A straightforward, engaging, easy-to-read and enjoyable book., 22 Dec 2008
This book is a great place to start for anyone who wishes to carry out a research project. Taking a practical and down-to-earth view of research, the author covers all aspects of quantitative and qualitative research, with clearly laid-out examples and illustrations. This book is an excellent resource for research students at any level, and contains many references for their future work. Very readable: highly recommended. (First year PhD research student)

A straightforward, engaging, easy-to-read and enjoyable book., 22 Dec 2008
This book is a great place to start for anyone who wishes to carry out a research project. Taking a practical and down-to-earth view of research, the author covers all aspects of quantitative and qualitative research, with clearly laid-out examples and illustrations. This book is an excellent resource for research students at any level, and contains many references for their future work. Very readable: highly recommended. (First year PhD research student)

Fantastic Read, Very Informative , 20 Nov 2008
I fantastic read, covers lots of aspects of different ancient civilisations and possible technology that they had. Brings up lots of questions as to how the pyramids were really constructed right through to the discovery of large portions of desert covered in a sheet of glass, possibly created from atomic blasts thousands of years ago.
Overall a very well written book and keeps the reader interested throughout. Definitely recommend to anyone interested in ancient history

A good summary of many researches, 03 Oct 2000
This book is a good summary of many researches done before Mr Childress wrote the book. In particular, the chapter on Giza power plant was a good summary of Mr Dunn's book.

As a whole, the book is refreshing and proves that technology of high sophistication existed before, or rather have been in existence for longer than our conventional views of history permit us.

Depends on how you look at it, this book can be taken as support for theory of Atlantis, Sitchin's idea of the Annunakis or even Daniken's Chariots of the Gods.

On the whole, great stuff, and an eye opener!

A straightforward, engaging, easy-to-read and enjoyable book., 22 Dec 2008
This book is a great place to start for anyone who wishes to carry out a research project. Taking a practical and down-to-earth view of research, the author covers all aspects of quantitative and qualitative research, with clearly laid-out examples and illustrations. This book is an excellent resource for research students at any level, and contains many references for their future work. Very readable: highly recommended. (First year PhD research student)

Fantastic Read, Very Informative , 20 Nov 2008
I fantastic read, covers lots of aspects of different ancient civilisations and possible technology that they had. Brings up lots of questions as to how the pyramids were really constructed right through to the discovery of large portions of desert covered in a sheet of glass, possibly created from atomic blasts thousands of years ago.
Overall a very well written book and keeps the reader interested throughout. Definitely recommend to anyone interested in ancient history

A good summary of many researches, 03 Oct 2000
This book is a good summary of many researches done before Mr Childress wrote the book. In particular, the chapter on Giza power plant was a good summary of Mr Dunn's book.

As a whole, the book is refreshing and proves that technology of high sophistication existed before, or rather have been in existence for longer than our conventional views of history permit us.

Depends on how you look at it, this book can be taken as support for theory of Atlantis, Sitchin's idea of the Annunakis or even Daniken's Chariots of the Gods.

On the whole, great stuff, and an eye opener!

Thank you for a REAL FUN chemistry book, 01 Aug 2008
The author, Mr. Thompson, obviously loves the subject, and yes, darn it, chemistry should be "fun", a little dangerous and educational.
I share the author's lament over the passing of a "proper" chemistry set. The one I had as a kid contained all the "no-no's" (or should I say KNO, KNO3!)
In that day you could go to the chemist and buy all manner of chemicals "off the shelf".
At school we made rockets (after school hours, I had a terrific Chemistry Master.....
Now my Son wants to learn, we home ed.... this book gives me the chance to "teach" or better "inspire" him:- That I did already, demonstrating the oxidizing qualities of KMnO4, innitially he smuggly goes yeah and.... then quite soon it's wow, how the heck did that happen?
With the chemistry sets of today you take two or more chemicals, mix them together and go "um er what's supposed to happen", as the chemicals just sit there, or if you are lucky change color!
An experiment has to DO something tangible. Thank you for a great book!

On an offside as it seems that we are being treated more and more like halfwits, perhaps we could have a "for dummies" line of chemistry sets, and then have a range that are designed for the responsible, and wanna b edjucaited majority!!

A straightforward, engaging, easy-to-read and enjoyable book., 22 Dec 2008
This book is a great place to start for anyone who wishes to carry out a research project. Taking a practical and down-to-earth view of research, the author covers all aspects of quantitative and qualitative research, with clearly laid-out examples and illustrations. This book is an excellent resource for research students at any level, and contains many references for their future work. Very readable: highly recommended. (First year PhD research student)

Fantastic Read, Very Informative , 20 Nov 2008
I fantastic read, covers lots of aspects of different ancient civilisations and possible technology that they had. Brings up lots of questions as to how the pyramids were really constructed right through to the discovery of large portions of desert covered in a sheet of glass, possibly created from atomic blasts thousands of years ago.
Overall a very well written book and keeps the reader interested throughout. Definitely recommend to anyone interested in ancient history

A good summary of many researches, 03 Oct 2000
This book is a good summary of many researches done before Mr Childress wrote the book. In particular, the chapter on Giza power plant was a good summary of Mr Dunn's book.

As a whole, the book is refreshing and proves that technology of high sophistication existed before, or rather have been in existence for longer than our conventional views of history permit us.

Depends on how you look at it, this book can be taken as support for theory of Atlantis, Sitchin's idea of the Annunakis or even Daniken's Chariots of the Gods.

On the whole, great stuff, and an eye opener!

Thank you for a REAL FUN chemistry book, 01 Aug 2008
The author, Mr. Thompson, obviously loves the subject, and yes, darn it, chemistry should be "fun", a little dangerous and educational.
I share the author's lament over the passing of a "proper" chemistry set. The one I had as a kid contained all the "no-no's" (or should I say KNO, KNO3!)
In that day you could go to the chemist and buy all manner of chemicals "off the shelf".
At school we made rockets (after school hours, I had a terrific Chemistry Master.....
Now my Son wants to learn, we home ed.... this book gives me the chance to "teach" or better "inspire" him:- That I did already, demonstrating the oxidizing qualities of KMnO4, innitially he smuggly goes yeah and.... then quite soon it's wow, how the heck did that happen?
With the chemistry sets of today you take two or more chemicals, mix them together and go "um er what's supposed to happen", as the chemicals just sit there, or if you are lucky change color!
An experiment has to DO something tangible. Thank you for a great book!

On an offside as it seems that we are being treated more and more like halfwits, perhaps we could have a "for dummies" line of chemistry sets, and then have a range that are designed for the responsible, and wanna b edjucaited majority!!

Don't waste your money, 02 Sep 2008
Found this book very dull and uninspiring and not anywhere near as useful as other books in the Oxford handbook series.

Understanding Laboratory Investigations: For Nurses and Health Professionals covers all of the basics and is much more readable and I'd recommend to medical students, especially those in the early clinical years.

shocking, 23 Jun 2005
This book has got every single piece of information about clinical investigations known to man, except the useful stuff. If you want to pull your hair out, buy this book.

Not Bad, 20 Jan 2004
Most of the information here can be found in other sources, but what it does do is collect a wide range of information in a small format. It is not always as complete as I would have liked but is none the less a welcome addition to my book shelf

A straightforward, engaging, easy-to-read and enjoyable book., 22 Dec 2008
This book is a great place to start for anyone who wishes to carry out a research project. Taking a practical and down-to-earth view of research, the author covers all aspects of quantitative and qualitative research, with clearly laid-out examples and illustrations. This book is an excellent resource for research students at any level, and contains many references for their future work. Very readable: highly recommended. (First year PhD research student)

Fantastic Read, Very Informative , 20 Nov 2008
I fantastic read, covers lots of aspects of different ancient civilisations and possible technology that they had. Brings up lots of questions as to how the pyramids were really constructed right through to the discovery of large portions of desert covered in a sheet of glass, possibly created from atomic blasts thousands of years ago.
Overall a very well written book and keeps the reader interested throughout. Definitely recommend to anyone interested in ancient history

A good summary of many researches, 03 Oct 2000
This book is a good summary of many researches done before Mr Childress wrote the book. In particular, the chapter on Giza power plant was a good summary of Mr Dunn's book.

