The Encyclopedia of Physics (Third edition) edited by R M besancon,
Van Nostrand Reinhold, pp 1378, 34.50 pounds

Only a week ago, strangely enough, I was sorting my physics books into
those to keep and those to get rid of. The Penquin Dictionary of Science
(I think) was consigned to the wastepaper basket because I have virtually
never used it in 30 years. The Pan paperback A Dictionary of Physical Sciences
was kept, not because he had even been used but because it was only 15 years
old. Now I can dispose of it and keep the one volume paperback in the Oxford
Reference series instead. It apparently derives from physics entries in
the Oxford Concise Science Dictionary. The longest of the contributions
is perhaps a half-page, the shortest is no more than a line; accuracy is
high and no howlers leap off the page. It looks just as unlikely to be really
useful but, at less than a fiver, if it gave a useful one paragraph definition
just once a year its place on the shelf could be justified.

The Encyclopedia of Physics, which seems to have passed me by in its
earlier editions, is a very different kind of book. It consists of 350 or
so articles ‘carefully selected to give adequate representation to all branches
of the subject’, but not I note to quantum optics, optical bistability or
squeezed states nor yet string theory, chaos or fractals, although all three
appear in the Oxford book.

It has longish articles on mechanics, geometric and physical optics
and thermodynamics and a largely impenetrable one of antiparticles, as well
as perfectly serviceable one on cosmology, quantum electrodynamics and many
other topics. Quantum theory is, of course, here and it is very clearly
outlined by one of the long list of well-known contributors. Nevertheless
‘Measurements, Principles of’, turns out not to be a relative quantum theory
at all. Optical pumping appears but, if I did not already know something
abut it, what would I make of this entry: ‘Optical pumping describes the
transfer of order from a beam of light . to matter. Some examples are
the use of optical pumping to produce spin-polarisation of ground state
.. atoms’. What do I need to know before I use this book – and what should
I need to know?

Even if I have doubts about the utility of the ‘one-volume paper back
concise dictionary’ genre, its basis is clear. Look up a name, a concept
or an idea, and a brief paragraph summarises it. The word ‘dictionary’,
even at a pinch encylopedia, is not untoward. In Besancon’s book the length
of the articles is variable and their weight,for all the good intentions,
uneven, perhaps the best feature of the book is that each article carries
a list of references. But if that is the best feature, why not produce a
truly comprehensive list of topics with a definitive list of references
geared to different levels of need and inqusitiveness? The uneven articles,
except perhaps for a one paragraph definition, then become unnecessary.

This book may have a place on the library reference shelf but it would
be nice to know how often, and for how long, it will be taken off. If it
is for physicists, then it must be up-to-date and comprehensive. So it would
need to be produced at frequent intervals. If it is not designed for only
the phycists, then some of th articles are inappropriate. The bulk of this
edition looks as though it were written in about 1975 or earlier.

For me it is one more book not to keep. There is, of course, plenty
in it I do not know, but if I wanted to know it would I look here? I think
not.

Professor Les Allen is a physicist and vice provost of East London Polytechnic.

The level of the book is, as ever, not entirely appropriate for British
undergraduates. It embraces a good deal of A-level material as well as wave
optics and 20th-century physics and would not be suitable for every physics
course. Nevertheless, it is wonderfully well done; clear, interesting, well
laid out and set in a historical context.

Jones and Childers provide a good instruction to quantum mechanics and
atomic structure, and address current concerns such as lasers, holography
and elementary particles. Their last nine chapters also address modern physics
in a way that is much more inviting than Daphne Jackson’s Atoms and Quanta;
a book I wish I could like a good deal more than I do.

It is slim, decently priced by today’s standards and might in principle
have been useful. But what on earth is that 1961 helium-neon gas laser doing?
Why does she say that the proton and neutron are fundamental in the same
sense as electrons? Given the lack of ease of manner in the writing, why
would I wish to choose this book over several others that flow more readily?
It is a peculiarly dated piece of work, unlikely to arouse the interest
of the student in what is arguably the area most likely to arouse them:
a pity.

