AK Peters Ltd.

Beyond the nanoworld; quarks, leptons, and gauge bosons.

Writing for readers with a general interest in science, Dosch (emeritus, physics, U. of Heidelberg, Germany) describes the development of particle physics in its search for particles and forces beyond the world of atoms and molecules (the nanoworld). He chronologically traces the history of the science in order to give readers a basic understanding of lepton, quarks, and gauge bosons, the elementary building blocks underlying atomic structure. He also discusses the ongoing search for the so-called Higgs boson, which must exist if the standard model of particle physics is correct. In addition to providing readers with a basic understanding of these particles, he also aims to show how closely intertwined theoretical and experimental advances have been in the search for them. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Cats are not peas; a calico history of genetics, 2d ed.

The peas, of course, are those that Gregor Mendel (1822-84) experimented with to produce the first draft of modern genetic theory. Curious as to why the male calico cat she had acquired by chance was so rare, Gould began looking at the underlying genetics, and discovered that modern scientists have a much more complex understanding of inheritance than Mendel's thinking, and than popular media would have people believe. The first edition was published by Copernicus in 1996; she has added an addendum for the second. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Data visualization; principles and practice.

For advanced undergraduate or early graduate students of computer science, mathematics, and engineering sciences, Telea introduces the principles of data visualization as it is practiced in such realms as signal theory, imaging, computer graphics, and statistics. They emphasize techniques and methods with broad applications, figuring users will discover specialized ones as needed. Color is used throughout. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Topics in Galois theory, 2d ed.

Serre (mathematics, Collège de France) had the great good sense to have notes taken at his 1988 lectures at Harvard, creating a slim volume of great interest. Serre focuses primarily on the inverse problem of Galois theory, that being the construction of field extensions having a given finite groups as Galois groups. With examples, exercises and open problems he covers examples low degree, nilpotent and solvable groups as Galois groups over Q, Hilbert's irreducibility theorem, Galois extensions of Q(T), Galois extensions of Q(T) given by torsion on elliptic curves, Galois extensions of C(T), rigidity and rationality on finite groups, construction of Galois extensions of Q(T) by the rigidity methods, the quadratic form and its applications, and in an appendix, the large sieve inequality. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The wraparound universe.

An astrophysicist at the Paris-Meudon Observatory in France, Luminet champions one particular approach in a debate about the size and shape of the universe — cosmic topology — that has been going on now for some 25 centuries. One consequence of a wraparound universe — he personally favors a spherical dodecahedron — is that the whole shebang may be a lot smaller than it looks. Eric Novak's translation of Univers chiffonné, published in 2001 by Librarie Arthème Fayard, includes corrections and an afterword reporting the latest observations. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)