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Russian-English translator's dictionary. A guide to scientific and technical usage. 2nd ed.
Book reviews Microelectronics: A Challenge for Europe’s Industrial Survival. By R. v Gizvcki and I. Schubert. Pp. 232. Oldenbourg, Munich, forthe EEC, 1984. DM 49
This is a quickly assembled report, rather than a scholarly book in the traditional sense, and thus shows signs of hurried writing; uses only limited sources, and lacks coherence. Nevertheless, it is useful in providing timely information and argument. The volume reviews much technical information-often neither digested nor digestible-about present and future products of the semiconductor industry and its commercial and research strategies. It concludes, in unison with many others, that the US leads in microelectronics, closely pursued by the Japanese and followed at some distance by Europe. Some useful comments are made and some mythology is dispelled. So, for example, the importance of close UniversityIndustry links is stressed, but the naive assumption that Universities can provide industry with ready-made innovations is happily avoided. Similarly, the myth that US microelectronics leadership is solely due to defence procurement is implicitly exploded and military purchases are put into perspective. The book does itself a disservice by spurious attempts at profundity. ‘The increasing integration of the components and functions of electronic circuits appears to go hand in hand with increasing integration of the components and functions of society’. The recommendations of better cooperation between European research and industrial organisations and improved commercial strategies are correct, though not entirely novel or easily executed. One conclusion which shines through is that a presence on the US scene is essential for success in microelectronics, for knowledge travels best ‘on the hoof. E. Braun Automation. The Technology and Society. By R. Kaplinsky. Pp. 224. Longman, London. 1984. Paperback f8.95.
We now appear to have moved into the third generation of books having automation as their central concern, each generation having certain common characteristics. The literature of the 1950s and 1960s was, with the notable exception of writers like Ben Seligman, generally optimistic concerning the economic and social impact of automation and was inevitably highly speculative in tone as the development of the relevant enabling technologies proceeded at a pace
Endeavour, New Series, Volume. 016&9327/64 $0.00 + .50. @ 1964. Pergamon Press. Printed
6. No.4. in Great
1964 Britain
slower than expected. In contrast, the outburst of writing in the late 1970stook place in a period of very rapid technical change, although the material produced remained, as Chris Freeman reminds us in the introduction to Kalinsky’s book, ‘ill structured and disorganised’.. If this book is typical of the third generation of writings on automation then we can expect a qualitative improvement of a substantial nature Much of the earlier literature on this topic was general (some would say cosmic) in its scope, and either highly empirical or frankly speculative. The great merit of Kaplinsky’s book is that it retains a breadth of interest but makes effective use of a suggestive theoretical framework and empirical evidence. This combination has produced a book which should be read by a wider audience than might be attracted by the rather prosaic title. R. Moseley Policy and Development of Energy Resources. Edited by T. L. Shaw, D. E. Lennard and P. M.S. Jones. Pp. 247. Wiley, Chichester, 7984. f 19.95.
Britain’s energy problems at the moment seem to have little to do with technology. How can the price of oil be maintained?. How can CHP be made more attractive?. How can consumers be persuaded to conserve? What subsidy should coal receive? How to weaken the power of the miners’ union? Will the public accept nuclear power?, and so on. It can hardly be said that the central problems of energy supply are technological, and yet this seems to be the message of Wiley’s new series ‘World Energy Options’, to which this book serves as introduction. Each book will provide a worldwide assessment of one energy source. If the introductory volume is an indication of the tone of the series, however, great prominence will be given to the technology involved, with passing asides to the really central issues of energy supply and use. There may well be a need for a series concerned with technical issues, but if so let it be modest enough to adhere to this narrow brief. The papers of the present volume mostly cover such enormous areas that they cannot hope to achieve anything but anodyne conclusions very much in keeping with the ‘energy consensus’. Let us hope that future books will do more to face up to the real issues. David Collingridge Guide to the Chemical Industry. Technology, R & D, Marketing and Employment. By William S. Emerson. Wiley-Interscience, New York. 7983. f28.95.
