The Telescopeby Geoff AndersonPrinceton, N.J.: PrincetonUniversity Press, 2007Hardcover, 248 pp., $29.50

This book not only covers the histo-ry of the telescope but, more

important, it describes the most recentbreakthroughs in optical technologyand engineering. It also describes thenature of light in detail, without havingthe disadvantages of a textbook onphysics.

On the question of who exactlyinvented the telescope: Most books ontelescopes say that Hans Lippershey, aDutchman, was granted a patent by theDutch government in 1608 for an instru-ment consisting of two lenses of glasswhich magnified distant objects. Butauthor Geoff Anderson cites a referenceby an Englishman, Thomas Diggs, whoclaimed that his father, Leonard, in 1571had used a device to bring distantobjects closer, saying that he could seewhat was taking place in private places.(Perhaps this was history’s first spyglass?)

It is a popular misconception that thetelescope was invented by GalileoGalilei of Pisa, Italy, born in 1564.According to Andersen, the story of howGalileo came to make his first telescopeis as follows: Galileo was shown a tele-scope by a friend who happened to be agovernment official, who had custody ofa telescope given to him by an inventorwho wanted to be granted a patent forthe device. Galileo borrowed the deviceand copied it, making some improve-ments in the instrument.

Galileo is well known for many origi-nal observations, such as the discoveryof the four major satellites of Jupiter. Butalthough he observed sunspots, he wasnot the first to report them; the ancientChinese had beaten him to it.

At least one of Galileo’s findings,Anderson reports, is suspect. His illustra-

tion published in a woodcut shows theMoon at the half phase, with the shadowsplitting the lunar surface in half, andthere is a large crater right in the middle,where no such large crater can be seennow. This crater is possibly Albattegius,but may also be a mistake, a fabrication,or perhaps the fault of the printer.

The Telescope and LightAnderson does a thorough job of

explaining the wave nature of light, andhow it causes problems in precise tele-scope observations of the stars andcelestial sights, in the two main cate-gories of telescope, the reflector andrefractor.

One major problem is that the wavenature of light causes light to be disrupt-ed whenever it encounters an edge orobstruction in the light path. The edge ofthe telescope tube is such an obstruc-tion, as is the diagonal mirror in areflecting telescope, which directs theimage to the side of the tube to bypassthe observer’s head.

The reflecting telescope has a mirrorat the base of the tube to gather light anddirect it up the tube to the ocular, whichmagnifies the image.

The early telescopes were refractors,in which the main light-gathering mech-anism is a glass concave lens at the frontof the telescope, which forms a real

image. The light goes down to a smalllens in front of the observer’s eye, wherethe image is enlarged, and then to theeye.

Another problem is the non-homoge-neous character of the atmosphere,which distorts light passing down fromthe star to the telescope.

Since the very beginning of the tele-scope, astronomers have attempted toenlarge the objective, either the frontlens or the rear mirror to obtain a larger,unobstructed area of the main optic andthereby increase the resolution of thetelescope; that is, the ability to see large,sharper details of a celestial object. Thatis the reason for the race in modernastronomy for ever more gigantic mir-rors to gather more light from the celes-tial objects being observed.

As for the unsteadiness of the air, theonly remedy (until the discovery of thetechnique of adaptive optics, which Iwill describe below) was to observe onthose, often few, nights of the year whenthe atmosphere, or the seeing, wasgood.

Another recourse was to locate theobservatory on a high mountaintopwhere the telescope was above most ofthe atmosphere, the most favorable sitesalso being near the ocean. (Two suchprime sites are Chile and Hawaii.) Withbad, turbulent air, however, the chancesof someone at such an observatory see-ing an object at sharp resolution, andwith the limitations imposed by the dif-fraction effects of the light waves hittingthe edges of the telescope tube, are littleimproved over those of an amateurinstrument.