As a whole, the book is refreshing and proves that technology of high sophistication existed before, or rather have been in existence for longer than our conventional views of history permit us.

Depends on how you look at it, this book can be taken as support for theory of Atlantis, Sitchin's idea of the Annunakis or even Daniken's Chariots of the Gods.

On the whole, great stuff, and an eye opener!

Thank you for a REAL FUN chemistry book, 01 Aug 2008
The author, Mr. Thompson, obviously loves the subject, and yes, darn it, chemistry should be "fun", a little dangerous and educational.
I share the author's lament over the passing of a "proper" chemistry set. The one I had as a kid contained all the "no-no's" (or should I say KNO, KNO3!)
In that day you could go to the chemist and buy all manner of chemicals "off the shelf".
At school we made rockets (after school hours, I had a terrific Chemistry Master.....
Now my Son wants to learn, we home ed.... this book gives me the chance to "teach" or better "inspire" him:- That I did already, demonstrating the oxidizing qualities of KMnO4, innitially he smuggly goes yeah and.... then quite soon it's wow, how the heck did that happen?
With the chemistry sets of today you take two or more chemicals, mix them together and go "um er what's supposed to happen", as the chemicals just sit there, or if you are lucky change color!
An experiment has to DO something tangible. Thank you for a great book!

On an offside as it seems that we are being treated more and more like halfwits, perhaps we could have a "for dummies" line of chemistry sets, and then have a range that are designed for the responsible, and wanna b edjucaited majority!!

Don't waste your money, 02 Sep 2008
Found this book very dull and uninspiring and not anywhere near as useful as other books in the Oxford handbook series.

Understanding Laboratory Investigations: For Nurses and Health Professionals covers all of the basics and is much more readable and I'd recommend to medical students, especially those in the early clinical years.

shocking, 23 Jun 2005
This book has got every single piece of information about clinical investigations known to man, except the useful stuff. If you want to pull your hair out, buy this book.

Not Bad, 20 Jan 2004
Most of the information here can be found in other sources, but what it does do is collect a wide range of information in a small format. It is not always as complete as I would have liked but is none the less a welcome addition to my book shelf

A true survival story, 17 Nov 2008
If any book captures the spirit of human survival it is this one by Douglas Mawson.It is the story of an Antarctic expedition that went horribly wrong and tells how Mawson had to deal with the death of his colleagues.How he survived is a minor miracle and it is hard to believe that he came out of his horrible situation alive.

Mawson tells his story in a professional and unemotional way and this is always a compelling read.It shows just how deep a person can dig down within his soul in order to survive.It isn't the best book I have read about polar exploration,that is probably 'Endurance' by Alfred Lansing but it is very good effort indeed.Recommended.

And then there was one, 31 Dec 2007
What is just as unbelievable as this truly remarkable story itself is that Mawson has never had the same recognition as his contemporaries, Scott and Shackleton.

The story is even more remarkable, not just because of the terrible deaths of his comrades or the near starvation or physical pain and mental exhaustion, but that Mawson is further tormented by his total isolation in a vastness unimaginable.

A grim tale with emotion, the reader will find Bickel's account vivid and moving.


Mawson's Will, 08 Dec 2007
Without being fully aware of the history of the polar expeditions or polar travel in general, I began this book expecting a great adventure story and nothing more. This book more than delivered in that respect. Not only is it immensely easy to read, but I found it difficult to put down and became completely engrossed in the story that unfolded. I got choked up a great deal towards the end and felt anxious and exhausted along with the people in the book. For the two days that it took to read, I lived the fears and exhaustion along with the author and finished the book feeling wrung out, yet strangely exhilarated. I can not imagine what it must be like to travel in such a hostile environment, but this book goes some way to helping you picture what it may of been like. It also has some great old photography. If you like survival stories or are interested in the polar expeditions you must add this book to your library, it is a superb read that will keep you gripped throughout. Highly recommended.

Bickel's Gift, 22 Oct 2007
Rarely has fiction served the truth so well. Rarely has the truth served fiction so well.

Mawson's own account of his ordeal, in "The Home of The Blizzard", seems relatively matter of fact. We may not have marvelled at Mawson's accomplishment in surviving if we relied only on his way of telling it. Although a good writer, his specialities were geography and exploration.

Bickel's presentation here in "Mawson's Will" makes Mawson's accomplishment more touching than Mawson's own presentation. But it took an extraordinary writing accomplishment by Bickel to convey Mawson's accomplishment. Poetic license? To fail to understand how much faithful art it took to go from Mawson's diaries and book to Bickel's account would be to not appreciate how much effort and skill it took for Bickel to bring Mawson's tale so fully alive. If Bickel hadn't taken poetic license, this tale may have been of more interest to the most purist historian but it would have been of far less human interest. Sensitive to our lack of understanding of the Antartic experience, Bickel put us there in a way we never could have gotten from Mawson's own account. The last one hundred pages of "Mawson's Will" are as riveting as anything I've read in years.

Bickel's faithfulness to Mawson has made this a special work of art. Because of Bickel, we can be amazed at how Mawson survived and understand something profound about the human will.

P.S. I wake up the next day to find the story is still strong on my mind. Mawson returned to Australia to find his beloved waiting, married her, in time actually returned to the Antartic for exploration, and lived til 73. While we may never face as extreme a challenge as he did, there seems lessons here in the value of perserverence, in the benefits of careful self-management, and in the role of loved ones in making life worth living. This is an unusual book and Mawson and Bickel have made a special contribution far beyond whether land was claimed through exploration.

Mawson's Will review, 19 Dec 2006
As a fan of real life tales of adventure, I loved this book. I found it gripping, the detail, the anguish, the physical and mental hardship, the historical detail - awesome read.
This is probably less of a good read for someone who isn't into the outdoors and so has no empathy with the situation.

Physics and computer science genius Stephen Wolfram, sets his sights on a daunting goal: understanding the universe. A New Kind of Science is a gorgeous, 1,280-page tome more than a decade in the making. With patience, insight, and self-confidence to spare, Wolfram outlines a fundamental new way of modelling complex systems.

On the frontier of complexity science since he was a boy, Wolfram is a champion of cellular automata--256 "programs" governed by simple non-mathematical rules. He points out that even the most complex equations fail to accurately model biological systems, but the simplest cellular automata can produce results straight out of nature--tree branches, stream eddies, and leopard spots, for instance. The graphics in A New Kind of Science show striking resemblance to the patterns we see in nature every day.

Wolfram wrote the book in a distinct style meant to make it easy to read, even for non-techies; a basic familiarity with logic is helpful but not essential. Readers will find themselves swept away by the elegant simplicity of Wolfram's ideas and the accidental artistry of the cellular automaton models. Whether or not Wolfram's revolution ultimately gives us the keys to the universe, his new science is absolutely awe-inspiring. --Therese Littleton

A straightforward, engaging, easy-to-read and enjoyable book., 22 Dec 2008
This book is a great place to start for anyone who wishes to carry out a research project. Taking a practical and down-to-earth view of research, the author covers all aspects of quantitative and qualitative research, with clearly laid-out examples and illustrations. This book is an excellent resource for research students at any level, and contains many references for their future work. Very readable: highly recommended. (First year PhD research student)

Fantastic Read, Very Informative , 20 Nov 2008
I fantastic read, covers lots of aspects of different ancient civilisations and possible technology that they had. Brings up lots of questions as to how the pyramids were really constructed right through to the discovery of large portions of desert covered in a sheet of glass, possibly created from atomic blasts thousands of years ago.
Overall a very well written book and keeps the reader interested throughout. Definitely recommend to anyone interested in ancient history

A good summary of many researches, 03 Oct 2000
This book is a good summary of many researches done before Mr Childress wrote the book. In particular, the chapter on Giza power plant was a good summary of Mr Dunn's book.