William S. Emerson has taken on a formidable task-that of presenting the chemical
industry in its many forms, from basic research through product development and patent applications to management and marketing, in a single 330-page volume. In his ‘Guide to the chemical industry’ he has largely succeeded, by describing this now greatly diversified industry in a readable and approachable form. This book is aimed at chemists and chemical engineers in academia and industry and is said to be ‘especially valuable to those making the transition from the academic to the industrial world’. It is perhaps lamentable that chemists in academia, and in the industry itself, often have little knowledge of how their work fits into the corporate whole. Emerson’s book aims to overcome this and highlights aspects of the industrydescribing topics such as industrial chemistry, polymer chemistry, and foreign and domestic (US) patents in some detail-and interestingly brings to the fore the interplay between departments that constitute some of the world’s largest industrial concerns. For those who believe that they understand the industry, the book provides a handy reference to these topics. However, it is written from the US standpoint and little attention is paid to the chemical industry in other areas of the world. Unfortunately, too, references direct the reader to many articles published in the US specialised media, and most of these are more than five years old! And the industry has changed considerably since 1979. Nigel Davis
Russian-English Translator’s Dictionary. A Guide to Scientific and Technical Usage. 2nd Ed. By M. Zimmerman. Pp. 544. Wiley, Chichester, 1984. f31.00.
Anyone who regularly reads or edits English translations of Russian scientific papers or books soon becomes aware of the limitations of the translators. Far too many tend to translate word for word, use incorrect English grammatical constructions, and make life difficult for the reader. Some even invent English words if they cannot find or do not know the correct one. It is thus not uncommon to find words like ‘discretization’ or ‘algorithmization’ in Russian translations. Pity the poor scientist who has to decipher such monstrosities in what may already be a difficult paper. To all such translators, and even to those who think they know it all, this book should be a boon. The author has collected together nearly 10 000 Russian expressions, words, and phrases that commonly occur but are often inaccurately or incorrectly translated in scientific papers. It is thus intended to supplement rather than replace a technical dictionary. All translators of Russian scientific texts should find it useful in improving their style
207
and clarity, and even the experienced translator will find it a sobering experience to browse through it and find the correct version of the phrase he often, unknowingly, translates badly. Reuben C. Glass A Dictionary of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics. By R. J. Lincoln, G. A. Boxshall and P. F. Clark. Pp. 298. Cambridge University Press. 7382. Paperback edition (1984) f9.95 ($9:95)
In their Preface, the compilers of this dictionary observe that the drawing together of various whole-organismal disciplines into the integrative subject Evolutionary Biology has opened up ‘a vast new literature with the inevitable plague of specialist terms which although relevant may be quite unfamiliar to the reader as they have their origins in other disciplines’. One might quibble with the omission of behaviour from the scope of evolutionary biology, but one cannot dispute that it would be a rare biologist who could get five out of five for the meanings of ‘acrodendrophilous’, ‘clysotremic’, ‘holaedeotype’, ‘phengophobous’, and ‘ptilopaedic’. Indeed, it would be a rare evolutionary biologist who had even heard of half of the words defined! (How many rocky-shore ecologists, for example, know that ‘clysotremic’ means pertaining to tide pools?) In all, some 10 000 terms are defined clearly and concisely, although coverage is somewhat patchy. ‘Estuary’, ‘necrophytophagous’, and ‘phytal’ are included, for example, but ‘lagoon’, ‘iliophagous’, and ‘mangal’ are not. Particularly useful are the 21 appendices which include maps of ocean currents and biogeographical regions; tables of SI units; acronyms and abbreviations; proof-correction marks and the Russian alphabet; and charts of the geological timescale, taxonomic hierarchies, marine depth zones, and sediment particle-size spectra. R. S. K. Barnes The Northern Light. By A. Brekke and A. Egeland. Pp. 770. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York. 1983. DM 108 ($42.901
This delightful, well-researched, superbly written, and magnificently illustrated bookabout two hundred photographs and drawings--is concerned with the Northern light or aurora, the beautiful and disturbing optical phenomenon observable only from the polar regions. It is both broad and-though nonmathematical-rtgorous, providing authoritative, fascinating, and often amusing coverage of the myths, the literature, the poetry and the observation of the Northern light throughout recorded history. Indeed, it reveals very clearly the enormous influence of this natural phenomenon upon the culture and traditions of the Scandinavian peoples. This breadth may be illustrated succinctly by listing the major chapter headings: the
208
Northern light in folklore and mythology; the Northern light in Norse literature; the Northern light-a source of inspiration; accounts of Northern lights in Scandinaviafrom Viking era to the Renaissance; the Northern light in Scandinavia during the eighteenth century; scientific aurora1 experiments, beginning in the nineteenth century; Norwegian aurora1 pioneers in the dawn of our century; the Northern lights as weather signs-and the aurora1 sound; Northern lights and geo-magnetic disturbances-their influence on daily life; aurora1 research as a tool to study the upper atmosphere and near space; the first systematic observations of the Northern light in Norway. John Latham The Left Hand of Creation. The Origin and Evolution of the Expanding Universe. By John D. Barrow and Joseph Silk. Pp. 256. Heinemann, London. 1984. f8.95.
