Factory Physics Second Edition

Book Description

Comprehensive Introduction to Manufacturing Management text covering the behavior laws at work in factories. Examines operating policies and strategic objectives. Hopp presents the concepts of manufacturing processes and controls within a "physics" or "laws of nature" analogy--a novel approach. There is enough quantitative material for an engineer's course, as well as narrative that a management major can understand and apply.

Customer Reviews:

It was a good deal too.......2007-08-16

The Book was in Excellent shape. It was a good deal too

thank you

Theoretical background for Operations Management - setting a new standard.......2006-10-03

This book provides you with the fundamental insights of manufacturing and assembly. Even though I do not like statistics to much, the book is written in a understandable manner and provides the fundamental knowledge to understand what is going on in manufacturing. Based on this knowledge, the flaw of MRP-systems are even explained as well as the basics of JIT/Lean. The book provides mainly the hardfacts of this science and for practical people, reading first Quick-Response-Manufacturing (from Rajan Suri) might be the easier way for many of us and gives you the motivation to take a deeper look later on - as provided by Factory Physics.

Factory Physics describes not only how to describe a single workstation and the interactions between many of them, than as well the great importance of variability reduction in a production line and how to analyse it. CONWIP-lines, as a mix of push-pull, are a central key in this book and a simple way to analyse the performance of any system is provided by the book. This book, together with Quick-Response-Manufacturing (this book includes important softfactores as well) have changed drastically my way of operational thinking and given me a sense, which system to apply (QRM or JIT/Lean) and why. The insight can even be used for services as well. One central point is the utilisation of a workstation and the knowledge, that the more you reduce variability in arrivals and processing, the higher the utilisation can be - still achieving low lead times. You will find as well important and simple laws helping you out in the daily business (Little's law and queueing theory).

As for JIT/Lean, lead time reduction can use the same japanese tools:

- SMED: setup-time reduction (lot sizes for reduction in lead time and WIP)
- TPM: productive maintenance (higher machine availability and decrease of variability)
- ZQC: fool-proof quality inspection for Zero defects (against capacity lost and to decrease variability)

All the books mentionned above, have a big advantage over traditional SCM-books: they provide you with a framework how to trim a single chain-element of the supply-chain and therefore how to built the whole supply chain. The operational strategy should be derived from the overall company strategy and with this new insights you can tailor a unique production system that fits your company's goals - or even give you an advantage over your competition. Anyway, it will not make obsolet the importance of having a sound and consistant overall business strategy (for your markets) first!

Enjoy reading, Best Regards

written with the heart of a teacher.......2006-03-13

Though the two authors are consultants, they are foremost - teachers. What is useful, and kind to a degree, is they put an effort to explain the numbers as pragmatic as possible. That idea made this book very accessible. To the industrial engineers or those who are involved (and passionate) in operations or in understanding systems - next to the Industrial Engineering Handboook, this should be in our library.

Exceptional enlightened and insightful!.......2006-02-18

I found this book to be very insightful. It helps to explain many of my own observations in my factory. The authors did an excellent job of explaining the key concepts using only average use of mathematics and in simple layman's terms. The readers will only need basic mathematics/beginner calculus, and basic statistics. Reading it was like discovering new ideas to implement in the factory to quickly realize efficiencies and cost savings. It was one of the best books I have laid eyes on in a very long time.

I highly recommend this book for every mfg and production engineers working in assembly or automation-driven factory. This book is not applicable to chemical processing, thus may not bring significant values to chemical or petroleum engineers.

Excellent and valuable book.......2005-12-23

This is the best course textbook I have had so far over about ten industrial engineering courses (and I have had some very good textbooks and courses). The book basically describes how to analyze and improve manufacturing operations through examining key areas that include: variability and its sources, push and pull systems, and supply chain management.

The authors approach is to present ideas in a very clear and relevant way. What I particularly like is that they do a great job putting things into perspective in a style that is highly readable. While there is some math involved if one wants to delve into the details that are in side notes, a basic understanding of calculus is more than sufficient. The authors are clearly very bright and, more importantly, are able to communicate very effectively and with a sense of humor.

This book can definitely be read on a stand-alone basis outside of a school environment. Many of the central ideas are very valuable.

Average customer rating:

scientifically informative but far from complete in the cooking aspect
behind the kitchen
http://www.bragazzis.com
Excellent Science and Culinary Technique. Highly Recommended
Great stuff for the science-minded cook

The Science of Cooking
Peter Barham
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 3540674667

Book Description

A kitchen is no different from most science laboratories and cookery may properly be regarded as an experimental science. Food preparation and cookery involve many processes which are well described by the physical sciences. Understanding the chemistry and physics of cooking should lead to improvements in performance in the kitchen. For those of us who wish to know why certain recipes work and perhaps more importantly why others fail, appreciating the underlying physical processes will inevitably help in unravelling the mysteries of the "art" of good cooking.

