Book Reviews August 2007

Country World Alison Uttley Faber & Faber, 1984 ISBN: 0571133282 Alison Uttley is best known for her Little Grey Rabbit books and similar stories. Country World: Memories of childhood is a collection of her autobiographical work telling of her early years, selected by Lucy Meredith. The book tells of how Uttley (née Taylor) was born on a Derbyshire farm in the depths of winter some way from the nearest village. But being cut off from the rest of the world was not so much of a problem: throughout the book we learn about the self-sufficiency of the farm, which was virtually a community in itself. Continued..

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Germs: a memoir of childhood Richard Wollheim Black Swan, 2004 ISBN: 055277314X Richard Wollheim is renowned for his works on the philosophy of mind and in particular its relationship to the visual arts. But even if you don't know about his philosophical work, you may well be fascinated by Germs: a memoir of childhood. This is not a typical romaticised view of childhood. It tell of how Wollheim, born in 1923, was often a sickly boy, mixing little with other children of his age. His parents were well off, but, as was fairly typical for such families, they also seemed rather distant. Thus much of his time was spent with his nanny or governess, and of course his books. Continued..

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Quantum gravity Carlo Rovelli Cambridge University Press ISBN: 0521837332 Mentioned in road to reality You'll probably know about the difficulty of quantising gravity, and of the arguments over the viability of String Theory as a solution. But what alternatives are there? Well the main contender is Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG). Carlo Rovelli's book Quantum Gravity gives a research level treatment of this subject. The first part of the book looks at general relativity, classical mechanics and quantum theory, including quantum field theory. However, these chapters don't try to teach the reader these subjects. Rather they provide a new way of looking at them for readers who have already devoted some time to studying them. Continued..

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Quantum Physics:Illusion or Reality Alistair Rae Cambridge University Press, 1986 ISBN: 0521467160 Mentioned in Local Realism The interpretation of quantum theory is often presented as an obscure topic, with links to mystical philosophies. Alistair Rae's Quantum Physics:Illusion or reality? is a non-technical introduction to the subject and does a lot to clear up the mysteries. He starts with by looking at the dual particle/wave nature of light and matter, and in particular experiments involving the polarisation of light. Chapter 3 on Bell's inequalities has a few equations, but they are all fairly simple. Rae then gets on to the different interpretations of quantum theory, pointing out that they all tend to have similar flaws. Continued..

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Virtual Reality Sean Grady Facts on file, 2003 ISBN: 0816046867 Virtual Reality is a topic about which there has been plenty of hype. Somehow it has never had the 'killer app.' it needs, although plenty of VR systems have been developed. In Virtual Reality: Simulating and Enhancing the World with Computers Sean M. Grady describes some of these systems. The book starts with an overview of the subject and moves on to look at the technology and programming which is required. Grady then describes how people can interact with such systems - head mounted displays, gloves and trackers as well as larger, more immersive systems. Continued..

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Cellular automata machines Tommaso Toffoli and Norman Margolus MIT Press, 1987 ISBN: 0262200600 Cellular Automata (CA's) such as the Game of Life are well known, but if you want to look further into the subject then you should take a look at Cellular automata machines : a new environment for modeling by Tommaso Toffoli and Norman Margolus. The first part of the book gives a short overview of the field. The book then gets on to the different types of CA's and how they can be implemented, including a look at how to include randomness in your modelling. The third part of the book deals with different physical systems which can be modelled with CA's. These include diffusion, fluid dynamics and ballistic computers as well as collective phenomena such as Ising systems and spin glasses. Continued..

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Forerunners of Darwin Bentley Glass ,Owsei Temkin and William J Straus John Hopkins, 1959 ISBN: 0801802229 Forerunners of Darwin is a collection of essays looking at what was written about evolution before Darwin published his theory. Following a substantial introduction, the book has two main parts, dealing with the 18th and 19th centuries respectively. The 18thcentury part has essays on some of the main writers on the subject of this period, such as Maupertuis, Diderot, Linnaeus and Herder. The 19thcentury part deals less with individual writers, and more with considerations of some of the philososophical ideas of evolution and the objections to them, including plenty of discussion of the idea that 'Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny'. Continued..

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Physics and chance Lawrence Sklar Cambridge University Press, 1993 ISBN: 0521558816 People don't tend to think of thermodynamics as a subject for philosophising - at least not compared to quantum theory. In Physics and chance : philosophical issues in the foundations of statistical mechanics Lawrence Sklar tries to redress the balance. The book starts with a look at early ideas on the nature of thermodynamics, such as those of Boltzmann, together with criticisms of them. There is then a chapter on the nature of probability. Sklar then moves on to equilibrium thermodynamics, showing that it has quite a few foundational problems - but that those of non-equilibrium thermodynamics are quite a bit worse. Continued..