Our understanding of the creation of the Universe has leapt forwards in the last two decades, to reveal fascinating insights into many of the properties of the Universe we see around us. It has been known for half a century that the Universe of galaxies is expanding about us at speeds increasing to the velocity of light at its outermost reaches. But major conundrums remain. Why is the matter of the Universe-the galaxies and their antecedents-so uniformly distributed on the large scale and at all epochs? Why are there lo9 photons in the present cosmos for every proton, why are there many more normal particles than anti-particles? Why are there ten times more hydrogen nuclei than helium nuclei in the primitive matter of the Universe from which galaxies and stars are formed. And left-handed in Nature! Are these apparently fundamental properties of our Universe just the result of some throw of a great cosmic dice or are they much more significant? The answers of some of these fascinating riddles are admirably covered in this book by John Barrow and Joseph Silk. In recent years it has become clear that a fusion of the results of astronomy and nuclear particle physics gives insights, previously unimagined, into the events of the early Universe spanning time back to first 1O-43 of a second. This book gives a highly readable account of our physical origins for the general reader. R. D. Davies
The Quest for Quarks. By Brian McCusker. Pp. 160. Cambridge University Press. 7983. f7.95 ($14.95).
Particle physics is in an exciting stage, and a number of books have appeared trying to give popular accounts of this excitement. In this book McCuskert gives an account of the discovery of the various elementary particles such as electrons and protons and includes a detailed discussion of the hypothetical particles called quarks, of which all hadrons
(particles which partake of nuclear or ‘strong’ interactions) are supposed to be made. The style is informal and the book is quite informative. However, his contention that free quarks have already been observed will be disputed by most particle physicists and I have serious doubts as to the wisdom of advocating such a view in a popular book.
J. N. Islam The Solar System. By B. W. Jones. Pp. 336. Pergamon Press, Oxford. 1984. Flexicover f Il. 75 ($19.50).
This book helps fill an important gap between the many popular books on the solar system and specialist treatises. Although intended mainly as an introductory textbook, it nevertheless provides a fairly indepth survey of present-day knowledge concerning the members of the Sun’s family. More than half of the text is devoted to the terrestrial planets (including the Earth and Moon). Individual chapters provide a comprehensive guide to what is currently known about the interior, surface, andwhere appropriate-atmosphere of each of these five structurally similar bodies. Both the Jovian and Saturnian systems are discussed in detail and the author ably summarises the little that is known about Uranus and Neptune. There are useful subsidiary chapters on several matters-in particular the question of the origin and end of. planetary systems. However, it is arguable that the lumping of Pluto, comets, asteroids, and meteoroids in a single chapter fails to do justice to current interest in these minor members of the solar system. This is both an authoritative and wellwritten book which aims to deepen the reader’s understanding of the physical principles involved. It is a pity that the author’s attractive text is somewhat marred by rather mediocre prints of a selection of the spectacular U.S. space mission photographs. F. R. Stephenson The Solar Granulation, 2nd Ed. By R. J. Bray, R. E. Loughhead and C. J. Durrant. Pp. 256. Cambridge University Press. 7984. f27.50 ($54.50)
The surface layers of the Sun exhibit a strong convective flow pattern, the solar granulation. Granules are polygonal in shape, 1000 km or so across, a manifestation of the convectively unstable region that resides in the visible layers of the Sun. Historically, the determination of the nature of granulation was not without controversy. It began in the 19th Century with the debate between Nasmyth and Dawes as to the geometrical nature of the granulatton, which was settled in the latter’s favour by Huggins in 1866; ‘granule’ was the term introduced by Dawes. In this century, controversy arose over whether granules are the eddies of a large-scale turbulence or are welldefined convection cells (as currently understood).
