books
Sage advice for
the commander in chief
Physics for Future Presidents
The Science Behind the Headlines
Richard A. Muller
W. W. Norton, New York, 2008. $26.95 (380 pp.).
ISBN 978-0-393-06627-2
Reviewed by Robert March
Richard Muller’s Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines appeared in the midst of a bitter presidential campaign that highlighted the need for a book of this sort.
Muller, a professor of physics, teaches a popular course with the same title at the University of California, Berkeley. His narrative is organized around five problem areas: terrorism, energy, nuclear technologies, space innovation, and global warming. Its spirit is expressed in an aphorism from the 19th-century humorist Josh Billings, “The trouble with most people isn’t their ignorance, it’s knowing so many things that ain’t so.” Muller often cites two fellow physicists as influences on his thinking: Richard Garwin, a renowned experimental physicist who has advised administrations of both political parties and, especially, California Energy Commissioner Arthur Rosenfeld. Like Rosenfeld, Muller passed through Luis Alvarez’s research group at Berkeley en route to a career that has included deep involvement in science and public policy.
Muller admirably resists the temptation to use his new book as an excuse to teach a lot more physics than its stated target audience—future US presi- dents—needs to know. The important physical principles are stated clearly, and detailed computations are confined to endnotes. The text is an easy read, even a page-turner. The author frequently addresses a hypothetical future president directly, with statements like
Robert March is a professor emeritus of physics and participated in the integrated liberal studies program at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His main interests are in particle physics and astrophysics, and in teaching physics to nonscientists.
“this is something you had better remember” or “you’ll have the hard job of explaining this to the public.”
While taking the menace of terrorism seriously, Muller also aims to calm irrational fears. A repeat of the September 11 attacks is highly unlikely, according to the author, because the simple step of pro-
viding a securely locked flight deck has thwarted any similar takeover attempts by hijackers. Yet a mid-sized private aircraft—a crop duster is Muller’s example—would make an effective suicide bomb, given the high energy content of its fuel. Muller points out that such a collision into, say, a crowded football stadium might claim enough lives to satisfy Al Qaeda.
Radioactive material dispersed by a chemical explosion—via a “dirty bomb”—does not strike Muller as a realistic threat. The bomb would be terribly difficult to assemble and deliver, and even if the radioactive material were dispersed over a significant area, few of its victims would suffer acute radiation sickness. Inducing cancer deaths decades into the future would hardly satisfy a dedicated terrorist. As for nuclear weapons, Muller thinks the worst threat is not that terrorists could build one but that they might obtain one from a rogue state or from an individual who has access to a stockpile. A vigorous campaign, explains Muller, by intelligence agents posing as potential buyers can do much to neutralize the threat.
In the area of energy, Muller is careful to distinguish among short-, mid-, and long-term solutions and “nonsolutions.” In the short term, he suggests revival of the Fischer–Tropsch process of turning coal into oil, a method used by Germany during World War II. But oil companies are loath to invest in the technology when OPEC can easily keep the price of natural oil below that of the synthetic product. Biofuels have promise, Muller points out, but corn-based ethanol is a bad choice in light of its high production costs and impact on global food supplies.
In the midterm, nuclear power seems a wise environmental choice, and
Muller particularly favors the pebble-bed, modular reactor technology because of its inherent safety. Wind and solar power both show promise, too, but neither is likely to be a magic bullet. Hydrogen power falls into the nonsolution category: The author rightly points out that hydrogen is not an energy source
but a medium for storing and transporting energy. For the long term, the Holy Grail is fusion power, which he fervently hopes for but fears may never come: Progress has been slow and the goal is still a long way off.
But the obvious strategy for dealing with the energy problem is conservation, according to Muller. Rosenfeld has described the benefits of conservation as not just low-hanging fruit, but “fruit already on the ground.” The monumental inefficiency of an economy built in the era of cheap energy is obvious. The technology to improve the situation already exists and is rapidly advancing. Muller is confident that our grandchildren will someday drive hybrid cars that get more than 100 miles to the gallon. The design of our homes and household appliances still leaves much room for improvement. Rosenfeld has estimated that investment in energy conservation typically yields returns of about 20%, and the business community is showing signs of at last taking note of its economic advantages.
Global warming earns Muller’s detailed scrutiny, for it is the most complex of the problems we face. He implores his future presidents to give great weight to the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In an admittedly uncertain area, the series of reports by the IPCC in 2007 represent the best thinking of some of our best scientists and policy makers. Muller discusses at length the sources of uncertainty in our understanding of human influence on the climate; he details some of the bad science, and the good, that has been done in studying global warming.
Still, Muller has little doubt that Earth is indeed warming—and he has little doubt that humanity is responsible for a
© 2009 American Institute of Physics, S-0031-9228-0901-240-X
January 2009 Physics Today 51
good deal of it. Now that the dust of the recent election season has settled, one can only hope that our new president will find the time to actually read this valuable work.
William and Lawrence Bragg, Father and Son
The Most Extraordinary Collaboration in Science
John Jenkin
Oxford U. Press, New York, 2008. $85.00 (458 pp.).
ISBN 978-0-19-923520-9
John Jenkin’s William and Lawrence Bragg, Father and Son: The Most Extraordinary Collaboration in Science is a valuable and thoughtful book, notable for its thoroughness, especially with respect to its coverage of William Henry Bragg (1862–1942), the father. It gives scrupulous attention to evidence and deals carefully with controversial issues in the lives of its subjects. It also draws more extensively from a wide array of research sources than have previous individual biographies of the Braggs.
Jenkin is a scholar emeritus in the philosophy program at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. His book is a culmination of more than 25 years of research on the lives and work
of the two physicists and is clearly a labor of love, especially of love for his homeland of southern Australia and pride in the accomplishments of an English transplant, William, and a native son, Lawrence (1890– 1971). Yet the author’s great affection for his
subjects does not bias his careful storytelling of their lives and contributions. The Braggs were two of the most important and influential physicists of the 20th century, though perhaps underappreciated today. William was a major contributor to early studies of radioactivity and became a leader in the study of the properties of x rays; his son was a founder of the science of crystallography. Together and individually, they made monumental contributions to the foundations of modern condensed-matter physics by developing methods to study crystal structure, the basis of many of the properties of solids. Each in his own way, almost up to the time of death, greatly influenced British science.
52 January 2009 Physics Today
My own introduction to physics research was when I studied x-ray diffraction at high pressure as an undergraduate. Early in my education, I became familiar with Bragg’s law and the techniques of x-ray diffraction and x-ray spectroscopy that the Braggs either developed or influenced significantly. But like many physicists, even historians of physics, I was unclear which Bragg was responsible for the law; I only figured it out after I began a more serious study of the history of physics. Jenkin’s book clearly assembles the evidence that Lawrence developed the law independently of his father, but it also shows how the two men’s joint discussions of the relevant physics were important to the respective contributions of both. Moreover, the evidence marshaled in the book should lay to rest any lingering questions among scientists about whether Lawrence really deserved the Nobel Prize, which he shared with his father in 1915. At age 25, he was, and still is, the youngest ever to win the award in physics. The independent contributions of the son clearly deserved that recognition along with the distinguished, important work of the father.
