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8-1-2011

Review Of "Soap, Science, And Flat-Screen Tvs: A History Of Liquid Crystals" By D. Dunmur And T. Sluckin And "Structure And Properties Of Liquid Crystals" By L. M. Blinov

Peter J. Collings Swarthmore College, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Peter J. Collings. (2011). "Review Of "Soap, Science, And Flat-Screen Tvs: A History Of Liquid Crystals" By D. Dunmur And T. Sluckin And "Structure And Properties Of Liquid Crystals" By L. M. Blinov". Physics Today. Volume 64, Issue 8. 49-50. DOI: 10.1063/PT.3.1219 https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-physics/266

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Soap, Science, and Flat-Screen TVs: A History of Liquid Crystals; Structure and Properties of Liquid Crystals Peter Collings

Citation: Physics Today 64(8), 49 (2011); doi: 10.1063/PT.3.1219 View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.1219 View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/64/8?ver=pdfcov Published by the AIP Publishing

Reuse of AIP Publishing content is subject to the terms at: https://publishing.aip.org/authors/rights-and-permissions. Download to IP: 130.58.65.20 On: Fri, 01 Jul 2016 18:07:20 books Illuminating discussions on an exotic material

from near the middle of the minor criticism and in no way Soap, Science, and 19th century up to the present. decreases my admiration for Flat-Screen TVs As someone who has been what the authors have accom- engaged in liquid-crystal re - plished. This is a truly stimu- A History of Liquid Crystals search for several decades, I lating look at the history and David Dunmur and Tim Sluckin found that the historical nar - science of a little-understood Oxford University Press, New York, rative in Soap, Science, and phase of matter and a material 2011. $53.95 (345 pp.). Flat-Screen TVs filled in my that affects our lives every day. ISBN 978-0-19-954940-5 knowledge of many of the For experts looking for a characters. It also created in more rigorous lesson on liquid- my mind portraits of those crystal science, a textbook is the Structure and researchers as people. I would have obvious place to turn. And because few guessed that they possessed both amaz- texts exist for a course on the subject, Properties of ing talents and serious foibles, but those Structure and Properties of Liquid Crystals extremes don’t capture the full land- is a welcome addition. Its author, Lev Liquid Crystals scape of their lives, which the authors Blinov, has long been a leading contrib- Lev M. Blinov reveal with sensitivity and wit. All the utor to the field, and his taking the time Springer Science and Business facts given in the book are to write a high-quality text is a Media, Heidelberg, Germany, 2011. consistent with what I have wonderful gesture. By design, $129.00 (439 pp.). learned over the years. Thus the book fills a gap between ISBN 978-90-481-8828-4 the authors must be congratu- other available textbooks such Reviewed by Peter Collings lated for the accuracy and as Introduction to Liquid Crys- Chemist David Dunmur and physicist nuanced perspective that tals: Chemistry and Physics Tim Sluckin have made important con- characterizes the book. (Taylor & Francis, 1997) by tributions to the field of liquid-crystal What will nonexperts Michael Hird and me, The research and are respected by all of us think? For readers who enjoy Physics of Liquid Crystals (2nd who toil in it. Soap, Science, and Flat- learning some new science, edition, Oxford University Screen TVs: A History of Liquid Crystals is this book will be a wonderful Press, 1993) by Pierre-Gilles yet another contribution, but of a very read. They will be able to fol- de Gennes and Jacques Prost, different sort—namely, “somewhere low both the science and the personali- and Liquid Crystals: Fundamentals (World between history of science and popular ties; as a result, they will understand Scientific, 2002) by Shri Singh. The first science,” to use the authors’ own words. the convoluted scientific path that led to book contains only selected topics but Their desire is to “communicate the our understanding of liquid crystals develops the necessary background excitement of liquid crystals to a wider and come to appreciate that science, chemistry and physics. The other two audience.” To do that, they explain the after all, is done by people. I find it more books cover many more topics at a important concepts and techniques nec- difficult to gauge the reaction of readers higher mathematical and scientific level, essary to understand the historical nar- who might be interested in the book’s but contain little background informa- rative, frequently placing them in boxes characters but not in the scientific ques- tion on general chemistry and physics. so as not to disrupt the storyline. But tions with which those characters grap- Structure and Properties of Liquid Crys- there’s no mistaking that the book pled. Without an appreciation of those tals discusses the theoretical concepts focuses on bringing to life the people questions, I think a good deal of what necessary to understand the liquid- who did the experiments and formed makes the characters interesting is lost. crystal phase from the perspective of an the theories, by including a good deal Such is the peril of trying to teach sci- experimentalist. All the necessary the- about their personalities, interactions, ence in a history book. ory is there for a wide range of topics in intellectual proclivities, and historical The authors note that their explana- the physics of liquid crystals. But when- settings. The result is a well-written, tions do not include equations and ever possible, Blinov makes connec- accurate, and totally engaging look at mathematical rigor; as a result they tions to experimental techniques and the history and science of liquid crystals expect to be criticized by experts. I results, and he includes some develop- found the explanations both clear and ment of the general physical ideas that Peter Collings, whose research on liquid correct for the most part, so their expec- form the foundation of our knowledge crystals spans nearly 40 years, is the tation may not be realized. At one point, in this field. Line drawings are used Morris L. Clothier Professor of Physics at however, there is confusion about throughout the text to help with the Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, whether it is the direction of propaga- explanations, as are simple analogies Pennsylvania. He is the author or coauthor tion or the direction of polarization that and references to familiar concepts. The of two books on liquid crystals and has determines the index of refraction in an book is certainly suitable for advanced edited a handbook on liquid-crystal science. anisotropic material. Still, that is a undergraduates and graduate students

