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Man playing god
information and most could have been incorporated into the main text. Diagrams and illustrations are relevant and informative, but it is a shame that despite the authors extolling the virtues of colour photography at scenes of fires, all the photographs are printed in monochrome. The references at the end of each chapter have been carefully selected, with the majority having been published within the ten years prior to the book. Fire investigation has now come of age, and as a real science is becoming more mathematically based, incorporating the results of many years of research and development work in universities, industry and government establishments. "Principles of Fire Investigation" may therefore be one of the last books to be published which is able to give an authoritative and practical overview of all facets of the subject. For this, and many other reasons, it deserves a place next to Kirk's "Fire Investigation" on every fire investigator's bookshelf. FAS LEWIS MAN PLAYING GOD
The Modem Frankenstein: Fiction becomes fact. Ray Hammond (Blandford Press, Poole, 1986, 187 pp., index, ZSBN 0 7137 1823 4; £9.95). It is often observed that the novels of Jules Verne have in our day been largely translated into reality. Something of the same kind may be said about Mary Shelley's fictional story of Victor Frankenstein, the Genevese chemist from Ingoldstat University whose studies led him to discover the secret of instilling life into inanimate matter. Frankenstein created a monster which escaped and murdered its creator's brother and later, having learned something of the value of human companionship, returned after sundry adventures to its creator requesting him to put together a monster mate. Wisely Frankenstein decided after creating the female that this could be a recipe for disaster and he destroyed the mate only to be confronted by a frenzied monster vowing to take its revenge upon its creator on his wedding night. This melodramatic allegory of man's capacity to turn his creativity to destructive ends has re-appeared in various forms in films, radio and television, but the definitive version which is best remembered is the Boris Karloff film of 1931. In this interesting book Ray Hammond draws together the threads of literature, cinematic art, genetic engineering, reproduction technology and computer science with a fair reference to their literatures and points the moral for mankind's future. The manipulation of the genes coupled with the arrival of machine intelligence could lead to the creating of superman and the destruction of all that is human. "If no man allowed any pursuit whatever to interfere with the tranquillity of his domestic affections" wrote Mary Shelley, "Greece had not been enslaved; Caesar would have spared his country: America would have been discovered more gradually: and the empires of Mexico and Peru had not been destroyed". Here is a book-interesting, and the scientist.
topical and thought provoking-to
engage both the general reader ALISTAIR R BROWNLIE
TIME FLIES
Manual of Forensic Entomology KGV Smith (British Museum & Cornell University Press, 1986, 205 pp., ZSBN 0 565 00900 7, £1 7.50) This is the first book this century, and also the first ever in English, on the subject of forensic entomology. It is thus a very welcome addition to the forensic science library, and it is hoped that it will stimulate both a wider application of the subject, and also active research into many of its aspects. 289
The Modem Frankenstein: Fiction becomes fact. Ray Hammond (Blandford Press, Poole, 1986, 187 pp., index, ZSBN 0 7137 1823 4; £9.95). It is often observed that the novels of Jules Verne have in our day been largely translated into reality. Something of the same kind may be said about Mary Shelley's fictional story of Victor Frankenstein, the Genevese chemist from Ingoldstat University whose studies led him to discover the secret of instilling life into inanimate matter. Frankenstein created a monster which escaped and murdered its creator's brother and later, having learned something of the value of human companionship, returned after sundry adventures to its creator requesting him to put together a monster mate. Wisely Frankenstein decided after creating the female that this could be a recipe for disaster and he destroyed the mate only to be confronted by a frenzied monster vowing to take its revenge upon its creator on his wedding night. This melodramatic allegory of man's capacity to turn his creativity to destructive ends has re-appeared in various forms in films, radio and television, but the definitive version which is best remembered is the Boris Karloff film of 1931. In this interesting book Ray Hammond draws together the threads of literature, cinematic art, genetic engineering, reproduction technology and computer science with a fair reference to their literatures and points the moral for mankind's future. The manipulation of the genes coupled with the arrival of machine intelligence could lead to the creating of superman and the destruction of all that is human. "If no man allowed any pursuit whatever to interfere with the tranquillity of his domestic affections" wrote Mary Shelley, "Greece had not been enslaved; Caesar would have spared his country: America would have been discovered more gradually: and the empires of Mexico and Peru had not been destroyed". Here is a book-interesting, and the scientist.
topical and thought provoking-to
engage both the general reader ALISTAIR R BROWNLIE
TIME FLIES
Manual of Forensic Entomology KGV Smith (British Museum & Cornell University Press, 1986, 205 pp., ZSBN 0 565 00900 7, £1 7.50) This is the first book this century, and also the first ever in English, on the subject of forensic entomology. It is thus a very welcome addition to the forensic science library, and it is hoped that it will stimulate both a wider application of the subject, and also active research into many of its aspects. 289