William and Lawrence Bragg, Father and Son is an unusual scientific biography in treating two related physicists in depth; however, the treatment is not equal. William Bragg’s life and science are given more attention than Lawrence’s, and the reader comes to know William more fully than his son. In his previous extensive work in the history of physics, Jenkin has written more about William, so the imbalance is understandable. Nevertheless, coverage of the most salient aspects of Lawrence’s life and work is as thorough and careful as the study of William’s; thus the disparity does not seriously undermine the value of Jenkin’s lengthy exposition.
The book would have benefited from a bibliography: All the references are in footnotes, which can be distracting to the reader and difficult to keep track of. The author adds editorial comments, fortunately infrequently, explicating for readers the meanings of events or some of the responses of his subjects. I find that the comments detract from the narrative rather than clarify it. Yet such concerns do not lessen my admiration for the excellent work of the author in the difficult task of producing a joint biography of the two Braggs.
I highly recommend Jenkin’s biography to all readers interested in the history of 20th-century physics and to
those interested in the history of condensed-matter physics or crystallography. The text clearly explains the science under consideration without being highly technical. Although the book is not a quick read because of its thoroughness and its sometimes slowpaced prose, it superbly rewards one’s attention.
William Evenson
Utah Valley University Orem
Energy in Nature and Society
General Energetics of Complex Systems
Vaclav Smil
MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2008. $75.00, $32.00 paper (480 pp.). ISBN 978-0-262-19565-2,
ISBN 978-0-262-69356-1 paper
Vaclav Smil’s Energy in Nature and Society: General Energetics of Complex Systems reads like an encyclopedic narrative on energy. With its myriad of facts and figures, it complements the more conceptual approach of Sustainable Energy: Choosing Among Options (MIT Press, 2005), by Jefferson Tester and colleagues; the somewhat more mathematically detailed Advanced Energy Systems (Taylor & Francis, 1998), edited by Nikolai Khartchenko; and the still useful Renewable Energy Resources, by John Twidell and Tony Weir, now in its second edition (Taylor & Francis, 2005). Still, Smil’s book is a must-have for anyone who has an adequate high-school math and science background and has a serious, broad interest in energy systems.
A taste of the style and scope of the book can be found in the variety of questions the author presents: What is the earliest date man is known to have controlled fire? Answer: 900 000 years ago. How much volcanic material was ejected in the formation of the Toba caldera in Sumatra 75 000 years ago? Answer: 2500 km3, over a thousandfold more than from Mount St. Helens in 1980. And how many people were left alive on Earth afterward? Answer: less than 10 000. What are the maximum numbers of people per square kilometer supportable by foraging, pastoralism, slash-and-burn agriculture, pre-industrial permanent cropping, and contemporary agriculture? Answer: 1, 3, fewer than 100, 1000, and 2000, respectively. What are chernozems, whose loss by 1900 accounted for about a quarter of the 1100 billion metric tons of carbon in preagricultural phytomass? Answer:
www.physicstoday.org
deep and fertile soils. How many thousands of water wheels were used in England in 1086, 1300, and 1850? Answer: 6000, 12 000, and 30 000, respectively. The train of such facts and estimates goes on and on; many of them are fascinating, but they are diffi-
cult to take in without frequent pauses in reading.
Smil is a distinguished professor in the department of environment and geography at the University of Manitoba in Canada. With suitable caveats, he makes some attempt to fathom the implications of all his facts and figures for the inevitable transition away from fossil fuels. One telling insight is that increasing energy-use efficiency may well lead to an increase in energy use. The logic, backed up by historical data on steam engines, for example, is that increasing the energy efficiency of a device can lower costs and increase the scope of its use. Smil also has a sensible perspective on the limitations of hydrogen as a transportation energy source in the 21st century, and he does not believe biomass can provide most of the world’s commercial energy unless radical, and as yet, unpredictable developments are made in bioengineering. He presents data on the remarkable growth in carbon emissions from developing countries, particularly from coal use in China. He notes that the divergence of approach between developing and developed countries suggests that the world is unlikely to achieve effective limits on atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations within the next one or two generations.
An interesting exception to Smil’s encyclopedic coverage of energy systems is the short shrift he gives to geothermal heating and cooling, despite the noted importance of energyuse efficiency in new construction for burgeoning urban populations. Also missing is a quantitative estimate of the energy or financial cost of long-term management of spent nuclear fuel. As a result, Smil appears unnecessarily skeptical of a transition at some point from dependence on fossil fuels to reliance on the type of nuclear reactors, currently in widespread use, that do not require spent-fuel reprocessing. According to quantitative studies summarized in a 2005 doctoral thesis by T. S. Gopi Rethinaraj at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, that transition could be accomplished with current technology for nuclear reactors and other non-fossil-fuel energy sources. If
January 2009 Physics Today 53
successful, humankind will eventually have to confront the question of what to do about the depletion of terrestrial and ocean-based uranium resources. But problems associated with uranium depletion seem likely to be deferred so far into the future that current-
day researchers can’t possibly know how to project their effects on demographics and energy use. Many other future scenarios are possible, and
Energy in Nature and Society provides food for thought about what those possibilities are.
Clifford E. Singer
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Bethe–Peierls Correspondence
Sabine Lee
World Scientific, Hackensack, NJ, 2007. $98.00 (506 pp.).
ISBN 978-981-277-135-3
In October 1986 Rose Bethe, the wife of Hans Bethe, wrote to Rudolf Peierls upon hearing about the death of his wife, Genia: “She and you—you and she, differently yet inseparably, have
been Hans’ dearest friends since your common Manchester time more than half a century ago. . . . You will be inundated with stories now, of Genia’s impact on old and young, of her generosity, of her vitality, sagacity, love of life and people. I am very glad that she was part of Hans’ and my life.”
