoting it through economic incentives and education programs. Drawing on such examples, Myers and Kent outline an alternative path. Through a combination of lifestyle changes, policy reforms, and technological innovation around the globe, a decent and enduring standard of living could be available to everyone. In this, the authors insist, we in the developed nations must set an exampIe. As they put it, "the question is not 'can we afford to consume sustainably?' Rather it is 'how can we afford not to?'""
Title ONE WITH NINEVEH. Politics, Consumption and the Human Future. Author P.R. Ehrlich and A.H. Ehrlich. Publisher Washington, D.C.: Island Press. 04, pp. 447, US$27.00.
From the book jacket: "Through lucid explanations, telling anecdotes, and incisive analyses, the eminent scientists Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich here spotlight the three elephants in our global living room-rising consumption, increasing world population, and unchecked political and economic inequity-that together are increasingly shaping today's politics, undermining the planet's ability to sustain us, and determining humankind's future. The result is a book that brilliantly puts today's policy debates in a larger context and makes a compelling case for the critical discussions that we should be having.
"One with Nineveh takes its title from Rudyard Kipling's "Recessional" ("Lo, all our pomp of yesterday / Is one with Niniveh and Tyre!"), his famous 1897 poem alluding to the pride and arrogance that went before the fall of ancient Mesopotamian civilizations. Their undoing, in addition to warfare, was deforestation and unsustainable irrigation, practises whose destructive effects were ignored by the elites at the time. In One with Nineveh, the Ehrlichs suggest that the hubris of our own civilization could be leading us to an end similar to Niniveh's-whose ruins lie near the Iraqi city of Mosul-if environmental trends such as loss of biodiversity and acceleration of climate change are not halted. Unlike the regional ecological collapse of Mesopotamia, this time the collapse could be global.
"Both a cautionary tale and a call to action, One with Nineveh is remarkable in its sweep and in the range of solutions it proposes, from local actions to reform of national government to international initiatives. Grounded in science, economics, and history, the Ehrlichs' forthright discussion of the underlying issues of our time gives cause for considerable concern yet reason to hope."
Title TALKING TO STRANGERS. Anxieties of Citizenship Since Brown v. Board of Education. Author D.S. Allen. Publisher University of Chicago Press. 04, pp. xxii + 232, US$25.00.
From the book jacket: "'Don't talk to strangers' is the advice long given to children by parents of all classes and races. Today it has blossomed into a fundamental precept of civic education, reflecting interracial distrust, personal and political alienation, and a profound suspicion of others … Danielle Allen takes this maxim back to Little Rock, rooting out the seeds of distrust to replace them with "a citizenship of political friendship." …
"Sacrifice is the key concept that bridges citizenship and trust, according to AIlen. She uncovers the ordinary, daily sacrifices citizens make to keep democracy working-and offers methods for recognizing and reciprocating those sacrifices. Trenchant, incisive, and ultimately hopeful, Talking to Strangers is nothing less than a manifesto for a revitalized democratic citizenry."
Title ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS. Principles and Applications. Author H.E. Daly and J. Farley. Publisher Washington, D.C.: Island Press. 04, pp. xxvii + 454, US$40.00.
From the publisher's description: "This introductory textbook describes the basics of traditional neoclassical economic thought and also examines the connections between economic growth, environmental degradation, and social inequity. The volume opens with a discussion of the role of the earth's biotic and abiotic resources in sustaining life. The rest of the text is organized around the main fields in traditional economics: microeconomics, macroeconomics, and international economics."
Title EINSTEIN 1905. The Standard of Greatness. Author J.S. Rigden. Publisher Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 05, pp. ix + 173, US$21.95.
From the book jacket: "For Albert Einstein, 1905 was a remarkable year. It was also a miraculous year for the history and future of science. In six short months, from March through September of that year, Einstein published five papers that would transform our understanding of nature. This unparalleled period is the subject of John Rigden's book, which deftly explains what distinguishes 1905 from all other years in the annals of science and elevates Einstein above all other scientists of the twentieth century.
"Rigden chronicles the momentous theories that Einstein put forth beginning in March 1905: his particle theory of light, rejected for decades but now a staple of physics; his overlooked dissertation on molecular dimensions; his theory of Brownian motion; his theory of special relativity; and the work in which his famous equation, E=mc2, first appeared. Through his lucid exposition of these ideas, the context in which they were presented, and the impact they had-and still have-on society, Rigden makes the circumstances of Einstein's greatness thoroughly and captivatingly clear. To help readers understand how these ideas continued to develop, he briefly describes Einstein's contributions after 1905, including the general theory of relativity.
"One hundred years after Einstein's prodigious accomplishment, this book invites us to learn about ideas that have influenced our lives in almost inconceivable ways and to appreciate their author's status as the standard of greatness in twentieth-century science."
Title CHANCE & CHOICE MEMORABILIA. Author K.L. Chung. Publisher Hackensack, New Jersey: World Scientific. 04, pp. ix + 304.
From the back cover: "This book begins with a historical essay entitled "Will the Sun Rise Again?" and ends with a general address entitled "Mathematics and Applications". The articles cover an interesting range of topics: combinatoric probabilities, classical limit theorems, Markov chains and processes, potential theory, Brownian motion, Schrodinger-Feynman problems, etc. They include many addresses presented at international conferences and special seminars, as well as memorials to and reminiscences of prominent contemporary mathematicians and reviews of their words. Rare old photos of many of them enliven the book.
"Titles [of chapters] include: On Mutually Favorable Events; On Fluctuations in Coin-Tossing; On Stochastic Approximation Methods; On the Martin Boundary for Markov Chains; A Cluster of Great Formulas; Probabilistic Methods in Markov Chains; Markov Processes with Infinities; Probability Methods in Potential Theory; Polya's Work in Probability; Probability and Doob; In Memory of Paul Lévy and Maurice Frechet."
Title TRIBUTE TO MATHEMAGICIAN. Author B. Cipra, E.D. Demaine, M.L. Demaine and T. Rodgers (Eds.). Publisher Wellesley, Massachusetts: A.K. Peters. 05, pp. xii + 262, US$38.00.