Strong praise from the reviewers -

"Will be stimulating for amateur cooks with an interest in following recipes and understanding how they work. They will find anecdotes and, sprinkled throughout the book, scientific points of information... The book is a pleasant read and is an invitation to become better acquainted with the science of cooking." - NATURE

"This year, at last, we have a book which shows how a practical understanding of physics and chemistry can improve culinary performance… [Barham] first explains, in a lucid non-textbooky way, the principles behind taste, flavour and the main methods of food preparation, and then gives fool-proof basic recipes for dishes from roast leg of lab to chocolate soufflé." - FINANCIAL TIMES WEEKEND

"This book is full of interesting and relevant facts that clarify the techniques of cooking that lead to the texture, taste and aroma of good cuisine. As a physicist the author introduces the importance of models in preparing food, and their modification as a result of testing (tasting)."- THE PHYSICIST

"Focuses quite specifically on the physics and food chemistry of practical domestic cooking in terms of real recipes... Each chapter starts with an overview of the scientific issues relevant to that food group, e.g. toughness of meat, thickening of sauces, collapse of sponge cakes and soufflés. This is followed by actual recipes, with the purpose behind each ingredient and technique explained, and each recipe followed by a table describing some common problems, causes and solutions. Each chapter then ends with suggested experiments to illustrate some of the scientific principles exploited in the chapter." - FOOD & DRINK NEWSLETTER

Customer Reviews:

scientifically informative but far from complete in the cooking aspect.......2007-07-02

Pros: Scientifically informative and solid. Knowing the chemical and physical facts behind cooking methods applied to certain group of food would definitely help one to produce constantly good cooking result. And the text is very well written, _no_ part of this book is boring to read.

Cons: This book is focused on western cooking methods, many highly interesting cooking methods which are very popular, even dominating in East Asia are not even mentioned in this book. For example, there is a chapter for sauces but soup was hardly mentioned in this book, as if soup is not a kind of dishes. However the art/science of soup cooking is very important for many people. I, for one, really looked for information for soup cooking in this book but was disappointed. And, the author seems think any sauce has to be at least a bit thick (containing reasonable amount of starch). But this is not true in Asia countries. We have many kinds of really tasty sauces which are totally fluid, almost as light as water. These light sauces are not only tasty but also have really nice aroma, nice colours, contains very little energy and they attach onto the main food very well. In the fish chapter, he said salted/dried fishes are very difficult to regain the good texture and taste, and wrote up 2 pages about a Norwegian disaster of fish making. But in east China, people steam salted sea eels and the result is so, so delicious. He should really have tried it out himself. In this book, the science of vegetable cooking is not mentioned. Nevertheless I think vegetable cooking is very important and I really want to learn the science of vegetable cooking from the author, I like his writing so much! And, in this book all doughs are baked but there are many people (mostly from East Asia) who steam doughs and the results are excellent too. For beef steak cooking, many professional cooks saute/shallow fry every side of a 2-3cm thick steak first (every side one minute) and then put it into pre-heated oven for 5-7 minutes. This cooking method is not mentioned in this book and actually I did want to know the advantage of the post-fry oven handling of a beef steak.

I really hope there will be a second edition of this book. I seriously suggest the author travel to Hong Kong and try out reasonably many different kinds of food in non-western restaurants in Hong Kong. Especially the famous soups, all kinds of vegetable dishes and all kinds of steamed dough-based snacks....

behind the kitchen.......2007-01-26

This book will teach you the chemical secrets of the techniques that usually are used in gastronomy, from the basic concepts to most complex. Knowing the scientific basis of the culinary processes, Peter Barham describes kitchen recipes in detail, of this way, will not fail any more.
This book also has some very interesting experiments to do at home, and that will offer help to understand of more practical way, the physical-chemistries concepts that try to explain.
If you are interested in cooking, and science doesn't bore to you, read this book!

http://www.bragazzis.com.......2006-03-25

A little to heavy on the science for my liking!...but there are some useful theories for beginners!

Ian

http://www.bragazzis.com

Excellent Science and Culinary Technique. Highly Recommended.......2004-12-21

Reviewing `The Science of Cooking' by Bristol University (UK) don Peter Barham gives me the pleasure of commenting on a book with differential equations, a subject for which I received my all time lowest grade (a D) in school. Luckily you, dear reader, these equations are no more than window dressing in a sidebar on thermodynamics which, if nothing else, convince us that Dr. Barham knows what he is talking about. And yes, dear reader, Dr. Barham most certainly knows of what he speaks. And, he does an excellent job of communicating this information to the layman.