To understand how close the friendship was between Hans Bethe (1906– 2005) and “Rudi” Peierls (1907–1995), one must first appreciate the remarkable nature of Rudi and Genia’s generosity. Every student of Peierls who spent time under his tutelage at the University of Birmingham in England commented on the fact that there were no boundaries between the physics department and the Peierlses’ home. All aspects of life—intellectual, emotional, social, and professional—were looked after by the Peierlses. Bethe was the first to come under the couple’s wing when he and Peierls held visiting appointments at the University of Manchester during the 1933–34 academic year in the department headed by William Lawrence Bragg. During that time, Hans lived with the Peierlses, and Genia had told him that he was “indeed very nice.” He would years later reveal to Peierls that her comment had given him “more self-confidence in a personal
• Solid State Design |
• No Liquid Nitrogen |
• Thermoelectric Cooler |
• Easy to Use |
• USB Controlled |
• Low Cost |
Your choice of Si-PIN Detector or Silicon Drift Detector or CdTe-diode Detector
|
Si-PIN Spectrum |
|
SDD Spectrum |
|
CdTe Spectrum |
|||
|
55Fe |
5.9 |
NEW |
55Fe |
5.9 |
|
57Co |
|
|
149 eV FWHM |
keV |
|
139 eV FWHM |
keV |
|
122 keV |
|
|
|
|
|
|
850 eV FWHM |
|||
Counts |
|
|
Counts |
|
|
|
Counts |
14.4 keV |
6 mm2 x 500 μm |
|
7 mm2 x 500 μm |
|
530 eV FWHM |
||||
|
6.4 |
|
6.4 |
|
||||
|
25.6 μs peaking time |
|
9.6 μs peaking time |
|
|
|||
|
keV |
|
keV |
|
|
|||
|
P/B Ratio: 6200/1 |
|
|
P/B Ratio: 6500/1 |
|
|
|
|
|
Energy (keV) |
|
|
|
Energy (keV) |
|
|
Energy (keV) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
APPLICATIONS |
||
|
|
|
|
· Fluorescence |
|
· Portable Instruments |
||
|
|
|
|
· OEM |
|
|
· X-Ray Tube Beam Monitor |
|
|
OEM’s #1 Choice |
|
· Process Control |
|
· Semiconductor Processing |
|||
|
|
· Lead Detectors |
|
· Nuclear Plant Monitors |
||||
|
for XRF |
|
|
· RoHS/WEEE Compliance |
· Vacuum Applications |
|||
|
|
|
· Environmental Monitors |
· Plastic & Metal Separation |
||||
|
|
|
|
· Nuclear Medicine |
· Sulfur in Oil & Coal Detection |
|||
|
|
|
|
· Teaching and R&D |
· Nuclear Safeguards Verification |
|||
|
|
|
|
· Art & Archaeology |
· Space & Astronomy |
|||
|
|
|
AMPTEK Inc. 14 DeAngelo Drive, Bedford, MA 01730-2204 USA |
|||||
|
|
Tel: +1 781 275-2242 E-mail: sales@amptek.com |
www.amptek.com |
|||||
sense” and that the two of them as husband and wife had done that for him throughout his life. Genia taught him “that difficulties in external life are problems to be thought about and solved not to be worried about” (page 477).
The Bethe–Peierls Correspondence has been beautifully edited by Sabine Lee, a lecturer in modern history at the
University of Birmingham. Both the original German version of the letters and Lee’s English translation are in the book. The text contains useful summaries of biographies of the principals and brief biographical information in footnotes about people referred to in the letters. References for the research articles mentioned in the letters are also provided. The correspondence spans the years 1927 to 1995, when Peierls died. Lee has divided that timeline into three parts, with breaks occurring at the time Bethe and Peierls were together in Manchester from 1933 to 1934, and from 1941 to 1945 when both were engaged in problems concerning wartime weaponry. In fact, the two worked together at Los Alamos Laboratory during 1944 and 1945.
When the 19-year-old Peierls came to the University of Munich in the fall of 1926, Bethe, then 20, was a student in Arnold Sommerfeld’s seminar. The two young men became good friends and went skiing, hiking, and dancing together. But as their correspondence from 1928 to 1933 indicates, their friendship at the time was cemented by their scientific interests and their respect for each other’s abilities and integrity. They constructively criticized each other’s work and egged one another on to greatness. The letters from that period—which are predominantly from Bethe to Peierls, since many of Peierls’s letters during that time have been lost—give valuable glimpses into the two men’s scientific activities. They provide further insight into how the two arrived at some of their important discoveries during that period— variational principles, what is now called the Bethe ansatz, and Umklapp processes. The correspondence also vividly conveys their anxiety about finding suitable positions outside Germany after Adolf Hitler’s ascent to power and the racial laws that prevented them from holding university positions in Germany.
Correspondence between Bethe and Peierls resumed after Bethe left Manchester in 1935 for a teaching position at Cornell University. Until 1939 the let-
54 January 2009 Physics Today
ters continued to be in German, but they switched to English with the outbreak of World War II. Anyone interested in the development of nuclear physics after the discovery of the neutron by James Chadwick in 1932 will find the 1935–40 correspondence fascinating. The letters reveal the seminal contributions of Bethe and Peierls to
nuclear theory and their assessment of the principal contributors to the field during the 1930s: Niels Bohr, Enrico Fermi, Eugene Wigner, Robert Oppenheimer, George Placzek, and many others. We become privy to the correspondents’ exertions in finding employment for physicists who had lost their positions in Germany, and to Bethe’s efforts to help Peierls get his parents out of Germany. We also find out that after the fall of France in 1940, with England facing Nazi Germany by itself, the Bethes offered to take care of the Peierlses’ children, Gaby and Ronnie, then 8 and 6, respectively, for the duration of the war. But the offer was appreciatively declined, as the children were evacuated to Toronto.
The third chapter of the book covers correspondence from 1945 until Peierls’s death in 1995. After the war, Bethe went back to Cornell, where he helped build an outstanding research center in highenergy physics. Peierls returned to Birmingham, where he created the outstanding school of theoretical physics in Western Europe. The two physicists established a pipeline between the two institutions and offered their generous evaluations of the young postdocs and colleagues—Hugh McManus, Edwin Salpeter, Steward Butler, Richard Dalitz, Freeman Dyson, and others— that they sent to one another. Their correspondence likewise gives perceptive overviews of advances in high-energy physics, especially of the progress made after 1955 in the nuclear manybody problem on which Bethe was concentrating. Their letters also concern policy challenges posed by, for example, the cold war, nuclear weaponry, nuclear test ban treaties, and antiballistic missiles.
I highly recommend The Bethe– Peierls Correspondence to anyone interested in the character of physics after the advent of quantum mechanics. These two remarkable physicists became deeply respected for their scientific contributions, good sense, and wisdom. They became iconic figures representing integrity by virtue of their comportment as teachers, mentors, and
public intellectuals. The last words Bethe wrote to Peierls upon hearing that his colleague lay dying would have most likely been reciprocated by his life-long friend: “We travelled together a great deal in physics. You did a lot in physics and you educated countless good physicists. . . . I was greatly impressed at your 80th birthday when they all came to celebrate. You had a full and good life, and I thank you for letting me participate in it.”
Silvan S. Schweber
|
Brandeis University |
|
Waltham, Massachusetts |
|
acoustics |
|
|
new |
Acoustic Emission Testing. |
C. U. Grosse, M. Ohtsu, eds. |
|
books |
Springer, Berlin, Germany, |
|
2008. $219.00 (396 pp.). |
|
ISBN 978-3-540-69895-1
Acoustics and Hearing. P. Damaske. Springer, Berlin, Germany, 2008. $79.95 paper (120 pp.). ISBN 978-3-540-78227-8
Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design.
K. Collins. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2008. $28.00 (200 pp.). ISBN 978-0-262- 03378-7
astronomy
and astrophysics
Hot Subdwarf Stars and Related Objects.