Contemporary College Physics suffers from none of these faults. Its
account of modern physics, together with the first 22 chapters would provide
an ideal volume for a foundation course, or even an access course, for those
not qualified at A-level for entry into a university or a polytechnic. As
both sectors strive to find new science students that might be very useful
indeed. Dipping K into it, I find an insight about laser speckle patterns
which I had not realised even after 30 years as a laser physicist; yet the
text is accessible in every sense.

Addison-Wesley has also recently launched Advanced Book Classics, a
series of reprints that it says has come into being as a direct result of
public demand. The series includes Photon-Hadron Interactions by Richard
Feynman, which is well outside the undergraduate range, and David Bohm’s
The Special Theory of Relativity.

Little has changed in special relativity since the latter was published
and, by avoiding a mathematical approach, Bohm offers clear understanding
of what the theory means. Read side by side with a somewhat more formal
course of lectures, this would be an admirable introduction to the subject.
Fortunately for the undergraduate, the volume has a layout and print which
makes it immensely easy to read. The Feynman book, however, appears to be
photo-ready copy which looks a good deal less than wonderful.

Relativity is also served in the Dover reprint of A. Shadowitz’s Special
Relativity. Its main strength must be value for money, for it is unlikely
to be the first choice of text on the subject.

Also in the Dover series is Wave Phenomena by Dudley H. Towne, a book
which passed me by when first published in 1967. That is a pity because
it is very good and could readily be used for all aspects of waves both
scalar and in a more formal electromagnetic sense, and indeed for aspects
of strings, planes and sound waves in general. It is comprehensive and comprehensible,
very pleasantly written and wonderfully well priced. A good book.

Another just reissued in the same series is Fourier Series and Orthogonal
Functions by Harry F. Davis which, for not dissimilar reasons, is at the
very least well worth looking through.

Femtophysics: A Short Course on Particle Physics is based on a series
of lectures that M. G. Bowler gave in Oxford. It does not include, as Bowler
is at pains to explain, grand unified theories nor supergravity and superstrings,
but reviews those aspects of particle physics he considers to be established.

Bowler’s lectures were, however, at an advanced level. There are probably
a few third-year options that could make use of the book, and for these
it looks to a complete duffer on the subject as if the text would be useful
despite its unhelpful title and terse approach. Its concern is the underlying
physics, and Bowler has, wherever possible, avoided formal mathematics beyond
volume integration and matrix multiplication, which makes the book appealing.

Fundamentals of Nuclear Physics by N. A. Jelley is aimed at final-year
undergraduates and attempts to bridge the gap between undergraduate and
graduate textbooks. It reads easily, but would need to follow a good foundation
course built on a more elementary text to be useful for most undergraduates.

Introduction to Nuclear Reactions by G. R. Satchler again provides more
than one probably needs to know on the subject at undergraduate level. Although
the book is aimed at the undergraduate or postgraduate student, I have the
suspicion that it would suit the first-year postgraduate better than the
undergraduate; but it is well done. This is the second edition of the book
first published in 1980 and includes some changes in the text and an updating
of references.

A root-and-branch attempt to meet the undergraduate mainstream in one
clear text characterises the intentions of H. P. Myers in Introductory Solid
State Physics. He covers the basic concepts and uses simple models to investigate
real solids but at the same time connects with current research. As well
as covering the traditional Kittel territory, the style and coverage is
very here and now.

Introduction to Quantum Mechanics by B. H. Bransden and C. J. Joachain
is a careful, comprehensive text of a traditional kind; no better and no
worse than a large number of other books on undergraduate quantum mechanics.
It might well appeal to many, although I can find no characteristic that
picks it out as being exceptional.

Finally, a word of explanation. For last year’s annual review of physics
books, I was sent a reprint edition of one of my own and tossed up for days
whether to review it. I decided in the end that, although it was not really
suitable for undergraduates, the opening chapters might be useful in departments
teaching an option in laser physics and cheerfully wrote ‘That’s what I
claim anyway. But then, we all know what Mandy Rice Davies said, don’t we?’
Unhappily this little witticism was dropped, presumably by a subeditor either
weary of the quote or not knowing what I was on about. People have since
accused me of plugging my own book without admitting it was mine: give us
a break.