This excellent book can be evaluated on at least three different levels. On the highest level, where Barham talks about the relevance of science to cooking, the author is just a bit weak. Early in the book, he compares a cook's following a recipe to the conduct of an experiment, and I think this metaphor simply does not work, and, I think the author repudiates this notion later in the book when he does a true description of how a recipe would be written if it were an experiment. A second major weakness in his talking about science is where he describes both a recipe (experiment) and a theory as a model. Philosophers of science clearly distinguish experiment from explanation (theory) and while `model' is a good word for theory, it is definitely not a good word for experiment. Oddly enough, there are important roles for experiment in cookery, but only when one is truly developing recipes and examining the properties of a new foodstuff product. Thankfully, the author gets on to the important business at hand of actually describing science and applying it to cooking, two tasks he does with great skill.

Unlike Harold McGee, Barham correctly puts his introduction to basic chemistry in the front of the book. I am sure that thousands of people will stumble over this with unprintable mutterings in an effort to get to the writing about pots and potatoes, but you must gives serendipity a fighting chance. A fair number of readers will pick up on this stuff and it will clearly improve their understanding of what follows. This is especially true as Dr. Barham or his book design team has done an excellent job of selecting illustrations of the basic organic molecules of which he speaks. There is a risk here that since I studied organic chemistry I may not have the same eye of a chemical innocent, but I think not. I believe reasonably intelligent people prefer the straight skinny rather than explanations tailored for 12 year olds. In addition to basic chemistry, Dr. Barham opens the subject of cooking with an overview of the science of food and heat and food and the senses. Here begins what is Dr. Barham's greatest single contribution to food science writing, and the thing that would make this book a superb textbook on food science. In each chapter, Barham supplies two or more experiments on food science that can easily be done at home or in a standard school chemistry lab with no expensive special equipment.

I must also note that Dr. Barham is crystal clear on methods of heat distribution. This is important, as Alton Brown's first book has a major error in its opening discussion of heat transfer methods in that he does not rate convection with as much importance as conduction and radiation. Dr. Barham corrects this error by citing that in fact, convection is the most important means of heat transfer in ovens.

The next chapter deals with cooking tools and the materials from which they are made. While this chapter is no match for the detail in Alton Brown's book on kitchen equipment, it does include a few cautions that I do not recall Alton's having mentioned. The most interesting is the warning against the very expensive stainless steel sheathed pots with copper or aluminum cores that extend all the way up the sides of the pot. While others have recommended this, the author warns this may cause hot spots high up on the wall of the saucepan that may have undesirable consequences if hot liquid splashes against the even hotter metal high in the pan. Unfortunately, the good doctor does not back this observation up with a demonstration, so it is no better than an anecdotal observation, but I will feel a bit more respectful to the cookware lines with only a disk of high conducting metal in the bottom.

The first real foody subject is `Meat and Poultry'. I find it a bit odd that the author says that meat cookery is the one place where an understanding of science can make the biggest difference in cooking results. I can say with confidence that a scientific view of things is probably at least as important, if not more so in baking, where the effect of errors in measuring ingredients can be truly disastrous (or inventive, depending on how you look at it).

This chapter is the first appearance of actual recipes and the second great contribution to food science writing (first being the experiments). Here, Dr. Barham not only gives excellently explained recipes; he also gives great little tables of problems that may arise with various cooking methods and how to solve the problems. There is little that is new here except that the presentation gets a lot of the ideas across more effectively than simple narrative. Shirley Corriher uses a similar tabular presentation, although her information is more proactive than diagnostic in that it explains the reasons for steps in the procedure rather than giving solutions for problems.

Be warned that all units are metric and there are some unexplained English references here and there, such as the term `A4' for letter paper. I recommend this book very highly. It doesn't have Alton Brown's humor or Shirley Corriher's southern charm, but it is a very, very sound book, once you get past the first three pages.

Great stuff for the science-minded cook.......2004-04-22

Fascinating exploration into the physics of cooking, written in an engaging and detailed style. Probably better for the scientist who cooks than for the cook who's into science, since the language is sometimes a little dense for the layperson. Worth working through, though, if only for the gorgeous and elegant formula for figuring out how long to boil your eggs to get them EXACTLY right.

One caveat: the author is British, and recipes, measurements, and terms are geared for the British/European cook. This means you'll find a complete explanation of sausage rolls and nothing about popcorn. Just FYI.

Average customer rating:

basic science text

Energy and the Environment
Robert A. Ristinen , and Jack P. Kraushaar
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0471739898

Book Description

The cover photo showing illuminated areas of the Earth at night as seen from space satellites illustrates global energy use patterns. The global extent of increasing energy use is cause to examine the ramifications of resource consumption and its effects on the world in which we live. This text examines several critical topics of global importance associated with our increasing use of resource consumption and its impact on our environment.

Energy and the Environment, 2e provides updated information on pivotal issues that surround the study of energy through the exploration of basic concepts, resources applications, and problems of current interest. The text presents up-to-date research and data from the pages of current journals and government publications.

