SCIENCE TO THE RESCUE

Nine cases of the application of modern technology to civil engineering, medicine, telephone networks, etc.: e.g., ultraviolet lasers are now available with such fine control and so little heat damage that they can carve human hairs; they can also be combined with optical fibers to build high-speed communication highways. The book is really about engineering—the commercial application of scientific principles. In concentrating on gadgets rather than principles, opportunities to stress fundamentals are lost: Building non-polluting vehicles is discussed in relation to both battery cars and magnetically levitated trains without mentioning energy, energy storage, or the forms of energy, and without explaining what makes a maglev train move. Nor do the experiments offered have a clear focus; building miniature anchored and floating islands in a cake-pan ocean to ``see'' the effects of earthquakes and waves may be fun, but it's ultimately unsatisfying. The photos, mostly of products from commercial firms, show the effects of technology but not how it works. Some good bits, but few bytes. Index (not seen). (Nonfiction. 10+)