From the back cover: "The tradition continues with this new carefully selected and edited collection in which Martin Gardner and friends inspire and entertain."
Title MARTIN GARDNER AND MATHEMATICAL GAMES. Author D.J. Albers and P.L. Renz. Publisher Washington, D.C.: The Mathematical Association of America. 05, pp. iii + 32 + CD, US$55.95.
From the back of the disk holder: "Martin Gardner's "Mathematical Games" column ran in Scientific American from 1956 to 1986. In these columns Gardner introduced hundreds of thousands of readers to the delights of mathematics and of puzzles and problem solving. His column broke such stories as Rivest, Shamir, and Adelman on public-key cryptography, Mandelbrot on fractals, Conway on Life, and Penrose on tilings. He enlivened classic geometry and number theory and introduced readers to new areas such as combinatorics and graph theory. Now this material has been brought together on a single, searchable source. A profile/interview of Martin Gardner with dozens of photos is included on the CD."
Title THE PEA & THE SUN. A Mathematical Paradox. Author L.M. Wapner. Publisher Wellesley, Massachusetts: A.K. Peters. 05, pp. xiv + 218, US$34.00.
From the book jacket: "Take an apple and cut it into five pieces. Would you believe that these five pieces can be reassembled in such a fashion so as to create two apples equal in shape and size to the original? Would you believe that you could make something as large as the sun by breaking a pea into a finite number of pieces and putting it back together again? Neither did Leonard Wapner, author of The Pea and the Sun, when he was first introduced to the Banach-Tarski paradox, which asserts exactly such a notion.
"Written in an engaging style, The Pea and the Sun catalogues the people, events, and mathematics that contributed to the discovery of Banach and Tarski's magical paradox. Wapner makes one of the most interesting problems of advanced mathematics accessible to the non-mathematician."
Title THE TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF SERENDIPITY. A Study in Sociological Semantics and the Sociology of Science. Author R.K. Merton and E. Barber. With an introduction by J.L. Shulman. Publisher Princeton University Press. 04, pp. xxv + 313, US$29.95.
From the book jacket: "From the names of cruise lines and bookstores to an Australian ranch and a nudist camp outside of Atlanta, the word serendipity-that happy blend of wisdom and luck by which something is discovered not quite by accident-is today ubiquitous. This book traces the word's eventful history from its 1754 coinage into the twentieth century-chronicling along the way much of what we now call the natural and social sciences.
"The book charts where the term went, with whom it resided, and how it fared. We cross oceans and academic specialties and meet those people, both famous and now obscure, who have used and abused serendipity. We encounter a linguistic sage, walk down the illustrious halls of the Harvard Medical School, attend the (serendipitous) birth of penicillin, and meet someone who "manages serendipity" for the U.S. Navy.
"The story of serendipity is fascinating; that of The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity, equally so. Written in the 1950s by already-eminent sociologist RobertMerton and Elinor Barber, the book-though occasionally and most tantalizingly cited-was intentionally never published. This is all the more curious because it so remarkably anticipated subsequent battles over research and funding-many of which centered on the role of serendipity in science. Finally, shortly after his ninety-first birthday, following Barber's death and preceding his own by but a little, Merton agreed to expand and publish this major work.
"Beautifully written, the book is permeated by the prodigious intellectual curiosity and generosity that characterized Merton's influential On the Shoulders of Giants. Absolutely entertaining as the history of a word, the book is also tremendously important to all who value the miracle of intellectual discovery. It represents Merton's lifelong protest against that rhetoric of science that defines discovery as anything other than a messy blend of inspiration, perspiration, error, and happy chance-anything other than serendipity."
Title FORESTS IN TIME. The Environmental Consequences of 1,000 Years of Change in New England. Author D.R. Foster and J.D. Aber (Eds.). Publisher New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. 04, pp. xiv + 477, US$45.00.
From the book jacket: "This important book relates the history of natural and human-induced changes that have occurred in the past one thousand years in New England and explores the modern ecology of this largely forested landscape. Written by leading biological, physical, and social scientists, the book uniquely demonstrates that an understanding of landscape history is essential for the study of ecology and environmental management.
"After a discussion of the elements that initially shaped the land, the authors describe how the New England landscape changed drastically with the arrival of European settlers nearly four hundred years ago as they cleared the land of forest and extensively farmed it. Observed patterns of forest regrowth following a shift in agriculture to the Midwest form the basis for explanations of changes in native wildlife populations and, more fundamentally, ecosystem structure and function."
Title COLLAPSE. How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Author J. Diamond. Publisher New York: Viking. 05, pp. xi + 575, US$29.95
From the book jacket: "What is more haunting than the specter of civilization's collapse-the abandoned temples of Angkor Wat, the Maya cities overgrown by jungle or the somber vigil of Easter Island's statues? Who hasn't looked at such ruins and wondered, could the same thing happen to us?
"In his Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller, Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond examined how and why Western civilizations developed the technologies and immunities that allowed them to dominate much of the world. Now, Diamond probes the other side of the equation: What caused some of the great civilizations of the past to collapse into ruin, and what can we learn from their fates?
"As in Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond weaves an all-encompassing global thesis through a series of fascinating historical-cultural narratives. Moving from the prehistoric Polynesian culture on Easter Island to the formerly flourishing Native American civilizations of the Anasazi and the Maya, the doomed medieval Viking colony on Greenland, and finally to the modern world, Diamond traces a fundamental pattern of catastrophe, spelling out what happens when we squander our resources, when we ignore the signals our environment gives us, and when we reproduce too fast or cut down too many trees. Environmental damage, climate change, rapid population growth, unstable trade partners, and pressure from enemies were all factors in the demise of the doomed societies, but other societies found solutions to those same problems and persisted.
"What makes one environment more fragile than another? Why do some societies, but not others, blunder into self-destruction? Similar problems face us today and have already brought disaster to Rwanda and Haiti, even as China and Australia are trying to cope in innovative ways. Despite our own society's apparently inexhaustible wealth and unrivaled political power, ominous warning signs have begun to emerge even in ecologically robust areas like Montana. What economic, social, and political choices can we still make so that we don't meet the same ends?
