166 Book reviews introductory material is repeated. A little co-ordination would have given much more coherence, to yield a book rather than a series of chapters. One of the middle chapters anticipates current prohibitions on the use of tributyl tin by discussing possible non-toxic methods of preventing fouling. However, the effects of tributyl tin on natural populations are not considered, and one interesting question is therefore not asked: given past experience, with other environmental contaminants, should we have anticipated that unwanted effects could arise when biocides such as tributyl tin are deliberately released into the environment? Acid Rain: What is it and what is it doing to us? By Fred Pearce. Penguin Books, London, 1987. Pp. 162, ISBN 0 14 052380 4. Price: £3"95. No scientific research is complete until it has been published. Scientists may perhaps be competent at writing for fellow-scientists, but are not usually considered to be very successful with wider, less-informed, audiences. Acid rain--never called deposition in this book--is of great practical importance, and involves political decisions and financial costs that affect us all. It is therefore highly desirable for laymen to become well- informed about it. This book has been written for laymen by a professional journalist on scientific matters, who is currently News Editor for New Scientist. How effective is it? The book is very up to date, with some references to events that occurred a mere six months before publication, and the author is clearly well aware of much of the current European research. The main themes are all discussed: smog and its effects on human health, corrosion of buildings and other artifacts, effects on fish, forest die-back and crop yields, the importance of other pollutants and of chemical interaction. Moreover, the doubts and arguments about rates and processes come across very clearly. The style is very different from that which most scientists would adopt, on at least three counts. The narrative is personalised a great deal: character A is lanky, fast- thinking and slow-talking; character B has developed a taste for big experimenters; what happened to picnickers in Oxfordshire one summer's day in 1976? Secondly, the style tends to be dramatic: the atmosphere contains a complex cocktail of chemicals, we should be frightened--which strikes me as singularly bad advice--and so on. Finally, the details of the scientific arguments are often not all that clear. Probably the details are irrelevant. With so much uncertain, the important point is to convey the tentative conclusions, likely or possible consequences of acid rain and possible means of alleviation. The book succeeds by these criteria, and I doubt whether many research scientists could, or perhaps would have wished to, have written it.

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Page 1: Acid rain: What is it and what is it doing to us?

166 Book reviews

introductory material is repeated. A little co-ordination would have given much more coherence, to yield a book rather than a series of chapters.

One of the middle chapters anticipates current prohibitions on the use of tributyl tin by discussing possible non-toxic methods of preventing fouling. However, the effects of tributyl tin on natural populations are not considered, and one interesting question is therefore not asked: given past experience, with other environmental contaminants, should we have anticipated that unwanted effects could arise when biocides such as tributyl tin are deliberately released into the environment?

Acid Rain: What is it and what is it doing to us? By Fred Pearce. Penguin Books, London, 1987. Pp. 162, ISBN 0 14 052380 4. Price: £3"95.

No scientific research is complete until it has been published. Scientists may perhaps be competent at writing for fellow-scientists, but are not usually considered to be very successful with wider, less-informed, audiences. Acid rain--never called deposition in this book-- is of great practical importance, and involves political decisions and financial costs that affect us all. It is therefore highly desirable for laymen to become well- informed about it. This book has been written for laymen by a professional journalist on scientific matters, who is currently News Editor for New

Scientist. How effective is it? The book is very up to date, with some references to events that occurred a

mere six months before publication, and the author is clearly well aware of much of the current European research. The main themes are all discussed: smog and its effects on human health, corrosion of buildings and other artifacts, effects on fish, forest die-back and crop yields, the importance of other pollutants and of chemical interaction. Moreover, the doubts and arguments about rates and processes come across very clearly. The style is very different from that which most scientists would adopt, on at least three counts. The narrative is personalised a great deal: character A is lanky, fast- thinking and slow-talking; character B has developed a taste for big experimenters; what happened to picnickers in Oxfordshire one summer's day in 1976? Secondly, the style tends to be dramatic: the atmosphere contains a complex cocktail of chemicals, we should be frightened--which strikes me as singularly bad advice--and so on. Finally, the details of the scientific arguments are often not all that clear. Probably the details are irrelevant. With so much uncertain, the important point is to convey the tentative conclusions, likely or possible consequences of acid rain and possible means of alleviation. The book succeeds by these criteria, and I doubt whether many research scientists could, or perhaps would have wished to, have written it.