Glenn D. Considine – Van Nostrands Scientific Encyclopedia (10th edition, 3 Volume set)

Автор: Glenn D. Considine
Название книги: Van Nostrands Scientific Encyclopedia (3 Volume set)
Формат: PDF
Жанр: Научно-популярная литература
Страницы: 6194
Качество: Изначально компьютерное, E-book

The editors are pleased to introduce Van Nostrand’s Scientific Encyclopedia,
Tenth Edition, thus building upon the long tradition of excellence that
dates back some seventy years to the First Edition, published in 1938 as
a single volume over 1,200 pages and updated over the decades in one
volume (1947, 1958, 1968, 1976, 1983), and then in two volumes (1989,
1995, 2002). This Tenth Edition, in response to exponential growth, both
in scientific knowledge and in the electronic availability of that knowledge,
has grown perforce to three volumes over 6,100 pages.
The essence of VNSE is enduring, and it remains a fine, concise,
comprehensive, and accessible general science work. Its intellectual scope
ranges from the introductory to the highly technical in a vast and
ever-expanding array of topical coverage in the sciences, engineering,
mathematics, medicine, and more. As has long been the case, the
editors have designed the book to be approachable by students of many
ages. An important feature continued in this work, therefore, is the
progressive development of the discussion of each topic, beginning with
a simple definition expressed in plain terms, developing into a more
detailed treatment, and augmented by often-extensive Additional Reading
suggestions.
Contemporary readers can continue to turn to VNSE for information
about how their daily lives are increasingly affected by the sophistication
of today’s science and the complexity of modern technology. They will
be reminded that knowledge and discovery exist in a continuum, and that
often, but not always, what is new depends entirely on what came before.
As our esteemed, late editor of more than 30 years, Douglas M. Considine,
was wont to say, “Science is history”. With that mantra in mind, and noting
that it has already been six years since the Ninth Edition in 2002, it is time
to examine this new edition.
The five major changes noted in the Preface to the Ninth Edition are
still very much a part of the book and are likely to remain so. First,
the way that the editors wrote, gathered and assembled articles for this
book is almost entirely electronic—from query letters to individuals
or to academic, industrial or technical societies or entities; to primary
research for new entries and updates for mature ones, now conducted
almost entirely on the Internet; to communication between editor and
publisher and the transmission of text between them in the partnership
that results in the book itself. Second, the mushrooming Age of Discovery
is still very much with us and is reflected in updates to articles and
families of articles, with special emphasis on the many life sciences, space
science, and computer technology, and much, much more, necessitating
the expansion to a third volume. Third, the use of Internet references as
Additional Reading suggestions, a groundbreaking feature of the Ninth
edition, has been retained and expanded; even print articles are often
archived electronically by magazines and journals and thus the quest for
additional material is increasingly electronic in nature, with readers having
the advantage of much of the culling of thousands of “hits” on a given
topic having been done for them by the editors. Fourth, the editors have
inculcated the previously new feature of Time Lines and Glossaries, to add
at-a-glance information and historical perspective, into a staple of the book;
new coverage includes virology, physiology, pharmaceuticals, the Internet,
weather technology, and more. And fifth, the sense of history is further
developed by expansion of another once-new feature, brief biographies
of many influential scientists including many Nobel Prize winners in
Medicine, Chemistry, and Physics; a history of their times is not complete
without mention of their works. Science is history.
A statistical summary of the Tenth Edition would include more than
10,000 entries and 9,500 cross-references; 4,800 diagrams, graphs, and
photographs; more than 600 tables; and an alphabetical Index of more than
100 printed pages that finds few rivals in the realm of technical literature.
These are large increases, staggering particularly in the number of entries,
and they are the result of an exhaustive, ongoing selection process for
content perhaps best described so presciently by Douglas Considine in
the Preface to the Sixth Edition in 1983: “Obviously, an encyclopedia of
this type cannot serve the same purpose as a news medium. Science, too,
has its own noise level. This is particularly evident from the hundreds of
prematurely announced and exaggerated claims one frequently finds in the
general communications media. Consequently, the authors and editors of
this encyclopedia must carefully sift through the vast scientific data bank
and sort out the trivia from real progress… there is no room for rumor and
the untried and very little room indeed for the controversial in a permanent
scientific reference such as this.” To which the present editors say, Amen.
But even the strictest selection criteria, applied to the gargantuan growth of
knowledge, lead inevitably to the paradox that in print, what is new today
will be, if not obsolete, at least in need of immediate updating tomorrow.
To that end the editors have included thousands of Internet references to
foster contemporaneity in research and Additional Reading. And further to
that end, the editors have a wonderful announcement.
Van Nostrand’s Scientific Encyclopedia, Tenth Edition, is now available
on the Internet through the Wiley Interscience website. The online version
uses embedded Internet references as hyperlinks both within the book itself
and without—to the greater online community and also to other titles
owned by John Wiley and Sons. At the click of a mouse the student
or reader can now navigate VNSE instantly; this reflects how modern
students actually pursue knowledge, and their parents are not far behind.
The possibilities for ready acquisition of topical knowledge in, simply put,
what is known, thus grow logarithmically through the interconnectedness
of the VNSE and its links to the cyberworld. The editors feel strongly that,
while there will always be an important place for printed literature of all
kinds, as evidenced by the beautiful volumes at hand, the realm of scientific
knowledge, compelled by the ongoing effects of that knowledge itself as
expressed through information technology, will be accessed increasingly
via electronic means.
In closing, one trusts that the reader will indulge a personal observation.
In 1976 at the age of 61, Douglas M. Considine wrote and edited the Fifth
Edition of VNSE. In 2008 at a similar age, his son Glenn D. Considine,
also a writer and editor, presents the Tenth Edition of VNSE. Science is
history. Family is history, too. Thus, this book is dedicated with abiding
affection and gratitude to Douglas M. Considine.
GLENN D. CONSIDINE