U. Heber, S. Jeffery, R. Napiwotzki, eds.
Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series 392. Proc. wksp., Bamberg, Germany, July 2007. Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco, 2008. $77.00 (386 pp.). ISBN 978-1-58381-654-7
Hydrogen-Deficient Stars. K. Werner, T. Rauch, eds. Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series 391. Proc. wksp., Tübingen, Germany, Sept. 2007. Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco, 2008. $77.00 (384 pp.). ISBN 978-1- 58381-652-3
New Horizons in Astronomy: Frank N. Bash Symposium 2007. A. Frebel, J. R. Maund, J. Shen, M. H. Siegel, eds. Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series 393. Proc. wksp., Austin, TX, Oct. 2007. Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco, 2008. $77.00 (304 pp.). ISBN 978-1-58381-656-1
Origin of Matter and Evolution of Galaxies. T. Suda et al., eds. AIP Conference Proceedings 1016. Proc. symp., Sapporo, Japan, Dec. 2007. AIP, Melville, NY, 2008. $218.00 (501 pp.). ISBN 978-0-7354-0537-0
Pathways Through an Eclectic Universe.
J. H. Knapen, T. J. Mahoney, A. Vazdekis, eds. Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series 390. Proc. conf., Santiago del Teide, Tenerife, Spain, Apr. 2007. Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Fran-
www.physicstoday.org
cisco, 2008. $77.00 (588 pp.). ISBN 978-1- 58381-650-9
A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud. B. H. May. Springer, New York, 2007. $79.95 (215 pp.). ISBN 978-0-387-77705-4
atomic and molecular physics
Hybrid Methods of Molecular Modeling. A. L. Tchougréeff. Progress in Theoretical Chemistry and Physics 17. Springer, New York, 2008. $449.00 (344 pp.). ISBN 978-1-4020-8188-0
biological and medical physics
Advances in Medical Physics 2008. A. B. Wolbarst, K. L. Mossman, W. R. Hendee, eds. Medical Physics, Madison, WI, 2008. $94.00 (352 pp.). ISBN 978-1-930524-38-5
Biological Modeling and Simulation: A Survey of Practical Models, Algorithms, and Numerical Methods. R. Schwartz.
Computational Molecular Biology. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2008. $45.00 (389 pp.). ISBN 978-0-262-19584-3
Biomagnetism and Magnetic Biosystems Based on Molecular Recognition Processes. J. A. C. Bland, A. Ionescu, eds.
AIP Conference Proceedings 1025. Proc. conf., San Feliu de Guixols, Spain, Sept. 2007. AIP, Melville, NY, 2008. $112.00 (196 pp.). ISBN 978-0-7354-0547-9
Biomedical Informatics in Translational Research. H. Hu, R. J. Mural, M. N. Liebman, eds. Bioinformatics and Biomedical Imaging. Artech House, Norwood, MA, 2008. $89.00 (264 pp.). ISBN 978-1-59693- 038-4
Collective Dynamics: Topics on Competition and Cooperation in the Biosciences. L. M. Ricciardi, A. Buonocore, E. Pirozzi, eds. AIP Conference Proceedings 1028. Proc. conf., Vietri sul Mare, Italy, Sept. 2007. AIP, Melville, NY, 2008. $199.00 (372 pp.). ISBN 978-0-7354-0552-3
Methods in Industrial Biotechnology for Chemical Engineers. W. B. V. Kandasamy, F. Smarandache. InfoLearnQuest, Ann Arbor, MI, 2008. $25.00 paper (125 pp.). ISBN 978-1-59973-034-9
Quantum Aspects of Life. D. Abbott, P. C. W. Davies, A. K. Pati, eds. Imperial College Press, London, 2008. $98.00, $55.00 paper (442 pp.). ISBN 978-1-84816- 253-2, ISBN 978-1-84816-267-9 paper
chemical physics
Acidity and Basicity. A. Auroux et al.
Molecular Sieves 6: Science and Technology. Springer, Berlin, Germany, 2008. $319.00 (275 pp.). ISBN 978-3-540-73963-0
computers and computational physics
VI Hotine–Marussi Symposium on Theoretical and Computational Geodesy.
P. Xu, J. Liu, A. Dermanis, eds. International Association of Geodesy Symposia 132. Proc. symp., Wuhan, China, May–June 2006. Springer, Berlin, Germany, 2008. $199.00 (362 pp.). ISBN 978-3-540-74583-9
Codes: An Introduction to Information Communication and Cryptography. N. L. Biggs. Springer Undergraduate Mathematics Series. Springer, London, 2008. $39.95 paper (273 pp.). ISBN 978-1-84800-272-2
Computational Chemistry and Molecular Modeling: Principles and Applications. K. I. Ramachandran, G. Deepa, K. Namboori. Springer, Berlin, Germany, 2008. $99.00 (397 pp.). ISBN 978-3-540- 77302-3
Deduction, Computation, Experiment: Exploring the Effectiveness of Proof.
R. Lupacchini, G. Corsi, eds. Springer, Milan, Italy, 2008. $89.95 paper (279 pp.). ISBN 978-88-470-0783-3
An Introduction to Queueing Theory: Modeling and Analysis in Applications.
U. N. Bhat. Statistics for Industry and Technology. Birkhäuser, Boston, 2008. $59.95 (268 pp.). ISBN 978-0-8176-4724-7
Quantum Computing for Computer Scientists. N. S. Yanofsky, M. A. Mannucci. Cambridge U. Press, New York, 2008. $70.00 (384 pp.). ISBN 978-0-521-879965
Quantum Computing Without Magic:
Devices. Z. Meglicki. Scientific and
Engineering Computation. MIT Press,
PRECISION
MEASUREMENT
GRANTS
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) expects to make two new Precision Measurement Grants that start on 1 October 2009. Each grant is in the amount of $50,000 per year and may be renewed for two additional years for a total of $150,000. They are awarded primarily to faculty members at U.S. universities or colleges for research in the field of fundamental measurement or the determination of fundamental physical constants.
Applications must reach NIST by 6 February 2009. Details are on the Web at: physics.nist.gov/pmg.
For further information contact:
Dr. Peter J. Mohr, Manager
NIST Precision Measurement Grants Program NIST, Building 221, Room A255
100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8420
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8420 301-975-3217
Cambridge, MA, 2008. $35.00 paper (422 pp.). ISBN 978-0-262-13506-1
condensed-matter physics
Lectures on the Physics of Strongly Correlated Systems XII.A. Avella, F. Mancini, eds. AIP Conference Proceedings 1014. Proc. course, Salerno, Italy, Oct. 2007. AIP, Melville, NY, 2008. $149.00 (271 pp.). ISBN 978-0-7354-0535-6
cosmology and relativity
The Light/Dark Universe: Light From Galaxies, Dark Matter and Dark Energy.
J. M. Overduin, P. S. Wesson. World Scientific, Hackensack, NJ, 2008. $68.00, $42.00 paper (225 pp.). ISBN 978-981-283- 441-6, ISBN 978-981-283-589-5 paper
Partial Differential Equations in General Relativity. A. D. Rendall. Oxford Graduate Texts in Mathematics 16. Oxford U. Press, New York, 2008. $130.00, $60.00 paper (279 pp.). ISBN 978-0-19-921540-9, ISBN 978-0-19-921541-6 paper
device physics
Gallium Nitride Electronics. R. Quay.
