Table of contents

There is no doubt that the computer has brought benefits to science. In my own field – x ray diffraction – it has extended the range of our work to an extent that would have seemed unimaginable only 20 years ago.

Concern over first degree qualifications in medical physics is being expressed by the Hospital Physicists' Association (HPA), which has published a memorandum on proposed B Sc degrees in medical physics in the June issue of the HPA Bulletin. The HPA's concern has arisen because some polytechnics (though, apparently, no universities) are thinking of offering courses leading to a BSc (Medical Physics) or a BSc in applied sciences with medical physics as the specialized subject.

The Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) has just issued its annual report for the year 1971–72 and on the whole seems to be well satisfied with past achievements. This body, which approves courses in higher education in institutions other than the universities, will obviously play a major role in the implication of the government's plans outlined in the white paper Education: A Framework for Expansion (Physics Bulletin February 1973).

An attack on current research priorities, said to be largely based on considerations of international power, prestige or economic growth, has been launched from Brussels, though this time not by the EEC Commission. The Commission reports in one of its weekly newsletters that what it describes as a freely formed 'group of European officials not directly concerned with research' met recently in Brussels to think about the qualitative aims of scientific research and the choices they entail.

In the April issue of Physics Bulletin we published a call to all physicists with poetic inclinations, whether accomplished or still budding, to send their poems to Physics Bulletin. The response has been a good one and suggests that there is a large pool of untapped poetic talent still to be exposed.

Sir Brian Flowers' call for a European Science Foundation devoted to fundamental research (Physics Bulletin July 1973 p409) has been taken up by the EEC Commission in a review of the approach it should adopt towards education, science and research. The Commission does not expect that it can at present make much of a contribution to educational and cultural affairs, but it feels that the EEC can exert its influence in a variety of ways, for example by acting as a central information system.

Further growth, and improved status for scientists and technologists working in industry, was promised by Dr R Johnston, president of the Association of Professional Scientists and Technologists (APST), at the APST's first annual delegate conference on 7 July. The recruitment of new members, Dr Johnston added, remained a prime task for the Association, which had repeatedly urged scientists and technologists to use the provisions of the Industrial Relations Act to 'prevent themselves being absorbed into much larger union organizations in which they would have only a minority voice'.

The International Research Group on Physics Teaching, GIREP, was formed in 1966 as an international association for the improvement of physics teaching in schools and now has a membership of about 150 from over 30 countries, 8 from Great Britain. During the last six years, GIREP has held four international meetings.

The career prospects of those graduating in physics continue to arouse a good deal of comment. The Institute felt that it would be worthwhile to conduct for the 1972 graduates a survey similar to the one performed for their predecessors in 1971 (Physics Bulletin January 1972 pl2).

'Ten years ago surface physics was not respectable.' So David Tabor, FRS, newly invested as ad hominem Professor of the Cavendish subdepartment 'Physics and Chemistry of Solids' (PCS), and leader of the surface physics group told me.

During the late 1950s and early 1960s an important and expanding route to graduate qualification in physics was developed. The student was to obtain the Higher National Certificate (HNC) by part time study while working as an assistant physicist and then to follow it up by what was usually still part time study in similar employment to obtain by examination the Graduateship of the Institute of Physics (GradlnstP).

The following list, compiled by the Science Research Council, gives brief details of new grants, and grants supplemented by more than £5000, announced during the quarter ended 31 March 1973. Grants are given by institution and department; the investigator's name is followed by the title of the project, the amount of the grant (eg £2200) and its period (eg 0273–0973, ie February 1973 to September 1973).

V F Weisskopf London: MIT Press 1972 pp xv + 368 price £3.60

This makes an attractive present for anyone who is fascinated by physics. Viki Weisskopf is a theoretical physicist, but not one of those whose main interest it is to solve difficult mathematical problems which physics is apt to generate.

G K T Conn and G N Fowler (eds) London: Academic Press 1972 pp ix + 163 price £1.95

This series of non specialized review volumes attempts to overcome the increasing specialization and fragmentation within physics. The four essays in the present volume certainly go some way towards achieving this aim.

M Sanderson London: Rout ledge and Kegan Paul 1972 pp x + 436 price £6.50

This book is a well documented and useful work describing the relations between the universities and British industry from 1850 to 1970. In 1850 Britain was at its industrial peak, but was being overtaken, particularly by Germany, which was vigorously promoting technical education in universities.

L O'Raifeartaigh (ed) London: Oxford University Press 1972 pp ix + 277 price £7

This volume continues a newly developing custom, which is to be highly welcomed, of honouring great contemporary figures of science on their 70th or 75th birthday with a collection of papers contributed by their colleagues. J L Synge is perhaps best known for his work in relativity where in particular he is largely responsible, in the wake of Minkowski, for emphasizing the importance of geometrical characterization in the theory.

Dwight E Grey London: McGraw-Hill 1972 pp xiv + 2342 price £22.25

Anyone familiar with the earlier editions of the American Institute of Physics Handbook will know it as an authoritative, all comprehensive and up to date reference work. In this third edition this tradition has been maintained.

London and Bristol: The Institute of Physics 1973 Conf Series No 17 pp ix + 302 price £11 (Members £8.25)

The maturity of this work on III–V compounds is clear from this volume of papers from the fourth international conference, at Boulder, Colorado. Many areas prominent at the earlier conferences are largely absent: bulk crystal growth, vapour phase epitaxy, light and infrared emitting diodes, lasers, mixers and varactors.

