Crystallography; A Very Short Introduction

September 6, 2016 By John E. Riutta in Newly Noted Books, Series, Very Short introductions Tags: book, crystallography, glazer, introductions, News, oxford, press, science, short, university, very

If you’re like me, you likely have only the bare minimum of an idea as to just what crystallography is. “Something to do with crystals” is just about the sum total of my own present understanding of it.

However I also have gathered that it is the underlying field of study that has made an astonishing number of discoveries in chemistry, biology, and physics possible. In other words, it’s something of which anyone who would consider him or herself scientifically literate today should have at least a basic understanding.

And for the acquisition of such an understanding, the recently published Crystallography; A Very Short Introduction by A. M. Glazer is just the right book to read. Explaining in 144 pages just what crystallography is, how it originated and developed, and in what fields it has been put to use, this new VSI volume superbly embodies the purpose of the Very Short Introductions series.

John E. Riutta

Founder and publisher of The Well-read Naturalist. Inveterate autodidact. Has repeatedly been found out standing in many fields. Plays well with otters.

→ John E. Riutta

Recent Reviews

The Marvelously Multifaceted Mr. Newton
January 22, 2023
Most of us likely first heard the name Isaac Newton when we were in primary school. For some, it may have been in a classroom; for others it may have been while viewing a television program – most likely a cartoon. However, in most all instances, I’d be willing to wager that the name was […]
Then There Were Dragons
November 20, 2022
The phrase “here there be dragons,” so famously seen on old maps indicating places where there were great and mysterious dangers to be found, was not so very long ago not simply a metaphor. In fact, no less an authority on natural philosophy (what would later become known as natural history) than Linnaeus himself included […]
Meeting Your Local Spiders
October 9, 2022
When it comes to lists of common phobias, arachnophobia – the fear of spiders – almost always makes the top ten, and more often than not, the top five. Some have even argued that the fear of spiders, like the fear of snakes, is an innate fear – people are simply born with it thanks […]

Mastodon