To see the wonders of the heavens,accepting the limitations of air turbu-lence and diffraction, Anderson statesthat a telescope of about 6-inches diam-eter is all that is needed. A refractor typeis slightly superior, although more cost-ly, with a long focal length that is, say,15 times the diameter of the objective

70 Fall 2007 21st CENTURY Science & Technology BOOKS

Exploring the History and ScienceOf the Telescopeby Charles Hughes

BOOKS

lens or mirror. Of course, a third method of eliminat-

ing bad air is to put the telescope wherethere is none—in space. The Hubble hasgiven us fantastic clear images of the uni-verse, to the very limit that the 90-inchmirror is allowed by the laws of physics.The problem here is the size of the loadin the Space Shuttle and the extreme costof putting a telescope in space.

New TechniquesChapter 10 and those following are

the most interesting part of the book, asthey explain the new techniques thathave caused a revolution in telescopeimaging.

These new advances have comeabout through the use of advanced laserand light techniques linked to the abilityof supercomputers, which were devel-oped out of the “beam defense“ tech-nology of the last 10 years, and declassi-fied at the end of the Cold War in the1990s.

How these advances work requireunderstanding how light forms images.Huygens and other scientists in the 17thCentury proved that light was a wave,and not a particle, but this idea was con-tested by Newton. (Newton had manyerroneous ideas about the nature oflight, as noted below.)

One problem with early refractor tele-scopes was chromatic aberration, thetendency for different colors of light tra-versing the telescope objective to fail tofocus at the same point. (Mirrors do nothave this problem; all colors focus at thesame point.) Newton taught that it wasimpossible to correct the objective of arefractor for this problem.

To correct this chromatic problemsomewhat, telescope makers increasedthe focal length of the telescope whilekeeping the diameter of the lens small.But this method of correction caused tel-escopes to assume grotesque lengths. Nodoubt readers have seen illustrations ofearly instruments, such as the telescopesat the Paris Observatory in the 17thCentury, that were 100 feet long, support-ed on high towers with ropes and pulleys.

In 1759, John Dolland provedNewton wrong by inventing the achro-matic objective for the refractor, usingtwo different types of glass sandwichedtogether to get most of the light to focusat a single point with only a moderatefocal length. Unfortunately Newton’s

authority had kept the development ofthe refractor back 50 years or more.

Getting back to how the wave natureof light causes trouble for astronomers: Ifyou observe a bright star through a tele-scope on a night that has good air trans-parency, or good seeing, you can not seethe star’s disc because it is too far awayto be resolved unless you make use ofthe advanced laser techniques.

Instead, you will see a ring like a bull’s-eye made up of light and dark concentricrings. The dark rings are caused by lightwaves interfering with each other, a wavecrest cancelling out a trough. The brightrings occur when the waves coincide andreinforce each other. This is termed a dif-fraction spot or an Airy ring.

Without the boost in resolution pro-vided by the new beam technology,even a large Earth-bound mirror cannotresolve the disc of a distant star. Thistype of telescope can resolve an angle ofabout 1 arc second.

To get an idea of what this means: Acircle is divided into 360 parts, each partcalled a degree. The degree is dividedinto 60 parts, each one called a minute.The minute is split into 60 seconds. TheMoon is about 1,800 seconds wide, andMars is about 24 seconds, when it isclosest to the Earth.

One of the largest stars closest to us isabout 20/1,000ths of an arc second,which is why the disc cannot beresolved even in a giant telescope. Thestar in question is the famous red giantBetelgeuse in the constellation of Orion,

400 light years away. Astronomers didfinally obtain an image of Betelgeuse,which is illustrated as a color plate inthis book (see photo).

Optical BreakthroughsOne breakthrough was the discovery

that if two or more telescope mirrorswere separated, the lateral distance sep-arating them acted as single mirror withamplified resolution. For example, two100-foot mirrors separated by 1 mileand connected together electronicallywould be equivalent to a mirror with theresolving power of one mirror that was 1mile plus 200 feet in diameter.