As a whole, the book is refreshing and proves that technology of high sophistication existed before, or rather have been in existence for longer than our conventional views of history permit us.

Depends on how you look at it, this book can be taken as support for theory of Atlantis, Sitchin's idea of the Annunakis or even Daniken's Chariots of the Gods.

On the whole, great stuff, and an eye opener!

Thank you for a REAL FUN chemistry book, 01 Aug 2008
The author, Mr. Thompson, obviously loves the subject, and yes, darn it, chemistry should be "fun", a little dangerous and educational.
I share the author's lament over the passing of a "proper" chemistry set. The one I had as a kid contained all the "no-no's" (or should I say KNO, KNO3!)
In that day you could go to the chemist and buy all manner of chemicals "off the shelf".
At school we made rockets (after school hours, I had a terrific Chemistry Master.....
Now my Son wants to learn, we home ed.... this book gives me the chance to "teach" or better "inspire" him:- That I did already, demonstrating the oxidizing qualities of KMnO4, innitially he smuggly goes yeah and.... then quite soon it's wow, how the heck did that happen?
With the chemistry sets of today you take two or more chemicals, mix them together and go "um er what's supposed to happen", as the chemicals just sit there, or if you are lucky change color!
An experiment has to DO something tangible. Thank you for a great book!

On an offside as it seems that we are being treated more and more like halfwits, perhaps we could have a "for dummies" line of chemistry sets, and then have a range that are designed for the responsible, and wanna b edjucaited majority!!

Don't waste your money, 02 Sep 2008
Found this book very dull and uninspiring and not anywhere near as useful as other books in the Oxford handbook series.

Understanding Laboratory Investigations: For Nurses and Health Professionals covers all of the basics and is much more readable and I'd recommend to medical students, especially those in the early clinical years.

shocking, 23 Jun 2005
This book has got every single piece of information about clinical investigations known to man, except the useful stuff. If you want to pull your hair out, buy this book.

Not Bad, 20 Jan 2004
Most of the information here can be found in other sources, but what it does do is collect a wide range of information in a small format. It is not always as complete as I would have liked but is none the less a welcome addition to my book shelf

A true survival story, 17 Nov 2008
If any book captures the spirit of human survival it is this one by Douglas Mawson.It is the story of an Antarctic expedition that went horribly wrong and tells how Mawson had to deal with the death of his colleagues.How he survived is a minor miracle and it is hard to believe that he came out of his horrible situation alive.

Mawson tells his story in a professional and unemotional way and this is always a compelling read.It shows just how deep a person can dig down within his soul in order to survive.It isn't the best book I have read about polar exploration,that is probably 'Endurance' by Alfred Lansing but it is very good effort indeed.Recommended.

And then there was one, 31 Dec 2007
What is just as unbelievable as this truly remarkable story itself is that Mawson has never had the same recognition as his contemporaries, Scott and Shackleton.

The story is even more remarkable, not just because of the terrible deaths of his comrades or the near starvation or physical pain and mental exhaustion, but that Mawson is further tormented by his total isolation in a vastness unimaginable.

A grim tale with emotion, the reader will find Bickel's account vivid and moving.


Mawson's Will, 08 Dec 2007
Without being fully aware of the history of the polar expeditions or polar travel in general, I began this book expecting a great adventure story and nothing more. This book more than delivered in that respect. Not only is it immensely easy to read, but I found it difficult to put down and became completely engrossed in the story that unfolded. I got choked up a great deal towards the end and felt anxious and exhausted along with the people in the book. For the two days that it took to read, I lived the fears and exhaustion along with the author and finished the book feeling wrung out, yet strangely exhilarated. I can not imagine what it must be like to travel in such a hostile environment, but this book goes some way to helping you picture what it may of been like. It also has some great old photography. If you like survival stories or are interested in the polar expeditions you must add this book to your library, it is a superb read that will keep you gripped throughout. Highly recommended.

Bickel's Gift, 22 Oct 2007
Rarely has fiction served the truth so well. Rarely has the truth served fiction so well.

Mawson's own account of his ordeal, in "The Home of The Blizzard", seems relatively matter of fact. We may not have marvelled at Mawson's accomplishment in surviving if we relied only on his way of telling it. Although a good writer, his specialities were geography and exploration.

Bickel's presentation here in "Mawson's Will" makes Mawson's accomplishment more touching than Mawson's own presentation. But it took an extraordinary writing accomplishment by Bickel to convey Mawson's accomplishment. Poetic license? To fail to understand how much faithful art it took to go from Mawson's diaries and book to Bickel's account would be to not appreciate how much effort and skill it took for Bickel to bring Mawson's tale so fully alive. If Bickel hadn't taken poetic license, this tale may have been of more interest to the most purist historian but it would have been of far less human interest. Sensitive to our lack of understanding of the Antartic experience, Bickel put us there in a way we never could have gotten from Mawson's own account. The last one hundred pages of "Mawson's Will" are as riveting as anything I've read in years.

Bickel's faithfulness to Mawson has made this a special work of art. Because of Bickel, we can be amazed at how Mawson survived and understand something profound about the human will.

P.S. I wake up the next day to find the story is still strong on my mind. Mawson returned to Australia to find his beloved waiting, married her, in time actually returned to the Antartic for exploration, and lived til 73. While we may never face as extreme a challenge as he did, there seems lessons here in the value of perserverence, in the benefits of careful self-management, and in the role of loved ones in making life worth living. This is an unusual book and Mawson and Bickel have made a special contribution far beyond whether land was claimed through exploration.

Mawson's Will review, 19 Dec 2006
As a fan of real life tales of adventure, I loved this book. I found it gripping, the detail, the anguish, the physical and mental hardship, the historical detail - awesome read.
This is probably less of a good read for someone who isn't into the outdoors and so has no empathy with the situation.

Not very new, not very interesting, 06 May 2008
I had been looking forward to reading this book for ages, but am very disappointed.

Most of it is not very new at all, the prose is long winded and tedious to read, a lot of page space is wasted in wide borders and excessive line spacing, and I really don't see the point. I'd sell my copy, but I doubt it's even worth the cost of the postage.

I only gave it two stars in case there is something interesting in there, given the other achievements of the author, but I missed it.


Fascinating ideas, 19 Oct 2006
Wolfram is a British Physicist who developed the Mathematica software. In writing this hefty volume (1200 pages), he has been criticised for failing to adequately acknowledge other authors' contributions to the field of cellular automata. Certainly he has a tendency towards an irritating, self congratulatory style at times, but working through this hefty volume, one certainly cannot fail to acknowledge a huge intellect at work. I strongly recommend this book as it is readable (but not without some effort) by a non-mathematical audience, has wonderful images of cellular automata and presents a range of challenging and fascinating ideas across a broad spectrum of science. Woolfram also proposes and argues a case for a new fundamental law of nature - the principle of computational equivalence which has met with a varied reception in the scientific community. It appears to me, that some of the criticisms of this work may have be driven by Woolfram's failure to acknowledge the shoulders he has stood on as well as his decision to opt for a commercial publication path rather than through peer review in published scientific journals. Personally, I found the most interesting parts of the book were in the field of cellular automata as models of biological systems. The chapter on perception and anlaysis and in his explanatory model of apparent human free will.

Interesting but ultimately flawed, 01 Feb 2006
Perhaps the biggest frustration when reading the book is the total lack of references to other peoples work. Wolfram explains his reasoning for this but it gives what could be a classic work a hollow feeling because you do not see the work in context and it is hard to judge it against what was done before. His case would have been much more credible with the references and this would have made it seem a more informed and less partial work.

