1 comments about Photovoltaic Solar Energy Generation (Springer Series in Optical Sciences).

1. This book is a very useful overview of all levels of PV electricity generation. Topics range from device physics to installation and economics of PV systems to government incentives for promoting solar power. While the book isn't cheap in an absolute sense, it's hard to find such a comprehensive review elsewhere for the price.
   
   Given the book's broad scope and short length, it's no surprise the coverage is a bit thin in places. The device physics discussion is rather brief; you may want to refer to J. Nelson's book "The Physics of Solar Cells" or a comparable work to fill in details. OTOH, there is a very decent survey of materials and manufacturing techniques for inorganic cells. (Organics only merit a couple of pages in this book.) A discussion of the chief reasons that solar modules fail (in Ch. 10) was also quite useful.
   
   Some drawbacks: The writing style tends to be very dull and fact-laden. (The authors are Germans writing in English.) So much information is shoved at you that very few people will be able to recall it perfectly after one reading; but almost none of the topics I found most interesting were in the woefully inadequate index. Also, while Amazon shows a 2006 publication date, the book's copyright page says 2005, and there aren't any references with dates past 2004 (and relatively few past 2002, in fact). A howling factual error in the first sentence of the first chapter (PV effect wasn't discovered by Henri, but rather by Edmond, Becquerel) is an unfortunate blemish. And while this isn't necessarily a drawback, the book definitely has a European point of view, with less information about the North American market and none about the Asian market outside Japan.
   
   If you want to set up a solar power system for your home, this book isn't for you. It's also nearly useless if you want to learn in detail about how solar cells work. However, it could be interesting for engineers and scientists who want to understand the manufacturing, application and business contexts for PVs and solar power. The best audience is probably businesspeople (the proverbial "managers" of so many other book titles), especially VCs, investors and business development types who need a quick overview at slightly deeper than a "Scientific American" level of technical detail.

2 comments about Optical Illusions: The Science of Visual Perception (Illusion Works).

1. One of the most beautiful and wonderful books I own is Al Seckel's "Masters of Deception: Escher, Dali & the Artists of Optical Illusions" (2004). Unlike most other books on illusions, the book itself is a creative tour de force. And Seckel supplements his creation with visually striking and important media at his website. I think I've already given away as many as ten copies of that book to family and friends since its release.
   
   Another of Seckel's books that I refer to frequently "Incredible Visual Illusions: You won't believe your eyes" (2003). That book has twenty chapters, each containing a different class of illusion. As a sensory scientist who teaches courses on sensation, perception and cognition, I find this book useful because it organizes a nice collection of illusions into meaningful categories that are relevant to me. In this work, as in Seckel's many others, the author acknowledges many renowned vision scientists. I imagine that the book's organization benefited from Seckel's association with these people.
   
   Seckel's new book is "Optical Illusions: The Science of Visual Illusions." This is a fine book, with 281 optical illusions (one per page). The book begins with a four page essay on illusions. This is followed 281 pages of illusions, each printed to fill one page. Many of the illusions have been published by Seckel and others previously. A few of the illusions are new. The illustration section is followed by 24 pages containing BRIEF explanations of each illusion. Each explanation is, on average, seven or eight sentences.
   
   I have one major criticism of the new book. The title is highly misleading. The book title suggested to me a book that would delve into science, in a scholarly way, at least at the level of a Sensation and Perception undergraduate textbook. I was hoping for something of a sequel to Masters of Deception (e.g., "The Science of Deception"?). However, this book is not about the science of visual perception or of illusions. It is not even about "optical" illusions, as most illusions are explainable in terms of perceptual and cognitive processes beyond simple optics. Sure there are 24 pages of explanation at the very end of the book, but these are generally not deep, satisfying explanations. And there is no reference list that would allow the casual reader to track down important scientific articles.
   