Contemporary College Physics by E. R. Jones and R. L. Childers, Addison-Wesley,
pp 930, Pounds sterling 45.85

Atoms and Quanta by D. F. Jackson, Surrey UP, pp 215, Pounds sterling
15.95 pbk Photon-Hadron

Interactions by R. P. Feynman, Addison-Wesley, pp 282, Pounds sterling
24.25

The Special Theory of Relativity by D. Bohm, Addison-Wesley, pp 236,
Pounds sterling 24.25

Special Relativity by A. Shadowitz, Constable, pp 203, Pounds sterling
5.05 pbk

Wave Phenomena by D. H. Towne, Constable, pp 482, Pounds sterling 9.30
pbk

Fourier Series and Orthogonal Functions by H. F. Davis, Constable, pp
403, Pounds sterling 7.60 pbk

Femtophysics: A Short Course on Particle Physics by M. G. Bowler, Pergamon
Press, pp 207, Pounds sterling 21 hbk, Pounds sterling 12 pbk

Fundamentals of Nuclear Physics N. A. Jelley, Cambridge UP, pp 278,
Pounds sterling 35 hbk, Pounds sterling 11.95 pbk

Introduction to Nuclear Reactions, 2nd edition, by G. R. Satchler, Macmillan,
pp 318, Pounds sterling 30 hbk, Pounds sterling 11.95 pbk

Introductory Solid State Physics by H. P. Myers, Taylor and Francis,
pp 546, Pounds sterling 30 hbk, Pounds sterling 15 pbk

Introduction to Quantum Mechanics by B. H. Bransden and C. J. Joachain,
Longman, pp 707, Pounds sterling 17.95 pbk

Professor Les Allen is the Pro-Rector of the Polytechnic of East London

THERE is little question that this is the best book yet published on
the Strategic Defense Initiative. It records the events preceding President
Reagan’s announcement of SDI on 23 March 1983, and describes in meticulous
detail all the steps that followed. Sanford Lakoff and Herbert York do this
with an ease that makes the book as readable as a novel, and yet include
a useful 30 pages of notes and citations, an 11-page select bibliography
and an index.

The authors, a professor of political science and a professor of physics,
do not hesitate to make clear their judgement of what happened. We do not
have to wait for the final chapter for the denouement: this is no who-dunnit.

In the preface Lakoff and York write: ‘The project was initiated on
the basis of political rather than scientific judgement in a deliberate
effort to bypass the ordinary process by which innovations in military technology
are proposed, reviewed, and adopted . . . A popular but technically uninformed
President made a decision without consulting his own cabinet or the two
agencies of government with primary responsibilities for military and foreign
policy, . . . in the hope of promoting advanced technologies that would
remove the need to rely indefinitely on nuclear deterrence. The project
has demonstrated, as informed observers knew from the start, only that comprehensive
defen ses will not become available in the foreseeable future, . . . even
if they eventually do prove feasible, they will probably not be sufficiently
impervious to countermeasures to inspire confidence that defenses alone
can deter a massive nuclear attack.’

There is no great surprise in that judgment; what is interesting is
that the book itself contains no great surprises. Everything we thought
played a role is here; there seems to be little that the keen student of
SDI would miss. Edward Teller is also shown as we thought he would be; or
perhaps, should be.

Teller opposed the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963, which limited nuclear
tests, because it prevented the US developing nuclear-tipped antiballistic
missiles. And he also opposed the Anti Ballistic Missiles (ABM) Treaty of
1972, because it stopped the US from deploying ground-based interceptors.
It was also Teller who, in September 1982, lobbied Reagan for support for
the X-ray laser project because, he warned, the Soviets were making significant
progress in developing one.

A particularly interesting chapter relates to SDI and arms control.
This discusses, at some length, the failure to form a link between the ABM
Treaty of 1972 and SALT with regard to strategic defence and arms control.

Especially useful in this chapter is the authors’ discussion of the
various interpretations of the ABM Treaty. For example, the ‘legally correct’,
the ‘broad’ and the ‘new’ interpretations all attempt to demonstrate that
the development of an SDI system is allowable under the treaty.