Springer Series in Materials Science 96. Springer, Berlin, Germany, 2008. $199.00 (469 pp.). ISBN 978-3-540-71890-1
energy and environment
Cultivating Science, Harvesting Power: Science and Industrial Agriculture in California. C. R. Henke. Inside Technology. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2008. $32.00 (226 pp.). ISBN 978-0-262-08373-7
DDT, Silent Spring, and the Rise of Environmentalism. T. R. Dunlap, ed. Classic Texts. U. Washington Press, Seattle, 2008. $16.95 paper (150 pp.). ISBN 978-0-295- 98834-4
Globalization of Water: Sharing the Planet’s Freshwater Resources. A. Y. Hoekstra, A. K. Chapagain. Blackwell, Malden, MA, 2008. $64.95 (208 pp.). ISBN 978-1-4051-6335-4
Natural Climate Variability and Global Warming: A Holocene Perspective. R. W. Battarbee, H. A. Binney, eds. Wiley-Black- well, Hoboken, NJ, 2008. $99.95 (276 pp.). ISBN 978-1-4051-5905-0
Natural Experiments: Ecosystem-Based Management and the Environment. J. A. Layzer. American and Comparative Environmental Policy. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2008. $70.00, $28.00 paper (365 pp.). ISBN 978-0-262-12298-6, ISBN 978-0-262-62214- 1 paper
Physics of the Environment. A. W. Brinkman. Imperial College Press, London, 2008. $75.00, $55.00 paper (213 pp.). ISBN 978-1-84816-179-5, ISBN 978-1- 84816-180-1 paper
Pollution of Lakes and Rivers: A PaleoenvironmentalPerspective.2nd ed. J. P. Smol. Blackwell, Malden, MA, 2008 [2002]. $59.95 paper (383 pp.). ISBN 978-1-4051-5913-5
Radiological Risk Assessment and Environmental Analysis. J. E. Till, H. A. Grogan, eds. Oxford U. Press, New York, 2008. $125.00 (702 pp.). ISBN 978-0-19- 512727-0
Smart Materials for Energy, Communications and Security. I. A. Luk’yanchuk, D. Mezzane, eds. NATO Science for Peace and Security Series B: Physics and Biophysics. Proc. wksp., Marrakech, Morocco, Dec. 2007. Springer, Dordrecht, the Netherlands, 2008. $179.95, $75.95 paper (275 pp.). ISBN 978-1-4020-8794-3, ISBN 978-1-4020- 8795-0 paper
Surviving 1,000 Centuries: Can We Do It? R.-M. Bonnet, L. Woltjer. SpringerPraxis Books in Popular Science. Praxis/Springer, New York, 2008. $39.95 (422 pp.). ISBN 978-0-387-74633-3
geophysics
2008 Seismic Engineering Conference: Commemorating the 1908 Messina and Reggio Calabria Earthquake. Parts 1 and 2. A. Santini, N. Moraci, eds. AIP Conference Proceedings 1020. Proc. conf., Reggio Calabria, Italy, July 2008. AIP, Melville, NY, 2008. $499.00 set (1967 pp. set). ISBN 978-0-7354-0542-4
Air-Ice-Ocean Interaction: Turbulent Ocean Boundary Layer Exchange Processes. M. McPhee. Springer, New York, 2008. $119.00 (215 pp.). ISBN 978-0- 387-78334-5
Earthquakes: Simulations, Sources, and Tsunamis. K. F. Tiampo, D. K. Weatherley, S. A. Weinstein, eds. Pageoph Topical Volumes. Birkhäuser, Boston, 2008. $74.95 paper (795 pp.). ISBN 978-3-7643- 8756-3
Large-Scale Disasters: Prediction, Control, and Mitigation. M. Gad-el-Hak, ed. Cambridge U. Press, New York, 2008. $200.00 (576 pp.). ISBN 978-0-521-87293-5
Micrometeorology. T. Foken (translated from German by C. J. Nappo). Springer, Berlin, Germany, 2008 [2006]. $99.00 paper (306 pp.). ISBN 978-3-540-74665-2
Seismic Inverse Q Filtering. Y. Wang. Blackwell, Malden, MA, 2008. $149.95 (238 pp.). ISBN 978-1-4051-8540-0
history and philosophy
Around the World in 84 Days: The Authorized Biography of Skylab Astronaut Jerry Carr. D. Shayler. Space Series 63. Apogee Books, Burlington, ON, Canada, 2008. $31.95 paper (272 pp.). ISBN 978-1- 894959-40-7, DVD-ROM
Cathedrals of Science: The Personalities and Rivalries That Made Modern Chemistry. P. Coffey. Oxford U. Press, New York, 2008. $29.95 (379 pp.). ISBN 978-0- 19-532134-0
Chance or Dance: An Evaluation of Design. J. H. Davis, H. L. Poe. Templeton Foundation Press, West Conshohocken,
PA, 2008. $24.95 paper (236 pp.). ISBN 978- 1-59947-133-4
The Faith of Scientists: In Their Own Words. N. K. Frankenberry, ed. Princeton U. Press, Princeton, NJ, 2008. $29.95 (523 pp.). ISBN 978-0-691-13487-1
H. G. Bronn, Ernst Haeckel, and the Origins of German Darwinism: A Study in Translation and Transformation. S. Gliboff. Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2008. $35.00 (259 pp.). ISBN 978-0-262-07293-9
Mathematics in Ancient Iraq: A Social History. E. Robson. Princeton U. Press, Princeton, NJ, 2008. $49.50 (441 pp.). ISBN 978-0-691-09182-2
Mechanical Sound: Technology, Culture, and Public Problems of Noise in the Twentieth Century. K. Bijsterveld. Inside Technology. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2008. $40.00 (350 pp.). ISBN 978-0-262- 02639-0
Oppenheimer: The Tragic Intellect.
C. Thorpe. U. Chicago Press, Chicago, 2008 [2006, reissued]. $25.00 paper (413 pp.). ISBN 978-0-226-79846-2
Power Struggles: Scientific Authority and the Creation of Practical Electricity Before Edison. M. B. Schiffer. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2008. $38.00 (420 pp.). ISBN 978-0-262-19582-9
The Scientific Life: A Moral History of a Late Modern Vocation. S. Shapin. U. Chicago Press, Chicago, 2008. $29.00 (468 pp.). ISBN 978-0-226-75024-8
The Unfinished Game: Pascal, Fermat, and the Seventeenth-Century Letter That Made the World Modern. K. Devlin. Basic Books, New York, 2008. $24.95 (191 pp.). ISBN 978-0-465-00910-7
When Science and Christianity Meet.
D. C. Lindberg, R. L. Numbers, eds. U. Chicago Press, Chicago, 2008 [2003, reissued]. $20.00 paper (357 pp.). ISBN 978-0- 226-48216-3
materials science
Annual Review of Materials Research.
Vol. 38. D. R. Clarke, M. Rühle, eds. Annual Reviews, Palo Alto, CA, 2008. $89.00 (587 pp.). ISBN 978-0-8243-1738-6
Crystallography of Modular Materials.
