BOOKS & MEDIA

Surface Design:
Materials for engineers Applications in
Bioscience and
This book is aimed at 1st and 2nd year undergraduate engineers. Nanotechnology
The book is comprehensive in its coverage of Materials Science and Renate Förch, Holger Schönherr,
A. Tobias A. Jenkins (Eds)
Engineering, with 24 chapters and 10 appendicies. Ž‘Šž͉͇͇͉̐͐̐͌͊••
Mark Rainforth | Department of Engineering Materials, The University of Sheffield, UK | m.rainforth@sheffield.ac.uk.
After a brief introduction which summarises the basic
classes of materials (crystalline, amorphous etc) the
next nine chapters cover various aspects of metallurgy,
including 2-dimensional phase diagrams, diffusion,
ferrous and nonferrous metals, casting, welding and
solid shaping. There then follows two chapters on
polymers and polymer processing, one chapter on
glasses, two on crystalline ceramics and processing
thereof and one on pottery and concrete. A chapter
on composites is followed by an introduction to
carbon (from graphite to fullerenes).
The final material specific chapter
is a welcome inclusion of fibers,
foams and porous materials, after
which the book turns its attention
to material properties. These include
electrical, optical and thermal
properties, magnetic material
properties and corrosion. The final
chapter is concerned with modern
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£85.00 / €102.00
This carefully selected balance of tutorial-
to all readers. For example, I did not know that
like review chapters and advanced
Thomas Young (who first described elastic moduli,
research covers hot topics in the field of
hence ‘Young’s Modulus’), mostly worked in optics,
biointerfaces, biosensing, nanoparticles
physiology and Egyptology! Indeed, Young contributed at interfaces, and functionalized quantum
to the understanding that light is composed of dots. It also includes chapters arising from
wave motion, and in 1801, he first described non-published work with topics such as
astigmatism and postulated that the eye perceives surface design and their applications, as
colour with three kinds of nerves in the retina, which well as new developments in analytical
was only demonstrated to be true 50 years ago. tools for materials science and life
Equally, I was not aware that the lost wax process science.
dates back many thousands of years,
to ancient Egypt and was also used
by the Aztec’s to make jewelry. Handbook of Thiophene-
Based Materials 2V
The book contains numerous
Set: Applications in
illustrations and graphs, making it
Organic Electronics and
a comprehensive reference in this
Photonics
respect. Rather disappointingly,
many of the figures are taken Igor F. Perepichka, Dmitrii F.
from rather old literature. It is Perepichka (Eds)
Ž‘Šž͉͇͇͈͉̐͐̐͐••
not that the work cited is wrong,
˪͎͐͏˭͇˭͎͇͋˭͇͎͉͌͊˭͉
manufacturing techniques, surface simply that the author might ͉̈́͋͌˫͇͇̭͉́͐͋˫͇͇
treatments and recycling. Finally, have included more up to date
This essential resource consists of a series
there are 10 appendices, which information. Equally, the number
of critical reviews written by leading
should be treated really as part of figures copied across from the scientists, summarising the progress
of the core of the book, as they author’s other books (“Mechanical in the field of conjugated thiophene
contain a wealth of important Behaviour of Materials” and materials. It is an application-oriented
information. This includes an appendix on wood, which “Physical Metallurgy”) is perhaps disappointing. book, giving a chemists’ point of view
could easily have been included as a core chapter. In on the state-of-art and perspectives of
addition, the appendices give basic information on William F. Hosford the field.
crystallography, X-ray diffraction, surface properties, Materials for engineers
dislocations, Avrami kinetics, organic chemistry, bond Cambridge University Press · 2008 · 299 pp
geometries and Weibull analysis. It would certainly ISBN: 978-0-52189-997-0 UHMWPE Biomaterials
be interesting to know what prompted this choice $85.00 Handbook, 2nd Edition
of topics. Steven M. Kurtz, Ph.D.
ˆ†‰Š’Žˆ—Š˜˜͉͇͇͍̐͐̐͌͏••
The structure of each chapter is uniform throughout
the book. The author provides the basic information,
explained in a simple and straight forward manner.
Interspersed in the text are example questions, all
of which require simple calculations. Each has its
own model answer immediately after. This is very
useful as the questions are often as informative as
the text. However, the formatting of such questions
breaks up the flow of the text perhaps more than it
should do.
Another welcome and interesting aspect of the
book are the ‘Notes of Interest’ that are present in
all chapters. Some are not particularly useful, but
others tell of little known facts that will be of interest
54 JULY-AUGUST 2009 | VOLUME 12 | NUMBER 7-8
Materials for Engineers will appeal to those who ˪͎͐͏˭͇˭͈͉˭͎͎͉͈͊͋˭͈
want a book that covers all subjects. It is well £95.00 / €111.50
written, comprehensively illustrated and the example The UHMWPE Handbook is the
questions are useful. However, as is inevitable with comprehensive reference for
a book that covers so many topics, the coverage of professionals, researchers, and clinicians
the topics is the barest bones level. Indeed, there working with biomaterials technologies
are places where perhaps there is too much over for joint replacement. New to this edition:
simplification. For Materials Science students, I believe 19 new chapters keep readers up to date
they will find more detailed text books, which are with this fast moving topic.
nevertheless aimed at 1st/2nd year undergraduates, far
more useful.
This book, as the name suggests, is aimed very Expert
specifically at engineers, and I am sure they will find it a Graduate
worthy acquisition. Undergraduate