   One superb, beautiful resource on the science of visual illusions is Michael Bach's website, "Optical Illusions and Visual Phenomena". Bach's dynamic site is visually striking, presenting some great illusions. The explanation of each illusion is accessible to the novice, but detailed enough to satisfy and impress other perceptual scientists. Bach generously acknowledges the artists and scientists associated with each illusion, providing scholarly references in each case. Bach lists and explains scientific controversies regarding many of the illusions. I should add that Bach is a first-rate sensory scientist from the University of Freiburg. His electophysiological and psychophysical research is highly-regarded, important, and of high quality. When I have spoken to him in the past (at conferences and at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in San Francisco), I have always been impressed by his knowledge and intellectual passion. Bach and his website are the real deal.
   
   There are plenty of other excellent scientific sources on illusions. Richard Gregory, for instance, has written and spoken about many illusions, and he is the prime mover, director, and creator of London's Explororey. Another great innovator and scientist is Christopher Tyler, a vision scientist at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute. Among sensory scientists, Tyler is widely regarded as a genius and computational/theoretical wizard. He's the guy who invented the autostereogram (aka "The Magic Eye"), and who makes unique observations about art and symmetry. He contributed considerably to San Francisco's Exploratorium. He presents a variety of interesting things at his S-K website. The Exploratorium has a wonderful website on illusions and their explanations that is definitely worth a look. Project Lite and Viperlib are two other impressive, important sites related to the science of illusions.
   
   Seckel mentions at his website that he has even more books on illusions that are coming soon. The one that got my attention is the following:
   
   "Your Mind's Eye: A Comprehensive Scientific Examination of Visual and Sensory Illusions. Boston: The MIT Press." Seckel writes, "This will have a dual platform (Mac and PC CD Rom) featuring hundreds of interactive illusions, and very rigorous scientific explanations. University level." I hope that this book lives up to its billing. There's no doubt that Seckel's work, combined with a healthy dose of good science, would be an important contribution. I'd love to see Seckel promote scientists and their explanations with the same enthusiasm that he promotes their illusions. Moreover, I feel confident that Seckel has important insights into illusions, and that his ideas have scientific importance. I'm not sure that Seckel has succeeded in expressing these ideas... yet.



2. This is a great book. Very fun for all in the family. Fast shipping.

No comments about Quantum Optics (Oxford Graduate Texts).

1 comments about Introductory Quantum Optics.

1. I am a mathematician who is very familiar with electrodynamics and quantum mechanics.
   I read this book to teach myself quantum optics.
   Since I read it as a self-study text,
   I will review it from that perspective.
   Some of the weaknesses noted might be less important for a classroom text.
   
   The Gerry/Knight text is billed as suitable for
   "senior undergraduates and beginning postgraduates", but
   I fear that undergraduates who attempt it as a self-study text
   are likely to end up frustrated.
   I can't recall ever encountering an undergraduate with a background in mathematics and quantum mechanics
   sufficient to read this book in a reasonable time without the guidance of an instructor.
   If used for self-study, I think that minimal prerequisites
   would be a graduate level understanding of abstract linear algebra and quantum mechanics.
   Some familiarity with Fock space and the theory of operators on infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces would be desirable.
   
   Because the book is intended for beginners,
   the authors take pains to explain many things which a beginner might not know.
   Most of the explanations were careful and helpful, but I was dissatisfied with some.
   I read the book cover to cover and was able to follow most of it,
   but some of it (e.g, much of the chapter on decoherence)
   is still a mystery to me.
   
   Chapter 9 describes recent experiments in quantum optics which
   demonstrate amazing properties of light unimaginable from a classical perspective.
   The presentations of the physical setups give just the right amount of detail for clear understanding.
   The diagrams are good.
   However, I felt that the mathematical analyses would be easier
   for those with good backgrounds if done on a higher level,
   and some of the physical discussions seemed obscure.
   
   Given the authors' intended audience,
   it may be unreasonable to quarrel with their choice of mathematical level.
   However, it is truly unfortunate that some of
   their calculational details seem actually wrong.
   For example, in Section 9.3's discussion of a ``quantum eraser'',
   several terms appear to be omitted from equation (9.21),
   which invalidates some of the subsequent discussion.
   Moreover, the discussion is obscure and seems of questionable validity even were the text's (9.21) correct.
   More details can be found on my website.
   
   I noticed only a few errors which would affect the physics,
   but there are too many mathematical errors and
   an unusually large number of typos.
   Most of the typos are relatively insignificant,
   but nevertheless distracting.
   Readers should be prepared to check everything.
   
