SCIENTIFIC AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND OTHER PAPERS
Mox Plonck, Translated from German by Frank Gaynor. Philosophical Library, New York, 1949. 192 pp. 13.5 X 21 cm. $3.75. AWERhis death in 1947, several related articles and lectures written by Max Plsuck were collected and, prefaced by t,he memorial address delivered by Max van Laue, were translated to make this hook. Its nature is well indicated by the table of contents: A Scientific Autobiography, Phantom Problems in Science, The Meaning and Limits of Exact Science, The Concept of Causality in Physics, Religion and Natural Science. Besides being an absorbing firsbhitnd account of Planck's discovery of his famous constant, the first paper contains a number of arresting observations, such as: "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents event,ually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar withit." Iu the second article one of the "phantom problems" Planck discusses is the conflict between science and religion. Here he i s not clear her:mse he does not define what he means bv relieion.
wondrous in our picture of the universe, "...and he who has reached the stage where he no longer wonders about anything, merely demonstrates that he has lost the art of reflective reasoning." After such statements Planck's arbitrary dismissal in the last naner of the Christian's faith in the resurrection of Jesus comes aa by a follower of a.science which could not even explain the energy radiation of the sun until a few years ago is hardly justified. Up to the discovery of nuclear energy the existence of the sun was a. miracle! And no one can really explain such simple things as why we do not fall offthe earth or why a magnet attracts a piece of iron. Perhaps a more bumble and more scientific attitude would he: "We neither deny nor affirm until ts-e have tried the experiment Jesus asks us to try." W. F. LUDER NORTAE&STERN UNIVEBBITY Boe~on.M~ss~cnrrsmrs
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FREEZE-DRYING
E d W. Floadorf, F. J. st& Machine Co., Philadelphia. Reinhold Publishing Corp., New Yark, 1949. vii 280 pp. 6 3 figs. 19 tables. 16 X 23.5 cm. $5.
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no paid &nist&, no ritual, hit met in the homes of it,smembers for mutual instruction in the Kingdom of God. To Jesus a man's religion was his attempt to live as a citizen of God's Kingdom, an idea. that can remake the world, hut u-hieh the church has neglected for the very thing that Jesus condemned most emphatically. Planck, failing to inform himself sufficiently before writing on this subject, concludes that although the aims of science and religion aresimilar, their methods are i%ompatible. But Jesus, in advocating a praotical way of life, asked us to t r y the experiment to Iind out if it works-the scientific method. The method of Jesus and the scieutific method are actually the same. With atomic annihilation confronting us, the time has come to try the experiment of living as citiseus of the universe. Certainly history has shown us that the attempt to live as fragmented worshippers of the state, mammon, church, and science does not work. In the third and fourth essays the significance of the changes in physics for philosophy and religion i s challengingly interpreted. For example, on pages 92 and 93; Planck reminds us that every fundamentd discovery increases the olement~ofthe
FEW people seem to be aurare of the nature of the freeze-drying process, and of the fact that its industrial development occurred in the nick of time to make possible the wide distribution of serum, penicillin, and other biologicals which saved so many lives during the war. This book, by one of the leaders in that development, gives, in very complete and readable form, the history of the process, the fundamental principles on which it is based, its applications, bath those already in use and those which show possibilities for the future, and the v a ~ o u stypes of equipment available for its utilization, both on a laboratory and a plant scale. As the author points out, the idea of freeze-drying was inherent in Wallaston's cryo~horus.fimt exhibited in 1813. I t was not until the early years of the present century that any significant attempt was made to apply the process to the preservation of very labile biologicals. The early attempts were either abortive, or so time-consuming a s to render industrial development out of the question. The early workers were obsessed with the notion that the frozen mass must be kept in cold surroundings during the vacuum sutdim~itimof thr ier, ro~oplet~ly nrrl~otincthe wt4lknown fner 11131 t1.e heat of s u h l ~ r n ~uft i11.1. ~ ~ iw ~ n.wt he provided hy thr surrouti~lin~s.Sot uwll the 1!030'e war i t rrslvml