The later parts of the book and his arguments regarding computational equivalence are very hard to penetrate and again this could have been improved if he had looked for other sources. His idea ia an important one as it underpins why we do science and how we should do science when we deal with complexity where simulation plays a vital role in improving our understanding. This will be a debate that will go on for some time.

Pretty pictures, dull prose, 26 Feb 2005
As someone with a scientific background but no specific knowledge of the subject of this book, I was not really convinced that it presented any new ideas that I had not come across (at least hinted at) in other popular science books. However, that is a difficult conclusion to reach, because Wolfram's undisciplined and badly structured prose style compares extremely poorly to most other popular science writers, and I confess to skipping large chunks. I'm sure a more talented communicator could have given a pithy and entertaining exposition of the main ideas in this book in 50-100 pages.

An interesting quote from the Institute of Physics review of the book: "Those who are familiar with the field will find it alarming to see page after page of results - bearing a striking similarity to previously published work - respresented as Wolfram's personal scientific revelation." The lack of acknowledgement of others is indeed extremely annoying.

I would not recommend that anyone shells out for this book if they can borrow it or get a cheap second hand copy (no, I'm not trying to flog mine on Amazon!).

The vanity outweighs the science, 02 Dec 2004
There are only 2 salient points about this book;

1. There is no "new kind of science" in the book, but rather a collection of very interesting interactions between different simple automata and their limited environments. The book could easily have been the size of an article in Scientific American (for example) and lost none of the essential meaning.

2. The author is *unbelievably* proud of his achievement. This will put any true scientist off. It's not fun to read, having to skip the pages and endless pages of self-congratulatory nonsense to find the occasional nugget of scientific analysis. Almost every paragraph talks about how long he has been doing it (who cares?), how radically he has changed the focus of other sciences (yet to be demonstrated) or how clever he is (also uncertain).

The pictures are nice, and I'm sure many a graduate degree will be pursuing what I'm sure will be fertile ground in this area, but I shall not soon forget the ordeal of trudging through his ego to get there.

It does look impressive on a bookshelf, but I'm hoping none of my guests have actually read it.

A straightforward, engaging, easy-to-read and enjoyable book., 22 Dec 2008
This book is a great place to start for anyone who wishes to carry out a research project. Taking a practical and down-to-earth view of research, the author covers all aspects of quantitative and qualitative research, with clearly laid-out examples and illustrations. This book is an excellent resource for research students at any level, and contains many references for their future work. Very readable: highly recommended. (First year PhD research student)

Fantastic Read, Very Informative , 20 Nov 2008
I fantastic read, covers lots of aspects of different ancient civilisations and possible technology that they had. Brings up lots of questions as to how the pyramids were really constructed right through to the discovery of large portions of desert covered in a sheet of glass, possibly created from atomic blasts thousands of years ago.
Overall a very well written book and keeps the reader interested throughout. Definitely recommend to anyone interested in ancient history

A good summary of many researches, 03 Oct 2000
This book is a good summary of many researches done before Mr Childress wrote the book. In particular, the chapter on Giza power plant was a good summary of Mr Dunn's book.

As a whole, the book is refreshing and proves that technology of high sophistication existed before, or rather have been in existence for longer than our conventional views of history permit us.

Depends on how you look at it, this book can be taken as support for theory of Atlantis, Sitchin's idea of the Annunakis or even Daniken's Chariots of the Gods.

On the whole, great stuff, and an eye opener!

Thank you for a REAL FUN chemistry book, 01 Aug 2008
The author, Mr. Thompson, obviously loves the subject, and yes, darn it, chemistry should be "fun", a little dangerous and educational.
I share the author's lament over the passing of a "proper" chemistry set. The one I had as a kid contained all the "no-no's" (or should I say KNO, KNO3!)
In that day you could go to the chemist and buy all manner of chemicals "off the shelf".
At school we made rockets (after school hours, I had a terrific Chemistry Master.....
Now my Son wants to learn, we home ed.... this book gives me the chance to "teach" or better "inspire" him:- That I did already, demonstrating the oxidizing qualities of KMnO4, innitially he smuggly goes yeah and.... then quite soon it's wow, how the heck did that happen?
With the chemistry sets of today you take two or more chemicals, mix them together and go "um er what's supposed to happen", as the chemicals just sit there, or if you are lucky change color!
An experiment has to DO something tangible. Thank you for a great book!

On an offside as it seems that we are being treated more and more like halfwits, perhaps we could have a "for dummies" line of chemistry sets, and then have a range that are designed for the responsible, and wanna b edjucaited majority!!

Don't waste your money, 02 Sep 2008
Found this book very dull and uninspiring and not anywhere near as useful as other books in the Oxford handbook series.

Understanding Laboratory Investigations: For Nurses and Health Professionals covers all of the basics and is much more readable and I'd recommend to medical students, especially those in the early clinical years.

shocking, 23 Jun 2005
This book has got every single piece of information about clinical investigations known to man, except the useful stuff. If you want to pull your hair out, buy this book.

Not Bad, 20 Jan 2004
Most of the information here can be found in other sources, but what it does do is collect a wide range of information in a small format. It is not always as complete as I would have liked but is none the less a welcome addition to my book shelf

A true survival story, 17 Nov 2008
If any book captures the spirit of human survival it is this one by Douglas Mawson.It is the story of an Antarctic expedition that went horribly wrong and tells how Mawson had to deal with the death of his colleagues.How he survived is a minor miracle and it is hard to believe that he came out of his horrible situation alive.

Mawson tells his story in a professional and unemotional way and this is always a compelling read.It shows just how deep a person can dig down within his soul in order to survive.It isn't the best book I have read about polar exploration,that is probably 'Endurance' by Alfred Lansing but it is very good effort indeed.Recommended.

And then there was one, 31 Dec 2007
What is just as unbelievable as this truly remarkable story itself is that Mawson has never had the same recognition as his contemporaries, Scott and Shackleton.

The story is even more remarkable, not just because of the terrible deaths of his comrades or the near starvation or physical pain and mental exhaustion, but that Mawson is further tormented by his total isolation in a vastness unimaginable.

A grim tale with emotion, the reader will find Bickel's account vivid and moving.


Mawson's Will, 08 Dec 2007
Without being fully aware of the history of the polar expeditions or polar travel in general, I began this book expecting a great adventure story and nothing more. This book more than delivered in that respect. Not only is it immensely easy to read, but I found it difficult to put down and became completely engrossed in the story that unfolded. I got choked up a great deal towards the end and felt anxious and exhausted along with the people in the book. For the two days that it took to read, I lived the fears and exhaustion along with the author and finished the book feeling wrung out, yet strangely exhilarated. I can not imagine what it must be like to travel in such a hostile environment, but this book goes some way to helping you picture what it may of been like. It also has some great old photography. If you like survival stories or are interested in the polar expeditions you must add this book to your library, it is a superb read that will keep you gripped throughout. Highly recommended.

Bickel's Gift, 22 Oct 2007
Rarely has fiction served the truth so well. Rarely has the truth served fiction so well.

Mawson's own account of his ordeal, in "The Home of The Blizzard", seems relatively matter of fact. We may not have marvelled at Mawson's accomplishment in surviving if we relied only on his way of telling it. Although a good writer, his specialities were geography and exploration.

Bickel's presentation here in "Mawson's Will" makes Mawson's accomplishment more touching than Mawson's own presentation. But it took an extraordinary writing accomplishment by Bickel to convey Mawson's accomplishment. Poetic license? To fail to understand how much faithful art it took to go from Mawson's diaries and book to Bickel's account would be to not appreciate how much effort and skill it took for Bickel to bring Mawson's tale so fully alive. If Bickel hadn't taken poetic license, this tale may have been of more interest to the most purist historian but it would have been of far less human interest. Sensitive to our lack of understanding of the Antartic experience, Bickel put us there in a way we never could have gotten from Mawson's own account. The last one hundred pages of "Mawson's Will" are as riveting as anything I've read in years.