I say here “mirror,“ because largerefractors were abandoned as an optionin observatory telescopes a hundredyears ago. The largest refractor ever builtwas the 40-inch refractor at YerkesObservatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin,in about 1890. Large, heavy glass lensescould not be mounted on the front of atube beyond this size.

More recently, however, improvementsin mirror fabrication to make telescopemirrors light, thin, and deformable havemade it possible to make huge mirrors,which can be fitted together like tiles tobuild up a large mirror out of small, thin,very well figured segments. The overalloptical properties of the whole can becontrolled by computer-operatedmechanical fingers behind each segment.

Several of these monsters can be inter-connected electronically to make asuper mirror, increasing the size of thediffraction spot for the observer. Thus itcould give the observer the excessiveresolution needed to image a star likeBetelgeuse. However, the rough air isstill a problem.

Anderson explains how the new tech-nique known as adaptive optics solvesthe problems of turbulent air. It uses alaser aimed into the field of view of thetelescope, which probes the air mass,feeding information into a veryadvanced computer. This produces amap or model of the air turbulence andfeeds this model to actuators behindeach mirror segment, so that the mirrorshape is coincident with the air wavefront, thus producing a well definedimage of the star.

I recommend this book for anyonewishing to understand the latestadvances in astronomical science, aswell as telescope history.

BOOKS 21st CENTURY Science & Technology Fall 2007 71

Hubble Space telescope (STSci/AURA)

Betelgeuse, a red giant in the Orionconstellation, in the first image resolvingthe disk of a distant star. The star is20/1,000ths of an arc second in diameter.

The Electric Force of a Current: Weberand the Surface Charges of ResistiveConductors Carrying Steady Currentsby Andre Koch Torres Assis and JulioAkashi HernandesMontreal: Apeiron, 2007Paperback, 237 pp., $20.00 (Available inpdf format athttp://www.ifi.unicamp.br/~assis)

Prof. Andre K.T. Assis of the StateUniversity of Campinas in Brazil is a

fierce defender of Wilhelm EduardWeber, the collaborator of Carl FriedrichGauss in the determination of theabsolute value of the Earth’s magneticforce, and the author of the UniversalLaw of Electrical Action. On this orien-tation, we wholeheartedly agree. Onother matters, related to the deeper sig-nificance of the Gauss-Weber-Riemannelectrodynamics, we have maintained afriendly disagreement for some years.

In this new work, I find our points of dif-ference reduced to a minimum, and havediscovered much new material of interest.Dr. Assis has focussed this work on refutingthe charge levelled by Clausius, Maxwell,and others, that the alleged failure to detecta force between a current-carrying wireand a nearby stationary charge invalidatesWeber’s fundamental law.

In a sharply formulated summary ofthe current dogma in Chapter 1, Dr.Assis answers the argument againstWeber’s force law, following the discov-ery at the turn of the 20th Century thatthe positive charge seems to remainconnected to the lattice of a conductingwire, while the negative charge is putinto relative motion.

In Chapter 3, “Experiments,” the workof a great number of investigators, estab-lishing the existence of the Weber forcein the case in question, is brilliantly sum-marized. I found here material that wasnew to me, despite having paid closeattention to developments in the area.

While the evidence shows that thereare no grounds for denying the existenceof a force between a conductor and astatic charge, it remains a shame that,after all these years, a more decisiveexperimental demonstration of the exis-tence of the force has not been

achieved. Dr. Robert Moon’s 1958 pro-posal, never funded by the University ofChicago Physics Department, remainsexemplary of the sort of procedure thatcould provide a decisive proof (cf. 21stCentury, Fall 2004, p. 46).

Later chapters in the book are devotedto theoretical calculations related to theWeber force, including an original treat-ment of the resistive spherical shell. Anappendix, “Wilhelm Weber and SurfaceCharges,” contains a penetrating studyof Weber’s important paper in theElectrodynamic Measurements series,devoted to resistance measurement.