Customer Reviews:

basic science text.......2003-12-19

Overall, this book is OK. It explains the concepts of Physics as they relate to the environment, giving a student like myself, who is not the biggest science person, a way to relate the information to what is being taught. The book features questions at the end of each chapter--but the catch is that many of the questions had the wrong answers, according to my professor. The book features algebriac equations and conversions, again, several were inaccurate and my professor had to correct them. Finally, the last two chapters of the book were not adequate enough to explain the concepts my professor wanted to teach. The book is a nice attempt at explaining concepts, BUT I had a professor who almost went off of the book entirely, except she had to correct several things, making this book an often useless study tool. To put it bluntly, if you have to buy this book for class, hope you have a good professor who knows what they are teaching, or else you are in for a boring semester.

Non-Newtonian FLow in the Process Industries

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Non-Newtonian FLow in the Process Industries
R P Chhabra , and J F Richardson
Manufacturer: Butterworth-Heinemann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Bubbles, Drops, and Particles in Non-Newtonian Fluids, Second Edition (Chemical Industries Series)

ASIN: 0750637706

Book Description

Non-Newtonian materials are encountered in virtually all of the chemical and process industries and a full understanding of their nature and flow characteristics is an essential requirement for engineers and scientists involved in their formulation and handling. This book will bridge the gap between much of the highly theoretical and mathematically complex work of the rheologist and the practical needs of those who have to design and operate plants in which these materials are handled and processed. At the same time, numerous references are included for the benefit of those who need to delve more deeply into the subject.

The starting point for any work on non-newtonian fluids is their characterisation over the range of conditions to which they are likely to be subjected during manufacture or utilisation, and this topic is treated early on in the book in a chapter commissioned from an expert in the field of rheological measurements. Coverage of topics is extensive and this book offers a unique and rich selection of material including the flow of single phase and multiphase mixtures in pipes, in packed and fluidised bed systems, heat and mass transfer in boundary layers and in simple duct flows, and mixing etc.

An important and novel feature of the book is the inclusion of a wide selection of worked examples to illustrate the methods of calculation. It also incorporates a large selection of problems for the reader to tackle himself.

Refrigerant Management: The Recovery, Recycle, and Reclaim of CFCs

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refrigerating

Refrigerant Management: The Recovery, Recycle, and Reclaim of CFCs
Billy C. Langley
Manufacturer: Delmar Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0827355904

Book Description

This new text prepares HVAC students and technicians for EPA certification in the handling and disposal of chlorofluorcarbons (CFCs), providing information on all areas of certification, including the four licensing areas for stationary air conditioning and refrigeration equipment and automotive equipment. Table of Contents: Basic Theory of Ozone Depletion CFCs: Their Problems and Alternatives Refrigerant Regulations Refrigerant Conservation Refrigerant Recovery, Recycle and Reclaim Methods of Refrigerant Recovery and Recycling Commercial Stationary Air Conditioning and Refrigerant Systems Residential Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Motor Vehicle Air Conditioning Service Refrigerant Recovery and Recycling Systems

Customer Reviews:

refrigerating.......1999-09-29

The Recovery, Recycling, and Reclaiming of Cfc

The Curve of Binding Energy: A Journey into the Awesome and Alarming World of Theodore B. Taylor

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books can kill
The story of Theodore Taylor, nuclear bomb designer, and problems of safeguarding of nuclear materials in the 1960's and 70's
Nuclear Bombs for Dummies
Prophetic, scary and still important
Absorbing, Fascinating and Still Pertinent

The Curve of Binding Energy: A Journey into the Awesome and Alarming World of Theodore B. Taylor
John McPhee
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0374515980

Amazon.com

Theodore B. Taylor was among the most ingenious engineers of the nuclear age. He created the most powerful and the smallest nuclear weapons of his time (his masterpiece, the Davy Crockett, weighed in at a svelte 50 pounds) and also spearheaded efforts to create a nuclear-powered spacecraft. But in his later years, Taylor became increasingly concerned that compact and powerful bombs could be easily built not just by nations employing experts such as himself, but by single individuals with modest technical ability and perseverance. McPhee tours American nuclear installations with Taylor, and we are treated to a grim, eye-opening account of just how close we are to witnessing terrorist attacks using homemade nuclear weaponry. The Curve of Binding Energy is compelling writing about an urgently important topic.

Book Description

Theodore Taylor was one of the most brilliant engineers of the nuclear age, but in his later years he became concerned with the possibility of an individual being able to construct a weapon of mass destruction on their own. McPhee tours American nuclear institutions with Taylor and shows us how close we are to terrorist attacks employing homemade nuclear weaponry.