Bickel's faithfulness to Mawson has made this a special work of art. Because of Bickel, we can be amazed at how Mawson survived and understand something profound about the human will.

P.S. I wake up the next day to find the story is still strong on my mind. Mawson returned to Australia to find his beloved waiting, married her, in time actually returned to the Antartic for exploration, and lived til 73. While we may never face as extreme a challenge as he did, there seems lessons here in the value of perserverence, in the benefits of careful self-management, and in the role of loved ones in making life worth living. This is an unusual book and Mawson and Bickel have made a special contribution far beyond whether land was claimed through exploration.

Mawson's Will review, 19 Dec 2006
As a fan of real life tales of adventure, I loved this book. I found it gripping, the detail, the anguish, the physical and mental hardship, the historical detail - awesome read.
This is probably less of a good read for someone who isn't into the outdoors and so has no empathy with the situation.

Not very new, not very interesting, 06 May 2008
I had been looking forward to reading this book for ages, but am very disappointed.

Most of it is not very new at all, the prose is long winded and tedious to read, a lot of page space is wasted in wide borders and excessive line spacing, and I really don't see the point. I'd sell my copy, but I doubt it's even worth the cost of the postage.

I only gave it two stars in case there is something interesting in there, given the other achievements of the author, but I missed it.


Fascinating ideas, 19 Oct 2006
Wolfram is a British Physicist who developed the Mathematica software. In writing this hefty volume (1200 pages), he has been criticised for failing to adequately acknowledge other authors' contributions to the field of cellular automata. Certainly he has a tendency towards an irritating, self congratulatory style at times, but working through this hefty volume, one certainly cannot fail to acknowledge a huge intellect at work. I strongly recommend this book as it is readable (but not without some effort) by a non-mathematical audience, has wonderful images of cellular automata and presents a range of challenging and fascinating ideas across a broad spectrum of science. Woolfram also proposes and argues a case for a new fundamental law of nature - the principle of computational equivalence which has met with a varied reception in the scientific community. It appears to me, that some of the criticisms of this work may have be driven by Woolfram's failure to acknowledge the shoulders he has stood on as well as his decision to opt for a commercial publication path rather than through peer review in published scientific journals. Personally, I found the most interesting parts of the book were in the field of cellular automata as models of biological systems. The chapter on perception and anlaysis and in his explanatory model of apparent human free will.

Interesting but ultimately flawed, 01 Feb 2006
Perhaps the biggest frustration when reading the book is the total lack of references to other peoples work. Wolfram explains his reasoning for this but it gives what could be a classic work a hollow feeling because you do not see the work in context and it is hard to judge it against what was done before. His case would have been much more credible with the references and this would have made it seem a more informed and less partial work.

The later parts of the book and his arguments regarding computational equivalence are very hard to penetrate and again this could have been improved if he had looked for other sources. His idea ia an important one as it underpins why we do science and how we should do science when we deal with complexity where simulation plays a vital role in improving our understanding. This will be a debate that will go on for some time.

Pretty pictures, dull prose, 26 Feb 2005
As someone with a scientific background but no specific knowledge of the subject of this book, I was not really convinced that it presented any new ideas that I had not come across (at least hinted at) in other popular science books. However, that is a difficult conclusion to reach, because Wolfram's undisciplined and badly structured prose style compares extremely poorly to most other popular science writers, and I confess to skipping large chunks. I'm sure a more talented communicator could have given a pithy and entertaining exposition of the main ideas in this book in 50-100 pages.

An interesting quote from the Institute of Physics review of the book: "Those who are familiar with the field will find it alarming to see page after page of results - bearing a striking similarity to previously published work - respresented as Wolfram's personal scientific revelation." The lack of acknowledgement of others is indeed extremely annoying.

I would not recommend that anyone shells out for this book if they can borrow it or get a cheap second hand copy (no, I'm not trying to flog mine on Amazon!).

The vanity outweighs the science, 02 Dec 2004
There are only 2 salient points about this book;

1. There is no "new kind of science" in the book, but rather a collection of very interesting interactions between different simple automata and their limited environments. The book could easily have been the size of an article in Scientific American (for example) and lost none of the essential meaning.

2. The author is *unbelievably* proud of his achievement. This will put any true scientist off. It's not fun to read, having to skip the pages and endless pages of self-congratulatory nonsense to find the occasional nugget of scientific analysis. Almost every paragraph talks about how long he has been doing it (who cares?), how radically he has changed the focus of other sciences (yet to be demonstrated) or how clever he is (also uncertain).

The pictures are nice, and I'm sure many a graduate degree will be pursuing what I'm sure will be fertile ground in this area, but I shall not soon forget the ordeal of trudging through his ego to get there.

It does look impressive on a bookshelf, but I'm hoping none of my guests have actually read it.

A fascinating collection, 19 Nov 2008
A superb collection of easy to read and digest essays covering a vast range of subjects from paper sizes to volcanoes. It's a lovely book to dip into when you feel the need to expand your knowledge.

Not really a story, just very short series of 2-page articles, 01 Mar 2008
The main item missing from this is a story. This is a series of articles, few of which are connected. There is nothing wrong with the items, although because of the shortness of the text on each item there isn't much detail. If you want some basic background on a range of measuremnet topics this is fine, if you want a detailed discussion of the history of measurement and the characters linking the history, look elsewhere.

A straightforward, engaging, easy-to-read and enjoyable book., 22 Dec 2008
This book is a great place to start for anyone who wishes to carry out a research project. Taking a practical and down-to-earth view of research, the author covers all aspects of quantitative and qualitative research, with clearly laid-out examples and illustrations. This book is an excellent resource for research students at any level, and contains many references for their future work. Very readable: highly recommended. (First year PhD research student)

Fantastic Read, Very Informative , 20 Nov 2008
I fantastic read, covers lots of aspects of different ancient civilisations and possible technology that they had. Brings up lots of questions as to how the pyramids were really constructed right through to the discovery of large portions of desert covered in a sheet of glass, possibly created from atomic blasts thousands of years ago.
Overall a very well written book and keeps the reader interested throughout. Definitely recommend to anyone interested in ancient history

A good summary of many researches, 03 Oct 2000
This book is a good summary of many researches done before Mr Childress wrote the book. In particular, the chapter on Giza power plant was a good summary of Mr Dunn's book.

As a whole, the book is refreshing and proves that technology of high sophistication existed before, or rather have been in existence for longer than our conventional views of history permit us.

Depends on how you look at it, this book can be taken as support for theory of Atlantis, Sitchin's idea of the Annunakis or even Daniken's Chariots of the Gods.

On the whole, great stuff, and an eye opener!

Thank you for a REAL FUN chemistry book, 01 Aug 2008
The author, Mr. Thompson, obviously loves the subject, and yes, darn it, chemistry should be "fun", a little dangerous and educational.
I share the author's lament over the passing of a "proper" chemistry set. The one I had as a kid contained all the "no-no's" (or should I say KNO, KNO3!)
In that day you could go to the chemist and buy all manner of chemicals "off the shelf".
At school we made rockets (after school hours, I had a terrific Chemistry Master.....
Now my Son wants to learn, we home ed.... this book gives me the chance to "teach" or better "inspire" him:- That I did already, demonstrating the oxidizing qualities of KMnO4, innitially he smuggly goes yeah and.... then quite soon it's wow, how the heck did that happen?
With the chemistry sets of today you take two or more chemicals, mix them together and go "um er what's supposed to happen", as the chemicals just sit there, or if you are lucky change color!
An experiment has to DO something tangible. Thank you for a great book!

