Methods of Experimental Physics. Volume 3: Molecular Physics edited by D. Williams

The Crystallographic Society of Japan, taking advantage of the presence of the large number of crystallographers and physicists a t tending the In terna t ional Conference on Magnetism and Crystallography in Kyoto at the end of September, organized a further conference on Scientific Informat ion in the Fields of Crystallography and Solid State Physics at the Kwansei Gakuin University, Nishinomiya, on 3 and 4 October 1961. The volume under review contains the papers presented at this conference, some slightly revised, along with the discussion tha t followed them. The conference began with an in t roductory lecture by Professor J. D. Bernal. In his unavoidable absence it was read on his behalf by Mrs Olga Kennard . His paper is so packed with ideas and suggestions tha t it is almost impossible to summarize; one salient point is tha t the field of crystallography, being young and fairly definitely delimited, is a good subject for experimen t and deve lopment work in scientific communicat ion and documentat ion. Specific needs still outs tanding in the field of crystal lography are a systemat izat ion and classification of structures, an informat ion service for apparatus and techniques, both physical and mathematical, and reviews. A paper by Mrs H. L. Brownson stressed the desirabili ty for a s tudy of scientists' real documenta t ion needs, since most of the studies so far made deal ei ther with their felt needs or with their use of existing services, and nei ther is a true index of what should be provided. P. P. Ewald dealt with the origin of the Stru]cturbericht, and A. J. C. Wilson and Mrs Kennard with the activities of the In terna t ional Union of Crystallography in the fields of documentat ion and the collection of crystallographic data respect ively. W. Nowacki and Mrs G. Donnay gave accounts of work for the publicat ion Crystal Data. There were papers by W. L. F ink and by W. C. Bigelow and K. E. Beu on the activities of the Jo in t Commit tee on Chemical Analysis by Powder Diffraction Methods, and panel discussions on the A.S.T.M. Powder Data File and on Crystal Data. I t is impossible to give an account of all the papers presented, but ment ion should be made of descriptions of nat ional and internat ional documenta t ion and information services, both general and specialized, by K. Hirayama, G. Waddington, H. Chihara, J . Wyart , H. O'Daniel, N . V . Belov, V. Hovi, Y. Nakamura , T. Watanab6, and D. P. Shoemaker. An amusing feature of the conference was a paper by Miss D. U. Mizoguchi on the difficulties of translation, particularly between Japanese and English. Though it forms no par t of the province of a book reviewer, perhaps one of those for tunate enough to a t tend the conference should ment ion the generous hospital i ty and efficient organization tha t was provided for the foreign visitors th roughout their s tay in Japan. I have not experienced anyth ing like it at other conferences. A. J. C. "WILSO~ University College Cardiff Great Britain