A second appendix, on GustavKirchoff’s derivation of the telegraphyequation, in which he demonstrated thatthe propagation of current in a wire wouldbe limited by the velocity of light, sets therecord straight that both Weber andKirchoff had preceded Maxwell by severalyears in this discovery. It might usefullyhave been added that Bernhard Riemann,in a paper dated 1858, had already recog-nized that the propagation of the electricalpotential in free space is retarded at thesame rate as the propagation of light.Riemann was the closest friend of WilhelmWeber and prized student of Gauss.

What Is Left OutWhich brings us to our criticism. It is

in matters relating to the historical devel-opment of the subject where the book’sshortcomings appear, not so much inwhat is stated as in what is left out.

Weber’s electrodynamic studiesbegan as an effort, as chief assistant toGauss, to establish the existence of theAmpère angular force. As Gauss hadnoted explicitly in his 1839 paper“General Propositions Relating toAttractive and Repulsive Forces Actingin the Inverse Ratio of the Square of theDistance,” the existence of the Ampèreangular force meant that the entire edi-fice of potential theory built upon theNewtonian structure would collapse.

It was no accident that Gauss devotedmore than 10 years of his life to inquir-ing as to the existence of the angularforce. The publication of the experimen-tal proof under Weber’s name in 1846,appeared, appropriately, in a volume

marking the 200th anniversary of thebirth in Leipzig of Gottfried Leibniz,Newton’s opponent on matters underly-ing this fundamental point.

It was James Clerk Maxwell who firstintroduced into the field of electrody-namics the false dichotomy between the-ories of action-at-a-distance and theoriesof propagation in a medium. Under thisfalse categorization, Ampère (who wasvirtual co-author with his dear friendAugustin Fresnel of the modern wavetheory of light), Gauss (the untiring, if alsocircumspect, champion of Kepler againstNewton), and Gauss’s students Weberand Riemann, are all classed as defendersof the action-at-a-distance theory!

Unfortunately, most among that smallcircle of modern defenders of Weberand Ampère have allowed themselves tobe trapped into Maxwell’s false dichoto-my. To oppose Maxwell, is thus, suppos-edly, to uphold Newton.

The proper treatment of the matterrevolves around a crucial point made byGauss in the 1845 correspondence withWeber, respecting the need for a rigor-ous constructible representation of theelectrodynamic propagation, a represen-tation which Maxwell failed to provide,despite what has been drilled into theheads of generations of physics andengineering students.

A rigorous solution to that problemstill awaits discovery. The difficulty doesnot lie in the realm of formal mathemat-ical representation, where most, includ-ing Maxwell, have looked. The solutionrevolves around the issue, identified byLyndon H. LaRouche, Jr., of the real exis-tence of the ontological transfinite.

Riemann’s remarks on the Newtonproblem in the posthumously published“Philosophical Fragments,” and hisattempts at formulating a theory of prop-agation of the retarded potential, comeclosest to the direction of a solution. Athorough familiarity with the work ofAmpère, Gauss, and Weber is an essen-tial prerequisite to fully comprehendingthose efforts.

Despite the noted shortcoming, thisnew work of Drs. Assis and Hernandesmay usefully assist in that endeavor.

72 Fall 2007 21st CENTURY Science & Technology BOOKS

Wilhelm Weber Defendedby Laurence Hecht

The Sun Kings: The UnexpectedTragedy of Richard Carrington and theTale of How Modern Astronomy Beganby Stuart ClarkPrinceton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,2007Hardcover, 211 pp., $24.95

What a delight! This is an enthrallingaccount of the personal lives of

the scientists who first demonstrated theSun’s dominant influence over Earthlyaffairs and laid the foundation for mod-ern astronomy and astrophysics.

And what timing! Just when the atten-tion of the world is focussed on globalclimate changes, Stuart Clark’s bookreminds us that the Sun is King of theSolar System, controlling events on plan-et Earth in ways that extend far beyondthe daily benefits of visible sunlight, andits reflection at night from the Moon andother objects in the Solar System.

