Atoms and Rays: an Introduction to Modern Views on Atomic Structure and Radiation

Abstract

THE writing of a popular account of recent advances in any branch of science calls for many qualities if it is to be successful. The author must, in the first place, be able to interest and hold the reader without recourse to sensationalism, a truism which, like many other truisms, is often overlooked. He must be the master of clear and concise English, and remember that many words which have a special and defined significance for the expert have also a general meaning which is much more vague. He must have sufficient critical faculty to be able to select for emphasis the points which are really fundamental, and sufficient adaptability to feel when detail must be sacrificed for the sake of vividness. Above all, he should be able to make the reader see in the researches which he describes an example of the power and beauty of the true scientific method, as contrasted with the inspired guesswork to which the ordinary reader is apt to attribute the advances of science.

Atoms and Rays: an Introduction to Modern Views on Atomic Structure and Radiation.

By Sir Oliver Lodge. Pp. 208. (London: Ernest Benn, Ltd., 1924.) 21s. net.