Customer Reviews:

books can kill.......2007-07-22

I picked up this book to learn something about the risks associated with nuclear technology in the hands of terrorist states. What I read instead was an unexpected cautionary tale about the risks of irresponsible journalism.

The Curve of Binding Energy is an early piece by the talented essayist, John McPhee. McPhee explores the psyche and experience of a nuclear engineer, Ted Taylor, who in the 1950's made substantial contributions to the miniaturization of fission bombs and then became an advocate for "nuclear safeguards" - i.e. methods and policies to keep weapons-grade material or bomb-making technology out of criminal or terrorist hands.

Mr. Taylor's involvement in the book is highly ironic. Like most in the nuclear weapons community, he originally justified the work for its deterrent potential. Looking back two decades later, Taylor tells McPhee that the original rationale was naive. But unconsciously applying the same logic, Taylor was now willing to publicize all that he knew about the easiest ways to make a cheap A-bomb in the hope that proliferation of that knowledge would scare governments into adopting more effective safeguards.

Throughout the book, McPhee relates conversations in which he pumped Taylor for technical details about bomb construction. Each time, Taylor states that he has gone into just as much detail as he can on various subjects without breaching official secrets. This of course is nonsense. Any attempts to delineate the bounds of official secrets, and especially the juxtaposition of related methods and means are expressly forbidden by the security oath that Taylor once swore. If a terrorist nuclear bomb is ever detonated, Taylor will bear direct personal responsibilty.

Fortunately, the value of Taylor's technical insights is much less that McPhee implies. He reports many kind comments about Taylor from distinguished nuclear physicists who worked on the same projects. But none of these scientists express particular respect for his technical skills. And at least one of Taylor's important judgments in this book - that successful fission detonations are easy to achieve - was proved untrue last year when a DPRK demonstration fizzled.

No, to date no one has been killed or injured by one of Ted Taylor's creations. But the same cannot be said of John McPhee. The most intriguing details in The Curve of Binding Energy are its repeated speculations about the attractiveness of the WTC towers as terrorist targets and their vulnerability to destruction from a sub-nuclear explosion. It appears highly likely that this book was the original motivation behind O. A. Rahman's truck-bomb attack in 1993 and K. S. Mohammad's follow-on attack in 2001.

This is not a personal criticism of John McPhee. The point is that journalists - even great journalists - plying their own craft can do just as much unintended damage as any of their usual suspects.

The story of Theodore Taylor, nuclear bomb designer, and problems of safeguarding of nuclear materials in the 1960's and 70's.......2007-03-11

This book was first published in 1973 and its basic premises are straightforward. Plutonium is an almost unavoidable byproduct of a uranium based nuclear power industry. It is incredibly easy to make a working atomic bomb with plutonium. It is also incredibly easy to steal plutonium. It is possible to make a nuclear bomb as small as a rugby football. Terrorism with a plutonium bomb seems to be inevitable.

Much of the book is about Theodore Taylor, who was one of America's most brilliant nuclear bomb engineers. Technically, he was a physicist, but he was really lousy at true theoretical physics, and he ended up working at Los Alamos as a nuclear bomb designer only because he had flunked out of the Ph.D program at UC Berkeley. Taylor was more of an inventor with the mentality of an engineer in the way he focused on using best estimates and trial and error experimentation to solve difficult practical problems.

Later in his life, Taylor was involved in the abortive Orion project (a space ship that was to be powered by hundreds of small nuclear bombs), and became a strong advocate of improved safeguarding of nuclear materials in the nuclear power industry. It should be clarified that after he quit as a nuclear bomb designer, Taylor never became an anti-nuclear activist. I say this mainly because this book does seem to have been used by the anti-nuclear movement.

The remainder of the book is mostly devoted to describing just how lax the safeguarding of nuclear materials was at the time, as well as brief descriptions of the chemical processes needed to isolate enough plutonium from these byproducts to make a crude bomb.

One annoying aspect of this book is its coy squeamishness at revealing the secrets of making hydrogen (fusion) bombs. Hydrogen bomb design is actually pretty straightforward once you have a fission bomb to ignite the fusion materials - other books like "Dark Sun" lay out the basic details that this book would not.

A major concept missing from this book is that, while stealing several kilograms of plutonium and making one or two plutonium bombs might be fairly simple, when it comes to governments building a nuclear bomb, it is clearly more advantageous to have a complete nuclear industry, so as to be able to build an endless supply of nuclear bombs with either uranium or plutonium. And so these states would want to start by first developing a uranium enrichment capability together with nuclear power plants. This is in fact how things have played out today.

And so, this book turns out to be somewhat myopic in its fears. Its warnings against the production of plutonium by the nuclear power industry, while important, and salient at the time (1970's) to the fears of terrorism by small radical groups, pale in comparison to the much greater current problem of global nuclear weapons development by nation-states. The book misses completely the fact that today, almost any technologically advanced country, and many that are not so advanced, can build entire arsenals of nuclear bombs if they want to.