This is a quickly assembled report, rather than a scholarly book in the traditional sense, and thus shows signs of hurried writing; uses only limited sources, and lacks coherence. Nevertheless, it is useful in providing timely information and argument. The volume reviews much technical information-often neither digested nor digestible-about present and future products of the semiconductor industry and its commercial and research strategies. It concludes, in unison with many others, that the US leads in microelectronics, closely pursued by the Japanese and followed at some distance by Europe. Some useful comments are made and some mythology is dispelled. So, for example, the importance of close UniversityIndustry links is stressed, but the naive assumption that Universities can provide industry with ready-made innovations is happily avoided. Similarly, the myth that US microelectronics leadership is solely due to defence procurement is implicitly exploded and military purchases are put into perspective. The book does itself a disservice by spurious attempts at profundity. ‘The increasing integration of the components and functions of electronic circuits appears to go hand in hand with increasing integration of the components and functions of society’. The recommendations of better cooperation between European research and industrial organisations and improved commercial strategies are correct, though not entirely novel or easily executed. One conclusion which shines through is that a presence on the US scene is essential for success in microelectronics, for knowledge travels best ‘on the hoof. E. Braun Automation. The Technology and Society. By R. Kaplinsky. Pp. 224. Longman, London. 1984. Paperback f8.95.
We now appear to have moved into the third generation of books having automation as their central concern, each generation having certain common characteristics. The literature of the 1950s and 1960s was, with the notable exception of writers like Ben Seligman, generally optimistic concerning the economic and social impact of automation and was inevitably highly speculative in tone as the development of the relevant enabling technologies proceeded at a pace
Endeavour, New Series, Volume. 016&9327/64 $0.00 + .50. @ 1964. Pergamon Press. Printed
6. No.4. in Great
1964 Britain
slower than expected. In contrast, the outburst of writing in the late 1970stook place in a period of very rapid technical change, although the material produced remained, as Chris Freeman reminds us in the introduction to Kalinsky’s book, ‘ill structured and disorganised’.. If this book is typical of the third generation of writings on automation then we can expect a qualitative improvement of a substantial nature Much of the earlier literature on this topic was general (some would say cosmic) in its scope, and either highly empirical or frankly speculative. The great merit of Kaplinsky’s book is that it retains a breadth of interest but makes effective use of a suggestive theoretical framework and empirical evidence. This combination has produced a book which should be read by a wider audience than might be attracted by the rather prosaic title. R. Moseley Policy and Development of Energy Resources. Edited by T. L. Shaw, D. E. Lennard and P. M.S. Jones. Pp. 247. Wiley, Chichester, 7984. f 19.95.
Britain’s energy problems at the moment seem to have little to do with technology. How can the price of oil be maintained?. How can CHP be made more attractive?. How can consumers be persuaded to conserve? What subsidy should coal receive? How to weaken the power of the miners’ union? Will the public accept nuclear power?, and so on. It can hardly be said that the central problems of energy supply are technological, and yet this seems to be the message of Wiley’s new series ‘World Energy Options’, to which this book serves as introduction. Each book will provide a worldwide assessment of one energy source. If the introductory volume is an indication of the tone of the series, however, great prominence will be given to the technology involved, with passing asides to the really central issues of energy supply and use. There may well be a need for a series concerned with technical issues, but if so let it be modest enough to adhere to this narrow brief. The papers of the present volume mostly cover such enormous areas that they cannot hope to achieve anything but anodyne conclusions very much in keeping with the ‘energy consensus’. Let us hope that future books will do more to face up to the real issues. David Collingridge Guide to the Chemical Industry. Technology, R & D, Marketing and Employment. By William S. Emerson. Wiley-Interscience, New York. 7983. f28.95.
