Good reads for the materials researcher
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Good reads for the materials researcher
I
read constantly. It is part of who and what I am. Reading, whether fiction or nonfiction, is a pleasure and helps me in life and in my work. I hereby share with you some recent reads, recommending them to your attention. I understand that some of you will not like any of these books, but I hope that most of you find one or more interesting and useful. The first book on my list is The New Science of Strong Materials (or Why You Don’t Fall through the Floor) by J.E. Gordon. This is a classic, first published in 1968, which has been reprinted several times. The edition that I read is in paperback published by Princeton University Press in 2006, with an introduction by science writer Philip Ball. The book delves deeply into strength, cohesion, stress, and strain. It covers cracks, crack stopping, and dislocations. Chapters address composite materials, wood, ceramic, and metals. The book left me with a sense of wonder and a deep appreciation for research in this area that has improved all of our lives. Next, I recommend the autobiography of Eric R. Kandel, who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2000 for his work on memory storage in the brain. His book is In Search of Memory (The Emergence of a New Science of the Mind). This technical autobiography covers details of his life as well as research during his lifetime into the phenomenology associated with memory storage and retrieval. These are areas in which I am profoundly ignorant, having overlooked them throughout my education. Nonetheless, I found the book readable and enjoyable. Kandel does an excellent job of juxtaposing his work with that of others in the field. The edition that I read was in paperback published by Norton in 2006. Mark P. Silverman has written several highly interesting and readable books. I recommend A Universe of Atoms, An Atom in the Universe. The version that I read was in hardcover published in 2002 by Springer-Verlag. It is a revised version of And Yet It Moves published by Cambridge University Press in 1993. Although the book is a smorgasbord of strange and interesting physics, I was most highly interested in his discussions of interference effects using electrons. Joe Jackson has written a marvelous book discussing historical events around the race to discover oxygen. The book, entitled A World on Fire (A Heretic, an Aristocrat, and the Race to Discover Oxygen), follows the lives of Joseph Priestley (the
heretic), Antoine Lavoisier (the aristocrat), and others during the time before, during, and after the French revolution. This era saw the rise and fall of the phlogiston theory and its replacement with one of the foundations of modern chemistry. The book highlights the tragic lives of both of the main protagonists in light of the revolutionary era in which they lived. I read a hardback version of the book published in 2005 by Viking. Giancarlo Ghirardi has written an excellent book about the foundations of quantum theory. The book, entitled Sneaking a Look at God’s Cards (Unra
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