G. Ferraris, E. Makovicky, S. Merlino.
IUCr Monographs on Crystallography 15. Oxford U. Press, New York, 2008 [2004, reissued]. $70.00 paper (372 pp.). ISBN 978- 0-19-954569-8
The Physics of Organic Superconductors and Conductors. A. G. Lebed, ed. Springer Series in Materials Science 110. Springer, Berlin, Germany, 2008. $219.00 (752 pp.). ISBN 978-3-540-76667-4
Reactive Sputter Deposition. D. Depla, S. Mahieu, eds. Springer Series in Materials Science 109. Springer, Berlin, Germany,
56 January 2009 Physics Today |
www.physicstoday.org |
2008. $199.00 (570 pp.). ISBN 978-3-540- 76662-9
Thermal Stress Resistance of Materials.
A. Lanin, I. Fedik. Springer, Berlin, Germany, 2008. $149.00 (240 pp.). ISBN 978-3- 540-71399-9
miscellaneous
Current Issues of Physics in Malaysia.
H. B. Senin, G. Carini, J. Abdullah, D. A. Bradley, eds. AIP Conference Proceedings 1017. Proc. conf., Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia, Dec. 2007. AIP, Melville, NY, 2008. $225.00 (443 pp.). ISBN 978-0-7354- 0538-7
Map-Based Mobile Services: Design, Interaction and Usability. L. Meng, A. Zipf, S. Winter, eds. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography. Springer, Berlin, Germany, 2008. $189.00 (352 pp.). ISBN 978-3-540-37109-0
nonlinear science and chaos
Complex Nonlinearity: Chaos, Phase Transitions, Topology Change and Path Integrals. V. G. Ivancevic, T. T. Ivancevic.
Understanding Complex Systems. Springer, Berlin, Germany, 2008. $159.00 (844 pp.). ISBN 978-3-540-79356-4
The Painlevé Handbook. R. Conte, M. Musette. Springer, Dordrecht, the Netherlands, 2008. $129.00 (256 pp.). ISBN 978-1-4020-8490-4
nuclear physics
The Physics of Warm Nuclei: With Analogies to Mesoscopic Systems.
H. Hofmann. Oxford Studies in Nuclear Physics 25. Oxford U. Press, New York, 2008. $130.00 (623 pp.). ISBN 978-0-19-850401-6
optics and photonics
Chromatic Monitoring of Complex Conditions. G. R. Jones, A. G. Deakin, J. W. Spencer, eds. Series in Sensors 2. CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, FL, 2008. $119.95 (281 pp.). ISBN 978-1- 58488-988-5
Laser Spectroscopy—Vol. 1: Basic Principles. 4th ed. W. Demtröder. Springer, Berlin, Germany, 2008 [2003]. $109.00 (457 pp.). ISBN 978-3-540-73415-4
Modern Developments in X-Ray and Neutron Optics. A. Erko, M. Idir, T. Krist, A. G. Michette, eds. Springer Series in Optical Sciences 137. Springer, New York, 2008. $219.00 (533 pp.). ISBN 978-3-540-74560-0
New Directions in Holography and Speckle. H. J. Caulfield, C. S. Vikram, eds.
Titles in Nanotechnology. American Scientific, Stevenson Ranch, CA, 2008. $399.00 (540 pp.). ISBN 978-1-58883-101-9
Principles of Nanophotonics. M. Ohtsu et al. Series in Optics and Optoelectronics 6. CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, FL, 2008. $79.95 (228 pp.). ISBN 978-1- 58488-972-4
Quantum Optics. J. C. Garrison, R. Y. Chiao. Oxford Graduate Texts. Oxford U. Press, New York, 2008. $90.00 (716 pp.). ISBN 978-0-19-850886-1
RIAO/OPTILAS 2007. N. U. Wetter, J. Frejlich, eds. AIP Conference Proceedings 992. Proc. conf., Campinas, Brazil, Oct. 2007. AIP, Melville, NY, 2008. $499.00 (1343 pp.). ISBN 978-0-7354-0511-0
particle physics
Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science. Vol. 57. B. Kayser, B. R. Holstein, A. Jawahery, eds. Annual Reviews, Palo Alto, CA, 2007. $197.00 (503 pp.). ISBN 978-0-8243-1557-3
Colliders and Neutrinos: The Window into Physics Beyond the Standard Model. S. Dawson, R. N. Mohapatra, eds. World Scientific, Hackensack, NJ, 2008. $128.00 (704 pp.). ISBN 978-981-281-925-3
Composite Fermions. J. K. Jain. Cambridge U. Press, New York, 2007. $95.00 (543 pp.). ISBN 978-0-521-86232-5
A Direct Derivation of the Form of the Standard Model from GL(16). S. Blaha. Pingree-Hill, Auburn, NH, 2008. $9.95 paper (124 pp.). ISBN 978-0-9746958-9-1
Electroweak Theory. E. A. Paschos. Cambridge U. Press, New York, 2007. $79.00 (245 pp.). ISBN 978-0-521-86098-7
Grand Unified Theories: Current Status
and Future Prospects. T. Fukuyama,
Premier Sponsor:
Palm Springs Convention Center Palm Springs, CA
January 24–28, 2009 labautomation.org/LA09
2009
Where Science, Technology and Industry Come Together
A Diversity of Industries Including:
U Drug Discovery and Development
U Clinical Diagnostics
U Agriculture and Food
U Forensics and Security
U Energy Generation and Petrochemicals
LabAutomation2009
Key Education Tracks:
U Detection and Separation
UMicroand Nanotechnologies
UHigh-Throughput Technologies
UInformatics
UNew Frontiers for LabAutomation: Agriculture and Food
Learn how to save $200 on your
LabAutomation2009 airfare;
Visit labautomation.org
ALA is a non-profit association committed to driving progress in laboratory technologies through high-quality education that benefits the global scientific community, including its membership of scientists, engineers, academicians, and thought leaders.
Superstition
Belief in the Age of Science
Robert L. Park
“Bob Park has done it again. His lucid, humorous, style—the envy of those of us who fancy themselves writers—gets through the pervasive nonsense that he finds everywhere, from the ‘afterlife’ delusion to intelligent design.”—James Randi, president of the James Randi Educational Foundation
Cloth $24.95 978-0-691-13355-3
The Atom and the Apple
Twelve Tales from
Contemporary Physics
Sébastien Balibar
“Sébastien Balibar offers a refreshing romp through physics rooted in experimental reality, and even, in everyday reality. As a theorist, I
am enthralled.”
—A. Zee, author of Fearful
Symmetry and An Old Man’s Toy
Cloth $24.95 978-0-691-13108-5
T. Kikuchi, eds. AIP Conference Proceedings 1015. Proc. wksp., Kusatsu, Japan, Dec. 2007. AIP, Melville, NY, 2008. $169.00 (269 pp.). ISBN 978-0-7354-0536-3
Lectures on the ElectroWeak Interactions. R. Barbieri. Publications of the Scuola Normale Superiore Lecture Notes 5. Edizioni della Normale/Birkhäuser, Boston, 2007. $22.95 paper (84 pp.). ISBN 978-88-7642- 311-6
Neutrino Oscillations: Present Status and Future Plans. J. A. Thomas, P. L. Vahle, eds. World Scientific, Hackensack, NJ, 2008. $58.00 (265 pp.). ISBN 978-981- 277-196-4
Perspectives on LHC Physics. G. Kane, A. Pierce, eds. World Scientific, Hackensack, NJ, 2008. $88.00, $48.00 paper (337 pp.). ISBN 978-981-277-975-5, ISBN 978- 981-283-389-1 paper
Polarized Antiproton Beams—How?