William S. Emerson has taken on a formidable task-that of presenting the chemical
industry in its many forms, from basic research through product development and patent applications to management and marketing, in a single 330-page volume. In his ‘Guide to the chemical industry’ he has largely succeeded, by describing this now greatly diversified industry in a readable and approachable form. This book is aimed at chemists and chemical engineers in academia and industry and is said to be ‘especially valuable to those making the transition from the academic to the industrial world’. It is perhaps lamentable that chemists in academia, and in the industry itself, often have little knowledge of how their work fits into the corporate whole. Emerson’s book aims to overcome this and highlights aspects of the industrydescribing topics such as industrial chemistry, polymer chemistry, and foreign and domestic (US) patents in some detail-and interestingly brings to the fore the interplay between departments that constitute some of the world’s largest industrial concerns. For those who believe that they understand the industry, the book provides a handy reference to these topics. However, it is written from the US standpoint and little attention is paid to the chemical industry in other areas of the world. Unfortunately, too, references direct the reader to many articles published in the US specialised media, and most of these are more than five years old! And the industry has changed considerably since 1979. Nigel Davis
Russian-English Translator’s Dictionary. A Guide to Scientific and Technical Usage. 2nd Ed. By M. Zimmerman. Pp. 544. Wiley, Chichester, 1984. f31.00.
Anyone who regularly reads or edits English translations of Russian scientific papers or books soon becomes aware of the limitations of the translators. Far too many tend to translate word for word, use incorrect English grammatical constructions, and make life difficult for the reader. Some even invent English words if they cannot find or do not know the correct one. It is thus not uncommon to find words like ‘discretization’ or ‘algorithmization’ in Russian translations. Pity the poor scientist who has to decipher such monstrosities in what may already be a difficult paper. To all such translators, and even to those who think they know it all, this book should be a boon. The author has collected together nearly 10 000 Russian expressions, words, and phrases that commonly occur but are often inaccurately or incorrectly translated in scientific papers. It is thus intended to supplement rather than replace a technical dictionary. All translators of Russian scientific texts should find it useful in improving their style
207
and clarity, and even the experienced translator will find it a sobering experience to browse through it and find the correct version of the phrase he often, unknowingly, translates badly. Reuben C. Glass A Dictionary of Ecology, Evolution and Systematics. By R. J. Lincoln, G. A. Boxshall and P. F. Clark. Pp. 298. Cambridge University Press. 7382. Paperback edition (1984) f9.95 ($9:95)
In their Preface, the compilers of this dictionary observe that the drawing together of various whole-organismal disciplines into the integrative subject Evolutionary Biology has opened up ‘a vast new literature with the inevitable plague of specialist terms which although relevant may be quite unfamiliar to the reader as they have their origins in other disciplines’. One might quibble with the omission of behaviour from the scope of evolutionary biology, but one cannot dispute that it would be a rare biologist who could get five out of five for the meanings of ‘acrodendrophilous’, ‘clysotremic’, ‘holaedeotype’, ‘phengophobous’, and ‘ptilopaedic’. Indeed, it would be a rare evolutionary biologist who had even heard of half of the words defined! (How many rocky-shore ecologists, for example, know that ‘clysotremic’ means pertaining to tide pools?) In all, some 10 000 terms are defined clearly and concisely, although coverage is somewhat patchy. ‘Estuary’, ‘necrophytophagous’, and ‘phytal’ are included, for example, but ‘lagoon’, ‘iliophagous’, and ‘mangal’ are not. Particularly useful are the 21 appendices which include maps of ocean currents and biogeographical regions; tables of SI units; acronyms and abbreviations; proof-correction marks and the Russian alphabet; and charts of the geological timescale, taxonomic hierarchies, marine depth zones, and sediment particle-size spectra. R. S. K. Barnes The Northern Light. By A. Brekke and A. Egeland. Pp. 770. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York. 1983. DM 108 ($42.901
This delightful, well-researched, superbly written, and magnificently illustrated bookabout two hundred photographs and drawings--is concerned with the Northern light or aurora, the beautiful and disturbing optical phenomenon observable only from the polar regions. It is both broad and-though nonmathematical-rtgorous, providing authoritative, fascinating, and often amusing coverage of the myths, the literature, the poetry and the observation of the Northern light throughout recorded history. Indeed, it reveals very clearly the enormous influence of this natural phenomenon upon the culture and traditions of the Scandinavian peoples. This breadth may be illustrated succinctly by listing the major chapter headings: the
208
Northern light in folklore and mythology; the Northern light in Norse literature; the Northern light-a source of inspiration; accounts of Northern lights in Scandinaviafrom Viking era to the Renaissance; the Northern light in Scandinavia during the eighteenth century; scientific aurora1 experiments, beginning in the nineteenth century; Norwegian aurora1 pioneers in the dawn of our century; the Northern lights as weather signs-and the aurora1 sound; Northern lights and geo-magnetic disturbances-their influence on daily life; aurora1 research as a tool to study the upper atmosphere and near space; the first systematic observations of the Northern light in Norway. John Latham The Left Hand of Creation. The Origin and Evolution of the Expanding Universe. By John D. Barrow and Joseph Silk. Pp. 256. Heinemann, London. 1984. f8.95.