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In Search of the ultimate building blocks Gerard 't Hooft Cambridge University Press ISBN: 0521550831 In Search of the ultimate building blocks by Gerard 't Hooft gives a concise look at the development of particle physics at the end of the 20th century. The first few chapters give a simple introduction to some of the basics of modern physics, but I don't think that this is a book for the complete beginner, since it quickly moves on to more advanced material. Although this is dealt with in a non-technical way, I feel that there isn't enough detail for a reader without at least a little previous knowledge of the subject. Continued..

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Anatomy of Restlessness Bruce Chatwin Jonathan Cape, 1996 ISBN: 0224042920 Anatomy of Restlessness is a collection of articles and short stories written by Bruce Chatwin, who died in 1989. During his life Chatwin pursued several careers including those of art critic and travel writer. This meant that he got a look into the collecting habits of the rich and famous, but he was also fascinated by the life of the nomad, with a minimum of possessions. This gave him a unique insight into the contrasts between the two, and in his article The Morality of Things he explores where our acquisitive tendencies originated. Continued..

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Truth: A Guide for the Perplexed Simon Blackburn Penguin, 2005 ISBN: 0141014253 Philosophers have always been wary of the idea of 'absolute truth', but can one express a reasonable scepticism and yet avoid the 'anything goes' of postmodernism? In 'Truth: A Guide for the Perplexed', Simon Blackburn guides the reader through such issues. The book is based on a series of eight Gifford lectures that Blackburn gave in Glasgow in 2004. As such it is more of a discussion of the issues, rather than trying to give any definite answers, although at the end Blackburn does express a hope that those arguing about such issues will find much more common ground. Continued..

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Exploring Mercury: The Iron Planet Robert Strom and Ann Sprague Springer, 2003 ISBN: 1852337311 Considering the large number of planetary missions in the last few decades it may come as a surprise that it's over 30 years since a probe had a look at Mercury - Mariner 10 in the early 1970's. Exploring Mercury, the iron planet by Robert Strom and Ann Sprague shows that scientists with an interest in the planet haven't been idly waiting for the new Messenger mission to get there - Earth based observations together with new ways of processing the Mariner 10 data have produced plenty of new information. Continued..

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Redesigning Humans Gregory Stock Profile Books, 2002 ISBN: 1861972423 Many people feel uneasy with new genetic technologies, and in particular feel that human germline manipulation should not be allowed. In Redesigning Humans: Choosing our Children's Genes Gregory Stock sees this as too much of a knee-jerk reaction. He considers such germinal choice technology (GCT) as a continuation of the efforts parents have made to do the best for their children, and believes that such prospective parents won't be put off by laws based on some vague uneasiness. Some will find a way to get such technology, and then others will feel compelled to follow suit - or else face the consequence of having to explain to their children why they were born at a disadvantage. Continued..

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The hunt for Zero Point Nick Cook Century, 2001 ISBN: 0712669531 Several books I've read have used anti-gravity as a fictional example of a secret research project, and this made me wonder how much truth there was behind the fiction. In The hunt for Zero Point Nick Cook examines the evidence for such a project. He details work done in Germany, in particular in secret Nazi laboratories, and explains how this work was transferred to the USA after the war, leading to an anti-gravity 'buzz' in the mid-1950's - which for some reason faded away. Cook goes on to look at how anti-gravity technology might actually be incorporated in current aircraft. Continued..

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Unknown Quantity John Derbyshire Atlantic Books, 2006 ISBN: 9781843545699 X: The unknown quantity. But how did the idea of using letters to represent numbers in this way originate. That's one of the questions that John Derbyshire investigates in Unknown Quantity A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra. He looks at the work of early writers such as Diophantus, and describes how the development of the subject continued in the Arabic world. The book then moves on to the work done following the Renaissance in Europe, and in particular the solution of polynomial equations of one variable, leading to the work of Abel and Galois showing the insolubility of the quintic. Continued..

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Thermodynamics and an introduction to thermostatistics Herbert B Callen Wiley, 1985 ISBN: 0471862568 Mentioned in Absolute zero Most people learning thermodynamics probably want to do so for practical reasons. My feeling is that the subject is important from a philosophical point of view. Thermodynamics, and an introduction to thermostatistics by H.B. Callen is suitable for those with either view, since it gives a solid grounding in thermodynamics, but always keeping in mind the deeper questions of the subject. Part I of the book deals with classical thermodynamics - unlike most such books which emphasise the microscopic explanation of the subject. Part II, on statistical mechanics, gets on to this aspect of thermodynamics. Part III is a short section on foundational questions. Continued..

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The Watch on the Heath Keith Thomson HarperCollins, 2005 ISBN: 0007133138 In his book Natural Theology, William Paley used the analogy of a watch to argue that living things must have had a designer. In The Watch on the Heath Keith Thomson looks at the context in which Paley's arguments were put forward. Thomson describes the work of earlier writers such as John Ray, Thomas Burnet and many more. There's a chapter on how Robert Plot struggled to make sense of fossils and a look at the different ideas of how to explain geological strata. Thomson also looks at those who came after Paley - Lyell, Buckland, and Charles Darwin himself, who was strongly influenced by Paley's book. Continued..

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