S. Chattopadhyay et al., eds. AIP Conference Proceedings 1008. Proc. wksp., Daresbury, UK, Aug. 2007. AIP, Melville, NY, 2008. $105.00 (133 pp.). ISBN 978-0-7354- 0527-1
Supersymmetry in Particle Physics: An Elementary Introduction. I. J. R. Aitchison. Cambridge U. Press, New York, 2007. $65.00 (222 pp.). ISBN 978-0-521-88023-7
Ten Years of AdS/CFT. J. D. Edelstein, N. Grandi, C. Núñez, M. Schvellinger, eds. AIP Conference Proceedings 1031. Proc. conf., Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dec. 2007. AIP, Melville, NY, 2008. $189.00 (284 pp.). ISBN 978-0-7354-0555-4
plasmas and fusion
Cold Antimatter Plasmas and Application to Fundamental Physics. Y. Kanai, Y. Yamazaki, eds. AIP Conference Proceedings 1037. Proc. wksp., Naha, Okinawa, Japan, Feb. 2008. AIP, Melville, NY, 2008. $199.00 (368 pp.). ISBN 978-0-7354-0561-5
Fundamentals of Plasma Physics. P. M. Bellan. Cambridge U. Press, New York, 2008 [2006, reissued]. $75.00 paper (609 pp.). ISBN 978-0-521-52800-9
Plasma Chemistry. A. Fridman. Cambridge U. Press, New York, 2008. $170.00 (978 pp.). ISBN 978-0-521-84735-3
Turbulent Transport in Fusion Plasmas.
S. Benkadda, ed. AIP Conference Proceedings 1013. Proc. sch., Aix en Provence, France, July 2007. AIP, Melville, NY, 2008. $190.00 (342 pp.). ISBN 978-0-7354-0534-9
popularizations
13 Things That Don’t Make Sense: The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time. M. Brooks. Doubleday, New York, 2008. $23.95 (240 pp.). ISBN 978-0- 385-52068-3
The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics. L. Susskind. Little, Brown and Co, New York,
2008. $27.99 (470 pp.). ISBN 978-0-316- 01640-7
The Carbon Age: How Life’s Core Element Has Become Civilization’s Greatest Threat. E. Roston. Walker, New York, 2008. $25.99 (309 pp.). ISBN 978-0-8027- 1557-9
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to String Theory. G. Musser. Alpha Books, New York, 2008. $16.95 paper (334 pp.). ISBN 978-1-59257-702-6
Hidden Harmony: The Connected Worlds of Physics and Art. J. R. Leibowitz. Johns Hopkins U. Press, Baltimore, MD, 2008. $24.95 (148 pp.). ISBN 978-0-8018-8866-3
Out of the Blue—A History of Lightning: Science, Superstition, and Amazing Stories of Survival. J. S. Friedman. Delacorte Press/Bantam Dell, New York, 2008. $24.00 (290 pp.). ISBN 978-0-385-34115-8
Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines. R. A. Muller. W. W. Norton, New York, 2008. $26.95 (380 pp.). ISBN 978-0-393-06627-2
Relativity: A Very Short Introduction.
R. Stannard. Very Short Introductions. Oxford U. Press, New York, 2008. $11.95 paper (114 pp.). ISBN 978-0-19-923622-0
The Self-Evolving Cosmos: A Phenomenological Approach to Nature’s Unity- in-Diversity. S. M. Rosen. Series on Knots and Everything 18. World Scientific, Hackensack, NJ, 2008. $78.00 (272 pp.). ISBN 978-981-277-173-5
society and government
Global Catastrophic Risks. N. Bostrom, M. M. Ćirković, eds. Oxford U. Press, New York, 2008. $50.00 (554 pp.). ISBN 978-0-19-857050-9
In Sputnik’s Shadow: The President’s Science Advisory Committee and Cold War America. Z. Wang. Rutgers U. Press, New Brunswick, NJ, 2008. $49.95 (454 pp.). ISBN 978-0-8135-4331-4
Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis. M. Chinoy. St. Martin’s Press, New York, 2008. $27.95 (405 pp.). ISBN 978-0-312-37153-1
Nuclear Safeguards, Security, and Nonproliferation: Achieving Security with Technology and Policy. J. E. Doyle, ed.
Butterworth-Heinemann Homeland Security Series. Butterworth-Heinemann/Elsevier, Burlington, MA, 2008. $99.95 (592 pp.). ISBN 978-0-7506-8673-0
Technology and the American Way of War. T. G. Mahnken. Columbia U. Press, New York, 2008. $29.50 (244 pp.). ISBN 978-0-231-12336-5
space and planetary science
Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Vol. 36. R. Jeanloz, A. L. Albee,
K. C. Burke, K. H. Freeman, eds. Annual Reviews, Palo Alto, CA, 2008. $89.00 (669 pp.). ISBN 978-0-8243-2036-2
Basics of the Solar Wind. N. MeyerVernet. Cambridge Atmospheric and Space Science Series. Cambridge U. Press, New York, 2007. $132.00 (463 pp.). ISBN 978-0- 521-81420-1
Salyut—The First Space Station: Triumph and Tragedy. G. S. Ivanovich.
Springer-Praxis Books in Space Exploration. Praxis/Springer, New York, 2008. $34.95 paper (426 pp.). ISBN 978-0-387-73585-6
The Solar Tachocline. D. W. Hughes, R. Rosner, N. O. Weiss, eds. Cambridge U. Press, New York, 2007. $160.00 (367 pp.). ISBN 978-0-521-86101-4
Subsurface and Atmospheric Influences on Solar Activity. R. Howe, R. W. Komm, K. S. Balasubramaniam, G. J. D. Petrie, eds. Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series 383. Proc. wksp., Sunspot, NM, Apr. 2007. Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco, 2008. $77.00 (440 pp.). ISBN 978-1-58381-329-4
statistical physics and thermodynamics
Basics of Thermodynamics and Phase Transitions in Complex Intermetallics.
E. Belin-Ferré, ed. Complex Metallic Alloys 1. World Scientific, Hackensack, NJ, 2008. $109.00 (399 pp.). ISBN 978-981-279-058-3
Equilibrium and Non-equilibrium Statistical Mechanics. C. M. Van Vliet. World Scientific, Hackensack, NJ, 2008. $152.00, $86.00 paper (960 pp.). ISBN 978-981-270- 477-1, ISBN 978-981-270-478-8 paper
A First Course in Order Statistics. B. C. Arnold, N. Balakrishnan, H. N. Nagaraja.