Our understanding of the creation of the Universe has leapt forwards in the last two decades, to reveal fascinating insights into many of the properties of the Universe we see around us. It has been known for half a century that the Universe of galaxies is expanding about us at speeds increasing to the velocity of light at its outermost reaches. But major conundrums remain. Why is the matter of the Universe-the galaxies and their antecedents-so uniformly distributed on the large scale and at all epochs? Why are there lo9 photons in the present cosmos for every proton, why are there many more normal particles than anti-particles? Why are there ten times more hydrogen nuclei than helium nuclei in the primitive matter of the Universe from which galaxies and stars are formed. And left-handed in Nature! Are these apparently fundamental properties of our Universe just the result of some throw of a great cosmic dice or are they much more significant? The answers of some of these fascinating riddles are admirably covered in this book by John Barrow and Joseph Silk. In recent years it has become clear that a fusion of the results of astronomy and nuclear particle physics gives insights, previously unimagined, into the events of the early Universe spanning time back to first 1O-43 of a second. This book gives a highly readable account of our physical origins for the general reader. R. D. Davies
The Quest for Quarks. By Brian McCusker. Pp. 160. Cambridge University Press. 7983. f7.95 ($14.95).
Particle physics is in an exciting stage, and a number of books have appeared trying to give popular accounts of this excitement. In this book McCuskert gives an account of the discovery of the various elementary particles such as electrons and protons and includes a detailed discussion of the hypothetical particles called quarks, of which all hadrons
(particles which partake of nuclear or ‘strong’ interactions) are supposed to be made. The style is informal and the book is quite informative. However, his contention that free quarks have already been observed will be disputed by most particle physicists and I have serious doubts as to the wisdom of advocating such a view in a popular book.
J. N. Islam The Solar System. By B. W. Jones. Pp. 336. Pergamon Press, Oxford. 1984. Flexicover f Il. 75 ($19.50).
This book helps fill an important gap between the many popular books on the solar system and specialist treatises. Although intended mainly as an introductory textbook, it nevertheless provides a fairly indepth survey of present-day knowledge concerning the members of the Sun’s family. More than half of the text is devoted to the terrestrial planets (including the Earth and Moon). Individual chapters provide a comprehensive guide to what is currently known about the interior, surface, andwhere appropriate-atmosphere of each of these five structurally similar bodies. Both the Jovian and Saturnian systems are discussed in detail and the author ably summarises the little that is known about Uranus and Neptune. There are useful subsidiary chapters on several matters-in particular the question of the origin and end of. planetary systems. However, it is arguable that the lumping of Pluto, comets, asteroids, and meteoroids in a single chapter fails to do justice to current interest in these minor members of the solar system. This is both an authoritative and wellwritten book which aims to deepen the reader’s understanding of the physical principles involved. It is a pity that the author’s attractive text is somewhat marred by rather mediocre prints of a selection of the spectacular U.S. space mission photographs. F. R. Stephenson The Solar Granulation, 2nd Ed. By R. J. Bray, R. E. Loughhead and C. J. Durrant. Pp. 256. Cambridge University Press. 7984. f27.50 ($54.50)
The surface layers of the Sun exhibit a strong convective flow pattern, the solar granulation. Granules are polygonal in shape, 1000 km or so across, a manifestation of the convectively unstable region that resides in the visible layers of the Sun. Historically, the determination of the nature of granulation was not without controversy. It began in the 19th Century with the debate between Nasmyth and Dawes as to the geometrical nature of the granulatton, which was settled in the latter’s favour by Huggins in 1866; ‘granule’ was the term introduced by Dawes. In this century, controversy arose over whether granules are the eddies of a large-scale turbulence or are welldefined convection cells (as currently understood).