SCIENTIFICALLY SPEAKING
BOOK REVIEWS
Aslib Book Guide, Volume 65, Number 7, July 2000
This highly entertaining compilation is aimed at both the general reader and the practising scientist. It covers nearly 100 topics arranged in alphabetical order, and under each topic the quotations are arranged by author. There is a more detailed subject index as well as an author index, together with abibliography of the main works of the people quoted. Altogether a book which could be very useful to scientists seeking a relevant quotation.
The Physicist, September/October 2000
This dictionary of quotations is a fairly scholarly tome that devotes a fair slice of space to discussions of the nature of science, ina philosophical sense. As a result, a lot of the quotations are actually fairly meaty paragraphs that, while interesting in their own right, are not particularly quotable. There are also a number of extracts from poems, such as Gray (Elegy), Edgar Alan Poe and Pope.
The book is split into over 80 sections, with headings such as Axioms, Beauty, Chaos etc. Obviously a result of much research, this book will likely to be of great use to those studying the philosophy of schience (though see below). The Bibliography alone is over 30 pages, and the book would be a good jumping off point for the literature surveyed.
For the casual reader, a downside of the collator's approach is that there is a distinct shortage of snappy quotes that a reader could use to advantage at dinners or in speeches. I confess, though, that I did like "The philosophy of science is as much use to scientists as ornithology is to birds". (Author unfortunately unknown.)
There are some famous quotes you won't find in this volume. Perhaps the most notable is Einstein's oft-misquoted "The theory produces a good deal but hardly brings us closer to the secret of the Old One. I am at all events convinced that He does not play dice." Nor will you find Weinberg on the pointlessness of the cosmos, Crick and Watson's famous understatement at the end of their seminal paper, or even Clarke's Law.
There is a companion volume to this work titled "Physically Speaking: A Dictionary of Quotations on Physics and Astronomy" that I suspect would be of more interest to readers of this journal.
Andrew Davies, Department of Defence, Canberra
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