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Dynamic programming: A practical introduction
The author clearly learnt his astrophysics early in this century and learnt it with care. Later in the book he demonstrates how well he has kept up with the subject, and goes on quite smoothly to treat many of the important newer developments, and to present them with insight and with style. The supernova 1987A is there, the latest ideas on planetary nebulae are assessed, and much else besides. Who knows, perhaps the author can be persuaded to prepare a fourth edition when the time comes. F. D. Kahn
Technology and the Pursuit of Economic Growth. By David C. Mowery and Nathan Rosenberg. Cambridge University Press. 1990. f32.50, US $32.50 ISBN 0 527 38033 2.
The authors of this useful book think that the theoretical framework of neoclassical economics cannot deal satisfactorily with the connection between economics and technology. Most people would agree, and concentrate instead on historical development and the analysis of its consequences: a large subject, of great interest to many in science and politics. The scale and scope of governmentsupported research and development forms the core of the book. The statistical material is profuse and its precision remarkable. By contrast, the definitions are too short and, like the numbers, ought to have been critically examined. While the description of the U.S. research system is clear and informative, the comparison with that in Great Britain is too short and the failure to deal with the German research institutions is unfortunate. There is also a marked bias in the book: the chapter on the U.S. commercial aircraft industry is thorough and valuable, but the references to the chemical industry and to medical R & D are superficial. The book is written from an American standpoint and so carries a warning as well as a challenge to Europeans. In particular the observations on technology transfer and on ‘technological mercantilism’ deal with problems which the Common Market will have to address in the near future. Lutz Haber
Dynamic Programming: A Practical Introduction. By David K. Smith. Pp. 160. Ellis Horwood, New York. 1991. Hardback f25.00 ISBN 0 13 221797 X; paperback f 15.00 ISBN 0 13 221805.
This book is aimed at undergraduates and graduates on taught courses in operational research and management science. The material is clearly presented and, although the notation is necessarily complicated, the mathematics required is rarely more than simple arithmetic. Thus it may appeal to a wider readership, especially as there is a chapter, ‘Dynamic Programming for Fun’, dealing with some classic puzzles and reviewing the application to eight different sports. 44
Another uncommon topic is the use of dynamic programming in the optimization of functions. This gives an insight into the Fibonacci search method, but for the other applications, especially the transportation problem, there is no indication as to why dynamic programming should be preferred to conventional methods. The book covers most material in a dynamic programming course: shortest route problems; knapsack problems; production and inventory problems; scheduling problems; search problems; Markov processes; and Howard’s method. Production planning deals only with the case of concave costs and this should have been made clear. It is also a pity that the allocation problem was not fully developed instead of its special case, the knapsack problem. There are adequate worked examples, and the exercises have a refreshingly home-grown context. This can be seriously considered as a recommended text. P. D. Hudson
Fusion: The Search for Endless Energy. By Robin Herman. Pp. 267. Cambridge University Press. 1991. f 13.95, US $19.95 ISBN 0 521 38373 0.
Despite the oil crisis of 1973, mankind’s usage of energy has since expanded by about 50 per cent, and the annual per capita consumption of fuel has increased to about 1.8 tonnes of oil equivalent. Nuclear fusion is a major untapped energy resource. Realizing that it is thus a matter of continuing importance. Robin Herman offers a lively and wholly non-specialist account of fusion research: its origins in the U.K., U.S.A., and U.S.S.R.; the failures as well as the successes; the interaction of the researchers, their laboratories, and their governments. She focuses on the methods of creating, heating, and thermally insulating high-temperature plasma where the energy-producing thermonuclear fusion reactions take place, especially on the magnetic confinement systems such as the Tokamak. The use of lasers, the lamentable story of ‘Cold Fusion’, and a discussion of the way forward by international co-operation are also presented. Coming from a journalist based in Princeton, the home of a leading U.S. fusion laboratory, the montage of interview-extracts is wellinformed but displays perhaps too limited a sample of the dramatis personae for a fair and balanced account. The taste for colour and personality occasionally leads to exaggeration: Sakharov did not ‘design an actual power-generating fusion machine’ in 1951. But these imperfections are natural to the genre and the overall impression is sound. In the final pages MS Herman refreshingly renounces the tape recorder for the pen of the critic. Research is now reaching a vital stage with the prospective first use of deuterium-tritium fuel in large experimental Tokamaks. I hope she will report this outcome of the decades of endeavour. R. S. Pease
The Chemical Industry in the U.S.S.R.: An Economic Geography. By Matthew J. Sagers and Theodore Shabad. Pp. 590. American Chemical Society and Westview, Washington and Boulder. 1990. US $89.95 ISBN 0 8412 1760 2.
