JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
650
(isobars); and, an the other hand, a single variety whose nuts weigh different amounts (isotopes). This could well be a chapter in every general chemistry textbook. (No, it wouldn't drive your students nuts.) There are some 50 pages on the peacetime uses of atomic energy and the nuclear reactor, but nothing new or startling is revealed: how could there be? And there are 14 pages entitled Survival under Atomic Attack reprinted from a pamphlet issued by the U.S. Civil Defence (defense on this side of the Atlantic). The author might have quoted, as well, some passages from Hirschfelder's "The Effect of Atomic Weapons," instead of lulling the people to a sense of false security on how easy it is to survive an atomic attack. Here is the work of an accurate scientist with a flair for good reporting. If you still want to read more about the atomio story you will not waste your time reading this.
THEORETICAL NUCLEAR PHYSICS
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John M. Blatt, Associate Professor o f Physics, University of Illinois, and Victor F. Weisskopf, Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1952. xiv 864 pp. Illustrated. 15.5 X 23.5 cm. $12.50.
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TAISbook is undoubtedly one of the most important to appear in the field of nuclear physics. It contains well over 8M) pages and as implied by the title it is devoted almost in its entirety t o the theory of nuclesr processes. Despite the instances of brilliant achievement in explaining nuclear processes and predicting properties, nuclear theory in the main has its greatest breadth when applied on a semiempirical basis. Often a %st a~~roximation" exolanation can be formulatad on fundamental mounds for s. oartieular Drooess hut mmi-
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HUBERT N. ALYEA P n 1 ~ c e 1 . oU~m v ~ n a m ~ PB~NCBTON. NOWJ~assl
be maintainedin a dynamic state by building upon thefundamen-
td concepts with semiempirical eorrel&xm 0
SCIENCE MAGIC
Kenneth M. Swezey. MeGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York, 182 pp. Profusely illustrated. 15.5 X 23.5 cm. 1952. x $3.75.
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L o o n ~ for ~ o a good birthday present for your youngster? Or some extra-class assignments for your high-school geniuses? Here is the hook for you. Most teachers are fmdiar with the author's previoua book "After Dinner Science"; this new volume is a companion piece, equally well done, equally exciting. Happily there is more science than magic in this oolleotion, with clear photographs and a. simple discussion of the scientific principle involved in each experiment. In fact, at times I wished the results were made less obvious; it would have been much more fun to have guessed what would happen. About 150 experiments run the gamut from so'entifio gadgets to mgic, grouped under 17 headings such as Gravity and Balance, Fluids in Motion, Fire and Heat, Seeing is Deceiving, and Scientific Sleuthine. Gadeets include a cosmic-ray detector, an electroscope, a hLrometery rain-making by cloud-seeding, and tests far identifying plastics by their odor and flame-coloron burning. Not all of the experiments me ideal. I tried my best to drive a, nail though a 1-inch hoard (page 26) but ended up with sore fingers; and I a m not inept with nails, either, having built my own house. Fortunately 30 per cent hydrogen peroxide is hard to come by, so not many youngsters will be exposed to the hazards of pages 6 and 7. With so scientific a gadget as the homemade barometer (page 53) a formal explanation of the effect of T and P on volume (1/760,1/273,0.36 mm. per degree) might have helped, together with the suggestion to calibrate the scale against a barometer or local weather reports. The author stumbled into a distorted truism when (page 12) he told how James Watt found what a s t v a g dray horse could pull, added 60 m,ercentfor good measure, and called thrtt one horsepower; thcn (pa,& 13) r & n u e q : "Oddly enmiah a n otproge horsc, prrform in^ nwmge w t ~ r k develops , 0nl.v Itor~cpon~crl'' Tndrcrll You will end up I,? doing rcme of thp tricka vour~clf.
The authors of this book have maintained the goal of remaining close to knowledge based on experiment, thrtt is, they have refrained from mathematical excursions, the results of which either cannot be checked or are known to be a t variance with obsenration. This feature of the hook makes i t pnrticularly attmvtivp to the expcrimentali~t. On the other hand, nuclear fiepion ia dealt with only Iriefly dwpire the l:~ryramuuut olcmpirirnl data because of the absence of a cohesive theory. This reviewer found the text clearly written, with s good choice of illustrative material, and not overburdened withmathematical development. The authors did not intend it to be light reading and some familiarity with the language and concepts of quantum mechrtnios is a prerequisite for understanding much of the n m tecial presented. I. PERLMAN Umvsnsr~rOF CAGI~ORNIA BEnKE'ep, C*fi~~osnr*
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ORGANIC REACTIONS. VOLUME VII
Roger Adams, University of IUinois, Editor-in-Chief. John Wiley &Sons,Inc., New York, 1953. viii 440 pp. 51 tables. 15.5 X 23.5 cm. $9.
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O m a ~ r chemists c will weloome cordially thislatest volume in series which now has achieved an international reputation for excellence. The scope and limitation of a humber of important reactions have been effectively presented. The chapters are ad follows: "The Pechmann reaction," by Sethna and Phadke (58 pages); "The Skraup synthesis of quinolines," by Manske and Kulka (40pages); "Carbon-carbon dkylations with amines and ammonium salts," by Brewster and Eliel (99 pages); "The von Braun cysnogen bromide reaction," by Hageman (65 pages); "Hydrogenolysis of benzyl groups attached to oxygen, nitrogen, or sulfur," by Hartung and Simanoff (64 pages); "The nitrosation of aliphatic carbon atoms," by Touster (51 pages); and "Epaxidation and hydroxylation of ethylenic compoundswith organic peracids," by Swern (56 pages). The editors and contributors are to be congratulated for making available this invaluable book.
HUBERT N. ALYEA
HENRY GILMAN
low* STATEC O L L L ~ E AYEB.IOWA
