1 comments about Transport in Nanostructures (Cambridge Studies in Semiconductor Physics and Microelectronic Engineering).

1. As device sizes shrink on chips, earlier assumptions made in modelling electron and hole transport are starting to break down. Ferry explores the many consequences of this. Now that we can use lithography and associated techniques to make devices less than 0.1 micron, quantum effects can arise.
   
   These might include a two dimensional electron gas, where one spatial dimension is essentially suppressed by the heterostructure. Perhaps under the gate of an experimental transistor. Other contexts might be fluctuations in the atomic distribution seen by a transport electron or hole. This might importantly include fluctuations in how dopants are arranged. Leading to regions of differing conductance.
   
   Ferry investigates these and other phenomena like quantum wires and dots, at a level well placed for the graduate student or researcher.

1 comments about Nondestructive Evaluation: A Tool in Design, Manufacturing, and Service Revised Edition.

1. The work's field is nondestructive evaluation (NDE). NDE contains the instruments which engineers use to detect flaws in structures which function under mechanical stress.

   The work starts off well enough. However,in Chapter 2 it ventures into one's motivation for using NDE. Here, the work founders.

   Why would one use NDE? Because, the authors suggest, a sufficiently small false negative error probability reduces the inspected structure's probability of collapse.

   However, to state the issue this way is to ignore one-half of the requirements of the user of any diagnostic instrument. The full requirement is for sufficiently small false positive and false negative error probabilities.

   However, the reader who searches the literature of NDE for knowledge of the two probabilities will search in vein. This can be said with confidence, for a recent paper demonstrates that NDE violates an axiom of probability theory in relationship to the two probabilities (see "Erratic Measure" (in NDE in the Energy Industry 1995, pp. 1-6. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York, NY).

2 comments about Mechanics of Materials.

1. I bought this book as a supplementary reference for mechanics of materials, which I do at my job. The book is well written, with plenty of example problems sprinkled throughout. I also found this book to be very comprehensive. For example, I found material on the mechanics of shrink wrapping, which I don't see in many other books on strength of materials. The only thing I would fault is that some of the chapters are too long and would have been better from a pedogical standpoint if they'd been broken up into smaller chapters. In particular, Chapter 7 on beam stresses could have been divided into separate chapters concentrating on pure bending and transverse loading. That way, a discussion of pure bending leads naturally into transverse loading. Instead, these topics are sort of thrown together into one big chapter, overwhelming the student. But overall, it's an excellent volume. Given a choice, I'd recommend Beer and Johnston, but you won't go wrong with Riley et al. either.



2. This book was written for seasoned professionals. I am a engineering student, and I depend on this book to help me understand mechanics of materials, but it simply doesn't do this. The authors of the book assume that all readers already know the material. It is extremely frustrating to read this book. The example problems are ambigous. The reading simply does not prepare the reader for the problems at the end of each chapter. The only reason why I give this book two stars is because they have very good visual illustrations.

No comments about Electrochemical Techniques in Corrosion Science and Engineering (Corrosion Technology).

No comments about Nanostructured Materials for Solar Energy Conversion.

No comments about Self-Assembled Nanostructures (Nanostructure Science and Technology).

5 comments about Dynamic Mechanical Analysis: A Practical Introduction, Second Edition.

1. I spent many hours researching for a Thermal Mechanical textbook that was packed full of "Get Down To The Point Answers". Let's face it, there are not many current Thermal Analysis textbooks for sale. The books I've seen are too scrambled with no understanding at the end. This book was VERY informative, and it answered my questions. Special Thanks to the author. Please write many more books with the same intentions in mind: "We would like to understand and learn from what we read"! Thank You!



2. I spent many hours researching for a Thermal Mechanical textbook that was packed full of "Get Down To The Point Answers". Let's face it, there are not many current Thermal Analysis textbooks for sale. The books I've seen are too scrambled with no understanding at the end. This book was VERY informative, and it answered my questions. Special Thanks to the author. Please write many more books with the same intentions in mind: "We would like to understand and learn from what we read"! Thank You!