"Huge in scope, clear and passionate in style, Collapse is destined to take its place as one of the essential books of our time, raising the urgent question: How can our world best avoid destroying itself?"
Title THE HYDROGEN ECONOMY. Opportunities, Costs, Barriers, and R&D Needs. Author National Research Council and National Academy of Engineering. Publisher Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press. 04, pp. xvi + 240, US$32.00.
From the executive summary: "The vision of the hydrogen economy is based on two expectations: (1) that hydrogen can be produced from domestic energy sources in a manner that is affordable and environmentally benign, and (2) that applications using hydrogen-fuel cell vehicles, for example-can gain market share in competition with the alternatives. To the extent that these expectations can be met, the United States, and indeed the world, would benefit from reduced vulnerability to energy disruptions and improved environmental quality, especialIy through lower carbon emissions. However, before this vision can become a reality, many technical, social, and policy chaIlenges must be overcome. This report focuses on the steps that should be taken to move toward the hydrogen vision and to achieve the sought-after benefits. The report focuses exclusively on hydrogen, although it notes that alternative or complementary strategies might also serve these same goals weIl."
Title NOT BY GENES ALONE. How Culture Transformed Human Evolution. Author P.J. Richerson and R. Boyd. Publisher University of Chicago Press. 05, pp. ix + 332, US$30.00; £21.00.
From the book jacket: "Humans are a striking anomaly in the natural world. While we are similar to other mammals in many ways, our use of culture sets us apart. Our unparalleled ability to adapt has allowed us to occupy virtually every habitat on earth using an incredible variety of tools and subsistence techniqes. Our societies are larger, more complex, and more cooperative than any other mammal's. In this stunning exploration of human adaptation, the authors argue that only a Darwinian theory of cultural evolution can explain these unique characteristics.
"Not by Genes Alone offers a radical interpretation of human evolution, arguing that our ecological dominance and our singular social systems stem from a psychology uniquely adapted to create complex culture. Richerson and Boyd illustrate here that culture is neither superorganic nor the handmaiden of the genes. Rather, it is essential to human adaptation, as much a part of human biology as bipedal locomotion. Drawing on work in the fields of anthropology, political science, sociology, and economics-and building their case with such fascinating examples as kayaks, corporations, clever knots, and yams that require twelve men to carry them-Richerson and Boyd convincingly demonstrate that culture and biology are inextricably linked, and they show us how to think about their interaction in a way that yields a richer understanding of human nature.
"In abandoning the nature-versus-nurture debate as fundamentally misconceived, Not by Genes Alone is a truly original and groundbreaking theory of the role of culture in evolution and a book to be reckoned with for generations to come."
Title THE PHYSIOLOGY OF TRUTH. Neuroscience and Human Knowledge. Author J.-P. Changeux, translated by M.B. DeBevoise. Publisher Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press and Harvard University Press. 02, pp. 324.
From the book jacket: "In this wide-ranging book, one of the boldest thinkers in modern neuroscience confronts an ancient philosophical problem: Can we know the world as it really is? Drawing on provocative new findings about the psychophysiology of perception and judgment in both human and nonhuman primates, and also on the cultural history of science, Jean-Pierre Changeux makes a powerful case for the reality of scientific progress and argues that it forms the basis for a coherent and universal theory of human rights. On this view, belief in objective knowledge is not a mere ideological slogan or a naïve confusion; it is a characteristic feature of human cognition throughout evolution, and the scientific method is its most sophisticated embodiment. Seeking to reconcile science and humanism, Changeux holds that the capacity to recognize truths that are independent of subjective personal experience constitutes the foundation of a human civil society."
Title WEIGHING THE SOUL: THE EVOLUTION OF SCIENTIFIC BELIEFS. Author L. Fisher. Publisher London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. 04, pp. x + 214, £12.99.
From the book jacket: "Len Fisher reveals why common sense can be the biggest enemy of good science as he takes us on a tour from one American doctor's attempts to weigh the departing human soul, via alchemy, frogs' legs, lightning rods, polaroid® sunglasses, the structure of DNA, Frankenstein's monster and the dimensions of Hell, to the necessary, but common sense-defying, mysteries of modern science. He tells the fascinating human stories behind some of the great (and not-so-great) scientific ideas that we now accept as everyday fact, and shows how the scientists involved were often persecuted for defying the 'common sense' of their era. In doing so, he reveals how difficult it is to distinguish the brilliant from the bizarre, and provides hints to help readers make the distinction for themselves when reading newspaper stories about modern scientific claims and discoveries.
"Packed with fascinating titbits and diverting detail, Weighing the Soul illuminates the true, and often bumpy, road to scientific discovery, and shows why, like Alice in Wonderland, today's scientists can easily end up believing six impossible things before breakfast."
Title MENDEL IN THE KITCHEN. A Scientist's View of Genetically Modified Foods. Author N.V. Fedoroff and N.M. Brown. Publisher Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press. 04, pp. xiii + 379, US$24.95.
From the book jacket: "Nina Fedoroff, a leading expert in plant molecular biology and genetics, looks at the many issues raised by contemporary techniques for modifying food plants. She answers the most commonly asked questions-and some we didn't think to ask. Fedoroff and her co-author, science writer Nancy Marie Brown, weave a narrative rich in history, technology, and science to dispel myths and misunderstandings. In the end, Fedoroff argues, the new molecular approaches hold the promise of being the most environmentally conservative way to increase our food supply, helping us to become better stewards of the earth while enabling us to feed ourselves and generations to come."
Title SAFETY OF GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOODS. Approaches to Assessing Unintended Health Effects. Author Institute of Medicine and National Research Council of the National Academies. Publisher Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press. 04, pp. xvii + 235, US$35.00.