Is nuclear war inevitable? That possibility seemed to have faded with the breakup of the Soviet Union, but has risen again as the numbers of conflict states developing nuclear weapons increase.

But then look on the bright side, for all of you liberal, anti-growth, anti-nuclear, anti-people environmentalists out there. The nuclear winter first predicted by Carl Sagan, together with an accompanying drastic reduction in the numbers of homo sapiens defiling this planet, could be just the cures for global warming and global over-population that you are seeking.

Nuclear Bombs for Dummies.......2006-07-08

Theodore B. Taylor, the physicist who was the subject of this book died in 2004, but not before he had completed his spiritual journey from nuclear bomb maker to nuclear protester. Even though the text of this book originally appeared in "The New Yorker" in 1973, Taylor was still driven to publish his own works on the dangers of nuclear proliferation. McPhee has a very understated style ("just the facts, ma'am"), but this book is still the most frightening I've ever read. I can't decide whether I would want him to write a sequel, because the threat of a nuclear bomb explosion is even greater today than it was in 1973. Just ask yourself the following questions:

Is there more plutonium available to terrorists in 2006 than there was in 1973? Yes.

Do more nations have nuclear capability? Yes.

Can a nuclear bomb be built that is even smaller and more efficient than its 1973 counterpart? Yes.

Are the instructions for building a nuclear device more readily available than they were in 1973? Yes.

Do some people hate America even more than they did in 1973? Decide this one for yourself.

John McPhee, staff writer for the "New Yorker" and Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of twenty-seven books on subjects as various as oranges and the merchant marine, has written a nuclear explosion of a book in "The Curve of Binding Energy." It's one of those books that is even more relevant now than when it was written. Essentially, it's a blueprint of how to build a nuclear device using materials at hand, along with a chunk of rather easily stolen U-235 or plutonium. Theodore B. Taylor, himself the creator of smaller, more efficient nuclear bombs, tells us where to steal the plutonium, how to assemble a bomb, even gives hints on where to plant it--one of the eeriest parts of this book has Taylor and McPhee exploring the now-vanished towers of the World Trade Center, trying to pick the spot where a nuclear device could do the most damage.

"The Curve of Binding Energy" is a must read for every man, jack, and paper-pusher in the Department of Homeland Security, not to mention both houses of Congress. I imagine the first reaction of many Congresspersons would be to ban this book, but it's way too late for that, my friend.

Prophetic, scary and still important.......2006-06-19

John McPhee is a writer for the New Yorker with a particular focus on science and nature. His heroes tend not to be the pure scientists but the engineers, the doers. His 1987 profile of the Old River Control Structure, the enormously complex and epic-scale engineering works that prevent the main body of the waters of the Mississippi from spilling down the Atchafalaya as they really want to, was widely linked at the time of the New Orleans floods last year and deservedly so -- search for "McPhee Old River Control" to read it, it's well worth it. He has a love for the concrete that doesn't prevent him having a good understanding of the underlying science that his engineers use and writes clearly and with energy.

The Curve of Binding Energy is about Ted Taylor, a physicist from Los Alamos, his efforts to develop the lightest fission bomb that he possibly could, and how his research pushed him in the direction of proper oversight of post-fission materials. The writing is excellent, pacey and readable, though at times tending too much to the New Yorker structure of "At facility Y I was ushered in to meet Expert X. He had shrewd eyes and an expansive, welcoming half-smile at the corners of his mouth. He said Z." The basic message is: (1) plutonium is easy to get access to; (2) with current (1974) practices and volumes the amount necessary to produce a bomb (15 kg) would be lost in the statistical noise; (3) this will only get worse as volumes produced go up, and they're projected to go up massively.

This is all from the perspective of 1974, of course. Since then, prompted in part by the concerns this book raised (and in part by independent factors such as a fall in the price of oil), the US cut back hugely on reactor starts. Nevertheless, nuclear power in the US grew from 114.0 billion MwH (out of a total of of 1867.1 billion MwH) in 1974 to 763 out of 3721 in 2004, in other words from 6% to 21%. Global annual plutonium production has gone up by a factor of 4, which granted is a lot but isn't the exponential increase predicted by the book. This is in part because the US contributes much less plutonium than you'd expect, in part because it hasn't adopted fast breeder reactors.

So the good news is that the US seems to have taken the issue relatively seriously. The bad news is that the UK and France between them hold 50% of the civilian plutonium in the world. I'm shocked by the lack of serious public awareness and serious official response in those two countries -- the protests seem to have died down a lot since the 80s but the problems have just got worse. The other bad news is that nuclear material keeps going missing in Russia, though under a 1994 agreement the US is continuing to pay some of the costs of shutting the relevant reactors down and moving to fossil fuels.