On an offside as it seems that we are being treated more and more like halfwits, perhaps we could have a "for dummies" line of chemistry sets, and then have a range that are designed for the responsible, and wanna b edjucaited majority!!

Don't waste your money, 02 Sep 2008
Found this book very dull and uninspiring and not anywhere near as useful as other books in the Oxford handbook series.

Understanding Laboratory Investigations: For Nurses and Health Professionals covers all of the basics and is much more readable and I'd recommend to medical students, especially those in the early clinical years.

shocking, 23 Jun 2005
This book has got every single piece of information about clinical investigations known to man, except the useful stuff. If you want to pull your hair out, buy this book.

Not Bad, 20 Jan 2004
Most of the information here can be found in other sources, but what it does do is collect a wide range of information in a small format. It is not always as complete as I would have liked but is none the less a welcome addition to my book shelf

A true survival story, 17 Nov 2008
If any book captures the spirit of human survival it is this one by Douglas Mawson.It is the story of an Antarctic expedition that went horribly wrong and tells how Mawson had to deal with the death of his colleagues.How he survived is a minor miracle and it is hard to believe that he came out of his horrible situation alive.

Mawson tells his story in a professional and unemotional way and this is always a compelling read.It shows just how deep a person can dig down within his soul in order to survive.It isn't the best book I have read about polar exploration,that is probably 'Endurance' by Alfred Lansing but it is very good effort indeed.Recommended.

And then there was one, 31 Dec 2007
What is just as unbelievable as this truly remarkable story itself is that Mawson has never had the same recognition as his contemporaries, Scott and Shackleton.

The story is even more remarkable, not just because of the terrible deaths of his comrades or the near starvation or physical pain and mental exhaustion, but that Mawson is further tormented by his total isolation in a vastness unimaginable.

A grim tale with emotion, the reader will find Bickel's account vivid and moving.


Mawson's Will, 08 Dec 2007
Without being fully aware of the history of the polar expeditions or polar travel in general, I began this book expecting a great adventure story and nothing more. This book more than delivered in that respect. Not only is it immensely easy to read, but I found it difficult to put down and became completely engrossed in the story that unfolded. I got choked up a great deal towards the end and felt anxious and exhausted along with the people in the book. For the two days that it took to read, I lived the fears and exhaustion along with the author and finished the book feeling wrung out, yet strangely exhilarated. I can not imagine what it must be like to travel in such a hostile environment, but this book goes some way to helping you picture what it may of been like. It also has some great old photography. If you like survival stories or are interested in the polar expeditions you must add this book to your library, it is a superb read that will keep you gripped throughout. Highly recommended.

Bickel's Gift, 22 Oct 2007
Rarely has fiction served the truth so well. Rarely has the truth served fiction so well.

Mawson's own account of his ordeal, in "The Home of The Blizzard", seems relatively matter of fact. We may not have marvelled at Mawson's accomplishment in surviving if we relied only on his way of telling it. Although a good writer, his specialities were geography and exploration.

Bickel's presentation here in "Mawson's Will" makes Mawson's accomplishment more touching than Mawson's own presentation. But it took an extraordinary writing accomplishment by Bickel to convey Mawson's accomplishment. Poetic license? To fail to understand how much faithful art it took to go from Mawson's diaries and book to Bickel's account would be to not appreciate how much effort and skill it took for Bickel to bring Mawson's tale so fully alive. If Bickel hadn't taken poetic license, this tale may have been of more interest to the most purist historian but it would have been of far less human interest. Sensitive to our lack of understanding of the Antartic experience, Bickel put us there in a way we never could have gotten from Mawson's own account. The last one hundred pages of "Mawson's Will" are as riveting as anything I've read in years.

Bickel's faithfulness to Mawson has made this a special work of art. Because of Bickel, we can be amazed at how Mawson survived and understand something profound about the human will.

P.S. I wake up the next day to find the story is still strong on my mind. Mawson returned to Australia to find his beloved waiting, married her, in time actually returned to the Antartic for exploration, and lived til 73. While we may never face as extreme a challenge as he did, there seems lessons here in the value of perserverence, in the benefits of careful self-management, and in the role of loved ones in making life worth living. This is an unusual book and Mawson and Bickel have made a special contribution far beyond whether land was claimed through exploration.

Mawson's Will review, 19 Dec 2006
As a fan of real life tales of adventure, I loved this book. I found it gripping, the detail, the anguish, the physical and mental hardship, the historical detail - awesome read.
This is probably less of a good read for someone who isn't into the outdoors and so has no empathy with the situation.

Not very new, not very interesting, 06 May 2008
I had been looking forward to reading this book for ages, but am very disappointed.

Most of it is not very new at all, the prose is long winded and tedious to read, a lot of page space is wasted in wide borders and excessive line spacing, and I really don't see the point. I'd sell my copy, but I doubt it's even worth the cost of the postage.

I only gave it two stars in case there is something interesting in there, given the other achievements of the author, but I missed it.


Fascinating ideas, 19 Oct 2006
Wolfram is a British Physicist who developed the Mathematica software. In writing this hefty volume (1200 pages), he has been criticised for failing to adequately acknowledge other authors' contributions to the field of cellular automata. Certainly he has a tendency towards an irritating, self congratulatory style at times, but working through this hefty volume, one certainly cannot fail to acknowledge a huge intellect at work. I strongly recommend this book as it is readable (but not without some effort) by a non-mathematical audience, has wonderful images of cellular automata and presents a range of challenging and fascinating ideas across a broad spectrum of science. Woolfram also proposes and argues a case for a new fundamental law of nature - the principle of computational equivalence which has met with a varied reception in the scientific community. It appears to me, that some of the criticisms of this work may have be driven by Woolfram's failure to acknowledge the shoulders he has stood on as well as his decision to opt for a commercial publication path rather than through peer review in published scientific journals. Personally, I found the most interesting parts of the book were in the field of cellular automata as models of biological systems. The chapter on perception and anlaysis and in his explanatory model of apparent human free will.

Interesting but ultimately flawed, 01 Feb 2006
Perhaps the biggest frustration when reading the book is the total lack of references to other peoples work. Wolfram explains his reasoning for this but it gives what could be a classic work a hollow feeling because you do not see the work in context and it is hard to judge it against what was done before. His case would have been much more credible with the references and this would have made it seem a more informed and less partial work.

The later parts of the book and his arguments regarding computational equivalence are very hard to penetrate and again this could have been improved if he had looked for other sources. His idea ia an important one as it underpins why we do science and how we should do science when we deal with complexity where simulation plays a vital role in improving our understanding. This will be a debate that will go on for some time.

Pretty pictures, dull prose, 26 Feb 2005
As someone with a scientific background but no specific knowledge of the subject of this book, I was not really convinced that it presented any new ideas that I had not come across (at least hinted at) in other popular science books. However, that is a difficult conclusion to reach, because Wolfram's undisciplined and badly structured prose style compares extremely poorly to most other popular science writers, and I confess to skipping large chunks. I'm sure a more talented communicator could have given a pithy and entertaining exposition of the main ideas in this book in 50-100 pages.

An interesting quote from the Institute of Physics review of the book: "Those who are familiar with the field will find it alarming to see page after page of results - bearing a striking similarity to previously published work - respresented as Wolfram's personal scientific revelation." The lack of acknowledgement of others is indeed extremely annoying.

I would not recommend that anyone shells out for this book if they can borrow it or get a cheap second hand copy (no, I'm not trying to flog mine on Amazon!).

The vanity outweighs the science, 02 Dec 2004
There are only 2 salient points about this book;

1. There is no "new kind of science" in the book, but rather a collection of very interesting interactions between different simple automata and their limited environments. The book could easily have been the size of an article in Scientific American (for example) and lost none of the essential meaning.

