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Energy and the oceans
Book reviews Energy and the Oceans by Andrk Pp. x + 134..Westbury House, Guildford. 1987. f12.50.
Brin.
This book was published in French in 1979 and has now been translated into English. In the short space of 134 pages, many of which contain large, clear diagrams, every conceivable contribution which the seamight make to our energy supply has been discussed.Necessarily, therefore, the treatment tends to be superficial, although it is easy to read, and the translator has done his work well. It makes an excellent bed-side book for politicians, administrators, and that section of the general public which wishes to be informed about the general issues,without being swamped by too detailed discussion of technical problems. After the preface, which discusses the world’s energy requirements, the book divides into two sections. The first, in three chapters, discussesthe sea and conventional forms of energy, including such matters as the production of oil and coal at sea, seatransport of energy, pollution by hydrocarbons, and the use of sea-water for cooling power. The second concentrates on the physical energies of the sea, which means wind, tide, thermal, wave, and sea-current energy. This reviewer feels the chapter on wind energy used by sailing vessels to be anomalous in this context. The space could have been better used to produce greater detail in other chapters; for example in the actual construction problems of the various energy devices. R. T. Sever-n Hydrogen Power. An Introduction to Hydrogen Energy and its Applications by L. 0. Williams. Pp. 200. Pergamon Press, Oxford. 1980. Hard cover fll.00, Flexi cover f4.50
Over the last decade it has become fashionable to imagine that hydrogen will become an environmentally acceptable alternative energy source, which will gradually fill the gap left by our diminishing reserves of fossil fuels. This is a misleading notion for, at best, hydrogen offers a possibly convenient means of storing energy. Fortunately, as the title indicates, this book avoids this trap, emphasising as it does the production and uses of hydrogen power. Hydrogen Power consists of 7 chapters, the first koncerning Historical Background, Chemical and Physical Properties, and Industrial Uses-contain little information which would be new to readers having a basic training in chemistry. Chapter 4 (Methods of Production) is more comprehensive and more useful, although 7 pages of equations summarising (unsuccessful) attempts to decompose water thermochemically seems rather excessive. Chapters 5 and 6 (Hydrogen Trans-
40
portation, and Hydrogen on (sic) an Energy Carrier) are the most interesting in the book. Overall, this book is disappointing. Apart from some factual errors in the early chapters, its main failing is a lack of balance in considering hydrogen as an alternative source of power, especially in relation to other transportation fuels. R. Burch
Engineering Materials: An Introduction to theirPropertiesandApplicationsby MichaelF.AshbyandDavidR. H. Jones. Pp. 278. Pergamon Press, Oxford, 7980. Hard coverf 15.00, FlexicoverM. 75.
It is essential that engineering students are introduced not only to metals but to the spectrum of engineering materials. This book, based on twenty-seven lectures, is a further indication that such teaching is on the increase. It is organised primarily on the basis of material properties and after dealing briefly with price and availability is concerned predominantly with bulk mechanical and surface properties. It is divided into sections each dealing with a set of related properties: for example, yield strength, tensile strength, hardness, and ductility are considered together as also are oxidation and corrosion. Each section is similarly structured commencing with definition and description of the properties, followed by an introduction to the underlying basic science, and concluding with at least one case-study illustrating practical usage. The book is written from the point of view of the materials scientist rather than the engineer, basic science accounting for about half the text. In practice, the selection of materials embraces many inter-related factors, quantifiable materials parameters with which the case studies are primarily concerned being but one, albeit important, aspect. The text is clear and concise, well illustrated, and containing useful tabulated data, with links established between properties and applications, if only in a limited way. D. G. Smith ChemicalandBiochemicalApplicktionsof Lasers.Vol.5. EditedbyC. BradleyMoore. Pp. 287.AcademicPress, New York. 1980.
