352 Nature Vol. 261 May 27 1976 's London's Zoo. (An Anthology to Celebrate 150 Years of the Zoological Society of London, with its at Regent's Park in London and Whipsnade in .) Com­ piled by Gwynne Vevers. Pp. 159. (Bodley Head: London, Sydney and Toronto, April 1976.) £4.95. 't: WHAT a great deal of fun Dr Gwynne ~ Vevers must have experienced sifting~ through the enormous amount of ~ material available to him and what o frustrations he must have experienced E when it came to editing, perhaps one 1o should say culling, the plethora of~ quotable quotes that he must have.~ gathered together. While reading ; the book one soon becomes aware of~ the careful thought which has gone into the form of presentation. Inevit­ ably he has concentrated on the early Zoology Department of the British strange creatures, to be amused, to days, days when the foundations of , and since that date material recreate, to escape for a moment the Zoological Society of London available as a result of deaths in the from the sometimes harsh realities of were being -laid with a clear emphasis collection has gone to this everyday existence. on the advancement of zoological museum. The anthology is the Zoo itself, it science and the development of a liv­ It was this insistence by the found­ involves and people, ideas ing collection of animals. l n those ing fathers on a scientific approach and ideals, the serious, the flippant, days creatures arriving at the to the development of its collection the scientific and the anthropomor­ Society's premises might he found in that has resulted in the Society being phic. It should make good and enjoy­ a crate, a jar of spirit, or just a held in the highest esteem in the zoo­ able reading for all who have a package of skin and skeleton for logical world. But to the millions of specific or passing interest in the examination by the early zoological visitors who have visited the animal growth and development of this great researchers. The Society's museum collection over the years it has been Zoological Society and its Zoo. was consolidated in 1849 with the the "Zoo", a place to wonder at R. J. Wheater

to celebrate his 90th birthday). On the Lovell on Blackett other side there is the difficulty of giv:ing a realistic account of scientific P. M . S. Blackett: A Biographical innovation and its attendant struggles, Memoir. By Sir Bernard Lovell. a thing done with such eclat by James Pp. 115. (Royal Society: London, Watson, and above all of letting the 1976.) UK £4; Overseas £4.10. character emerge from action and anecdote rather than from explicit THIS hook is a reprint of Bernard description. Lovell's account of Lord Blackett pub­ ln writing of Patrick Blackett all lished recently in the Biographical these difficulties are magnified by the Notices of the Royal Society. These immense achievement. The writer Notices are accounts of recently de­ could easily be overwhelmed by the ceased scientists written by their ramifications of the three careers, in friend s. They are of very great interest science, in warfare and in politics and now and will be invaluable to historians by the major achievements in three in the future. Regrettably few libraries, fields of science-nuclear physics, especially in the US, subscribe to the cosmic rays and geomagnetism. In fact series. The Royal Society wisely insists Love,JJ has done it superbly well. The that the Notices be written within a account is beautifully clear and read­ few months of the subject's death and able, and Blackett emerges from it as usually gets an account that hears the the uniquely intelligent and humane impress of friendship and of recent figure that he was. It is a hook that memories of personality and oddities every young physicist should own of character. and that no-one who knew Patrick could It is not easy to write a biographical possihly be without. The immense care not,ice: on the one side there is the that has gone into getting it all right pressure of friends, relations, and often :: has been enormously worthwhile. This of the widow, to omit anything at all -E is how Blackett appeared to his con­ colourful (a widow once insisted that ~ temporaries and anyone who writes r omit the fact that a man had died of 'E about him in the future must rely a stomach haemorrhage after a lunch .'.l largely on this. Edward Bullard

© 1976 Nature Publishing Group