2. The author is *unbelievably* proud of his achievement. This will put any true scientist off. It's not fun to read, having to skip the pages and endless pages of self-congratulatory nonsense to find the occasional nugget of scientific analysis. Almost every paragraph talks about how long he has been doing it (who cares?), how radically he has changed the focus of other sciences (yet to be demonstrated) or how clever he is (also uncertain).

The pictures are nice, and I'm sure many a graduate degree will be pursuing what I'm sure will be fertile ground in this area, but I shall not soon forget the ordeal of trudging through his ego to get there.

It does look impressive on a bookshelf, but I'm hoping none of my guests have actually read it.

A fascinating collection, 19 Nov 2008
A superb collection of easy to read and digest essays covering a vast range of subjects from paper sizes to volcanoes. It's a lovely book to dip into when you feel the need to expand your knowledge.

Not really a story, just very short series of 2-page articles, 01 Mar 2008
The main item missing from this is a story. This is a series of articles, few of which are connected. There is nothing wrong with the items, although because of the shortness of the text on each item there isn't much detail. If you want some basic background on a range of measuremnet topics this is fine, if you want a detailed discussion of the history of measurement and the characters linking the history, look elsewhere.

Science the pure pursuit?, 18 May 2008
I think people who are interested in science and its achievements like to think that it's relatively unbiased in a political sense - it's always been accepted that some level of bias exists. This book shows that the political interference that has been in existence for many, many years is actually getting much worse not better even in democratic based societies. It also covers a great deal of corruption for personal gain so it's not just politics.

Overall a good read for anyone who wants to understand more about why science is becoming corrupted by governments to use it for their own ends and the impact that this is having.

Be Afraid . . . Be Very Afraid, 15 Nov 2007
John Grant's CORRUPTED SCIENCE is an important book. It's entertaining and informative, a must for anyone interested in the history of science. Until I read it, I had no idea that test results had been faked by the revered likes of Ptolemy, Galileo, and Sir Isaac Newton.

This is fascinating stuff, but more significantly, CORRUPTED SCIENCE exposes the hypocrisy and sham science perpetrated today for questionable purposes, principally in the United States.

Grant divides his book into six chapters, and further subdivides them in user-friendly fashion to make his case. "Fraudulent Scientists," "Seeing What They Wanted to See," "Military Madness," "The One True Book," "Ideology Trumps Science," and "The Political Corruption of Science" delve into the myriad ways that the quest for truth has been subverted, sometimes innocently but more often by design.

The concluding chapter's three sections---"Hitler's Germany," Stalin's Russia," and "Bush's America"---examine the most egregious cases of willful governmental scientific subornation by powerful national governments for ideological and religious purposes. Grant details efforts by the Bush administration to hide the facts of global warming, a fraud perpetrated to safeguard the enormous profits of the energy industry, and to discredit the theory of evolution for ideological purposes.

Grant argues convincingly that the harm done by the Bush Administration will take generations to repair. This is a disturbin, but inescapable conclusion, and Grant's copious research drives home the reality that ideologues have been in charge of American scientific institutions since 2001 as a result of Bush's dubious electoral victory.

It's disturbing stuff, but written in a compelling and persuasive style. The book is an attractive hardcover, and it's offered at a very modest price. It should be read by everyone who's serious about the future of science and, indeed, of the Earth itself.

Probably the most important book you will read all year, 13 Nov 2007
I read Mr. Grant's earlier book, Discarded Science, when it came out last year, and was recently pleased to find he was at a convention I attended in the US. There were copies of this companion book in the dealer room of the convention, so I bought one and he signed it for me. I am very glad I bought it.

This book is a gripping read. The first part is full of fascinating information on the shadier parts of the history of science - famous scientists who did not do what they claimed to do, or who cheated their results, or stole the credit that should have gone to someone else. But that is just the warm up. It then looks at some of the crazy schemes the military has backed, often with billions of USD, schemes that any good scientist could have told them right up front could not work. Even this does nothing to prepare you for the second half of the book, which is riveting in a different way - and sometimes horrifying. Somehow Mr. Grant manages to keep a sort of dark, sorrowful humor as he looks at the human tragedies created when science is corrupted by things like racism and religious bigotry.

There are true horrors in the long final chapter, which is about the deliberate corruption of science by political ideologists. He looks at three regimes in detail: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia, and George W. Bush's US. The most horrific bits are about the medical experiments the Nazis (like Dr. Mengele) did in the concentration camps, often with children as the experimental subjects. The abuse of psychiatry by the Soviet Communists of Stalin's time and later are horrific too. Though the third part of the chapter has nothing like these, it is horrific in its own way because there are so many likenesses between the modern US abuse of science and what the Nazis and Communists did. Especially frightening is the way the US Government has lied about things like global warming and atmosphere pollution that could effect every one of us.

At the end of Corrupted Science, Mr. Grant says: "Unless we, the public of any and every nation, maintain a constant vigilance, then we can expect authoritarian regimes everywhere to recognize the benefits - however illusory those benefits might in fact be - of corrupting science at its roots. If we let them get away with it, then we can indeed expect the arrival of, in every sense of the term, a new dark age."

I think he is right.

A straightforward, engaging, easy-to-read and enjoyable book., 22 Dec 2008
This book is a great place to start for anyone who wishes to carry out a research project. Taking a practical and down-to-earth view of research, the author covers all aspects of quantitative and qualitative research, with clearly laid-out examples and illustrations. This book is an excellent resource for research students at any level, and contains many references for their future work. Very readable: highly recommended. (First year PhD research student)

Fantastic Read, Very Informative , 20 Nov 2008
I fantastic read, covers lots of aspects of different ancient civilisations and possible technology that they had. Brings up lots of questions as to how the pyramids were really constructed right through to the discovery of large portions of desert covered in a sheet of glass, possibly created from atomic blasts thousands of years ago.
Overall a very well written book and keeps the reader interested throughout. Definitely recommend to anyone interested in ancient history

A good summary of many researches, 03 Oct 2000
This book is a good summary of many researches done before Mr Childress wrote the book. In particular, the chapter on Giza power plant was a good summary of Mr Dunn's book.

As a whole, the book is refreshing and proves that technology of high sophistication existed before, or rather have been in existence for longer than our conventional views of history permit us.

Depends on how you look at it, this book can be taken as support for theory of Atlantis, Sitchin's idea of the Annunakis or even Daniken's Chariots of the Gods.

On the whole, great stuff, and an eye opener!

Thank you for a REAL FUN chemistry book, 01 Aug 2008
The author, Mr. Thompson, obviously loves the subject, and yes, darn it, chemistry should be "fun", a little dangerous and educational.
I share the author's lament over the passing of a "proper" chemistry set. The one I had as a kid contained all the "no-no's" (or should I say KNO, KNO3!)
In that day you could go to the chemist and buy all manner of chemicals "off the shelf".
At school we made rockets (after school hours, I had a terrific Chemistry Master.....
Now my Son wants to learn, we home ed.... this book gives me the chance to "teach" or better "inspire" him:- That I did already, demonstrating the oxidizing qualities of KMnO4, innitially he smuggly goes yeah and.... then quite soon it's wow, how the heck did that happen?
With the chemistry sets of today you take two or more chemicals, mix them together and go "um er what's supposed to happen", as the chemicals just sit there, or if you are lucky change color!
An experiment has to DO something tangible. Thank you for a great book!

On an offside as it seems that we are being treated more and more like halfwits, perhaps we could have a "for dummies" line of chemistry sets, and then have a range that are designed for the responsible, and wanna b edjucaited majority!!

Don't waste your money, 02 Sep 2008
Found this book very dull and uninspiring and not anywhere near as useful as other books in the Oxford handbook series.

Understanding Laboratory Investigations: For Nurses and Health Professionals covers all of the basics and is much more readable and I'd recommend to medical students, especially those in the early clinical years.

shocking, 23 Jun 2005
This book has got every single piece of information about clinical investigations known to man, except the useful stuff. If you want to pull your hair out, buy this book.

