Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia, Revised Eighth Edition on CD-ROM

From the Publisher

“...new and updated articles in every discipline…easy-to-use search engines…” (Zentralblatt Math, Vol. 1032, No.7, 2004)

"As a source of scientific information it must be rated highly." (Talanta, Vol 52, 2000)

Talanta

As a source of scientific information it must be rated highly.

Library Journal

This, the seventh edition of a well-known reference work, now appears in a two-volume format. That in itself is probably incentive enough to encourage replacement of the unwieldy sixth edition, published in 1983. Since there is little doubt that most local libraries have a copy of a scientific encyclopedia, the only question is whether this new edition has kept pace with the knowledge explosion. It has. The greatest changes are exactly where one would expect to find them. There are whole new sections on computer-related topics, such as local area networks (LANs) and machine vision; similarly, developments in materials science, such as the section on semiconductors, are given expanded coverage. Perhaps the most satisfying revisions are those on planetary astronomy, which incorporate the new information garnered by the Voyager fly-bys of the outer planets. Thus, the article on Uranus has been expanded from two to six pages, enough to provide a solid introduction for a student. One drawback is that certain broad topics are difficult to find; in mathematics, for example, there was no apparent entry for either chaos, catastrophe theory, or dynamical systems. Additionally, there is almost nothing on history of science or biography of scientists. Thus, if one looks up Fermi, one finds the definition of a unit of length but no mention that it was named after a person. Similarly, there is an article entitled ``Evolution,'' but nothing under Darwin. Nevertheless, this is probably the best scientific encyclopedia available.Harold D. Shane, Baruch Coll., CUNY

Booknews

<:st>This quick and easy to search CD-ROM contains an updated version of the 1996 two-volume eighth edition, about which wrote: "A new edition of the massive and definitive science encyclopedia (cited in and , originally appearing in 1938 and continuing its expansive tradition in this volume to include the most up to date scientific findings and controversies. umbrellas earth and space sciences, energy and environmental sciences, materials sciences, physics and chemistry, and mathematics and information sciences. Each major category is subdivided into its related parts and presented with careful attention to the social ramifications of the subject matter, as well as explaining material in a comprehensible and witty manner. Some of the new information tackled in this publication includes chaos theory, new glass processes, oncology, galaxy drift, and genetic mapping. Liberally salted with illustrations, photographs, and diagrams." Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)