From the preface: "Genetically modified foods and food products derived from genetically engineered organisms are among a number of biotechnological developments intended to improve shelf life, nutritional content, flavor, color, and texture, as well as agronomic and processing characteristics. Although in popular parlance the term genetically modified often is used interchangeably with genetically engineered, in this report genetic modification refers to a range of methods used to alter the genetic composition of a plant or animal, including traditional hybridization and breeding. Genetic engineering is one type of genetic modification that involves the intention to introduce a targeted change in a plant or animal or microbial gene sequence to effect a specific result.
"While there are a variety of methods for identifying and measuring specific changes that result from genetic engineering, as well as from conventional breeding techniques, such changes are not always easily discernible particularly when they are unexpected outcomes of the process or when they result from latent expression of the genetic change or accumulated changes in functional effects in the modified organism.
"The addition of genetic engineering to the repertoire of methods to genetically modify organisms has increased the number and type of substances that can be intentionally introduced into the food supply, as well as the magnitude of these changes. While these intended changes can be readily evaluated for their safety in food, unintentionally introduced changes in the composition of foods may be more difficult to identify and assess. Whether genetic engineering per se affects the likelihood of unintentionally introducing undesired compositional changes in food is not fully understood."
Title THE INFECTIOUS ETIOLOGY OF CHRONIC DISEASES. Defining the Relationship, Enhancing the Research, and Mitigating the Effects. Workshop Summary. Author S.L. Knobler, S. O'Connor, S.M. Lemon and M. Najafi (Eds.). Publisher Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press. 04, pp. xvii + 215, US$34.00.
From the preface: "The Forum on Microbial Threats was created in 1996 in response to a request from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. The goal of the Forum is to provide structured opportunities for representatives from academia, industry, professional and interest groups, and government to examine and discuss scientific and policy issues that are of shared interest and that are specifically related to research and prevention, detection, and management of emerging infectious diseases. In accomplishing this task, the Forum provides the opportunity to foster the exchange of information and ideas, identify areas in need of greater attention, clarify policy issues by enhancing knowledge and identifying points of agreement, and inform decision makers about science and policy issues. The Forum seeks to illuminate issues rather than resolve them directly; hence, it does not provide advice or recommendations on any specific policy initiative pending before any agency or organization. Its strengths are the diversity of its membership and the contributions of individual members expressed throughout the activities of the Forum."
Title LOCATING MEDICAL HISTORY. The Stories and Their Meanings. Author F. Huisman and J.H. Warner (Eds.). Publisher Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 04, pp. x + 507, US$45.00.
From the book jacket: "The issues constituting the history of medicine are consequential: how societies organize health care, how individuals or states relate to sickness, how we understand our own identity and agency as sufferers or healers. In Locating Medical History. The Stories and Their Meanings, [the authors] explore and reflect on a field that accommodates a remarkable diversity of practitioners and approaches.
"At a time when medical history is facing profound choices about its future, these scholars explore the discipline in the distant and recent past in order to rethink its missions and methods today. They discuss such issues as the periodic estrangement of medical history from medicine, the influence of Foucault on the writing of medical history, and the shifts from social to cultural history and back again. They explore an early history of the field, its transformations since the 1970s, and its prospects for the future.
"With diverse constituencies, a multiplicity of approaches, styles, and aims is both expected and desired. This volume locates medical history within itself and within larger historiographic trends, providing a springboard for discussions about what the history of medicine should be, and what aims it should serve."
Title ACADEMIC HEALTH CENTERS. Leading Change in the 21st Century. Author L.T. Kohn (Ed. ). Publisher Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press. 04, pp. xiv + 202, US$39.00.
From the preface: "The last few decades have been heady times for science and health. Our knowledge of how to improve health has grown significantly and new technologies have successfully supported those endeavors. The coming decades are likely to bring even more progress. As we gain a better understanding on how to use the discoveries of genetics, proteomics, and other biologies, we will have the potential to fundamentally alter care in ways that we can only begin to imagine. Combined with a public that is armed with more information and better able to make healthy choices and be more involved in its own care, the potential is great for making large strides in improving human health.
"In the fall of 2001, the Institute of Medicine convened a committee to examine the roles of academic health centers (AHCs) in the coming decades in fostering and supporting these advances in health care. The challenge to this committee was to look into the future and consider how AHCs can be prepared to fulfill their promise by carrying out their roles in education, research, and patient care to improve health for all people. AHCs demonstrated great vision and accomplishment during the 20th century. They will need these qualities in the coming decades if they are to adapt and respond to the changing needs of people and the expanding capabilities that health care will offer."
Title MAKlNG MODERN SCIENCE. A Historical Survey. Author P.J. Bowler and I.R. Morus. Publisher University of Chicago Press. 05, pp. viii + 529, US$25.00; £17.50.
From the back cover: "In Making Modern Science, [the authors] explore both the history of science itself and its influence on modern thought, chronicling all major developments in scientific thinking, from the revolutionary ideas of the seventeenth century to the contemporary issues of evolution, genetics, nuclear physics, and modern cosmology. Written by seasoned historians, Making Modern Science will encourage readers to see the history of science not as a series of names and dates but as an interconnected and complex web of relationships between science and modern society."
Title HUMAN-BUILT WORLD. How To Think About Technology and Culture. Author T.P. Hughes. Publisher University of Chicago Press. 04, pp. xii + 223, US$13.00; £9.50.
From the back cover: "In Human-Built World Thomas P. Hughes restores to technology the richness and depth it deserves by writing its intellectual history. Chronicling the ideas about technology expressed by influential Western thinkers who not only understood its multifaceted character but who also explored its creative potential, Hughes draws on an enormous range of literature, art, and architecture to explore what technology has brought to society and culture. From the "Creator model of development of the sixteenth century to the "big science" of the 1940s and 1950s to the architecture of Frank Gehry and Hughes's concept of "ecotechnology," Human-Built World nimbly charts the myriad ways that technology has been woven into the social and cultural fabric of different eras and the promises-and problems-it has offered."
"As Thomas P. Hughes shows in his brilliantly concise history, people were arguing about the rights and wrongs of technology long before the term gained currency in the late 20th century." Mark Archer, Financial Times.
Title LAWS OF MEN AND LAWS OF NATURE. The History of Scientific Expert Testimony in England and America. Author T. Golan. Publisher Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 04, pp. viii + 325.