Ultimately, given that deterrence works against states, the question is how to prevent terrorists from getting the bomb? One part of the answer is simply increased vigilance, which has the advantage of protecting against all attacks: the terrorists don't necessarily need the bomb, after all. Another part is increased spending on counter-proliferation measures like the Russia program. Another part, perhaps, is engaging with countries that want to develop nuclear power to make sure that their plants are efficient and safe. And another part, unfortunately, is probably to accept that in the future there will be the occasional bomb in a major city and people will die but life will go on. All of these conclusions are reached in the book: they haven't dated, and in an important sense neither has the book itself.

Absorbing, Fascinating and Still Pertinent .......2006-06-16

Despite being written 30 years ago this is still an amazing and pertinent book about all things nuclear.

First off it is another McPhee homerun. His style of just following tangents, paying attention to all the interesting details that paint the full picture and which most authors would ignore, until the tangents all coalesce into a bigger story works incredibly well. So well that I'm surprised he seems to be one of the only authors to use it, but he does it masterfully.

This book is about the life of Theodore Taylor, a brilliant nuclear engineer and weapons designer. And about mining nuclear material, and processing it into fuel (not only how, but WHERE, what the plants look like, how big they are, how many people work there, what comes in one end and what comes out the other end and where does the stuff go after that), and transporting nuclear materials, and the Manhattan project, and nuclear weapon testing, and nuclear reactor design, and nuclear safety, and the Orion spaceship design, and building coast to coast underground tunnels with specially designed nuclear bombs, and a thousand other incredibly interesting topics.

The writing style is immensely absorbing, and perhaps the biggest theme is safeguarding commercial nuclear material so that terrorists cannot get a hold of it and build a bomb that could topple the World Trade Center. Considering this book was written in the early seventies its foresight is unbelievable, and in a post 9-11 world where nuclear power is again receiving attention as an oil alternative the information in this book is still relevant.

Highly recommended!

Nuclear Rites: A Weapons Laboratory at the End of the Cold War

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Armchair Anthropology at its worst
Shows This Small Town!
A Fascinating Look at the Soul of Nuclear Weapons Lab
A Fascinating Look at the Soul of Nuclear Weapons Lab
A phenomenal read

Nuclear Rites: A Weapons Laboratory at the End of the Cold War
Hugh Gusterson
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520213734

Book Description

Based on fieldwork at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory--the facility that designed the neutron bomb and the warhead for the MX missile--Nuclear Rites takes the reader deep inside the top-secret culture of a nuclear weapons lab. Exploring the scientists' world of dark humor, ritualized secrecy, and disciplined emotions, anthropologist Hugh Gusterson uncovers the beliefs and values that animate their work. He discovers that many of the scientists are Christians, deeply convinced of the morality of their work, and a number are liberals who opposed the Vietnam War and the Reagan-Bush agenda. Gusterson also examines the anti-nuclear movement, concluding that the scientists and protesters are alike in surprising ways, with both cultures reflecting the hopes and anxieties of an increasingly threatened middle class.
In a lively, wide-ranging account, Gusterson analyzes the ethics and politics of laboratory employees, the effects of security regulations on the scientists' private lives, and the role of nuclear tests--beyond the obvious scientific one--as rituals of initiation and transcendence. He shows how the scientists learn to identify in an almost romantic way with the power of the machines they design--machines they do not fear.
In the 1980s the "world behind the fence" was thrown into crisis by massive anti-nuclear protests at the gates of the lab and by the end of the Cold War. Linking the emergence of the anti-nuclear movement to shifting gender roles and the development of postindustrial capitalism, Gusterson concludes that the scientists and protesters are alike in surprising ways, and that both cultures reflect the hopes and anxieties of an increasingly threatened middle class.

Customer Reviews:

Armchair Anthropology at its worst.......2003-06-25

Background Info: I majored in Anthropology at college.

This book has 2 main problems. 1) It is horribly boring. Yes, there are some interesting field works here. But too often the narrative is bogged down with explanations of anthropological or postmdern or Focaultian theories, which add absolutely nothing to it. I wanted an ethnography, not a text book.

2) The author did not one observe employees at work. Although this is understandable, it makes it hard to write a believeably ethnography. Obseving the employees at work is fundamental to research. Without that, this is just psychology, and not really true anthropology.

Shows This Small Town!.......2002-07-30

While I enjoyed this book and all it's talk about nuclear weapons, I had to add a side note that I love the way it really does capture this small town.

A Fascinating Look at the Soul of Nuclear Weapons Lab.......2001-08-04

I have been working across the street from Lawrence Livermore National Labs (LLNL) as an intern at Sandia National Labs, and picked this book up in Sandia's library to get a better sense for the community around me.

