Contemporary reading

Abstract

Summary The two publications that were mentioned at the end of the article in the June issue must be dealt with first. A Physics Anthology, edited by Norman Clarke, published for the Institute of Physics by Chapman and Hall (London) and Reinhold (New York) at 35s. a miscellany of contributions to the Institute's Bulletin that I greatly enjoyed re-reading. They include Alan Bullock on Science and the Humanities; Sir Cyril Hinshelwood on Physics among the Sciences; Herbert Dingle on The Origin of Modern Science; K. A. G. Mendelssohn on Max Planck; A. C. Crombie on Newton's Conception of Scientific Method; F. I. G. Rawlins on Physics and Aesthetics; R. V. Jones on The Theory of Practical Joking; N. R. Hanson on The History and Philosophy of Science in the Undergraduate Physics Course; and a symposium on Ethics and the Scientist presided over by the High Master of Manchester Grammar School. There is also a number of more or less technical papers on educational practice. It should be appreciated by physicists, and welcomed also by the general reader who wants to understand the physicist's point of view; it may give the layman the answer to the question “Are physicists human?”, and dispel any lurking doubts we may have been harbouring ourselves.