   My copy is by now riddled with underlined statements with marginal notes
   like "Why?", or "What does this mean?"
   As I progressed through the book and my understanding deepened,
   many of these "Why's" were erased, but quite a few remain.
   
   The reader who wants to learn quantum optics and has
   the necessary mathematical background may wish that
   parts of the book were more carefully written,
   but he will not be fundamentally disappointed.
   This is a good book from which I learned a lot.
   It seems much clearer than Scully and Zubairy's
   Quantum Optics, which I read previously.
   
   My brand new paperback copy is falling apart after only a few weeks of careful use at home.
   A book this good deserves a more durable binding.

1 comments about Handbook of Applied Photometry (AIP-Press).

1. Handbook of Applied Photometry has a wealth of knowledge that can only be presented and collated by some one who has worked in the calibration field in photometry and radiometry. I do believe some of the images have been presented poorly and should be of photo quailty. Other than that it is still a pretty good book.

4 comments about Electricity, Magnetism, and Light.

1. It is very good book to read. Read it first, before
   reading Griffith book (Introduction To Electrodynamic)



2. It's an interesting book and contains most stuff I want to learn, it is good for college student with an active mind.



3. I think this book is for serious students (honors students, physics majors), not for a gut course where all you do is memorize and hope you can get a lot of partial credit. But it's definitely not at the level of Purcell or Feynman, which I found scary-hard. The first two chapters review high-school-level electricity, give the pros and cons of the electric fluid model, and review vectors and integral calculus. It has detailed derivations; I looked for but couldn't find a single "it-can-be-shown"! It uses the spreadsheet idea (with numbers) to explain different types of integration. The ideas of flux (e.g. of electric field lines, as in Gauss's Law) and of circulation (e.g., of magnetic field lines, as in Ampere's Law) were presented clearly. I found things in here on batteries, magnets, superconductors, electromagnetic induction, magnetic levitation, that I couldn't find anywhere else; it's definitely a good background for an intermediate-level course on electricity and magnetism, not just in physics but also in electrical engineering.



4. I bought this to try to understand a subject that eludes me but I want to master. Although only finished 2 chapters, I love this book. It has very clear qualitative explanations of the phenomena before jumping into the mathematics, leaving one with a true physical sense of the topic at hand. I look forward to studying with this text, and look forward to taking an E&M class!

4 comments about Elements of Modern Optical Design (Wiley Series in Pure and Applied Optics).

1. O'Shea is probably the easiest reading optics book I have ever read. It had great examples and gave a very solid overview of many topics. The y-u ray tracing technique he lays out is very powerful yet simple and is a must-know method for quick and dirty design of optical systems. O'Shea doesn't go into extreme detail and really only includes vital equations so the book is more of a concept book than a dictionary of equations. Another great book to check out is "Introduction to Optics" by Pedrotti & Pedrotti.



2. This is a great book. For a working engineer in optics it is one of the three you need to survive. I rate it just under Smith, and Kingslake for usable content; which is no small tribute. It is written in plain, clear Engish with worked numerical examples. Those examples are well chosen to cover the interesting uses of a technique. I'm paying the author the ultimate compliment. I'm in the process of ordering a second copy, since somebody snagged mine.



3. I only had the opportunity to scan the texbook to extract technical info to understand a training manual written by Donald O'Shea for Photon Inc. (who makes the BeamScan machine). The manual is an absolute disaster: numerous diagrams are wrong; some instructions are incomplete; theory is given in hard-to-follow style. I got the training manual for free and did not have enough courage to buy O'Shea's textbook (at $130), i.e., if a training manual is that bad, the textbook must be in similar shape. I expected better from a PhD professor at Georgia Tech.



4. This book has not at all been tasteful for me. I think than the author should rename it: "How to design a laser printer for dummier". I honestly don't know why and what an example about laser printer is doing in such book. Ok, now because I read it I know how the laser printer I use work. But even that part is incomplete. I have seen in an optical handbook more and more information about that. Only the different point shape/pattern was a one page table and O¡¯Shea did not speak at all about that choice.