It is good to see this argument carefully laid out in a book. Few people
doubt that, were an SDI scheme to be implemented, it would violate both
the ABM Treaty and the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which binds the US and
other signatories to using outer space for peaceful purposes. And if the
X-ray laser system were deployed, it would violate the 1963 Test Ban Treaty.
How broad can you get? One of the major thrusts of the book is revealed
by the subtitle: ‘How the Reagan administration set out to make nuclear
weapons ‘impotent and obsolete’ and succumbed to the fallacy of the last
move’. Lakoff and York develop this throughout the book. Their final sentence
reads ‘. . . every effort should be made to achieve political understanding
rather than to count on the faith so often betrayed in the past, that technology
can ensure national security’.

There is, they argue, no last move in defence: every system that can
be invented can have countermeasures mounted against it which will force
the first system to change and so on, back and forth ad nauseam.

A Shield in Space? ought to convince the US government, and even our
own, that the Strategic Defense Initiative was the wrong move. Regrettably,
President Bush’s recent request for an additional $1 billion for the programme
demonstrates that the lesson has not been learnt, and that we have by no
means even attempted to reach the last move.

*Enquiries in Britain to University of California Press, 10 Watlington
Road, Oxford OX4 5NF. Tel: 0865 748405. In the US, contact the press at
2120 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA 94720.

Professor Les Allen is Pro-Rector of the Polytechnic of East London.

Introduction to the Structure of Matter by J. J. Brehm and W. J. Mullin
hangs together as a piece, and I can see it being quite closely followed
for a whole first-year physics course. Personally, I would begin with the
second chapter on photons and only ‘do’ relativity if time permitted. The
book looks good and reads well. The text builds a case for the quantum theory
without a presentation of quantum formalism, and the mathematical needs
are modest. The book would provide a fine basis for quantum mechanics, atomic
structure, solid-state and nuclear physics.

It may be cheating for me to include Mathematics for Students of Physics,
but P. Bamberg and S. Sternberg’s volume is certainly a very elegant example
of the genre. Beautifully produced, it covers everything which the undergraduate
needs, including, by the end of the first chapter, enough knowledge of 2
X 2 matrices to go to a later chapter and recognise that Gaussian optics
is really the study of 2 X 2 matrices. It would be good to think that there
were undergraduate courses in this country which include Gaussian optics.
The treatment the authors give here is splendid. Anyone who doubts whether
lenses and mirrors still have a role to play in the undergraduate syllabus
could do worse than to follow the mathematical approach used.

The Oxford Physics series is a nicely produced, decently priced, series
of books. W. T. Welford’s book on Optics is now in its third edition, with
an added chapter on the detection of radiation. Otherwise, it is much as
before. It falls into the category of a book which could be used for a whole
course on optics and probably will be. I had hoped that Ben Bova’s The Beauty
of Light might be an engaging read and a book I could recommend to undergraduates
to read along with a formal text on optics or electromagnetic waves. It
is not; and I would not.

Also in the Oxford Physics series is the second edition of E. J. Burge’s
Atomic Nuclei and their Particles. The earlier version was published in
1977. In the interim, many fundamental achievements have taken place and
the revisions and additional material in this edition ‘bring the story up
to date’. It is suitable not just for the physicist but also for the chemist,
geologist or biologist taking a course covering basic science. As such,
it is unlikely to serve all the needs of the physicist. But it is nicely
written and a useful addition to the series.

The newest edition of the well-known Electromagnetic Fields and Waves
by P. Lorrain and D. P. Corson and F. Lorrain has acquired a younger Lorrain
to maintain the ‘book-for-the-course’ status. It is a complete and comprehensive
volume on the subject, nicely produced, and available in both paperback
and hardback. The authors divide it into shorter chapters than in the earlier
editions to make it more palatable for readers and more flexible for teachers.

Introduction to Physical Electronics by K. E. Lonngren is a book which
puts its emphasis on the physics of the process. I warm to anyone who can
write of ‘the several forms of transistors, the acronyms of which appear
to have been taken from a can of alphabet soup’. Side by side with a book
devoted entirely to devices, the combination might prove irresistible.

The intention of Routledge’s Student Physics series is to cover the
material required for a first degree course in physics in a series of concise,
clear and readable texts. Eight books are already published and the newest,
Statistical Physics by A. M. Guenault, is a likable and easy-to-read text
of appealingly finite length. The ground is well covered.