Stuart’s book is rich in personal detailsof the pioneers who discovered that plan-et Earth remains closely linked with erup-tions on the Sun, billions of years after thisstar gave birth to the Earth and its sisterplanets. This is a fast-moving, accurate,and fascinating story of diverse personali-ties, their families, ambitions, hopes, andstruggles, their passion for knowledge, forawards, positions and recognition, andthe inevitable roles that pride, greed, jeal-ousy, and resentments played in decidingthe tragedies, fame and fortune of thefounders of modern astronomy.

The story covers a 209-year period,from William Hershel’s lectures on Dec.18, 1795, about the strange, planet-likefeatures that he had observed on the sur-

face of the Sun, until the eruption of aneutron star on Dec. 27, 2004 blastedEarth and the rest of the solar systemwith deadly, high-energy radiation fromthe supposed dead heart of a distant star.

It is probably no coincidence that Clarkuses historical events closely related to acurrent controversy about the Sun asbookends for this gripping story. Clark isa master storyteller and, as the author ofseveral astronomy books and the formereditor of Astronomy Now, he knows howvery little the scientific community reallyunderstands about the erratic star thatcontrols most events on planet Earth.

The story is built around the seeminglygood fortune of a 33-year-old astronomer,Richard Carrington, who was following ahighly disciplined routine of observing andrecording events on the Sun, when, at11:18 AM on Thursday morning, Sept. 1,1859, Carrington witnessed blinding whitelight from a monstrous solar eruption. Atabout the same time, the Kew Observatoryhad the good fortune to record a suddenrecoil of the Earth’s magnetic field, a find-ing that suggested an almost instantaneouslink across the 93 million miles of void thatseparates Earth from the Sun.

(The personal tragedy that befellCarrington, which is mentioned in the title,I leave to readers of the book to learn.)

The Kew Observatory recorded aneven larger disturbance in Earth’s mag-netic field the next day, when the fullforce of the solar storm reached the thirdplanet after travelling about 5 millionmiles per hour from the Sun, andengulfed the Earth in a blood-red aurora,wreaking havoc worldwide as “tele-

graph systems crashed, machines burstinto flames, and electric shocks ren-dered operators unconscious.”

The story unfolds, not in simple chrono-logical order, but with an event that is stillfresh in the memory of many readers: Aseries of violent solar eruptions thatoccurred 44 years later near Halloween of2003, soon after the Journal of FusionEnergy had published a paper on “Super-fluidity in the solar interior: Implicationsfor solar eruptions and climate.”

The most obvious theme of The SunKings is this: Earth is intimately connect-ed to the rest of the universe and ourdestiny is closely tied to that of the vio-lent and unpredictable star that illumi-nates our tiny corner of the cosmos andsustains life itself.

I do not know Stuart Clark personally,but I gladly give The Sun Kings my high-est recommendation, not only for itsentertainment value, but also for theinsight it provides into the foundationsof modern astronomy and the fragility ofour very lives on planet Earth.

Dr. Manuel is Emeritus Professor ofNuclear Chemistry, University ofMissouri, Rolla, Mo.

BOOKS 21st CENTURY Science & Technology Fall 2007 73

The Sun Rules the Planetby Manuel K. Oliver

The Virtue of Heresy: (Confessions of aDissident Astronomer)Hilton RatcliffeCentral Milton Keynes: AuthorHouse UKLtd., 2007Paperback, 409 pp., $22.95

Hilton Ratcliffe’s book is a breath offresh air in the stale confines of

popular science. His book is full ofideas, which he does not ask you tobelieve on face value, but to read, studyand, discuss. The current trend in sci-

ence-based books, in contrast, is tofocus on certain “facts,” as opposed toideas. The only thing that such bookscan by used for is as a preparatory textfor competing on Jeopardy, or for for try-ing to sound smart at a cocktail party.

The Joy of Fighting Dogma with Ideasby Gregory Murphy

The Virtue of Heresy uses a great dealof humor to attack the current dogmaticideas plaguing astronomy, such as darkmatter, dark energy or force, Hawkingradiation, and everybody’s favorite for-malism: the Big Bang. Ratcliffe commentson the notion of Hawking radiation,which is believed to be the radiationemitted from black holes, by saying that itonly occurs in Stephen Hawking’s head!