Hugh Gusterson does a great job at documenting the culture of the LLNL scientists and how they face their jobs and those who protest them. This is a fascinating work by a keen anthropologist who has researched a culture that is foreign in its secrecy.

A Fascinating Look at the Soul of Nuclear Weapons Lab.......2001-08-04

The culture in a nuclear weapons lab is utterly unique. Coming from a background where most of my friends are against nuclear weapons, it is interesting to work among people who believe with their heart that what they're doing is good for society.

Hugh Gusterson does a great job at documenting the culture of the LLNL and how it fits in with the culture of Livermore, CA, and how it clashes with the culture of anti-nuclear weapons activists. Gusterson's objectivity is refreshing, and the material is fascinating.

If you've worked at a national lab, want to get into the minds of a nuclear weapons scientist, or just want to learn a bit about one of the US's biggest national laboratories, I highly recommend this book.

A phenomenal read.......1999-03-05

An anthropologist looks at a nuclear weapons plant. Instead of making an exotic culture familiar, Gusterson takes apart the social workings of Livermore. In doing so, he shows that scientists aren't always rational, that there are elements of hazing rituals in an FBI background check, and that employees internalize their training to a fundamental level.

Book Description

Designed to bring an understanding of the technological problems regarding our present society to students with no science background. Covers energy use in human history, its diverse sources, safety aspects, storage conservation and environmental problems. This edition includes the many changes which have taken place in issues involving energy and the environment during the past decade. A variety of current statistical information, numerous new problems and recommended outside reading material has been added.

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An excellent summary of issues facing modern societies.......1998-07-23

This book presents, in clear and easy to understand language, a nearly complete summary of the problems and issues of technology that face a modern society. Issues ranging from alternative energy sources and traffic theory to the problems of feeding the world's growing population are addressed. This book allows one to approach such modern questions as "Should I have airbags in my car?" or "How dangerous is the nuclear power plant in the next town?" from a knowledgeable standpoint. Many worked examples are included. Reference lists and problems are included at the end of each chapter. Although written as a textbook, this is an excellent (and entertaining) resource for the general interested reader. (Disclaimer: I am a former student of one of authors, but never took the class for which this book was written.)

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Renewable Energy, Second Edition
Bent Sorensen (Sørensen)
Manufacturer: Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0126561524

Book Description

Renewable Energy, first published by Academic Press in 1979, is considered the foundation text for renewable energy studies worldwide. The first edition addressed graduate students and researchers in an attempt to put renewable energy on the map, academically speaking. In 1979 there were no academic curricula in this field at the university level, so the book was targeted at graduate level students and researchers.
Today, the importance of the topic is widely acknowledged. Not only is it taught in engineering, physics and environmental sciences departments, but it is actively researched and studied in many organizations and energy-related industries. The topic of energy policies, where renewable energies play a vital role, is avidly discussed at the scientific and political level. The author has made the Second Edition more accessible to researchers and students approaching the field for the first time. Each chapter has a general introductory section, but is also followed by advanced topics. This gives university lecturers the flexibility to include advanced topics while at the same time allowing researchers to use the book as a reference work.

Key Features
* Provides the principles of renewable engergy flows/sources and energy conversion processes
* Covers the engineering and economic aspects of the field
* Outlines the expansion of the field since the publication of the first edition
* Remains the most important volume in the field

The Crumbs of Creation: Trace elements in history, medicine, industry, crime and folklore

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The Crumbs of Creation

The Crumbs of Creation: Trace elements in history, medicine, industry, crime and folklore
J Lenihan
Manufacturer: Taylor & Francis
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Of the 90 chemical elements that occur in nature, only a dozen are found in easily measurable amounts in the human body. The rest are trace elements, present at such low concentrations that most of them were, until quite recently, beyond the reach of detection. The Crumbs of Creation reviews the absorbing story of trace elements in medicine, history, industry, crime, and folklore, showing how the study of their properties can help us survive through a better understanding and control of our environment. Written in an easy-to-read, entertaining style, the book consists of interrelated anecdotes grouped together in relevant chapters. Although readers will derive much entertainment from this book, there is an underlying seriousness to the topics.

Customer Reviews:

The Crumbs of Creation.......2000-06-12

This readable little volume is based on the lecture notes for a university level "chemistry appreciation" course given by the author, a chemsitry professor. Filled with anecdotes about the importance of minor elements in history, crime detection, and all sorts of other areas of life, it is easy to read from cover to cover or to pick up and delve into chapters at random. This work is a rare bird in the general science literature: although fully enjoyable for its intended audience of the non-scientist with a healthy interest in the workings of the world, it is sophisticated enough, with enough detail and professional citations, that it is a delight to chemical professionals as well. The fans who have enjoyed my own well-travelled copy include a retired chemist, an English as a second language teacher, a precocious middle school student, a linguist, a full-time homemaker, and a chemical engineering professor.

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