Book Reviews

Abstract

This issue marks a changing of the guard. After fifteen years as editor of book reviews, Bob O'Malley is stepping down. I am sure you will all agree with me that Bob has done a tremendous job, and I will admit that I feel some trepidation as I attempt to step into his shoes. At the same time I am excited for the opportunity to serve SIAM in this capacity. I have put together an editorial board to help me with the task; I thank Michele Benzi, Krešo Josić, Hinke Osinga, Nick Trefethen, and Thaleia Zariphopoulou for agreeing to work with me. The book reviews in this issue were assembled by Bob; soon it will be my turn. The featured review by Andreas Albrecht takes a detailed look at Max Tegmark's quest for the ultimate nature of physical reality. He recommends the book and even suggests that it would be of value to readers who are not technically oriented. He declares himself unready to jump on Tegmark's bandwagon but finds that the book was well worth reading nevertheless. Each physicist defines boundaries for himself (or herself) and walks a line between being too conservative and being a crackpot. Albrecht writes, “Reading this book has caused me to stop and reflect on my own boundaries and the ideas that create structure for my own research.” As usual we have reviews on a wide variety of topics. The book Introduction to Global Optimization Exploiting Space-Filling Curves by Sergeyev, Strongin, and Lera, reviewed by Sergiy Butenko, particularly caught my eye. I would never have thought that space-filling curves could be practical tools for global optimization. I can see that I am going to learn a lot in this new job. The issue concludes with two reviews by Bob O'Malley himself, one on a collection of recollections about the brilliant ex-mathematician Alexander Grothendieck, the other on a different sort of collection: views of mathematicians on the subject of creativity.