Science for the Citizen
by
[Knopf, $5.00]
THE alliterative title, the colorful and impressionistic jacket, the attractive drawings which lighten every other page, and the popularity of Mathematics for the Million by the same author, all combine to lead one to expect this book to be another contribution to the growing list of easily read books ‘about’ science. The science is here, to be sure, but the author plunges deep into it, letting equations and formulas in profusion splash over what heads they may. He would, obviously, like the reader to sit down at a table with the book (it weighs four pounds) and get to work with pencil and pad, digesting each chapter in turn and solving the excellent problems he has set.
Those London critics who welcomed the book with a glad chorus extolling the ’lively style of writing,’ ‘enlivened by witty comment,’ I am tempted to accuse of having read only the introduction and the chapter heads. Their reviews would lead one to expect a book in the Eddington or Jeans tradition, whereas the concept and treatment are somewhat Wellsian, though the book is much more than an outline of science. Hogben claims that his book can be read painlessly, but he goes into his subject so thoroughly that the reader is forced to concentrate much more heavily than is usually required by a ‘popular’ book.
Professor Hogben calls the volume ‘A SelfEducator based on the Social Background of Scientific Discovery,’ and in it he covers in a scholarly, but exceptionally clear and unpedantic manner, the elements of astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and a bit of psychology and geneties, with running comment on the social implications of the development of these sciences. The ‘citizen’ for whom this science is intended is not the man on the street, but the enlightened inhabitant of a world in whose shaping science is becoming increasingly important.
The volume begins with a section on ‘The Conquest of Time Reckoning and Space Measurement,’ wherein astronomy and navigation are outlined with great thoroughness, and elementary mechanics, sound, and light are set forth. Part II takes up ‘The Conquest of Substitutes,’ and deals with the mechanics of fluids, and the elements of inorganic and organic chemistry and of the atomic hypothesis. Then comes Part III, ‘The Conquest of Power,’ wherein mechanical invention, elementary heat and thermodynamics, and a bit of electricity are treated, with just a hint of modern physics in a chapter entitled ‘The Waves That Rule Britannia’ (radio). Finally come sections on ’The Conquest of Hunger and Disease’ and ‘The Conquest of Behavior.’
A fairly diligent search for errors of fact or typography revealed only one. The book is plentifully provided with excellent reading references, and has an adequate index. The 480 drawings by Horrabin, an artist who has an unusual facility for making an inviting cartoon out of a simple sketch designed to illustrate the inner workings of a doorbell, enliven the almost 1100 pages and prevent the book from looking too much like a ponderous tome.
GEORGE R. HARRISON