$23.00. This is the latest in a now well-known series which is ‘intended to preview rather than review research using lasers’; the question arises of the audience envisaged. A preview presumably is intended to chart likely future progress and direct attention to outstanding problems. The afficionado will already appreciate these aspects and the complete outsider would be unlikely to be helped. In fact the seven chapters in this volume
vary considerably between preview and review. The first chapter previews the laser selective detection of single atoms where much basic work remains. This has great potential for isotope chronology but few archaelogists could do other than await a solution to the problems. The last two chapters, on the other hand, review techniques of laser purification of materials and of photochemical separation of elements in solution which are on the verge of commercial exploitation. Other chapters concern structural studies of transient molecules by laser spectroscopy, far infrared laser magnetic resonance, laser kinetic spectroscopy of elementary processes, and infrared laser photochemistry in matrices. Printing from camera-ready copy forces brevity on individual chapters but all are extensively referenced (up to 1980). This volume will find a useful place in the library. .I. C. Earnshaw TheSocio-Economiclmpactof Microelectronics. EditedbyJ. Berting. S. C. MillsandH. WinterSberger. Pp. 267. Pergamon Press, Oxfordforthe European Coordination Centre for Research and Documentation in SocialSciences. 1980. f22.25.
The seventeen papers collected in this book were presented at an international conference of fifty researchers, from universities, trade unions, and private firms, held in 1979 in Holland. It was probably the first conference of its type on this theme, but so much has been published since then on the social impact of microelectronics that the arguments and information presented in at least half of the papers will be familiar, if not old hat. Some of the papers are, frankly, tedious, if not fantastical. (What can one make of such statements that ‘. the coming automation will be complete’?-author’s emphasis. Or, ‘. electronic digital technology will introduce a revolution in our “Weltanschauung” comparable to the Copernican, the Darwinistic, and the Freudian revolutions’?) Some, however, are more informative. Juan Rada, of Facultad Latino-Americana de Ciencias Sociales, discusses the changing pattern of the international division of labour as new technologies are introduced and the subsequent implications for developing countries. D. Pappareila, of the Italian Metalworkers Federation, gives an intelligent account of the effects of robots and word processors on employment, skills, and control of work in Fiat; no philosophical flights of fancy here. But there are some surprising omissions. No-one, not even in the paper on the impact of computers on office work, has anything to say on the differential effects of new technologies on women’s work. The conference discussions were, no doubt, livelier than the papers. But the book is a mixed bag, a curate’s egg. K. Green
Brin.
This book was published in French in 1979 and has now been translated into English. In the short space of 134 pages, many of which contain large, clear diagrams, every conceivable contribution which the seamight make to our energy supply has been discussed.Necessarily, therefore, the treatment tends to be superficial, although it is easy to read, and the translator has done his work well. It makes an excellent bed-side book for politicians, administrators, and that section of the general public which wishes to be informed about the general issues,without being swamped by too detailed discussion of technical problems. After the preface, which discusses the world’s energy requirements, the book divides into two sections. The first, in three chapters, discussesthe sea and conventional forms of energy, including such matters as the production of oil and coal at sea, seatransport of energy, pollution by hydrocarbons, and the use of sea-water for cooling power. The second concentrates on the physical energies of the sea, which means wind, tide, thermal, wave, and sea-current energy. This reviewer feels the chapter on wind energy used by sailing vessels to be anomalous in this context. The space could have been better used to produce greater detail in other chapters; for example in the actual construction problems of the various energy devices. R. T. Sever-n Hydrogen Power. An Introduction to Hydrogen Energy and its Applications by L. 0. Williams. Pp. 200. Pergamon Press, Oxford. 1980. Hard cover fll.00, Flexi cover f4.50
Over the last decade it has become fashionable to imagine that hydrogen will become an environmentally acceptable alternative energy source, which will gradually fill the gap left by our diminishing reserves of fossil fuels. This is a misleading notion for, at best, hydrogen offers a possibly convenient means of storing energy. Fortunately, as the title indicates, this book avoids this trap, emphasising as it does the production and uses of hydrogen power. Hydrogen Power consists of 7 chapters, the first koncerning Historical Background, Chemical and Physical Properties, and Industrial Uses-contain little information which would be new to readers having a basic training in chemistry. Chapter 4 (Methods of Production) is more comprehensive and more useful, although 7 pages of equations summarising (unsuccessful) attempts to decompose water thermochemically seems rather excessive. Chapters 5 and 6 (Hydrogen Trans-
40
portation, and Hydrogen on (sic) an Energy Carrier) are the most interesting in the book. Overall, this book is disappointing. Apart from some factual errors in the early chapters, its main failing is a lack of balance in considering hydrogen as an alternative source of power, especially in relation to other transportation fuels. R. Burch
Engineering Materials: An Introduction to theirPropertiesandApplicationsby MichaelF.AshbyandDavidR. H. Jones. Pp. 278. Pergamon Press, Oxford, 7980. Hard coverf 15.00, FlexicoverM. 75.