Ratcliffe’s main target in the book isthe Big Bang theory. This idea of thebeginning of the universe, he says, is nottrue and could not have happened thatway. Furthermore, he says, the Big Bang

theory does not even come close toexplaining how the really big stuff gotout there in space. He also attacks thestranglehold of the Big Bang theory onthe funding for astronomical research,which prevents any dissenting scientistsfrom getting telescope time or funds.

One gets a healthy impression fromthe book that it is necessary to questioncurrent theories—a refreshing outlook,given that the current prevailing wisdomis to “go along to get along.” Ratcliffe’sbook also encourages discovery, whichgoes well with his position as a fellow ofthe Institute of Physics in Britain, where

he is in charge of getting high schooland university students interested in sci-ence. In particular, he encourages youthto work through the orginal discoveriesof science.

There are parts of Ratcliffe’s book that Idisagree with: those that concern hisclinging to Isaac Newton’s mechanics. Iprefer the more pro-human mechanics ofGottfried Liebniz. Even with this dis-agreement, I found Hilton’s book enjoy-able, and so far it is one of the only sci-ence books published this year that reallyasks you to think about ideas, as opposedto repeating facts like a trained parrot.

74 Fall 2007 21st CENTURY Science & Technology BOOKS

An Ocean of Air: Why The Wind Blowsand Other Mysteries of the AtmosphereGabrielle WalkerOrlando, Fla.: Harcourt Inc., 2007Hardcover, 272 pp., $25.00

If one were to read the book jacket forGabrielle Walker’s latest work, one

would find promise of a interesting bookdealing with the Earth’s atmosphere. Inreality, the reader finds a book that con-sists of seven discrete chapters that arein no way connected, giving the readerthe impression that the atmosphere ismade up of only discrete features anddoes not work as a whole—which anygrade schooler knows is not the truth.

My main complaint about An Ocean ofAir is that it seems to be written more as agossip column than a popular sciencebook. Walker reports more about the per-sonal lives of the scientists that she is writ-ing about, than about their scientific dis-coveries. This was also the case for her firstbook, The Snowball Earth, in which thereader learns more about the running shoesof Dr. Paul Hoffman of Harvard, than abouthis discovery of the snowball Earth (the the-ory that the Earth was once covered fromthe poles to the equator in ice).

The real failure of this book, however,is that instead of uplifting and educatingher readers with a real discussion of ideasbehind the discoveries she writes about,Walker has chosen to present these dis-coveries as secondhand facts that might

be the answers for one of President Bush’sstandardized tests. The only people whomight learn anything from Walker’s pres-entation, in fact, are those who think thatAl Gore and President Bush are geniuses.

This book is a real disservice to theyouth of today, who are thirsty for ideasand want to work through real discover-ies. As an example to Walker on how topresent ideas, I point her to theLaRouche Youth Movement website onJohannes Kepler: http://wlym.com/~ani-mations/. She should visit the site andsee that in this time of crisis people needbig ideas not spoon-fed factoids.

Climate BlundersIn An Ocean of Air, the only two

chapters in which Walker even attemptsto explain anything scientific are thosethat deal with the global warming andozone hole swindles—two of the mostpolitically charged science frauds in thepast three decades. (The reader shouldknow that Walker is the Climate ChangeEditor for the British journal Nature.)

But in her rush to proclaim that thegreenhouse effect is real and very dan-gerous, Walker makes a big mistake inher discussion of the work of SvanteArrhenius (1829-1957), the first scientistto calculate how much temperaturewould rise in relation to increasing car-bon dioxide. She portrays Arrhenius as awild-eyed global warmer, like Al Goreor James Hansen. But the truth is that

Arrhenius miscalculated the temperaturerise, saying that temperature would rise3 to 6 degrees Celsius with the doublingof CO2, and furthermore that he didn’tthink this was a negative event.

