New books & media
DOI: 10.1063/PT.3.4818
A Student’s Guide to Python for Physical Modeling
A Student’s Guide to Python for Physical Modeling, Jesse M. Kinder and Philip Nelson, Princeton U. Press, 2021 (2nd ed.). $75.00
Long gone are the days when experimentalists’ sole tools were laboratory setups, telescopes, and particle accelerators. Today, computer modeling is crucial to experimentation in fields from biophysics to astronomy. In A Student’s Guide to Python for Physical Modeling, two physicists who use computing heavily in their daily workflow, Jesse Kinder and Philip Nelson, present students with the basics of Python programming for physics applications. The book takes a conversational tone and assumes no prior knowledge of programming, meaning that it can be used as a textbook for a physics programming course or for self-study. Students go from learning how to import libraries of functions into their Python environments to coding complex programs that can execute random walk simulations and create data visualizations. The book even includes appendices that walk students through the process of installing Python on various operating systems. —
Lady Ranelagh: The Incomparable Life of Robert Boyle’s Sister
Lady Ranelagh: The Incomparable Life of Robert Boyle’s Sister, Michelle DiMeo, U. Chicago Press, 2021, $45.00
One of the most respected and influential women of her time, Irish-born Lady Ranelagh was a 17th-century natural philosopher, intellectual, and member of London’s Hartlib circle, a precursor to the Royal Society. Ranelagh’s works were never published nor were her manuscripts preserved, so she is much less well known than her brother, the distinguished scientist Robert Boyle. To address this, historian Michelle DiMeo has written the first full-length biography of Ranelagh by gleaning details of her life from her correspondence and the archives and writings of her relatives and contemporaries. The result is a detailed account of this notable woman, her work, and her close, collaborative relationship with her brother Robert—set against the backdrop of the turbulent politics of the times, including the Irish and English civil wars. —
The Nation of Plants
The Nation of Plants, Stefano Mancuso, trans. by Gregory Conti, Other Press, 2021, $21.99
In this imaginative call to action, Italian botanist Stefano Mancuso addresses current environmental crises like climate change and decreasing biodiversity from the perspective of the “oldest and most populous” nation on the planet—plants. Acting as their representative, Mancuso presents a constitution that spells out eight fundamental pillars on which rest the lives not only of plants but of all living beings. That constitution launches a discussion that juxtaposes plants’ importance as a carbon dioxide sink and a source of food, energy, building materials, and other resources against humans’ wastefulness and anthropocentrism. —
Simply Quantum Physics
Simply Quantum Physics, DK, 2021, $16.99
An illustrated reference book aimed at the general reader, Simply Quantum Physics is an introductory overview of the quantum world. Diagrams and schematics appear on almost every page, and the accompanying text is brief and nontechnical. In addition to discussing the structure of the atom and of subatomic particles and the fundamental forces holding them together, the book covers some quirky quantum-level properties of matter, such as wave–particle duality. It also describes electron microscopes, LEDs, and unusual phenomena like quantum teleportation. Particle physicist Ben Still served as consultant editor; he is the author of several popular science books, including an illustrated reference book based on LEGO building blocks, Particle Physics Brick by Brick (see Physics Today, May 2018, page 62 ). —
Chasing the Ghost: Nobelist Fred Reines and the Neutrino
Chasing the Ghost: Nobelist Fred Reines and the Neutrino, Leonard A. Cole, World Scientific, 2021, $68.00
Physicist Frederick Reines, who won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work with Clyde Cowan to experimentally detect the neutrino, is the subject of Chasing the Ghost, the first book-length study of his life. Authored by Reines’s cousin Leonard A. Cole, the book is a unique mix of memoir and biography. Although Cole’s connection to Reines allows him to add context and flavor to sections detailing Reines’s childhood, it also leads readers into Reines’s teenage diaries, digressions more appropriate for a family history. Nevertheless, the book will be valuable to scholars interested in the life of a 20th-century experimental pioneer. —
More about the Authors
Ryan Dahn. rdahn@aip.org
