Book to Note

Balázs and István Hargittai. Candid Science V: Conversations with Famous Scientists. London : Imperial College Press, 2005 (distributed by World Scientific Publishing). xvi + 695 pp. Cloth, $98; paper, $56.

Reviewed by George B. Kauffman

While editor in chief of the Chemical Intelligencer and a correspondent for Chemical Heritage, István Hargittai interviewed hundreds of prominent scientists. In so doing he collected the stories behind the most important achievements in 20th-century science directly from some of its most distinguished participants. This is the fifth in a series of books, each of which contains 36 interviews and many formal and informal photos of interviewees. More than half of the people interviewed in the latest volume are Nobel laureates.