3. I needed to get up to speed on DMA fast and I got what I needed. It didn't provide all the info I required for my specific application (submicron thin films) but it did provide a sound foundation for further investigation. This is truly what it claims to be, a practical introduction, many thanks to the author.



4. The clear text will guide my experiment in composites.
   
   The DMA technique may be helpful on several materials dynamic-mechanical characterization and this book introduces the why and how to.
   
   Good investment to my thesis!



5. Is a nice, good for begginers, book for those just entering the world of DMA. Helps you understand the basic concepts, and walks you through practical understanding of thermodyanmic studies of polimers.

2 comments about Soft Machines: Nanotechnology and Life.

1. What is nanotechnology? Much of what has fallen under that label has been incremental extension of established engineering practices and technologies to the nanoscale, e.g. improvements in planar silicon fabrication. How much longer can this continue? A more radical vision is that of K. Eric Drexler and his followers, who foresee precise positional control and construction of "assemblers" and "nanofactories" based on the chemistry of carbon. Is this vision -- which spawned much speculative literature and the grey goo scenario of out of control replicators -- feasible?
   
   Jones argues that a wholly different approach will have to be adopted -- an approach suited to the peculiar physics of the nanoscale, where fluctuations and Brownian motion dominate, where surfaces are sticky, and where even quantum field theory (in the Casimir effect) conspires to frustrate the Drexlerian machinist.
   
   Rather than try to work around the physics of the nanoscale, Jones proposes that we use it to our advantage -- just as biological soft "nanotechnology" does. Brownian motion and adhesion energy, for instance, make self-assembly possible. Just as proteins spontaneously fold to their native conformations and just as lipid membranes spontaneously assemble and fold into liposomes, we can design molecules to spontaneously achieve useful three dimensional conformations. We can imitate proteins by coupling conformational changes to molecular recognition and environmental changes, the principle which makes a host of protein activities -- signaling, sensing, catalysis -- possible. While traditional Carnot heat engines fail on the nanoscale, we are now beginning to understand the principles of isothermal molecular motors, such as those used for intracellular transport.
   
   I very much recommend this book for its synoptic overview of current nanotechnology and the challenges facing it. Explanations of physical principles are clear and precise, and would benefit the layman and the researcher alike. Jones has much else to say about evolution, systems biology, silicon vs. single molecule electronics, etc. I only regret that he only cursorily discusses bionanotechnology (as opposed to biomimetic synthetic nanotechnology), i.e. what he calls the "Mad Max" approach of stripping down and reengineering working biological nanosystems, which he only introduces in the last chapter. He rightly is concerned about public opposition and even unforeseen consequences of this approach, but I would like to know more about what it has made possible.
   
   Still, I very much recommend this underappreciated book (no reviews yet?) which I think is on par with Purcell's paper "Life at Low Reynolds Number" and Vogel's "Life's Devices" -- a science writing gem.



2. Before reading this book I was familiar with the conjecture that MNT (molecular nano-technology)devices will tend to be more like nonascale biological components than macroscale machines and suspected there was some truth to it. This book tends to confirm that hypothesis but gives so much more and in such readable detail.
   
   An advantage is that the author, Jones, is not a biologist but a physist, and his approack deals with the physical phenomina of brownian motion (shaking by thermally excited molicules), surface effects like van der Walls forces and viscosity, and the ways these forces can be taken advantage of rather than fought by unconventional machine components like shape changing molicules for valves and isothermal motors at this scale.
   
   Jones and colleagues are themselves involved with development of nanoscale motors using these techniques and the book also covers the equally weird information processing and transduction devices which are likely to be most useful at this size range, again emphysizing similarities to biocomponents but by no means suggesting that we limit ourselves to slavishly using or copying them.
   
   Later in the book he does get into the physical limitations of the dimonoid assemblers and such originally proposed by Eric Drexler, but this book is by no means simply a put down of another researcher's ideas or cat fight between them.
   