It is interesting to note that Arrhenius’smiscalculated value is the same tempera-ture rise quoted by the IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change. In reality, theamount of temperature rise is only about.3 to .5 degrees Celsius for a doubling ofCO2.

Walker also doesn’t mention thatArrhenius believed that the increasingCO2 would be a benefit to mankind, byproducing the warmer climate thatwould be needed to grow the food foran increasing human population.

At every point in Walker’s book, shechooses to focus on the most nonsensical orirrelevant facts of the subject’s life, insteadof the ideas and discoveries of the scientist.The question Walker needs to be asked is, isher writing simply incompetent, or is this adeliberate effort to dumb down science.

At present Walker’s book should bereferred to as “bimbo science.“

An Ocean of Airheads: The GossipColumn Approach to Scienceby Gregory Murphy

The 100 Most Important ChemicalCompounds: A Reference GuideRichard L. MyersWestport Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2007Hardcover, 326 pp., $85.00

Intelligently presented with effectivegraphics, the author succeeds in his

stated intention of presenting the socialand economic impact of chemical dis-coveries on human history. However, theconcessions to green fascism on suchcontroversial entries as carbon dioxide,DDT, dichlorodifluoromethane (freon),and even THC (the active ingredient inmarijuana), are disappointing.

Not so long ago, chemistry was arequired course in American highschools, because of the recognition of the

subject’s importance to an industrial soci-ety. Today, when we are no longer anindustrial but an imperial/importer socie-ty, the attempt to teach an understandingof physical economic processes has givenway to instruction in rules and proce-dures—even in our science courses.

The author has brought a thoroughgrasp of chemistry, as well as consider-able knowledge of its history and presentapplications to bear on the subject. Hadhe also stuck to truth rather than popularopinion on the controversial areas, hewould have produced a less flawed work.Nonetheless, it would probably make anet positive contribution to any school orpersonal reference library.

—Laurence Hecht

BOOKS 21st CENTURY Science & Technology Fall 2007 75

A History of Chemical Compounds

“The World of Enrico Fermi” and“People and Particles”DVD format, 2007Distributed by the American Association ofPhysics Teachers, www.aapt.org , $19.99

This DVD, distributed by the AmericanAssociation of Physics Teachers, was

originally created for use in high schoolclassrooms in the 1960s, as part ofProject Physics, a Harvard Universityprogram involved in curriculum plan-ning. This is the first time the films havebeen made available to the public.

The Fermi film is very well done, withintelligent commentary and fascinatingfootage of Enrico Fermi, his wife, and hisstudents (many of them eminent physi-cists). Unlike many of today’s films forstudents, the music is unobtrusive and thepresentation presumes a thinking viewer.

Fermi comes to life in photos andthrough the comments of his wife andcolleagues. You also hear Fermi’s ownvoice explaining a point in a lecture.

The films give a taste of what it was liketo be a scientist at a time when there wasmore enthusiasm for ideas and science,and when a national mission, theManhattan Project, pushed individuals ofall ages to come up with new solutions totechnical problems—in a hurry. My onlycomplaint is that this film was not longer!

“People and Particles” is a very differentsort of film. It chronicles a Harvard PhysicsDepartment team at the Cambridge

Electron Accelerator that designs andbuilds an an electron beam experimentover a two-year period. The objective ofthe project is to see how electrical chargesinteract at close distance. The camera fol-lows the people on the team candidly asthey talk about the equipment they willneed, make a floor plan, build a largespark chamber, write the computer pro-gram for analyzing the results, put theequipment in place (including an enor-mous magnet, which is dubbed the“Green Giant”), talk with a visitingArmenian scientist, and, finally, break outthe champagne, after the first shot showsthat the experimental design works.

This film is also a slice of history, thistime from the late 1960s, and it gives agood sense of scientists at work on aproblem to see if the evidence matchesthe theory. It is telling that in the filmnotes, physicist James Rutherford men-tions that the Accelerator later had to bedismantled for lack of money to run it.