The Soviet chemical industry has been one of the stronger areas of the Soviet economy for many years. The Soviet Union was the original pioneer of synthetic rubber on the large scale and also built up a large ammonia-soda industry. However, until glasnost and perestroika came along in the mid-1980s very little reliable information about it was available in the West. Theodore Shabad’s Basic Industrial Resources of the U.S.S.R. (1969) was practically the only readily obtainable monograph on the topic. In 1985, at the beginning of the Gorbachev era, Shabad began his collaboration on the present book with Matthew Sagers. After his untimely death in 1987, it was completed with the help of Jeanne Braithwaite and Caron Cooper. It covers Soviet production of bulk chemicals (including fertilizers, petrochemicals, and polymers), chemical equipment, and chemical trade. While it mostly examines the industry from the standpoint of economic geography, this book also covers the historical, economic, and technological aspects. It is both informative and clearly written, with the high quality one has come to associate with ACS books. I have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone interested in the history and current position of the Soviet chemical industry. Peter Morris
Radar. Land Warfare: Brassey’s New Battlefield Weapons Systems and Technology Series. Vol. 9. By P. S. Hall, T. K. Garland-Collins, R. S. Picton and R. G. Lee. Pp. 170. Brassey’s (U.K.), London. 1991. Hardback f24.00, US $43.00 ISBN 008 0377106.
The use of radar in land warfare has not been the most commonly perceived application of the technique from the public point of view. However, there is one army radar device which is now very widely recognised - the U.S. Patriot radar of Gulf War fame, a photograph of which adorns the cover of this book. The subject is addressed in a qualitative manner with a minimum of mathematics and technical knowledge assumed in the reader. The history, basic principles, and landwarfare applications are all covered in an easily read way. The span of applications covered is wide, ranging from surveillance of the battlefield from the ground and air to the detection of mortars and rockets in order to locate their launchers, and of course air defence - the prime role for Patriot. Few errors were noted, though ‘radar power flight’ does not mean radar levitation and it was surprising that nano, pica, and femto were omitted from a table of prefixes. The book achieves its aim of providing a description of the design and use of radar in
Technology and the Pursuit of Economic Growth. By David C. Mowery and Nathan Rosenberg. Cambridge University Press. 1990. f32.50, US $32.50 ISBN 0 527 38033 2.
The authors of this useful book think that the theoretical framework of neoclassical economics cannot deal satisfactorily with the connection between economics and technology. Most people would agree, and concentrate instead on historical development and the analysis of its consequences: a large subject, of great interest to many in science and politics. The scale and scope of governmentsupported research and development forms the core of the book. The statistical material is profuse and its precision remarkable. By contrast, the definitions are too short and, like the numbers, ought to have been critically examined. While the description of the U.S. research system is clear and informative, the comparison with that in Great Britain is too short and the failure to deal with the German research institutions is unfortunate. There is also a marked bias in the book: the chapter on the U.S. commercial aircraft industry is thorough and valuable, but the references to the chemical industry and to medical R & D are superficial. The book is written from an American standpoint and so carries a warning as well as a challenge to Europeans. In particular the observations on technology transfer and on ‘technological mercantilism’ deal with problems which the Common Market will have to address in the near future. Lutz Haber
Dynamic Programming: A Practical Introduction. By David K. Smith. Pp. 160. Ellis Horwood, New York. 1991. Hardback f25.00 ISBN 0 13 221797 X; paperback f 15.00 ISBN 0 13 221805.
This book is aimed at undergraduates and graduates on taught courses in operational research and management science. The material is clearly presented and, although the notation is necessarily complicated, the mathematics required is rarely more than simple arithmetic. Thus it may appeal to a wider readership, especially as there is a chapter, ‘Dynamic Programming for Fun’, dealing with some classic puzzles and reviewing the application to eight different sports. 44
Another uncommon topic is the use of dynamic programming in the optimization of functions. This gives an insight into the Fibonacci search method, but for the other applications, especially the transportation problem, there is no indication as to why dynamic programming should be preferred to conventional methods. The book covers most material in a dynamic programming course: shortest route problems; knapsack problems; production and inventory problems; scheduling problems; search problems; Markov processes; and Howard’s method. Production planning deals only with the case of concave costs and this should have been made clear. It is also a pity that the allocation problem was not fully developed instead of its special case, the knapsack problem. There are adequate worked examples, and the exercises have a refreshingly home-grown context. This can be seriously considered as a recommended text. P. D. Hudson
Fusion: The Search for Endless Energy. By Robin Herman. Pp. 267. Cambridge University Press. 1991. f 13.95, US $19.95 ISBN 0 521 38373 0.