From the book jacket: "Are scientific expert witnesses partisans or spokesmen for objective science? This ambiguity has troubled the relations between scientists and the legal system for more than 200 years. Modern expert testimony first appeared in the late eighteenth century, and while its use steadily increased throughout the nineteenth century, in cases involving everything from patents to X-rays, the respect paid to it steadily declined inside and outside of the courtroom. With deep learning and wry humor, Tal Golan tells stories of courtroom drama and confusion and media jeering on both sides of the Atlantic. His account takes us to the start of the twenty-first century, as the courts still search for ways that will allow them to distinguish between good and bad science."
Title INTELLIGENCE OF APES AND OTHER RATIONAL BEINGS. Author D.M. Rumbaugh and D.A. Washburn. Publisher New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. 03, pp. xvii + 326, US$35.00.
From the book jacket: "What is animal intelligence? In what ways is it similar to human intelligence? Many behavioral scientists have realized that animals can be rational, can think in abstract symbols, can understand and react to human speech, and can learn through observation as well as conditioning many of the more complicated skills of life. Now Duane Rumbaugh and David Washburn probe the mysteries of the animal mind even further, identifying an advanced level of animal behavior-Emergents-that reflects animals' natural and active inclination to make sense of the world. Rumbaugh and Washburn unify all behavior into a framework they call Rational Behaviorism and present it as a new way to understand learning, intelligence, and rational behavior in both animals and humans.
"Drawing on years of research on issues of complex learning and intelligence in primates (notably rhesus monkeys, chimpanzees, and bonobos), Rumbaugh and Washburn provide delightful examples of animal ingenuity and persistence, showing that animals are capable of creative solutions to novel challenges. The authors analyze learning processes and research methods, discuss the meaningful differences across the primate order, and point the way to further advances, enlivening theoretical material about primates with stories about their behavior and achievements."
Title ADVANCING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN EDUCATION. Author L. Towne, L.L. Wise and T.M. Winters (Eds.). Publisher Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press. 05, pp. xiv + 120, US$25.00.
From the back cover: "Transforming education into an evidence-based field depends in no small part on a strong base of scientific knowledge to inform educational policy and practice. This report makes select recommendations for strengthening scientific education research and targets federal agencies, professional associations, and universities-particularly schools of education-to take the lead in advancing the field."
Title INNOVATIONS IN TEACHING STATISTICS. Author J.B. Garfield (Ed.). Publisher Washington, D.C.: The Mathematical Association of America. 05, pp. ix + 141, US$47.50.
From the back cover: "This is a book of stories about teaching statistics. These stories are told by fourteen different instructors of innovative statistics courses, who demonstrate that learning statistics can be a positive, meaningful, and even exciting experience. Despite the prevailing opinion that statistics courses are dull and difficult for students, these stories paint quite a different picture. In the classes of the instructors whose stories fill this book, students are engaged in Iearning, are empowered to do statistics, and appreciate the instructional methods of their teachers. The instructors profiled in this book are inspiring, dedicated teachers who have devoted considerable effort to creating courses and materials that enable students to successfully learn statistics."
Title HANDBOOK OF DATA STRUCTURES AND APPLICATIONS. Author D.P. Mehta and S. Sahni (Eds.). Publisher Boca Raton, Florida: Chapman and Hall/CRC Press. 05, pp. xvi + 1305.
From the back cover: "This comprehensive handbook is the first to focus on the topic of data structures. With complete coverage and the inclusion of many applications to show how data structures can be used in different settings, the editors discuss how to choose the best data structure to use and how this simplifies algorithm development and allows the design of faster algorithms. The book includes information on the basic concepts behind data structures-structures, trees, and graphs …, the underlying theory in great detail and covers applications on Internet Routing, VLSI, computer graphics, data mining, and much more."
Title COMPUTER SCIENCE. Reflections on the Field, Reflections from the Field. Author National Research Council of the National Academies. Publisher Washington, D.C. The National Academies Press. 04, pp. xiii + 194, US$35.00.
From the preface: "The blossoming of computer science (CS) research is evident in information technology that has migrated from a specialized tool confined to the laboratory or corporate back office to a ubiquitous presence in machines and devices that now figure in the lives of virtually every individual. This widespread diffusion of information technology can obscure the nature of computer science research underlying the IT-from the perspective of many outside the field, computer science is seen not as a basic area of systematic inquiry but as a tool to support other endeavors.
"Mindful of these issues, the National Science Foundation's Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate asked the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Academies to conduct a study that would improve understanding of CS research among the scientific community at large, policymakers, and the general public. By describing in accessible form the field's intellectual character and by conveying a sense of its vibrancy through a set of examples, the committee also aims to prepare readers for what the future might hold and inspire CS researchers to help create it. This volume, the product of that study, is divided into two parts that contain nine chapters."
Title FROM MARKOV CHAINS TO NON-EQUILIBRIUM PARTICLE SYSTEMS. Author M.-F. Chen. Publisher River Edge, New Jersey: World Scientific. 04, pp. xii + 597.
From the back cover: "This book is representative of the work of Chinese probabilists on probability theory and its applications in physics. It presents a unique treatment of general Markov jump processes: uniqueness, various types of ergodicity, Markovian couplings, reversibility, spectral gap, etc. It also deals with a typical class of non-equilibrium particle systems, including the typical Schlogl model taken from statistical physics. The constructions, ergodicity and phase transitions for this class of Markov interacting particle systems, namely, reaction-diffusion processes, are presented. In this new edition, a large part of the text has been updated and two-and-a-half chapters have been rewritten. The book is self-contained and can be used in a course on stochastic processes for graduate students."
Title STATISTICAL METHODS IN MOLECULAR EVOLUTION. Author R. Nielsen (Ed.). Publisher New York: Springer-Verlag. 05, pp. xii + 504, US$89.95.
From the back cover: "In the field of molecular evolution, inferences about past evolutionary events are made using molecular data from currently living species. With the availability of genomic data from multiple related species, molecular evolution has become one of the most active and fastest growing fields of study in genomics and bioinformatics.