J S Anderson, M W Roberts and F S Stone (eds) London: Chapman and Hall 1972 pp xiv + 812 price £11

This volume records the 69 papers presented to the seventh international symposium on the reactivity of solids held in Bristol in July 1972. The topics covered are as broad as the title suggests and they include: gross departures from stoichiometry and order in crystals, reaction processes in bulk solids, reactions in the organic solid state, reactions at solid surfaces, reactions in vitreous and amorphous solids, solid state reactions in technology.

B Henderson London: Edward Arnold 1972 pp ix + 203 price £6 (cased) £3 (paperback)

The literature concerned with the defect state is now immense and whole books are devoted to just one type of defect. The main problem facing an author is therefore one of selection.

A A Abrikosov New York: Academic Press 1972 pp xi + 293 price $6.50

Reading this book proved to be something of a pleasant surprise for me. The name Abrikosov on the cover conjured up the sight of pages covered with Green's functions and the like.

C Domb and M S Green (eds) London: Academic Press 1972 pp xv + 506 price £10

The aim of this series of books is to present a coherent account of all that is definitely known about phase transition and critical phenomena. This first volume is devoted to the presentation of exact results in equilibrium statistical mechanics.

O Madelung (ed) Oxford: Pergamon 1972 pp 681 price £18

Of the 19 articles in this volume (the plenary lectures of professional groups in semiconductors, magnetism, low temperature physics, and thermodynamics and statistical physics given at the German Physical Society meeting at Freudenstadt in April 1972) 16 are in German and 3 in English; two thirds of them are on semiconductors or magnetism. There is, inevitably, a review (by B Kramer) of the electronic structure and optical properties of amorphous semiconductors.

B A Armstrong and R W Nichols Oxford: Pergamon 1972 pp xxiii + 295 price £7

This is volume 41 of the international series of monographs in natural philosophy and is devoted to a review of the basic theory of radiation transfer required for opacity calculations associated with hot gas phenomenology in general. Application of the theory to the study of rocket engine exhausts, shockwave situations and the like is promised in a subsequent volume of the series.

S G Davison Oxford: Pergamon 1972 pp xii + 420 price £12

Review series devoted to 'Progress or Advances in' scientific disciplines or specialist topics continue to grow in number. Many fulfil a valuable function in aiding one to gain insight into a subject or keep abreast of its growth as well as supply missed references for a private card index system.

B J Brinkworth Salisbury: Compton Press 1972 pp x + 251 price £3.50

Many hundreds of tera tera joules reach the Earth from the Sun each year – hundreds of times envisaged for future needs. And it's all free.

J H Spencer London: WB Saunders 1972 pp ix + 143 price £5.35

The study of nucleic acids is usually considered a field for the biologist but since their discovery some 100 years ago many physicists and chemists have been active in the field with outstanding success. In this book, written for experimental physicists and chemists, an attempt is made to give an introduction to an area of great potential research interest.

W Strohmeier Oxford: Pergamon 1972 pp viii + 279 price £6.50

Variable stars, though relatively few in number, are of great importance in astronomy. Historically, the stars known as cepheid variables provided the first measure of large astronomical distance because their magnitude can be inferred from the periods with which their brightness varies.

R Mittra and S W Lee New York: Collier Crowell Macmillan 1972 pp ix + 302 price £5.75

The last decade has seen a considerable sharpening of analytical techniques for studying guided wave structures, and this book aims to give, at a serious post graduate level, a unified account of some such techniques. The main topics are mode matching and Weiner–Hopf techniques.

London: Mullard 1912 pp 132 price £1.80

This little book is a worthy addition to Mullard's occasional series of technical books. After an introductory survey chapters are devoted to the junction FET and to the MOSFET.

Monthly round-up of new instruments, components and equipment released by industry vendors.

I am sorry that my use of the word 'research' in my April leader has given rise to some wrong impressions about my ideas. To me the word involves innovation in any sense – academic, industrial or everyday activity.

I feel that I must comment on JM O'Sullivan's letter (Physics Bulletin June) regarding adaptability among physicists. In my opinion he is doing rather less than justice to the training which physicists receive.

I was most interested to read Mr J A Weaver's short article on optical character recognition (Physics Bulletin May). As the leading supplier of self scanned arrays in Europe (and possibly the USA) to the OCR industry, I would take Mr Weaver to task on his last paragraph.

Presumably one of the major sources of expenditure for the Institute of Physics arises from the need to send each member of the Institute a copy of Physics Bulletin in an individual envelope. Since many members of the Institute work within large organizations, both academic and industrial, might it be possible for the Institute to come to some arrangement with these organizations to use their internal post system as a means of distribution to members?

Will someone kindly explain why scientists in government service are paid on average 12% less than their engineer and administrative equivalents, even though the scientist is expected to have rather the higher academic qualifications? Supply and demand does not seem to be the reason, nor is it a case of a more inefficient negotiating union because both scientists and engineers are represented by the Institution of Professional Civil Servants.

I was sorry to see Physics Bulletin (June 1973) publishing, as part of the article 'Domestic science' by C J Myers, a statement that storage 'heaters currently in use are heavy, inefficient and uncontrollable.' This has not been true for a considerable time for at least two reasons: (1) a controllable output of heat in the form of warm air has been obtainable from large and small heaters for a number of years and (2) the design of the best so called 'uncontrollable' storage radiators is now such that an almost uniform room temperature is obtained over 24 hours provided only that the charging time is varied manually to match the general change of ambient temperature as the heating season progresses.

The May leader by Sir James Taylor needs just one small addition. In the science of biology it is recognized that all the higher species of animals have implanted in them a way of behaviour which is in accord with the bodily characteristics.

Information about appointments and awards, meetings, and member services from the Institute of Physics.

Elections to Membership

Late-breaking conference news, calls for papers and general news.