Cryst. Growth Des.
2003, 3, 111 111
The Symmetry System. Mirjan Zorz. Publisher is the
author; printing at Studio Etc., Ljubljana, Croatia, 2002.
ISBN 961 236 224 6.
This book consists of 333 closely typed pages, and it
is illustrated by a large number of tables, drawings, and
graphics. The latter are very attractive, carefully se-
lected, and very nicely rendered in color. Having said
that, it is my opinion that the task of reading this book
is about as challenging as possible, if for no other reason
than the author introduces the subject by an unbeliev-
able amount of nomenclature that continues throughout
the text.
Because of this vast nomenclature, the reader who
expects to understand the text and tables that follow
the preliminaries best be prepared to make extensive
notes to remind himself (herself) of the meaning of all
that notation. Thus, only very interested and persistent
readers are likely to stick with the subject long enough
to become accustomed to read, fluently, the material
that constitutes the discussion of topics.
It is therefore clear that this book is not an appropri-
ate text for students to read on their own and readily
learn the material. This is more of an advanced topics
book for graduate level or beyond. However, it is a very
valuable source of information, which may be very
helpful for scientists to keep as a handy guide and
reminder of a spectacular number of subjects covered
in the text. Below, I list the main headings encountered
in the Table of Contents (There is no index, a practice
I thought disappeared after the introduction of comput-
ers to the printing industry, especially since there is
software available that can create an index automati-
cally):
Introduction, Symmetry Aspects, Syn-epi Aspect,
Orbital Polyhedrons, Structured Matter, Twinning,
Morphology of Single Crystals, Morphology of Twins,
Epitaxy, Orbital Polyhedrons of Large Mass (planets,
stars, pulsars, galaxies, goglies), Elementary Orbital
Polyhedrons (basic properties of ca. 30 elements),
Orbital Polyhedrons of Sub-Atomic Particles, Symmetry
Cycle, Symmetry of Living Beings, Double Helix, Con-
clusions, Acknowledgments, References.
The author acknowledges the help and/or collabora-
tion of a large number of colleagues and institutions.
References to the textual material are not numbered;
instead they are in alphabetical order. There are about
three hundred of them, many being original scientific
papers, but many are monographs.
A curious detail concerning this book is that the
author thanks NASA for support.
Ivan Bernal
University of Houston
CG020054F
10.1021/cg020054f