New books received

Frontier Perspectives, Fall-Winter, 2005

Bockris, John O'M., Ph.D. (2005) The New Paradigm: A Confrontation between Physics and the Paranormal Phenomena College Station, Texas: D&M Enterprises Publisher

The author contends that scientists selectively ignore phenomena that threaten their intellectual fiefdoms and research grants. Worse yet, they ridicule colleagues who would attempt to bridge the gap between the known and unknown.

This book attempts to expose and explore these gaps. It shows that the "paranormal" is simply "unexplained normal." It is a directive by a scientist to turn attention to new data, which disagrees radically with presently accepted science. This book, by a distinguished professor of chemistry at Texas A&M University, challenges the present paradigm and points to the need for a New Paradigm.

Brandt, David E. (2005) Delinquency, Development, and Social Policy New Haven, Conn.: Yale Press

In this book, Brandt examines the legal, psychological, and cultural issues relevant to understanding antisocial behavior in adolescence. Based on his own research and a broad analysis of recent work in the field, Brandt identifies the factors that are common in cases of delinquency. He shows how a failure to meet the developmental needs of children--at both the family level and at a broader social and political level--is at the core of the problem of juvenile delinquency. Brandt concludes with an inquiry into how best to prevent delinquency.

Cloninger, C. Robert. (2004) Feeling Good: The Science of Well Being Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press

All human beings have spontaneous needs for happiness, self-understanding and love. In this book, psychiatrist Robert Cloninger describes a way to coherent living that satisfies these strong basic needs through growth in the uniquely human gift of self-awareness. This book will be of value to anyone involved in the sciences of mind or the treatment of mental disorders. It will also interest theologians, philosophers, social scientists, and lay readers because it provides contemporary scientific concepts and language for addressing the perennial human questions about being, knowledge, and conduct.

Cuniberti, Gianaurelio, Fagas, Giorgos and Richter, Klaus. (2005) Introducing Molecular Electronics Berlin: Springer

This publication contains a summary of the current understanding of quantum transport at the molecular scale combined with selected state-of-the-art results at a level accessible to the advanced undergraduate or novice postgraduate. It comprises the basic knowledge of both theory and experiment underpinning this rapidly growing field.

Ekvall, Shirley W. and Ekvall, Valli K., eds. (2005) Pediatric Nutrition in Chronic Diseases and Developmental Disorders: Prevention, Assessment, and Treatment (Second Edition) Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press

This uniquely valuable resource helps readers translate research on nutrition in chronic diseases and developmental disorders of children in clinical practice. It provides a wealth of information on the nutritional implications of diseases' states and how nutrition can affect the health status of pediatric patients through nutritional measures.

Elitzur, A., Dolev, S., Kolenda, N., eds. (2005) Quo Vadis Quantum Mechanics? Berlin: Springer

For more than a century, quantum mechanics has served as a powerful theory that has expanded physics and technology far beyond classical limits, yet it has also produced some of the most difficult paradoxes known to the human mind. This book represents the combined efforts of 16 of today's most eminent theoretical physicists to lay out future directions for quantum physics. Following a forward by Sir Roger Penrose, the individual chapters address questions such as quantum non-locality, the measurement problems, and the possible bearing of quantum phenomena on biology and consciousness.

Frankfurt, Harry G. (2004) The Reasons for Love Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press

Harry Frankfurt writes that it is through caring that we infuse the world with meaning, stable ambitions and concerns; it shapes the framework of aims and interests within which we lead our lives. The most basic and essential question for a person to raise about the conduct of his or her life is not what he or she should care about, but rather what, in fact, he or she cannot help caring about--that love is the most authoritative form of caring and the purest form of love is, in a complicated way, self-love. It is a fine book for anyone interested in moral psychology.

Haddad, Wassim M., Chellaboina, Vijay Sekhar and Nersesov, Sergey G. (2005) Thermodynamics: A Dynamical Systems Approach Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press.

Thermodynamics is a physical branch of science that governs the thermal behavior of dynamical systems from those as simple as refrigerators to those as complex as the expanding universe. This book places thermodynamics on a system-theoretic foundation so as to harmonize it with classical mechanics. Using the highest standards of exposition and rigor, the authors develop a novel formulation of thermodynamics that can be viewed as a moderate-sized system theory as compared to statistical thermodynamics. This book uses system-theoretic ideas to bring coherence, clarity and precision to an extremely important and poorly understood classical area of science.