It is essential that engineering students are introduced not only to metals but to the spectrum of engineering materials. This book, based on twenty-seven lectures, is a further indication that such teaching is on the increase. It is organised primarily on the basis of material properties and after dealing briefly with price and availability is concerned predominantly with bulk mechanical and surface properties. It is divided into sections each dealing with a set of related properties: for example, yield strength, tensile strength, hardness, and ductility are considered together as also are oxidation and corrosion. Each section is similarly structured commencing with definition and description of the properties, followed by an introduction to the underlying basic science, and concluding with at least one case-study illustrating practical usage. The book is written from the point of view of the materials scientist rather than the engineer, basic science accounting for about half the text. In practice, the selection of materials embraces many inter-related factors, quantifiable materials parameters with which the case studies are primarily concerned being but one, albeit important, aspect. The text is clear and concise, well illustrated, and containing useful tabulated data, with links established between properties and applications, if only in a limited way. D. G. Smith ChemicalandBiochemicalApplicktionsof Lasers.Vol.5. EditedbyC. BradleyMoore. Pp. 287.AcademicPress, New York. 1980.
$23.00. This is the latest in a now well-known series which is ‘intended to preview rather than review research using lasers’; the question arises of the audience envisaged. A preview presumably is intended to chart likely future progress and direct attention to outstanding problems. The afficionado will already appreciate these aspects and the complete outsider would be unlikely to be helped. In fact the seven chapters in this volume
vary considerably between preview and review. The first chapter previews the laser selective detection of single atoms where much basic work remains. This has great potential for isotope chronology but few archaelogists could do other than await a solution to the problems. The last two chapters, on the other hand, review techniques of laser purification of materials and of photochemical separation of elements in solution which are on the verge of commercial exploitation. Other chapters concern structural studies of transient molecules by laser spectroscopy, far infrared laser magnetic resonance, laser kinetic spectroscopy of elementary processes, and infrared laser photochemistry in matrices. Printing from camera-ready copy forces brevity on individual chapters but all are extensively referenced (up to 1980). This volume will find a useful place in the library. .I. C. Earnshaw TheSocio-Economiclmpactof Microelectronics. EditedbyJ. Berting. S. C. MillsandH. WinterSberger. Pp. 267. Pergamon Press, Oxfordforthe European Coordination Centre for Research and Documentation in SocialSciences. 1980. f22.25.
The seventeen papers collected in this book were presented at an international conference of fifty researchers, from universities, trade unions, and private firms, held in 1979 in Holland. It was probably the first conference of its type on this theme, but so much has been published since then on the social impact of microelectronics that the arguments and information presented in at least half of the papers will be familiar, if not old hat. Some of the papers are, frankly, tedious, if not fantastical. (What can one make of such statements that ‘. the coming automation will be complete’?-author’s emphasis. Or, ‘. electronic digital technology will introduce a revolution in our “Weltanschauung” comparable to the Copernican, the Darwinistic, and the Freudian revolutions’?) Some, however, are more informative. Juan Rada, of Facultad Latino-Americana de Ciencias Sociales, discusses the changing pattern of the international division of labour as new technologies are introduced and the subsequent implications for developing countries. D. Pappareila, of the Italian Metalworkers Federation, gives an intelligent account of the effects of robots and word processors on employment, skills, and control of work in Fiat; no philosophical flights of fancy here. But there are some surprising omissions. No-one, not even in the paper on the impact of computers on office work, has anything to say on the differential effects of new technologies on women’s work. The conference discussions were, no doubt, livelier than the papers. But the book is a mixed bag, a curate’s egg. K. Green