—Marjorie Mazel Hecht

Enrico Fermi on Film

Geographic Family Reference Atlas ofthe WorldWashington, D.C.: National Geographic,2006Hardcover, 384 pp., with 510 maps and430 illustrations, $65.00

National Geographic’s FamilyReference Atlas is lavishly illustrated,

as you would expect from a publisherknown for its photographs and illustrations.

It provides detailed maps—geographi-cal, topological, political, mineral, andagricultural. Like the atlases I rememberfrom elementary school, it has little sym-bols for the agricultural products thatcharacterize each area. But unlike theatlases of my childhood, it provides mapsof political “hotspots,” so that you caneasily find Abkazia or Chechnya, to nametwo such hotspots in the news.

And like most “educational” itemstoday, it provides the same conventional-ly “correct” opinions about global warm-ing, biodiversity, and other such environ-mental issues in its topical introductions.

There are also some telling omissionsand bloopers. In the energy descriptions,for example, there are symbols for otherforms of energy—but not for nuclearplants. There is no map of world railroads,or even U.S. railroads, a standard infra-structure item and a crucial measure ofeconomic development. In the blooperdepartment, the Atlas’s section on the polesmakes mention of the British expedition toAntarctica, but, remarkably says nothingabout the monumental U.S. ExploratoryExpedition, 1839-1842, headed by JohnWilkes and promoted by John QuincyAdams, which got to Antarctica first!

With these caveats in mind, this is ausable atlas.

—Marjorie Mazel Hecht

BOOK NOTES

To Follow the Water, Exploring theOcean to Discover ClimateDallas MurphyNew York: Basic Books, 2007Hardcover, 278 pp., $26.00

This is a cynical and sophistical book, try-ing to ride the wake of Al Gore’s global

warming hoax. Don’t waste your time ormoney, unless you want to read a book bysomeone who says that Chaucer taughtastronomy to John of Gaunt’s daughter,Philippa, who was to become the mother ofHenry the Navigator, because he needed a“survival gig to make ends meet before hehit it big with the Canterbury Tales.”

—Rick Sanders

76 Fall 2007 21st CENTURY Science & Technology BOOKS

Put global warming on ice —with 21st Century Science & Technology’s

S P E C I A L R E P O R T

The Coming Ice AgeWhy Global Warming Is a Scientific FraudThis authoritative, 100-page report (November 1997) puts climatescience in proper perspective: Based on the past several millionyears of climate history, the Earth is now coming out of an inter-glacial period and entering a new ice age.

Partial contents: • Orbital Cycles, Not CO2, Determine Earth’s Climate

by Rogelio A. Maduro • The Coming (or Present) Ice Age by Laurence Hecht • An Oceanographer Looks at the Non-Science of Global Warming

by Robert E. Stevenson, Ph.D. • Ice Core Data Show No Carbon Dioxide Increase

by Zbigniew Jaworowski, Ph.D • What Man-Induced Climate Change? and • What You Never Hear about Greenhouse Warming

by Hugh Ellsaesser, Ph.D. • Global Warming, Ozone Depletion—Where’s the Evidence?

by Dr. Dixy Lee Ray, Ph.D. • Global Cooling and Scientific Honesty

by Lee Anderson Smith, Ph.D. and C. Bertrand Schultz, Ph.D. • Climate Modelling: Linearization in the Small and in the Large

by Elisabeth M. Pascali Plus: • Foreword by by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr., Time to Say No to

World Government • Documentation on how the eco-fascists are pulling the strings on

global warming

$25 postpaid

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P.O. Box 16285 Washington, D.C. 20041or online at www.21stcenturysciencetech.com (under BOOKS)

Stanislav M. MenshikovThe ANATOMY ofRUSSIAN CAPITALISM

This Englishtranslationof the workof Russia’sauthoritativeeconomist,presents acriticalanalysis ofthe complexeconomicprocesses inRussiaduring thelast 15 years.

Available throughExecutive Intelligence Review

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