Classical Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics by C. J. Thompson is a well-produced
and comprehensive book that covers the material for statistical mechanics
and makes little or no assumption of prior knowledge of thermodynamics or
statistical mechanics. Unfortunately, it does not read very well.

For the average undergraduates taking a first course in relativity,
J. L. Martin’s book, General Relativity, is not the most appropriate. But
it is interesting, and if an undergraduate read the first four chapters
side by side with another text, they would gain a lot of insight which most
other books would not give. If they found the book accessible, and some
should, it could well be that it would lead them in an engaging way to cosmology,
black holes and gravity.

I doubt whether many undergraduates will read Clifford Will’s Was Einstein
Right? At first glance, there is little reason why they should. The appendix
alone is devoted to special relativity, while the rest of the book is on
general relativity. But those few who really get excited about their relativity
course should read it, because it is very good. For the first time, I understand
a number of the tests of general relativity. The book is a very good read.

The Dover reprint editions have, for a very long time, been admirable.
Five new titles have appeared. Statistical Physics by G. H. Wannier combines
thermodynamics, statistical mechanics and kinetic theory. It is accompanied,
presumably coincidentally, by T. L. Hill’s Statistical Mechanics. Both are
creatures of their time, but are solid, worthy and useful.

It is good, too, that R. C. Tolman’s classic, Relativity, Thermodynamics
and Cosmology, is now available. It is unlikely to be of very much direct
use to undergraduates, because its range is far too great, but it is good
to know that it is available. It is good, as well, to see that concise statement
of Special Relativity for Physicists by G. Stephenson and C. W. Kilmister
appearing in flexiback. Thirty years on, it remains one of the finest and
clearly written accounts of the special theory of relativity for nonspecialists.

A much more recent book which has proved its worth is Optical Resonance
and Two-Level Atoms. This is still essentially the only book that covers
the material although, to be fair, very little of it is suited for the undergraduate.

Introduction to the Structure of Matter by J. J. Brehm and W. J. Mullin,
Wiley, pp 912, Pounds sterling 19.95 hbk Pounds sterling 40.40 cloth.

Mathematics for Students of Physics 1 by P. Bamberg and S. Sternberg,
Cambridge UP, pp 405, Pounds sterling 40.

Optics by W. T. Welford, Oxford UP, pp 155, Pounds sterling 8.95 pbk.

The Beauty of Light by Ben Bova, Wiley, pp 350, Pounds sterling 16.50.

Atomic Nuclei and their Particles by E. J. Burge, Oxford UP, pp 208,
Pounds sterling 9.95 pbk.

Electromagnetic Fields and Waves by P. Lorrain, D. P. Corson and F.
Lorrain, W. H. Freeman, pp 754, Pounds sterling 34.95 hbk, Pounds sterling
19.95 pbk.

Introduction to Physical Electronics by K. E. Lonngren, Allyn and Bacon,
pp318, Pounds sterling 50 hbk, Pounds sterling 15.95 pbk.

Statistical Physics by A. M. Guenault, Routledge and Kegan Paul, pp
186, Pounds sterling 5.95 pbk.

Classical Equilibrium Statistical Mechanics by C. J. Thompson, Clarenden
Press, pp 213, Pounds sterling 20.

General Relativity by J. L. Martin, Ellis Horwood, pp 176, Pounds sterling
32.50.

Was Einstein Right? by C. M. Will, Oxford UP, pp 274, Pounds sterling
5.95 pbk.

Statistical Physics by G. H. Wannier, Constable, pp 532, Pounds sterling
8.75 pbk.

Statistical Mechanics by T. L. Hill, pp 432, Pounds sterling 7.95 pbk.

Relativity, Thermodynamics and Cosmology by R. C. Tolman, Constable,
pp 501, Pounds sterling 9.55 pbk.

Special Relativity for Physicists by G. Stephenson and C. W. Kilmister,
Constable, pp 108, Pounds sterling 2.95 pbk.

Optical Resonance and Two-Level Atoms by L. Allen and J. H. Eberly,
Constable, pp 233, Pounds sterling 5.55 pbk.

Les Allen is professor of physics and Pro-Rector of North East London
Polytechnic.