Book reviews

The Longman Literary Companion to Science. Edited by Walter Gratzer. Pp. 517. Longman, Harlow. 1989. f 17.95.

Old clichCs die hard - not least those vener- able saws which say that science is impe- mentrable to the outsider, and that scientists cannot write. Both are robustly and elegantly repudiated by this splendid piece of work - part anthology, part Baedeker, part browser- ie of science. The biophysicist editor, already known for his own literary skills, has done a wonderful job in assembling material, from biography, journalese, reportage, poetry, and other domains, and with a cast list embracing James Thurber and Robert Frost, Gustave Flaubert and Kurt Vonnegut, to display the scientific enterprise in its many guises. Gratzer’s interpolations are nicely judged too, with helping hands when they may be required, extra information just where it’s needed, and a fine sense of rhythm and pace. Readers looking for evidence of science as fun, science as intellectual enter- tainment, or science as a major axis of civi- lisation will find it here. But for me the book’s outstanding quality is its many- faceted portrayal of science as a process, science as a sometimes-inspirational, some- times-laborious approach towards what we term the truth. Everyone should have a copy of this book by the bedside.

Bernard Dixon

OPEC at the Crossroads. By Fadhil J. Al-Chalabi. Pp. 248. Pergamon Press, Oxford. 1989. f30.00.

Dr Al-Chalabi is an oil economist who was Acting Secretary-General of OPEC from 1983 to 1988. His book is a collection of articles on international oil trade and OPEC price policy. The introductory overview, which comprises one-third of the book, is a highly informative account of the initial suc- cess and subsequent difficulties of the OPEC countries in their pursuit of two incompatible policy objectives - maintenance of a high oil price and a high market share.

The author defends the OPEC price in- tervention of 1973 on the ground that a continuation of the oil companies’ policies would have led to an accelerated depletion of OPEC oil reserves for the benefit of the OECD countries. Although the price shock contributed to the global recession, it ‘trig- gered a long-term process towards a more balanced energy mix’. The OPEC price rises of 1979-80, on the other hand, were unjus- tified; they accelerated energy conservation and the substitution of OPEC oil by other energy sources. Dr Al-Chalabi maintins that the oil price should be kept low enough to ‘stimulate growth in world oil consumption

Endeavour. New Series, Volume 14, No. 3, 1990. 0160-9327/SO 63.00 + 0.00. Pergamon Press pk. Printed in Great Britain.

and discourage investment in non-OPEC oil and alternative energy sources’. With three- quarters of the world’s oil reserves, OPEC’s problems need not be permanent.

Bernard Gilland

Ben Franklin Stilled the Waves. An Informal History on Pouring Oil on Water with Reflections on the Ups and Downs of Scientific Life in general. By Charles Tanford. Pp. 227. Duke University Press, Durham and London. 7989. f26.80.

Book publishers these days concentrate in- creasingly on predictable winners - whether the well-targeted textbook with a guaranteed readership or the ‘Favourite Recipes’ type of product for the Christmas trade. All credit, then, when a publisher offers an idiosyncra- tic work with a likely audience so heter- ogeneous as to be indefinable. Such is this limpidly written account of an historic scien- tific experiment and its consequences from many different sectors of research. Begin- ning with the Venerable Bede’s account of the use of oil to calm a rough sea, Professor Tanford focuses on Benjamin Franklin’s 1773 description of the ‘sudden, wide and forcible spreading of a drop of oil on the face of the water’; and on more recent awareness of its relevance to living cells and biological membranes.

What is most unexpected and enchanting about this work of gentle passion, however, is the symphonic skill which the author has used in weaving together physics and biolo- gy, science and sociology, biography and philosophy. The outcome is a book that portrays more effectively than a dozen learned treatises the true character of science as an intellectual and essentially social activ- ity. It is a positive delight, and a book that should be read by all students contemplating a career in research. Students aside, I cannot think of any constituency - whether that of working scientists or what publishers call ‘the intelligent layman’ - to whom I would not warmly recommend this unique piece of in- tellectual adventure.

Bernard Dixon

The Teaching of Astronomy. Proceedings of 105th Colloquium of the International Astronomical Union, Williamstown, Massachusetts 28-30 July 1988. Edited by Jay M. Pasachoff and John R. Percy. Pp. 445. Cambridge University Press. 7990. f35.00; fJs$54.00.

For anyone engaged in the teaching of astro- nomy this must be one of the most useful books published in recent years. Divided into 13 parts under the headings of curricu- lum, astronomy and culture, the teaching process, student projects, computers, text- books, teaching aids and resources, concep-

tions/misconceptions, high-school courses, teacher training, popularization, planetar- iums, and developing countries, each part contains an average of nine papers. Most of them are of particularly high standard, pre- sented as they are by many astronomers, scientists, educators, and teachers whose names are justly renowned throughout the world for their skill and enthusiasm in im- parting their subject to students of all ages in universities, technical colleges, and schools, at all levels of knowledge and facilities.

Astronomy, in its use of so many scientific disciplines, is a most appealing science to students and therefore plays an important role in promoting public interest, apprecia- tion and understanding of science in general. Interest in the complex and fascinating uni- verse the human race finds itself in is increas- ing daily with a torrent of recent discoveries. It is timely that this excellent book appears when it does, the product of over 100 partici- pants in the first international conference on astronomy education.

Archie E. Roy

Energy and Nuclear Sciences International Who’s Who. 3rd Edn. Pp. 416. Longman, Harlow. 1990. f 180.00.

Since acquiring F. H. Books a dozen years ago Longmans have developed an important series of international reference books on science and technology. No less important, they have taken steps to update them reg- ularly. This particular directory was first published in 1983, with a second edition in 1987. The first, and much the largest part (400 pp.) gives biographical details, both personal and professional, of 3000 scientists and engineers concerned with new and im- proved methods of generating electricity and with energy planning and energy-related programmes, services and industries. In the second part the same names are presented again according to country and professional interest - energy conservation, energy stor- age, geothermal energy, etc. How far such work is comprehensive appears only after it has been used for some considerable time but a limiting factor is clearly the number of organisations and individuals who have trou- bled to respond to the publisher’s question- naire. In some instances where no reply was received entries have been compiled from available authoritative sources. Such entries are necessarily - and doubtless often de- servedly - brief.

Trevor I. William

The Chemistry of Functional groups. The Chemistry of Enones. Parts 1 and 2. Edited by Saul Patai and Zvi Rappoport. Pp. 1267. Wiley, Chichester. 7989. f285.00.

The Chemisfry of the Enones, one of the very valuable series ‘The Chemistry of the

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