Stoneham, AM

Materials Today

English

UCL Discovery

DECEMBER 2005  |  VOLUME 8  |  NUMBER 12  59BOOKS & MEDIA UPDATEEnergy HarvestingMaterialsDavid L. Andrews (ed.) World Scientific (2005), 400 pp. ISBN 981-256-412-8 $78 / £45 This book covers all aspects of state-of-the-art energy harvesting materials, fromnatural plant and bacterial photosystems,through their biologically inspiredsynthetic analogs, to other photoactivemolecular materials such as dendrimers. Italso establishes the theory and underlyingprinciples. Authoritative, comprehensive,and well referenced, it will appeal tothose in solar energy, photobiology, andphotoactive materials science. Metal Oxides: Chemistryand Applications J. L. G. Fierro CRC Press (2005), 808 pp. ISBN: 0824723716 $179.95 This book offers a timely account oftransition-metal oxides (TMO) forcatalysis. Part one examines crystal andelectronic structure, stoichiometry andcomposition, redox properties, acid-basecharacter, cation valence states, and newapproaches to preparing ordered TMOswith the extended structure of texturallydefined systems. Part two coversapplications. It examines many reactiontypes to show how chemical compositionand optical, magnetic, and structuralproperties affect surface reactivity.Biofunctionalization ofNanomaterialsChalla S. S. R. Kumar (ed.)Wiley-VCH (2005), 386 pp. ISBN: 3-527-31381-8 $195 / £100 / 150 The ten-volume series Nanotechnologiesfor the Life Sciences overviews underlyingnanotechnologies for the design, creation,and characterization of biomedical uses,collating many articles found in therelevant specialist journals. This firstvolume covers synthetic and materialsaspects of making nanomaterialsbiocompatible with properties desirablefor advanced medical applications.Why is science like sex? Well, in the 1950s, both sexand some of the varied activities of being aprofessional scientist were, shall we say, left toextracurricular activities. Fifty years on, high schoolsteach sex education and, as Ascheron and Kickuth’sbook indicates, universities take broader views of theirformal science education. Their volume follows books such as Peter Medawar’ssplendid Advice to a Young Scientist (Harper and Row,1979). But, whereas Medawar’s book is about research, asking key questions like“How can I tell if I am cut out to be ascientific research worker?”, Ascheron and Kickuth’s book is largelyabout the presentation of research,either as talks, in printed journals, onthe Internet, or as patents. Havingtwo points of view is valuable:Medawar was an incredibly gifted andperceptive Nobel Prize winner,whereas Ascheron and Kickuth areresearch-trained scientists nowprimarily involved in scientificpublishing. Given their involvement in publishing,let me first get some minor gripes out of the way.There is no index. Key reference books, such as theworks by Fowler or Gowers on how to write clearly,are not cited. Spellchecking has not been used (e.g. onpage 184 in that famous, possibly mythical, refereereport). Young scientists should not be encouraged todistract readers with invented words (e.g. ‘mostpart’,on page 158, is not in my copy of Webster’sdictionary). What is good in this book is the fact that it addressessome practical issues about patents, posters, printversus Internet publication, and even electronic paper.Where it is weak is in areas that active researchscientists know too well, because of the authors’tendency to give anecdotes, rather than to addressissues. There are comprehensive examples of how notto ask questions at a conference (page 103), with onlya hint of what to do (for the record, only ask aquestion if you actually want to know the answer, andusually if there’s a respectable chance that the personpresenting might be able to give it). When discussingethics, one hopes that few young scientists will betempted into fraud as bad as the examples given, suchas Jan Hendrik Schön’s faking of data, and it is goodthat the American Physical Society guidelines aredescribed. However, there are more immediatequestions. For example, is it ethical to ignore papersthat are not available electronically? Can one reallypretend that everything pre-Internet is not for citing? It is a rare young scientist that has to worry about theNobel Prize, yet most will start to supervise students.They may start with a vacation student from highschool, then help to supervise students of a seniorscientist. Later, they will needmanagement skills. Communication isa key part of such skills, but it is notaddressed here. It may involve helpingan even younger worker to tease outwhat is significant in what they havedone, and supporting their creativity.More important – and far, far harder –are those presentations to seniormanagers that explain just why his orher pet idea will not work. Lookingahead, having a strategy to cope withscientific upsets is part of a matureapproach to research. The youngscientist will find little, if any,guidance to help with these issues, nor even theawareness that the nature of the job changesthroughout a career. Nor will the young scientist findhelp with common social problems, like findingresearch jobs that do not separate partners byhundreds of miles. Only ask a question if youactually want to know theanswerI was also concerned about some of the advice given.For instance, consider the checklist on page 98 forevaluating presentations. Of the 16 explicit items, only one item relates to content, and it (the ‘Take home message’) doesn’t hint at the need foranything substantial. The context and novel ideas thatA book on how to make your mark in science includes advice thatmight be good for young scientists in industry but, for researchscientists, should be more thoughtful Marshall Stoneham is director of the Centre for Materials Research at University College London, UK. Making your markClaus Ascheron and Angela KickuthMake Your Mark in Science: Creativity, Presenting, Publishing,and Patents: A Guide for Young Scientists Wiley • 2005 • 