   So, let¡¯s talk about this famous laser printer example. Just in itself you don¡¯t think so than such apparatus is more relevant of non imaging system and it¡¯s not at all a good end for a book about optic design in general. The right place to speak about that could be in some expert textbook witch one is really dedicated to non-imaging system.

   I can't say this book is full of lack, hole and omission, etc. But It¡¯s really difficult to fellow where Mr. Donald C. O'Shea is interested to bring you.

1 comments about Atom-Photon Interactions: Basic Processes and Applications (Wiley Science Paperback Series).

1. Atom Photon Interactions is an excellent text for atomic and optical physics. I refer back to the review material---transition amplitudes, quantum electrodynamic fundamentals, etc--- over and over again. Naturally, these sections are very brief, and the book works best along side Cohen-Tannoudji's more elementary texts Quantum Mechanics and Photons and Atoms, or their equivalents.

   The later chapters are rich in techniques and intuition applicable to atom-trapping, spectroscopy, laser theory, etc. Cohen-Tannoudji covers a lot of material, and manages to link it all to a few basic fundamental principles. The book is extremely well-organized, with bite-sized sections and appendices to each chapter. An excellent collection of exercises with solutions is included in the back. Unfortunately, the text does not prompt the reader to try working these problems at appropriate times (sadly, I didn't realize the exercises were there until I'd been using the book for some time). Like Photons and Atoms, this is primarily a book for theorists; its one weakness, I feel, is that the principles, however clear, never seem connected to the actual numbers that an experimentalist or system designer can relate to.

2 comments about The Color of Nature: An Exploratorium Book.

1. Paul Dogerty makes learning the "whys" and "hows" of colors fun. He presents the scientific principles of how we see what we see in an easy-to-grasp manner that is both interesting and comprehensible. In addition, the photographs that accompany the text, which alone are worth the price of the book, serve to admirably highlight the processes Dogerty seeks verbally to illustrate. Together, art and words combine to emphasize the wonder and beauty of the world in which we live



2. "The Color of Nature" is a very good book. The photography is wonderful, and there is nice text to go along with it.

3 comments about Light Science: Physics and the Visual Arts (Undergraduate Texts in Contemporary Physics).

1. The book by T. Rossing and C. Chiaverina is written in a profoundly elegant manner. The authors introduce the phenomena of light and colors, reflection and refraction, interference and diffraction, polarization, light sources and spectra, holography and photography, computer images and optical storages, as well as symmetry in art and nature. It is not only a textbook of contemporary optics for a one-semester undergraduate course, but it is also helpful for industry engineers working in the optical area, college professors, and physicists. Compared to most textbooks, this book has four distinct characteristics. (1) The book emphasizes the phenomena and experiments of light rather than the mathematical theories of light. (2) It includes wide fields, from geometric optics (mirror, lens) to physical optics (slit, grating) and from quantum optics (laser, spectrum) to the symmetry, and connects them. (3) It discusses the intrinsic properties of optics and the combination of art and nature. Young students can obtain the fundamental optical concept as well as the sophisticated philosophic idea. (4) Most importantly, it stimulates the interest of the readers to explore more contents of optical phenomena and theories. My daughter, a college student, said, ¡°I learned many things, having fun at the same time¡±.

   It was my pleasure to read the book and I recommend it highly.




2. I have used Light Science as a reference to teach an introductory optics course to middle school students. The chapters are easy to read and full of real-life examples. Each chapter concludes with quick, inexpensive experiments relating to the topic. Most experiments cost only a few dollars and use common household items. Students are excited to see the mysteries of light unfold. Lively discussions result from experiments that they can easily perform, bringing further emphasis to the topic. Light Science is in an invaluable resource for the teaching of Physical Science.



3. Light isn't just about electromagnetic waves - it is about human perception of those waves. This book is a wonderful resource for all teachers, and an easy and pleasurable bed-time read as well. It accurately and simply presents the pure physics of light and color and then relates it to our perception of that light and color. However, as a resource for teachers, it also provides numerous hands-on experiments suitable for students at many different levels. I'm using the polarization experiments with my high school classes at the moment. The demo using a CD as a diffraction grating is awesome, even if you don't want to explain how it works. This book is my constant companion in my effort to share "Light Science" with my students.