Most studies in molecular evolution rely heaviIy on statistical procedures based on stochastic process modelling and advanced computational methods including high-dimensional numerical optimization and Markov Chain Monte Carlo.This book provides an overview of the statisticaI theory and methods used in studies of molecular evolution. It includes an introductory section suitable for readers that are new to the field, a section discussing practical methods for data analysis, and more specialized sections discussing specific models and addressing statistical issues relating to estimation and model choice. The chapters are written by the leaders of the field and they will take the reader from basic introductory material to the state-of-the-art statistical methods."
Title INFORMATION THEORY AND THE CENTRAL LIMIT THEOREM. Author O. Johnson. Publisher London: Imperial College Press. 04, pp. xiv + 209.
From the back cover: "This book provides a comprehensive description of a new method of proving the central limit theorem, through the use of apparently unrelated results from information theory. It brings together results from a number of research papers as well as unpublished material, showing how the techniques can give a unified view of limit theorems."
Title FINANCIAL LEXICON: A COMPENDIUM OF FINANCIAL DEFINITIONS, ACRONYMS AND COLLOQUIALISMS. Author E. Banks. Publisher Basingstoke, U.K.: Palgrave MacMillan. 05, pp. xvii + 398, £125.00.
From the back cover: "Financial Lexicon is a comprehensive financial reference book that explains the formal and informal terminology of finance. Structured as a dictionary, the book contains clear and detailed explanations of common banking, finance, and investment terms. Unlike other dictionaries, which focus solely on standard definitions, Financial Lexicon includes formal corporate business terms alongside the jargon that has entered business life. Terms are drawn from all major sectors of the international capital markets and financial industry."
Title AN INNOVATIVE APPLICATION OF APPROACH TO WHITE NOISE THEORY RANDOM FIELDS. Author T. Hida and S. Si. Publisher New Jersey, World Scientific. 04, pp. xiii + 189.
From the book cover: "A random field is a mathematical model of evolutional fluctuating complex systems parametrized by a multi-dimensional manifold like a curve or a surface. As the parameter varies, the random field carries much information and hence it has complex stochastic structure.
"[The authors] use an approach that is characteristic: namely, they first construct innovation, which is the most elemental stochastic process with a basic and simple way of independence, and then express the given field as a function of the innovation. They therefore establish an infinite-dimensional stochastic calculus, in particular a stochastic variational calculus. The analysis of functions of the innovation is essentially infinite-dimensional. The authors use not only the theory of functional analysis, but also their new tools for the study."
Title THE LOGIC OF SOCIAL RESEARCH. Author A.L. Stinchcombe. Publisher University of Chicago Press. 05, pp. xiii + 354, US$20.00; £14.00.
From the back cover: "In The Logic of Social Re-search, Stinchcombe orients students to a set of logical problems that all methods must address to study social causation. Almost all sociological theory asserts that some social conditions produce other social conditions, but the theoretical links between causes and effects are not easily supported by observation. Observations cannot directly show causation, but they can reject or support causal theories with different degrees of credibility. As a result, sociologists have created four main types of methods, which Stinchcombe terms "quantitative," "historical," "ethnographic," and "experimental," to support their theories. Each method has value, and each has its uses for different research purposes."
Title NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN CATEGORICAL DATA ANALYSIS FOR THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES. Author L.A. van der Ark, M.A. Croon and K. Sijtsma. Publisher Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum. 05, pp. xii + 261, US$69.95.
"Almost all research in the social and behavioral sciences, economics, marketing, criminology, and medicine deals with the analysis of categorical data. Categorical data are quantified as either nominal variables-distinguishing different groups, for example, based on socio-economic status, education, and political persuasion-or ordinal variables-distinguishing levels of interest, such as the preferred politician for President or the preferred type of punishment for committing burglary. New Developments in Categorical Data Analysis for the Social and Behavioral Sciences is a collection of up-to-date studies on modern categorical data analysis methods, emphasizing their application to relevant and interesting data sets.
"A prominent breakthrough in categorical data analysis are latent variable models. This volume concentrates on two classes of models-latent class analysis and item response theory."
Title GENDER-STRUCTURED POPULATION MODELING MATHEMATICAL METHODS, NUMERICS, AND SIMULATIONS. Author M. Iannelli, M. Martcheva, F.A. Milner. Publisher Philadelphia: Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. 05, pp. xii + 175.
"Gender-Structured Population Modeling: Mathe-matical Methods, Numerics, and Simulations gives a unified presentation of a mathematical framework for modeling population growth by couple formation. It provides an overview of both past and present modeling results. The authors focus on pair formation (marriage) and two-sex models with different forms of the marriage function-the basis of couple formation-and discuss which of these forms might make a better choice for a particular population (the United States). The book also provides results on model analysis, gives an up-to-date review of mathematical demography, discusses numerical methods, and puts deterministic modeling of human populations into historical perspective."
Title THE HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS: A BRIEF COURSE, 2nd edition. Author R. Cooke. Publisher Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley, 2005, pp. xvii + 607, £54.50. From the back cover: "In the first edition [The History of Mathematics], each chapter was devoted to a single culture. This Second Edition is organized by subject matter: a general survey of mathematics in many cultures, arithmetic, geometry, algebra, analysis, and mathematical inference. This new organization enables students to focus on one complete topic and, at the same time, compare how different cultures approached each topic. Many new photographs and diagrams have been added to this edition to enhance the presentation."
Title GÖDEL's THEOREM. An Incomplete Guide to Its Use and Abuse. Author T. Franzén. Publisher Wellesley, Massachusetts: A.K. Peters, 2005, pp. x + 172, US$24.95. From a review of the book: "This unique exposition of Kurt Gödel's stunning incompleteness theorems for a general audience manages to do what none other has accomplished: explain clearly and thoroughly just what the theorems really say and imply and correct their diverse misapplications to philosophy, psychology, physics, theology, post-modernist criticism and what have you."
