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This is very much a scientific biography. It's an interesting story of the evolution a scientific idea (The Chemiosmotic Theory) and how that idea came to be accepted by the scientific community. The originator of the idea, the imaginative, ambitious, passionate Peter Mitchell, had to fight for many years to see his theory finally accepted.
I was disappointed, however, that the book did not paint a fuller picture of Mitchell who had many interests outside of science which are (frustratingly) alluded to - music, architecture, farming, family - but never explored. For example, the authors state that family life was very important to Mitchell but give no examples of how a highly motivated scientist/entrepreneur managed to fit it in. Nor is there any sense of what domestic life was like living in an isolated research institute/manor/farm. In my opinion, if these aspects of his life had been more developed, the book would appeal to a wider audience and the reader would come away with a fuller appreciation of the man.
Technically, it is rather a choppy book. Each chapter is divided into subchapters, which detracts from its cohesiveness. Repetition of some points also gives the sense that the book was pieced together.
However, I did read the whole thing and found it an interesting study of how 20th century science works - or works imperfectly.
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Worth every penny!
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The book does not lack disturbingly much from mathematical completeness, however the mathematics that it fits onto the subject is not for understanding, I think the writer himself have not understood what he has typed, either, in particular I think that the universal algebraic setting that he used in Chapter 3 has better presentations; better in rigor and understandability in libraries, e.g. by Burris and Sankappavar.
I'm not a PL expert, but if it is PL and you're working in it, please do move onto a better subject, such as astrology; at least you'll not be developing self-consistent but most of the time useless (not only in practical life) systems of definitions, propositions, theorems and corollaries.
I look forward to seeing the "Springer version" of this book; maybe more expensive, rigorous, short but complete and most important of all understandable.
(signed)Turan Yuksel
The book also assumes substantial knowledge of accounting, finance and economics on the part of the reader. The dearth of examples also hinders the readers ability to readily understand how to apply complex concepts explained in torturous paragraphs of prose. It would have been helpful to use more illustrations to communicate concepts that are difficult for those of us that don't have Phds to understand.
Thankfully, there are other books that are far more helpful in explaining both theory and application of M&A. I have found Mckinsey's book on Measuring and Managing Valuation to be a much better guide to understanding how to apply complex valuation techniques. Integration methodology is well explained in Marks and Clemente's Winning at Mergers. For an excellent detailed overview of M&A, see Depamphlis Mergers Acquisitions and Other Restructuring or Weston's other, more recent book on M&A.
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Unless you are a fan of Hedgecoe's photography and simply want a portfolio masking as a guide to photography, there are other books that are much more useful for the beginning photographer.
The instructional section of the book is limited to a few sparsely and vaguely written paragraphs in the first section. This is followed by the "projects" which would imply some sort of instruction on taking photographs in a step-wise fashion that increases the readers skill. Instead, each project is nothing more than a series of photographs aimed at demonstrating Hedgecoe's skill along with a brief and vague paragraph on the topic at hand. Hedgecoe does not even make the effort of explaining how he arrived at the photographs or the techniques used.
Hedgecoe has numerous other books on the market. Apparently, the reader is supposed to purchase all the books to get a grasp of photography from Hedgecoe's perspective. I would recommend avoiding any book from this author.
Those interested in increasing their photographic skills, are better served by two books I purchased after picking up Hedgecoe's book. I found them much more useful and wish I had not wasted my money on Hedgecoe's book.
The New 35mm Photographer's Handbook by Julian Calder and John Garrett (ISBN 0609804227)
The Basic Book of Photography by Tom and Michele Grimm (ISBN 0452278252)
The first few chapters in the book does a good job of explaining the basics in aperture setting, shutter speed etc. But from then on, its merely a collection of good photographs with some accompanying text, which do not delve much into the details. While I should accept that this is the first ever photography book I purchased and read, I did manage to glance through a few more and found out that this book is severely lacking in content and details.
If you are looking for a good introductory book to photography which could also be used as a worthy reference, go for Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure", definitely not this one!
Then I bought this book. It was recommended to me by my photography college. While the book has a sprinkling of nice photos, the text that goes along with it has nothing much going for it. For most areas, it tends to glance over the topic without any really useful tips. I suggest that all potential buyers have a flick through it first before purchasing, as it may not be all it's cracked up to be.
The book that all novice/amateur photographers should be reading is "National Geographic Photography Field Guide: Secrets to Making Great Pictures". This book by far is most useful for all photographers. That's definitely a five star book.