reviews such activities a s glass blowing, metal working, and wood working, and rooms to handle chemical, biological, and radiation waste. And finally, to complete the coverage, a new section has been added that covers the latest trends in building and laboratow lavouts as well as heatine. ventilating and air conditio&g,%hich are all discussedand expandA beyond the wveraw in the first edition. I n oarticular. a new chaw ter on variable air volume system; has been included discuss the advantages and disadvantages in this emerging field. The History of Chemistry John Hudson. Chapman & Hall: New York, NY, 1992. x + 285 pp. Figs. and tables. 15.7 x 23.4 cm. $59.95 HBl524.95 PB US; $74.95 HB1$31.50 PB Canada. This book is aimed a t teachers and students ofchemistry with the expectation that the material contained in it can be incorporated into the teaching of chemistry. I t describes the vrincide themes in the develo~mentof the subiect fro& the &liest times to the present, and contains biographical sketches of the more important chemists. The first half of the book treats the subject chronologically up to the middle of the nineteenth century, and the semnd half considers the development of each of the main areas of chemistry since t h a t time. A concluding chapter looks briefly at the chemical industry and the interactions between chemistry and society. The book is illustrated throughout. Ellis Homood/PTR Prentice Hall Chemical and Information System Series: Practical Curve Fining and Data Analvsis: Soflware and Self-Instruction for Scientists-and Engineers Joseph H Noggle. PTR Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1993. xii + 192 pp. Figs. and tables. 15.7 x 23 cm. This book offers chemists, chemical engineers, and analytical scientists a combination of tools for data reduction. The book provides the reader with a series of lessons demonstrating techniques of curve fitting and data analysis, while the companion software, EZFIT, permits users to apply such data analysis methods as linear regression, nonlinear regression, and interpolation (cubic spline and Newton divided difference). Computing for Scientists and Engineers: A Workbook of Analysis, Numerics, and Applications William J. Thompson. Wiley: New York, NY. 1992. xiii + 444 pp. Figs. and tables. 16.5x 24.4 cm. This book offers a n integrated and fully developed treatment of basic concepts and methods in mathematical analysis, numerical methods, and programming as they apply to a broad ranee of tooics s~ecificallvto the - oertainine . computing needs of scientists and engineers. Following a workbook format. this book utilizes extensive worked examplesillustrated by numerous figures and supplemented by 27 computer programs in C as well as nearly 300 exercisesto emphasize basic analytical and numerical methods used in applying mathematics to the physical sciences and engineering. The discussion includes a treatment of backmound mathematics, numerical analysis methods (difFe&tiation, integration, and the soluti& of differcntial equations in e n ~ n e and e ~the~ life and physical sciencesj, and data ~nalysis~applications (spiin&, leastsquares fitting and Fourier expansions).
-
A26
Journal of Chemical Education
-.