Reuse of AIPwww.physicstoday.org Publishing content is subject to the terms at: https://publishing.aip.org/authors/rights-and-permissions. August Download 2011 to IP: Physics 130.58.65.20 Today On:49 Fri, 01 Jul 2016 18:07:20 taking a course on liquid crystals. conducting postdoctoral re - Other gems in the book are Some minor shortcomings appear in search at the Institute for the wonderful discussions by the text. One concerns the presence of Advanced Study in Princeton, DeWitt and Wheeler about numerous grammatical mistakes and New Jersey. They married in Hugh Everett III and his “rel- misspellings. Those never rise to the 1951 and moved to the Univer- ative state” or “many-worlds” level of causing confusion, but they are sity of North Carolina at interpretation of quantum noticeable. The second concerns a slight Chapel Hill in 1956; there, mechanics (pages 91–100); an unevenness in how much background encouraged by Freeman important biographical mem- physics is supplied for the myriad top- Dyson and John Wheeler, oir (pages 123–131) by Steven ics covered in the book. In most cases, DeWitt would become the Weinberg that he prepared in Blinov nicely relates his topic to basic founding director of the Insti- 2008 for the National Acad- physics before developing the ideas tute of Field Physics. (It was at emy of Sciences; and an excel- important to liquid crystals. But some- the institute that Peter Higgs, then a lent introductory letter from DeWitt to times he makes a connection to a fairly postdoc, wrote his famous 1964 paper his grandson, Ben, partly to explain sophisticated idea; in such cases readers on the Higgs boson and its role in why he chose physics (pages 1–4). unfamiliar with the concept will wish spontaneous symmetry breaking.) The DeWitt-Morette took great care in the author had offered a more funda- DeWitts moved to the University of producing a well-documented and mental discussion. But the weaknesses Texas at Austin in 1971 where he well-rounded memoir covering the are fairly inconsequential; Structure and remained until his passing in 2004. many aspects of her husband’s out- Properties of Liquid Crystals is a truly use- DeWitt was the first to find the per- standing character and achievements. ful addition to the pedagogical litera- turbation rules to all orders for ghost The only significant lacuna I noticed is ture on liquid crystals. fields, which are used to cancel infini- that the book lacks an index of impor- ties in internal loops but do not appear tant terms. as external observable particles. In a I heartily recommend The Pursuit of The Pursuit of 1988 letter reprinted on page 52, DeWitt Quantum Gravity. Beyond the physics, it wrote concerning his PhD thesis, “Since delivers a uniquely personal record of Quantum Gravity [an earlier work] was a photon self- what made DeWitt tick. Memoirs of Bryce DeWitt energy calculation, rather than a gravi- Leonard Parker from 1946 to 2004 ton self-energy calculation, there was University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee no need for ghosts. . . . They weren’t Cécile DeWitt-Morette invented until [Richard] Feynman Springer, New York, 2011. $49.95 pointed out the need for them in the (151 pp.). ISBN 978-3-642-14269-7 early 1960s. Then the perturbation rules Science in the Age It took great courage for 24-year-old for the ghosts to all orders were Bryce DeWitt, who