Despite the oil crisis of 1973, mankind’s usage of energy has since expanded by about 50 per cent, and the annual per capita consumption of fuel has increased to about 1.8 tonnes of oil equivalent. Nuclear fusion is a major untapped energy resource. Realizing that it is thus a matter of continuing importance. Robin Herman offers a lively and wholly non-specialist account of fusion research: its origins in the U.K., U.S.A., and U.S.S.R.; the failures as well as the successes; the interaction of the researchers, their laboratories, and their governments. She focuses on the methods of creating, heating, and thermally insulating high-temperature plasma where the energy-producing thermonuclear fusion reactions take place, especially on the magnetic confinement systems such as the Tokamak. The use of lasers, the lamentable story of ‘Cold Fusion’, and a discussion of the way forward by international co-operation are also presented. Coming from a journalist based in Princeton, the home of a leading U.S. fusion laboratory, the montage of interview-extracts is wellinformed but displays perhaps too limited a sample of the dramatis personae for a fair and balanced account. The taste for colour and personality occasionally leads to exaggeration: Sakharov did not ‘design an actual power-generating fusion machine’ in 1951. But these imperfections are natural to the genre and the overall impression is sound. In the final pages MS Herman refreshingly renounces the tape recorder for the pen of the critic. Research is now reaching a vital stage with the prospective first use of deuterium-tritium fuel in large experimental Tokamaks. I hope she will report this outcome of the decades of endeavour. R. S. Pease
The Chemical Industry in the U.S.S.R.: An Economic Geography. By Matthew J. Sagers and Theodore Shabad. Pp. 590. American Chemical Society and Westview, Washington and Boulder. 1990. US $89.95 ISBN 0 8412 1760 2.
The Soviet chemical industry has been one of the stronger areas of the Soviet economy for many years. The Soviet Union was the original pioneer of synthetic rubber on the large scale and also built up a large ammonia-soda industry. However, until glasnost and perestroika came along in the mid-1980s very little reliable information about it was available in the West. Theodore Shabad’s Basic Industrial Resources of the U.S.S.R. (1969) was practically the only readily obtainable monograph on the topic. In 1985, at the beginning of the Gorbachev era, Shabad began his collaboration on the present book with Matthew Sagers. After his untimely death in 1987, it was completed with the help of Jeanne Braithwaite and Caron Cooper. It covers Soviet production of bulk chemicals (including fertilizers, petrochemicals, and polymers), chemical equipment, and chemical trade. While it mostly examines the industry from the standpoint of economic geography, this book also covers the historical, economic, and technological aspects. It is both informative and clearly written, with the high quality one has come to associate with ACS books. I have no hesitation in recommending it to anyone interested in the history and current position of the Soviet chemical industry. Peter Morris
Radar. Land Warfare: Brassey’s New Battlefield Weapons Systems and Technology Series. Vol. 9. By P. S. Hall, T. K. Garland-Collins, R. S. Picton and R. G. Lee. Pp. 170. Brassey’s (U.K.), London. 1991. Hardback f24.00, US $43.00 ISBN 008 0377106.
The use of radar in land warfare has not been the most commonly perceived application of the technique from the public point of view. However, there is one army radar device which is now very widely recognised - the U.S. Patriot radar of Gulf War fame, a photograph of which adorns the cover of this book. The subject is addressed in a qualitative manner with a minimum of mathematics and technical knowledge assumed in the reader. The history, basic principles, and landwarfare applications are all covered in an easily read way. The span of applications covered is wide, ranging from surveillance of the battlefield from the ground and air to the detection of mortars and rockets in order to locate their launchers, and of course air defence - the prime role for Patriot. Few errors were noted, though ‘radar power flight’ does not mean radar levitation and it was surprising that nano, pica, and femto were omitted from a table of prefixes. The book achieves its aim of providing a description of the design and use of radar in