S. Feferman, Stanford University.
Title LOGICAL DILEMMAS. The Life and Work of Kurt Gödel. Author J.W. Dawson, Jr. Publisher Wellesley, Massachusetts: A.K. Peters, 1997, pp. xiv + 361, US$34.00. From the back cover: "This definitive biography of the logician and philosopher Kurt Gödel is the first in-depth account to integrate details of his personal life with his work and is based on the author's intensive study of Gödel's papers and surviving correspondence. Dawson, a logician and historian of science, examines the life of this driven man whose work on the foundations of mathematics has fundamentally changed our thoughts on this subject and has stimulated much of the research conducted in the twentieth century. He further explores the relationship between Gödel's personality and his scientific achievements and describes the impact that Gödel's results have had on our modern world view."
Title CATASTROPHE: RISK AND RESPONSE. Author R.A. Posner. Publisher Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. x + 322, £16.99/US$28.00. From the book jacket: "Catastrophes, whether natural or man-made, that could destroy the human race are often dismissed as alarmist or fanciful, the stuff of science fiction. In fact, the risk of such disasters is real, and growing. …
"How should the nation and the world respond to disaster possibilities that, for a variety of psychological and cultural reasons, people find hard to wrap their minds around? Richard Posner shows that what is needed is a fresh, thoroughly interdisciplinary perspective that will meld the insights of lawyers, economists, psychologists, and other social scientists with those of researchers in the physical sciences. Responsibility for averting catastrophe cannot be left either to scientists or to politicians and other policymakers ignorant of science.
"As in many of his previous books, Posner brings law and the social sciences to bear on a contemporary problem-in this case one of particular urgency. Weighing the risk and the possible responses in each case, Posner shows us what to worry about and what to dismiss, and discusses concrete ways of minimizing the most dangerous risks. Must we yield a degree of national sovereignty in order to deal effectively with global warming? Are limitations on our civil liberties a necessary and proper response to the danger of bioterror attacks? Would investing more heavily in detection and interception systems for menacing asteroids be money well spent? How far can we press cost-benefit analysis in the design of responses to world-threatening events? Should the institutional framework of science policy be altered? Do we need educational reform? Is the interface of law and science awry? These are but a few of the issues canvassed in this fascinating, disturbing, and necessary book."
Title THE MORALS OF MEASUREMENT: ACCURACY, IRONY AND TRUST IN VICTORIAN ELECTRICAL PRACTICE. Author G.J.N. Gooday. Publisher Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. xxv + 285, £55.00/US$85.00. From the book jacket: "The Morals of Measurement is a contribution to the social histories of quantification and of electrical technology in nineteenth-century Britain, Germany, and France. It shows how the advent of commercial electrical lighting stimulated the industrialisation of electrical measurement from a skilled labour-intensive activity mechanised practice relying on radically new kinds of instruments. Challenging traditional accounts that focus on metrological standards, this book shows instead the centrality of trust when measurement was undertaken in an increasingly complex division of labour with manufactured hardware. Case studies demonstrate how difficult late Victorians found it to agree upon which electrical practitioners, instruments, and metals were most trustworthy and what they could hope to measure with any accuracy. Subtle ambiguities arose too over what constituted 'measurement' or 'accuracy' and thus over the respective responsibilities of humans and technologies in electrical practice. Running alongside these concerns, the themes of body, gender, and authorship feature importantly in controversies over the changing identity of the measurer. In examining how new groups of electrical experts and consumers construed the fairness of metering for domestic lighting, this work charts the early moral debates over what is now a ubiquitous technology for quantifying electricity. Accordingly readers will gain fresh insights, tinged with irony, on a period in which measurement was treated as the definitive means of gaining knowledge of the world."
Title RATIONAL CHOICE AND JUDGEMENT: DECISION ANALYSIS FOR THE DECIDER. Author R. Brown. Publisher Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley, 2005, pp. xxvii + 245, £43.50. From the back cover: "This book takes an innovative approach to decision analysis that moves away from cumbersome, quantitive methods to give students and professionals decision-making tools that can be applied immediately. The author, who has forty years of experience in top-level decision consulting, explains how deciders actually think about their choices from the beginning and provides methods to solve problems by addressing a given choice several different ways. Simple decision-making models are integrated into the thinking process to add logical rigor. Careful account is taken of the use, the user, and the organization, as well as all available data and subjective knowledge. Next, readers are given the chance to apply their new skills to resolve real-life problems."
Title CRYPTOGRAPHY, INFORMATION THEORY, AND ERROR-CORRECTION. A HANDBOOK FOR THE 21ST CENTURY. Author A.A. Bruen and M.A. Forcinito. Publisher Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley, 2005, pp. xxiii + 468, £54.00. From the back cover: "With identity theft, cybercrime, and digital file sharing proliferating in today's wired world, providing safe and accurate information transfers has become a paramount concern. The issues and problems raised in this endeavour are encompassed within three disciplines: cryptography, information theory, and error-correction. As technology continues to develop, these fields have converged at a practical level, increasing the need for a unified treatment of these three cornerstones of the information age.
"Stressing the interconnections of the disciplines, Cryptography, Information Theory, and Error-Correction offers a complete, yet accessible account of the technologies shaping the 21st century. This book contains the most up-to-date, detailed, and balanced treatment available on these subjects. The authors draw on their experience both in the classroom and in industry, giving the book's material and presentation a unique real-world orientation."
Title CODES. The Guide to Secrecy from Ancient to Modern Times. Author R.A. Mollin. Publisher Boca Raton, Florida: Chapman and Hall/CRC Press, 2005, pp. xx + 679, US$79.95/£44.99. From the back cover: "From the Rosetta Stone to public-key cryptography, the art and science of cryptology has been used to unlock the vivid history of ancient cultures, to turn the tide of warfare, and to thwart potential hackers from attacking computer systems. Codes: The Guide to Secrecy from Ancient to Modern Times explores the depth and breadth of the field remaining accessible to the uninitiated while retaining enough rigor for the seasoned cryptologist.
