Abstract
AMERICA seems ahead of Great Britain in realizing the necessity of inculcating a nodding acquaintance of scientific method in those whose later activities in life are to be other than scientific or technical. The present volume is a re-written cultural course for those not pursuing science as a major subject. The result is a very attractive review of present-day scientific background, bringing home the benefits, and otherwise, of applied science and the fundamentals whence it springs. The first chapter properly outlines the scientific method, noting its historical growth and force in ascertaining the material truth of things, its demand for precision in measurement and integrity in interpretation. The review of basic knowledge and its consequences then ranges from contemplation of the heavens, the structure of matter, reactions among chemical elements, heat and heat-engines, waves, electrons, and modern electrical communications. The authors are out to impress the reader, with an easy, but accurate, style with the best possible illustrations, that science and its applications are mighty forces in our present civilization, and why not?
This Physical World
A College Course in Science. By Prof. C. C. Clark, C. A. Johnson and Lt.-Comdr. L. M. Cockaday. Pp. x + 528. (New York and London: McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1941.) 22s. 6d.
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H., L. This Physical World. Nature 149, 155 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/149155d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/149155d0