Abstract
G. Venkataraman, Bhabha and his Magnificent Obsession Vignettes in Physics, Sangam Books, London, 1994. £6.95 (Paperback) ISBN 0 86311 555 1 On 22nd January, 1966, Homi Bhabha addressed a vast gathering at the Atomic Energy Establishment in Trombay - held to offer condolences on the death of President Lai Bahadur Shastri. The following day Bhabha’s Air India plane crashed into Mont Blanc as it commenced its descent into Geneva airport. Thus perished one of India’s most gifted scientists and a man who was a scholar in other fields too. It is ironic that the following day the present reviewer addressed a small group of heart-broken Indian physicists at the site of their joint cosmic ray neutrino experiment in the Kolar Gold Fields. Venkataram has written a fine book about his countryman, chronicling his early work in Cambridge and elsewhere on cosmic rays, not least the theory underlying their behaviour, his great legacy - the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Bombay - and the development of Nuclear Energy in India.
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