Classics in Applied Mathematics 54. SIAM, Philadelphia, 2008 [1992, reissued]. $73.00 paper (279 pp.). ISBN 978-0-89871-648-1
Phase Equilibria, Phase Diagrams and Phase Transformations: Their Thermodynamic Basis. 2nd ed. M. Hillert. Cambridge U. Press, New York, 2008 [1998]. $85.00 (510 pp.). ISBN 978-0-521-85351-4
Statistical Physics. 2nd rev. ed. T. Guénault. Springer, Dordrecht, the Netherlands, 2007 [1995]. $69.95 paper (204 pp.). ISBN 978-1-4020-5974-2
Symmetry Studies: An Introduction to the Analysis of Structured Data in Applications. M. A. G. Viana. Cambridge Series in Statistical and Probabilistic Mathematics 26. Cambridge U. Press, New York, 2008. $60.00 (235 pp.). ISBN 978-0-521- 84103-0
Thermophysical Properties of Materials and Devices. P. Predeep, S. Prasanth, A. S. Prasad, eds. AIP Conference Proceedings 1004. Proc. conf., Kollam, India, Sept. 2007. AIP, Melville, NY, 2008. $179.00 (361 pp.). ISBN 978-0-7354-0523-3
Universality in Nonequilibrium Lattice
58 January 2009 Physics Today |
www.physicstoday.org |
Systems: Theoretical Foundations.
G. Ódor. World Scientific, Hackensack, NJ, 2008. $98.00 (276 pp.). ISBN 978-981- 281-227-8
texts and education
Beyond the Mechanical Universe: From Electricity to Modern Physics. R. P. Olenick, T. M. Apostol, D. L. Goodstein. Cambridge U. Press, New York, 2007 [1986, reissued]. $39.95 paper (574 pp.). ISBN 978-0-521-71591-1
Fundamentals of Geophysics. 2nd ed. W. Lowrie. Cambridge U. Press, New York, 2007 [1997]. $140.00, $70.00 paper (381 pp.). ISBN 978-0-521-85902-8, ISBN 978-0-521-67596-3 paper
Girls in Science: A Framework for Action. L. Chatman et al. NSTA Press, Arlington, VA, 2008. $24.94 paper (290 pp.). ISBN 978-1-93353-104-5
Introduction to Elementary Particle Physics. A. Bettini. Cambridge U. Press, New York, 2008. $70.00 (431 pp.). ISBN 978-0-521-88021-3
Introduction to Modern Physics: Theoretical Foundations. J. D. Walecka. World Scientific, Hackensack, NJ, 2008. $88.00, $65.00 paper (477 pp.). ISBN 978-981-281- 224-7, ISBN 978-981-281-225-4 paper
The Pursuit of Perfect Packing. 2nd ed. T. Aste, D. Weaire. Taylor & Francis, New York, 2008 [2000]. $59.95 (200 pp.). ISBN 978-1-4200-6817-7
Statistical Physics of Fields. M. Kardar. Cambridge U. Press, New York, 2007. $75.00 (359 pp.). ISBN 978-0-521-87341-3
Statistical Physics of Particles. M. Kardar. Cambridge U. Press, New York, 2007. $75.00 (320 pp.). ISBN 978-0-521-87342-0
A Survey of Computational Physics: Introductory Computational Science.
R. H. Landau, M. J. Páez, C. C. Bordeianu. Princeton U. Press, Princeton, NJ, 2008. $69.50 (658 pp.). ISBN 978-0-691-13137-5,
CD-ROM
Theory of Orbital Motion. A. Tan. World Scientific, Hackensack, NJ, 2008. $64.00, $28.00 paper (281 pp.). ISBN 978-981-270- 911-0, ISBN 978-981-270-912-7 paper
theory and mathematical methods
Boundary Control of PDEs: A Course on Backstepping Designs. M. Krstic, A. Smyshlyaev. Advances in Design and Control 16. SIAM, Philadelphia, 2008. $89.00 (192 pp.). ISBN 978-0-89871-650-4
Eisenstein Series and Applications. W. T. Gan, S. S. Kudla, Y. Tschinkel, eds. Progress in Mathematics 258. Birkhäuser, Boston, 2008. $69.95 (314 pp.). ISBN 978-0-8176- 4496-3
Geometry and Dynamics of Groups and Spaces: In Memory of Alexander Reznikov. M. Kapranov, eds. Progress in
Mathematics 265. Birkhäuser, Boston, 2008. $109.00 (742 pp.). ISBN 978-3-7643-8607-8
Group Theory: Birdtracks, Lie’s, and Exceptional Groups. P. Cvitanović. Princeton U. Press, Princeton, NJ, 2008. $39.95 (273 pp.). ISBN 978-0-691-11836-9
Handbook of Special Functions: Derivatives, Integrals, Series and Other Formulas. Y. A. Brychkov. Chapman & Hall/CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, FL, 2008. $99.95 (680 pp.). ISBN 978-1-58488- 956-4
Integral Methods in Science and Engineering: Techniques and Applications.
C. Constanda, S. Potapenko, eds. Birkhäuser, Boston, 2008. $89.95 (298 pp.). ISBN 978-0-8176-4670-7
Many-Body Theory Exposed! Propagator Description of Quantum Mechanics in Many-Body Systems. 2nd ed. W. H. Dickhoff, D. Van Neck. World Scientific, Hackensack, NJ, 2008 [2005]. $98.00, $75.00 paper (831 pp.). ISBN 978-981-281-379-4, ISBN 978-981-281-380-0 paper
Numerical Methods for Nonlinear Variational Problems. R. Glowinski. Scientific Computation. Springer, Berlin, Germany, 2008 [1984, reissued]. $84.95 paper (493 pp.). ISBN 978-3-540-77506-5
Path Integrals and Stochastic Processes in Theoretical Physics. M. Masujima. Feshbach, Minneapolis, MN, 2007. $129.00 (829 pp.). ISBN 978-0-9762021-3-4
Problem Book in Quantum Field Theory.
2nd ed. V. Radovanović. Springer, New York, 2008 [2006]. $69.95 paper (243 pp.). ISBN 978-3-540-77013-8
Quantum Spaces: Poincaré Seminar 2007. B. Duplantier, V. Rivasseau, eds.
Progress in Mathematical Physics 53. Birkhäuser, Boston, 2007. $109.00 (227 pp.). ISBN 978-3-7643-8521-7
The Schwinger Action Principle and Effective Action. D. J. Toms. Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics. Cambridge U. Press, New York, 2007. $160.00 (495 pp.). ISBN 978-0-521-87676-6
Selfdual Gauge Field Vortices: An Analytical Approach. G. Tarantello. Progress in Nonlinear Differential Equations and Their Applications 72. Birkhäuser, Boston, 2008. $109.00 (325 pp.). ISBN 978-0-8176-4310-2
Unified Field Theory: Atomic Nuclei, Neutron Stars, and Black Holes.
K. Kumar. Tennessee Tech Printing Services Press, Cookeville, TN, 2007. $35.00 paper (212 pp.). ISBN 978-1-60530-233-1
Variational Problems in Transport Theory with Mass Concentration. F. Santambrogio. Publications of the Scuola Normale Superiore Theses 4. Edizioni della Normale/Birkhäuser, Boston, 2007. $24.95 paper (198 pp.). ISBN 978-88-7642-312-3
www.physicstoday.org |
January 2009 Physics Today 59 |