BOOK is based on a series of lectures given to industrial personnel in Sweden to familiarise them with the properties and uses of radioisotopes. It therefore covers a very wide field, in techniques that have been developing very rapidly in the last ten years, and it is notable that many of the chapter headings in this book have themselves been made the subject of individual books in recent years.
The most valuable part of this book is undoubtedly Chapters IV and V, where the authors discuss in detail the kind of work in which they specialize, isotope gauging and tracer measurements. While other sections give an introduction to such subjects as activation analysis and radiography, it is obviously the main intention of this book to provide information from which the student will be able to plan and carry out, from beginning to end, an industrial tracer experiment such as the three outlined in an appendix-tagging of steel for identification purposes, a flow rate measurement, and measurement of the wear rate of ball bearings. Because of this approach the authors give up over a third of the book to consideration of radiation protection and to factual appendices of isotope data.
Except for omission of the legal aspects of radiation protection which, as the authors say, differ from country to country, the book does satisfactorily fulfil the intention described above. The English translation is generally good, the text and figures clear, and the references given include work performed in many countries.
On the other hand the space given to methods of isotope production seems something of an anachronism, now that radioactive chemicals are bought from a catalogue just like any other chemical, if the book is really meant for industrial use rather than for general interest.
Further publications in this field must surely choose between attempting a wide-ranging review for laymen and non-specialists or making a complete survey of a particular technique, assuming a basic knowledge of radioactivity, etc.