practical to ore deposits, 31 May 2003
this text is an excellent purchase!! i'm at university and one of my modules were ore deposits. this is an excellent, with well presented graphics and text. this is a must to buy!!!
good for anyone interested in lasers, 05 Oct 2000
It is realy hard to find a book in this subject matter that is sufficient for eveybodies requirements, and this book is not either. But this is just because laser physics has realy got a large content. On the other hand, this book has achieved to pick as many fields as possible with a good presentation, and it is not usefull for only advanced undergraduates, but graduates as well. It presents the laser theory, types and applications of lasers ranging from diode lasers to free electron lasers, properties of laser beams and applications of lasers in optoelectronics. All of these aspects are likely to be presented in their own volumes. Its presentation is neither extraworded nor higly mathematical. If you are a beginner, this book probably is the right point.
An authoritative reference work, 16 May 2007
Although a great deal of detailed information on light microscopy contrast techniques is freely available on the Nikon and Olympus web sites this short book remains a valuable resource. It is well written, has a logical flow and is appropriately illustrated. Much water has passed under the bridge since this work was published in 1996 and thus the final sections of the book relating to fluorescence microscopy and photographic image enhancement would not meet the needs of present day researchers. However, for both amateur and professional this book gives a coherent overview of other mainstream contrast methods such as dark-ground, polarized light techniques, phase contrast and differential interference contrast.
The book seems to be reprinted on demand. Shop around as prices vary from the outrageous to the reasonable. You should be able to acquire it for well below 20 pounds.
Disappointing, 08 Sep 2005
I have to say I found this book quite disappointing. As a novice microscopist, I was looking forward to trying out some of the simple programs written in Fortran code that are constantly referred to through out the book. However, what is not mentioned is that it is not possible to use these without a Fortran compiler. Some free versions are available on the Web, but these are not suitable for the code contained in the book, and you will either have to spend 4-figure sums on your own compiler, or go without. Trust me, I have tried very hard to get this to work, and there is no other alternative! Few university departments have use for such a compiler, in my experience (including my own)! Therefore the "30,000 lines of code" used to illustrate concepts and to promote the book will be largely useless to most readers.
Additionally, I found the text lacked focus in many sections, with ideas being discussed in a sequence which clearly appealed to the author, but which does not necessarily appear logical to the untrained reader. There were some useful sections, but my overall impression was that the book was slightly incoherent. Other readers in my department have also agreed with my views.
For novice transmission electron microscopists, I would instead heartily recommend the series of three introductory handbooks by Williams and Carter. These books are permanently on loan from our library and there is a waiting list to borrow them - you won't find these lingering on the shelf, unlike this book, I'm afraid, which has hardly been used since it was bought in.