256pp • ISBN: 0-471-65733-6 $29.95 / £17.50 / 25 ExpertGraduateUndergraduateDECEMBER 2005  |  VOLUME 8  |  NUMBER 12  60BOOKS & MEDIA UPDATEMaterials Science inMicroelectronics Eugene Machlin Elsevier (2005), 270 pp. (I) & 280 pp. (II)ISBN: 0-08-044640-X; 0-08-044639-6 $165 / £105 / 150 (each volume) Volume I, The Relationships BetweenThin Film Processing & Structure, focuseson the close connection betweenprocessing and the structure of thin filmsfor microelectronics. Influencesconsidered include: crystal defects, voidstructure, grain structure, interfacestructure in epitaxial films, amorphousfilm structure, and reaction-inducedstructure. Volume II examines The Effectsof Structure on Properties in Thin Films,covering electrical, magnetic, optical,mechanical, and mass transportproperties.Half-metallic Alloys Iosif Galanakis and Peter H. Dederichs(eds.) Springer (2005), 313 pp. ISBN: 3-540-27719-6 $99.95 / £69 / 89.95 Half-metals are ferromagnetic materialsthat are hybrids between metals andsemiconductors. Fermi-level electronsshow complete spin polarization, makingthem prime targets for spintronic devices.Subtitled Fundamentals and Applications,this book is both an introduction and asurvey of the latest advances in theunderstanding and applications ofHeusler alloys and related compounds. Physical Principles ofElectron Microscopy Ray Egerton Springer (2005), 202 pp. ISBN: 0-387-25800-0 $69.95 / £42.50 / 58.80 Subtitled An Introduction to TEM, SEM,and AEM, this book covers the theoryand current practice for undergraduateswanting an appreciation of how basicprinciples of physics are used in animportant area of applied science, andfor graduate students and technologistsusing electron microscopes. It will alsobe valuable for university teachers andresearchers needing a concisesupplemental text on basic principles. underlie a piece of research work should be central and clear, even when detail must be left out. Later,regarding the structure of papers, I found myselfcontrasting what is quite a helpful discussion on page 159 with Peter Medawar’s talk Is the scientificpaper a fraud? (page 228 of his book The Threat andthe Glory, Oxford University Press, 1991). How science is done can be hidden, rather thandemonstrated, by an imposed structure. One ofMedawar’s points is that most papers give little idea of the thought processes by which the conclusions ofthe printed version were reached. In a routine paper, of course, little is lost. But, in a seminal paper,indications of wrong turnings and half-right ideas areimportant. It is not necessary to go as far as JamesWatson in The Double Helix (Atheneum, 1968), but itis of value to know that those scientists reasoned andfumbled their way to a discovery that changedbiology. The best invited conference talks can give thesame impression, as I know from talks by seniorscientists that impressed and enlightened me as Ibegan my career in research. Most papers, Medawarsuggests, give only the clean ‘final’ version. The clarityis worthy – good journalism, one could say – but it isincomplete science. How science is done can be hidden, rather thandemonstrated, by animposed structure Moving on again, I felt that key questions were nottackled in the book. What do you do when your paperis rejected? This happens even to Nobel Prize winners(including Albert Einstein in his prime). After initialshock and dismay, you need to try to decide whetherthere has been a misunderstanding and how it mightbe remedied, or whether there is a fundamental flawand what can be learned. The book does describe some of the issues in choosingwhich journal to send your paper to, but it rathermisses the point. Ideally, you will choose a journal thatputs your papers alongside other really good papers(so that it might be seen by readers browsing). Ideally,you will choose a journal that is efficient, with goodreferees and minimal delays. But do you publish aletter then a full paper, or only a full paper, or only aletter? There is strong perceived pressure to publishletters in certain prestigious journals (journals A and B,let’s say). Ascheron and Kickuth do not analyze thisperception, but merely overstate it, quoting acomment by respected science journalist RogerHighfield that scientists will do almost anything topublish in certain journals (page 126). Certainly,anyone publishing in journals A and B should feelproud, for their Letter will be alongside really goodmaterial. However, much of the pressure comes fromthe wish of science administrators to assess scientistswithout understanding (or even examining) the sciencecontent. Such judgement-free judgements areirresponsible. Happily, others do try to value content.In all the years that I was on Royal Society SectionalCommittees (which do most of the work in decidingwho will be elected to a fellowship), I never onceheard a view of the sort “Candidate X has publishedmore papers than candidate Y in journals A and B”.The issue always concerned the content of theirpapers. The medium is by no means the wholemessage. Furthermore, any responsible scientist mustpublish their work as fully as is appropriate. It cannotbe in the interests of science when no full accountfollows a short letter.Do you publish a letter thena full paper, or only a fullpaper, or only a letter? Clearly, I have mixed feelings about this book. It is wellorganized, it makes some good points, and tries toaddress the needs of a young career research scientist.Some of the advice might be good for young scientistsin industry, or commerce, or journalism. However,Ascheron and Kickuth themselves do not seem to becareer research scientists, and advice to researchscientists should surely be more thoughtful. Anecdotes have value, yet asking why they have value (as Medawar does) is better still. Also, theymight have benefited from more input from thoseyoung scientists whose worries the authors would liketo allay. ExpertGraduateUndergraduate

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