   As a view of what short and medium term MNT is likely to be like I can not think of a better source. While this text uses little mathematics it does manage to rigorously lay out the underlying physical laws that will limit some types of construction at this size range but also provide some new and almost magic seeming possibilities.
   
   Over-all I would say this book contains les "hype" about nanotechnology than any I have come across, presenting facts instead.

1 comments about Nanomaterials: Synthesis, Properties and Applications, Second Edition.

1. Incredibly handy as both tutorial and reference. Every chapter worth the price of the book. Brings many diverse areas of nanoscale science and technology together(e.g.- C60 of course, but also subjects such as magnetotactic bacteria and nanoelectro-optics)in a well-organized single volume. Far too much good material to just borrow it from the library. A personal copy is needed so you can annotate the margins with the many ideas and cross-references this book is bound to stimulate. Belongs on your bookshelf next to Dresselhaus' "Science of Fullerenes and Carbon Nanotubes" or open on your desk along with some of Smalley's papers.

5 comments about Advanced Strength and Applied Elasticity.

1. As an Aerospace Engineer (structures), I found this to be the one book that remains on my shelf. It has valid and accurate ACEDEMIC explanations of structural systems - but it does not lend itself to practical implementation of those methods...and many other books do! If this book is supplementing a curriculum, it will serve its purpose well. However, if you actually plan to use what you've learned - not here.
   
   For a book that fits the requirements of application, please refer to "Practical Sress Analysis for Design Engineers", Flabel (ISBN 0-9647014-0-5)



2. First few chapters are well treated but advanced topics are not covered in detail.For example, beams on elastic foundation chapter is not covered extensively.To conclude,anyone interested in advanced mechanics of materials should own it.



3. Many Engineering text books lately do not seem to be written well. I feel that this is not the fault of the authors as much as it is the fault of the editor. This book overall is not in my worst text book list, but can be improved very easily. I have given it a 2 star rating, meaning that it still can be improved upon and until it is improved it is a difficult book to follow.

   The problems with this book are:
   1. Example problems are not included in the text in a sequential order. Instead a concept is introduced and five pages later there is an example problem with that material. The example problems should be there to reinforce the theoretical material. When it is so many pages later it is difficult to know what the example is trying to show.

   2. There are too many formulas included in text lines. Formulas should be written in a formula type instead of included within a paragraph. When it is in the paragraph it makes it difficult to follow.

   3. Topic names and definitions of concepts should be highlighted so the reader can easily go from one topic to another with a better understanding of the material.

   4. As I am reading the text I have made my own illustrations for my own study. I therefore believe that the editor, with an understanding of the material, could have been able to include illustrations.

   5. There is a constant reference to formulas written in previous chapters. Just rewrite the formula if it is so important to the understanding of the material. Instead the reader is in a constant state of turning pages. I am glad this book has a good binding.

   To the authors: Since I am attending your University, Please do not take my criticism personally. Instead, listen to my fellow students when the review time comes about our course.




4. I don't understand what the other reviewers are talking about, I find this book a lifesaver for my Deformable Solids course, because the authors take the time to explain the formulas they put in the book with real words. I appreciate that the formulas are in the text and not coldly thrown at you in a scary cluster, making the concepts much easier to understand thoroughly.
   I found the information easy to find and I think the examples are great, with detailed and explained solutions.
   Finally a book that cares about "how" and "why" instead of just "what".



5. I'm a student in mechanical engineering, and I recently took a class called Advanced Mechanics of Materials. Unfortunately, this book was the required textbook for the course. I know that a lot of text books can be considered "bad", but this is by far the worst textbook I have ever used.
   
   Ideally a textbook will explain concepts well and give relevant examples to reinforce the concepts. The textbook does neither. This textbook explains concepts extremely poorly which makes it bad enough. On top of that, moreover, this book does not give examples for 90% of the concepts.
   
   If this book is the required text for a course, I would recommend changing classes. If you're looking for a book on advanced mechanics of materials, this is NOT a good book to consider. I would have given this book zero stars if that had been an option.