"The book begins by tracing the development of cryptology from that of an arcane practice used, for example, to conceal alchemic recipes, to the modern scientific method that is studied and employed today. The remainder of the book explores the modern aspects and applications of cryptology, covering symmetric- and public-key cryptography, cryptographic protocols, key management, message authentication, e-mail and Internet security, and advanced applications such as wireless security, smart cards, biometrics, and quantum cryptography. The author also includes non-cryptographic security issues and a chapter devoted to information theory and coding. Nearly 200 diagrams, examples, figures, and tables along with abundant references and exercises complement the discussion."
Title INTRODUCTION TO CODING THEORY. Author J. Bierbrauer. Publisher Boca Raton, Florida: Chapman and Hall/CRC Press, 2005, pp. xxiii + 390, US$79.95/£39.99. From the back cover: "Although its roots lie in information theory, the applications of coding theory now extend to statistics, cryptography, and many areas of pure mathematics, as well as pervading large parts of theoretical computer science, from universal hashing to numerical integration.
"Introduction to Coding Theory introduces the theory of error-correcting codes in a thorough but gentle presentation. … The author takes a unique, more natural approach to cyclic codes that is not couched in ring theory but by virtue of its simplicity, leads to far-reaching generalizations. Throughout the book, his discussions are packed with applications that include, but reach well beyond data transmission, with each one introduced as soon as the codes are developed."
Title COMPUTATIONAL STATISTICS. Author G.H. Givens and J.A. Hoeting. Publisher Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley, 2005, pp. xix + 418, £48.95. From the back cover: "This comprehensive introduction enables readers to develop a multifaceted and thorough knowledge of modern statistical computing and computational statistics. Backed by many years of classroom experience, the authors help readers gain a practical understanding of how and why modern statistical methods work, enabling readers to apply these methods effectively. Detailed examples are drawn from diverse fields such as bioinformatics, ecology, medicine, computer vision, and stochastic finance.
"The text emphasizes areas that are central to understanding the evolving field of computational statistics including areas where routine application of software often fails to solve complex problems. Topics covered include ordinary and combinatorial optimization, algorithms for missing data, numerical and Monte Carlo integration, simu-lation, introductory and advanced Markov chain Monte Car-lo, bootstrapping, density estimation, and smoothing.
"Knowledge of computer languages is not required, making examples and algorithms easier for readers to follow. Everything needed to quickly learn and apply the material is provided and is presented in a fluid, jargon-free style with fascinating real-world examples and problem sets that have been tested in the classroom for more than a decade."
Title THE PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF INTERNET COMPUTING. Author M.P. Singh (Ed.). Publisher Boca Raton, Florida: Chapman and Hall/CRC Press, 2005, pp. xxvii + 1073, US$139.95/£79.99. From the back cover: "The Practical Handbook of Internet Computing analyzes a broad array of technologies and concerns related to the Internet, including corporate intranets. Fresh and insightful articles by recognized experts address the key challenges facing Internet users, designers, integrators and policymakers. In addition to discussing major applications, it also covers the architectures, enabling technologies, software utilities and engineering techniques that are necessary to conduct distributed computing and take advantage of Web-based services."
Title STATISTICAL METHODS IN COMPUTER SECURITY. Author W.W.S. Chen (Ed.). Publisher New York: Dekker, 2005, . xiv + 352, US$89.95; £49.99.
From the back cover: "Addressing challenges currently plaguing computer networks worldwide, Statistical Methods in Computer Security details the latest statistical methods in computer security, including a new model for probabilistic information retrieval on the web … addresses crime and misconduct on the Internet and considers the development of infrastructures that may prevent breaches of security and law … illustrates the vulnerability of networked computers to new virus attacks despite widespread deployment of antivirus software, firewalls, and other network security equipment … describes a general framework for organizational Internet security policy … and studies the function, utilization, and benefits of firewalls in industry."
Title TAGUCHI'S QUALITY ENGINEERING HANDBOOK. Author G. Taguchi, S. Chowdhury and Y. Wu. Publisher Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley, 2005, pp. xxxii + 1662, £65.00. From the back cover: "In the last fifty years, one man stands out as the driving force behind the quality revolution-Genichi Taguchi. Now, for the first time in one volume, Taguchi's Quality Engineering Handbook presents all the methods and beliefs that have made Taguchi one of the most respected authorities on quality engineering and management in the world.
"No other single volume presents the full breadth of founding beliefs behind the successful engineering practices used by today's leading companies. Helpful to companies in both manufacturing and service industries, Taguchi's Quality Engineering Handbook provides accessible material on such topics as: Quality loss function, On-line quality engineering, Signal-to-noise ratio, Robust engineering, Design of experiments (known as the "Taguchi method"), Mahalanobis-Taguchi Systems (MTS). Taguchi's Quality Engineering Handbook is a landmark resource for everyone interested in quality and engineering, from engineers and managers to upper-level VPs and educators."
Title AXIOMATIC QUALITY: INTEGRATING AXIOMATIC DESIGN WITH SIX-SIGMA, RELIABILITY, AND QUALITY ENGINEERING. Author B.S. El-Haik. Publisher Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley, 2005, pp. xx + 285, £48.95. From the back cover: "As the adoption of quality methods grows across various industries, its implementation is challenged by situations where statistical tools are inadequate, yet the earlier a proactive quality system is introduced into a given process, the greater the payback these methods will yield.
"Axiomatic Quality brings together two well-established theories, axiomatic design and robust design, to eliminate or reduce both conceptual and operational weaknesses. Providing a complete framework for immediate implementation, this book guides design teams in producing systems that operate at high-quality levels for each of their design requirements. And it shows the way towards achieving the Six-Sigma target-six times the standard deviation contained between the target and each side of the specification Iimits-for each requirement."
Title INFORMATICS IN PROTEOMICS. Author A. Srivastava (Ed.). Publisher Boca Raton, Florida: Taylor and Francis, 05, pp. 436, US$159.95; £92.00.
From the back cover: "The handling and analysis of data generated by proteomics investigations represent a challenge for computer scientists, biostatisticians, and biologists to develop tools for storing, retrieving, visualizing, and analyzing genomic data. Informatics in Proteomics examines the ongoing advances in the application of bioinformatics to proteomics research and analysis."
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