Not Bad, 20 Jan 2004
Most of the information here can be found in other sources, but what it does do is collect a wide range of information in a small format. It is not always as complete as I would have liked but is none the less a welcome addition to my book shelf

A true survival story, 17 Nov 2008
If any book captures the spirit of human survival it is this one by Douglas Mawson.It is the story of an Antarctic expedition that went horribly wrong and tells how Mawson had to deal with the death of his colleagues.How he survived is a minor miracle and it is hard to believe that he came out of his horrible situation alive.

Mawson tells his story in a professional and unemotional way and this is always a compelling read.It shows just how deep a person can dig down within his soul in order to survive.It isn't the best book I have read about polar exploration,that is probably 'Endurance' by Alfred Lansing but it is very good effort indeed.Recommended.

And then there was one, 31 Dec 2007
What is just as unbelievable as this truly remarkable story itself is that Mawson has never had the same recognition as his contemporaries, Scott and Shackleton.

The story is even more remarkable, not just because of the terrible deaths of his comrades or the near starvation or physical pain and mental exhaustion, but that Mawson is further tormented by his total isolation in a vastness unimaginable.

A grim tale with emotion, the reader will find Bickel's account vivid and moving.


Mawson's Will, 08 Dec 2007
Without being fully aware of the history of the polar expeditions or polar travel in general, I began this book expecting a great adventure story and nothing more. This book more than delivered in that respect. Not only is it immensely easy to read, but I found it difficult to put down and became completely engrossed in the story that unfolded. I got choked up a great deal towards the end and felt anxious and exhausted along with the people in the book. For the two days that it took to read, I lived the fears and exhaustion along with the author and finished the book feeling wrung out, yet strangely exhilarated. I can not imagine what it must be like to travel in such a hostile environment, but this book goes some way to helping you picture what it may of been like. It also has some great old photography. If you like survival stories or are interested in the polar expeditions you must add this book to your library, it is a superb read that will keep you gripped throughout. Highly recommended.

Bickel's Gift, 22 Oct 2007
Rarely has fiction served the truth so well. Rarely has the truth served fiction so well.

Mawson's own account of his ordeal, in "The Home of The Blizzard", seems relatively matter of fact. We may not have marvelled at Mawson's accomplishment in surviving if we relied only on his way of telling it. Although a good writer, his specialities were geography and exploration.

Bickel's presentation here in "Mawson's Will" makes Mawson's accomplishment more touching than Mawson's own presentation. But it took an extraordinary writing accomplishment by Bickel to convey Mawson's accomplishment. Poetic license? To fail to understand how much faithful art it took to go from Mawson's diaries and book to Bickel's account would be to not appreciate how much effort and skill it took for Bickel to bring Mawson's tale so fully alive. If Bickel hadn't taken poetic license, this tale may have been of more interest to the most purist historian but it would have been of far less human interest. Sensitive to our lack of understanding of the Antartic experience, Bickel put us there in a way we never could have gotten from Mawson's own account. The last one hundred pages of "Mawson's Will" are as riveting as anything I've read in years.

Bickel's faithfulness to Mawson has made this a special work of art. Because of Bickel, we can be amazed at how Mawson survived and understand something profound about the human will.

P.S. I wake up the next day to find the story is still strong on my mind. Mawson returned to Australia to find his beloved waiting, married her, in time actually returned to the Antartic for exploration, and lived til 73. While we may never face as extreme a challenge as he did, there seems lessons here in the value of perserverence, in the benefits of careful self-management, and in the role of loved ones in making life worth living. This is an unusual book and Mawson and Bickel have made a special contribution far beyond whether land was claimed through exploration.

Mawson's Will review, 19 Dec 2006
As a fan of real life tales of adventure, I loved this book. I found it gripping, the detail, the anguish, the physical and mental hardship, the historical detail - awesome read.
This is probably less of a good read for someone who isn't into the outdoors and so has no empathy with the situation.

Not very new, not very interesting, 06 May 2008
I had been looking forward to reading this book for ages, but am very disappointed.

Most of it is not very new at all, the prose is long winded and tedious to read, a lot of page space is wasted in wide borders and excessive line spacing, and I really don't see the point. I'd sell my copy, but I doubt it's even worth the cost of the postage.

I only gave it two stars in case there is something interesting in there, given the other achievements of the author, but I missed it.


Fascinating ideas, 19 Oct 2006
Wolfram is a British Physicist who developed the Mathematica software. In writing this hefty volume (1200 pages), he has been criticised for failing to adequately acknowledge other authors' contributions to the field of cellular automata. Certainly he has a tendency towards an irritating, self congratulatory style at times, but working through this hefty volume, one certainly cannot fail to acknowledge a huge intellect at work. I strongly recommend this book as it is readable (but not without some effort) by a non-mathematical audience, has wonderful images of cellular automata and presents a range of challenging and fascinating ideas across a broad spectrum of science. Woolfram also proposes and argues a case for a new fundamental law of nature - the principle of computational equivalence which has met with a varied reception in the scientific community. It appears to me, that some of the criticisms of this work may have be driven by Woolfram's failure to acknowledge the shoulders he has stood on as well as his decision to opt for a commercial publication path rather than through peer review in published scientific journals. Personally, I found the most interesting parts of the book were in the field of cellular automata as models of biological systems. The chapter on perception and anlaysis and in his explanatory model of apparent human free will.

Interesting but ultimately flawed, 01 Feb 2006
Perhaps the biggest frustration when reading the book is the total lack of references to other peoples work. Wolfram explains his reasoning for this but it gives what could be a classic work a hollow feeling because you do not see the work in context and it is hard to judge it against what was done before. His case would have been much more credible with the references and this would have made it seem a more informed and less partial work.

The later parts of the book and his arguments regarding computational equivalence are very hard to penetrate and again this could have been improved if he had looked for other sources. His idea ia an important one as it underpins why we do science and how we should do science when we deal with complexity where simulation plays a vital role in improving our understanding. This will be a debate that will go on for some time.

Pretty pictures, dull prose, 26 Feb 2005
As someone with a scientific background but no specific knowledge of the subject of this book, I was not really convinced that it presented any new ideas that I had not come across (at least hinted at) in other popular science books. However, that is a difficult conclusion to reach, because Wolfram's undisciplined and badly structured prose style compares extremely poorly to most other popular science writers, and I confess to skipping large chunks. I'm sure a more talented communicator could have given a pithy and entertaining exposition of the main ideas in this book in 50-100 pages.

An interesting quote from the Institute of Physics review of the book: "Those who are familiar with the field will find it alarming to see page after page of results - bearing a striking similarity to previously published work - respresented as Wolfram's personal scientific revelation." The lack of acknowledgement of others is indeed extremely annoying.

I would not recommend that anyone shells out for this book if they can borrow it or get a cheap second hand copy (no, I'm not trying to flog mine on Amazon!).

The vanity outweighs the science, 02 Dec 2004
There are only 2 salient points about this book;

1. There is no "new kind of science" in the book, but rather a collection of very interesting interactions between different simple automata and their limited environments. The book could easily have been the size of an article in Scientific American (for example) and lost none of the essential meaning.

2. The author is *unbelievably* proud of his achievement. This will put any true scientist off. It's not fun to read, having to skip the pages and endless pages of self-congratulatory nonsense to find the occasional nugget of scientific analysis. Almost every paragraph talks about how long he has been doing it (who cares?), how radically he has changed the focus of other sciences (yet to be demonstrated) or how clever he is (also uncertain).

The pictures are nice, and I'm sure many a graduate degree will be pursuing what I'm sure will be fertile ground in this area, but I shall not soon forget the ordeal of trudging through his ego to get there.

It does look impressive on a bookshelf, but I'm hoping none of my guest