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The left hand of creation. The origin and evolution of the expanding Universe
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).
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).