in 1947 had just obtained by me in 1966 and, in a slick, of Computer retired as a US Navy pilot in World fast technique, by [Ludvig] Faddeev Simulation War II, to choose a self-energy quantum and [Victor] Popov in 1967.” Indeed, I gravity problem for his PhD thesis. was with DeWitt in 1966 and 1967 at the Eric Winsberg When DeWitt entered graduate school Institute of Field Physics and I recall University of Chicago Press, Chicago, that year at Harvard University where him explaining to me that he had found 2010. $24.00 paper (168 pp.). he studied under Julian Schwinger, the rules for Feynman’s ghosts to all ISBN 978-0-226-90204-3 quantum gravity was a peripheral field orders. About 20 years ago, while I was taking in physics and not a critical focus as it In the early 1960s, Wheeler felt that a midday stroll with colleagues, my is now. In The Pursuit of Quantum Grav- the wave functional in quantum gravity mind wandered to a “large” molecular ity: Memoirs of Bryce DeWitt from 1946 to should be a functional of three- dynamics simulation I was working 2004, DeWitt’s wife Cécile DeWitt- geometries. He shared his theory with on. (That simulation could easily run on Morette presents an honest and author- DeWitt, and that led to the famous my laptop today.) After making some itative account of his remarkable con- Wheeler–DeWitt equation. On pages 58 progress on a couple of problems that tributions to the quantization and and 59 DeWitt says, “It was not difficult had been troubling me, I attempted to renormalization of the gravitational to follow the path already blazed by reenter my companions’ conversation field and of non-abelian gauge fields, [Erwin] Schrödinger and write down a by uttering, “But why should the itera- both of which are central today in par- corresponding wave equation. This I tion x (i + 1) = (a*x (i)+b) mod p have ticle physics. showed to Wheeler, as well as an inner anything to do with the physics of DeWitt-Morette, a prominent physi- product based on the Wronskian for the aggregate formation?” My evident non cist in her own right, is professor functional differential wave operator.... sequitur was greeted with strange looks emerita at the University of Texas at I wrote a paper on it in 1965, which didn’t and “Huh? What are you talking Austin. The Pursuit of Quantum Gravity get published until 1967 because my Air about?” The publi- contains her well-chosen selection of Force grant was terminated, and the cation of Eric Wins- DeWitt’s original writings—their clarity Physical Review in those days was holding berg’s Science in the highlights his extraordinary insight— up publication of papers whose authors Age of Computer and many personal recollections that couldn’t pay the page charges.” That Simulation is too capture his adventurous nature. Her held-up paper is the first of DeWitt’s late to rescue that own commentary on his writings is famous trilogy of Physical Review articles old conversation, enlivening and sheds even greater light published in 1967, in which he took cru- but its existence on his lifelong dedication to solving the cial steps toward a viable quantum the- will help to validate problems of quantum gravity. She and ory of gravity and a renormalizable the- interest in philo- DeWitt met in 1950 while both were ory of non-abelian gauge fields. sophical questions

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