The growth and decay of ice /

An outstanding publication in the series "Studies in Polar Research," by Lock, an eminently qualified scientist. It is excellently bound and illustrated, and written by a scholar with an uncommon ability for clarity, precision, and wit. The introductory chapter on origin, evolution, incidence, and impact of ice should be required reading for all university and college students and faculty interested in life and the universe. There follows a series of rigorous chapters on thermodynamics of ice, the Stefan problem, ice and water, ice and air, ice and earth, and ice and life. The final chapter treats the decay of ice, thus concluding "on a warming note." This design produces self-contained chapters, each of which will be of particular interest to selected groups of specialists, yet which build progressively on each other. They also incorporate the mathematical and physical principles common to all aspects of the growth and decay of ice. There is an extensive selected bibliography and a useful index. Graduate level.-J. D. Ives, University of California, Davis