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CHOICE Review

Much of the material in this book has been taken verbatim from Atkins's The Creation (CH, Oct'82). The primary changes lie in the addition of a chapter, "Creating Things," and in some modifications and new material in the commentary. However, the book remains interesting and thought provoking, an unusual combination of the poetic and the scientific. The topics that are raised and discussed are among the most difficult. They include the nature of consciousness, the dimensionality of the universe, how things may begin from nothing, the role of God, and the relation of the structure of mathematics to the structure of the human mind and the universe. The approach is one that leaves the reader feeling that some new and profound insights have been gained, but that lots of gaps are to be filled in; the framework for a world perspective is there. The slim book is charming, but idiosyncratic both with regard to its ideas and its presentation. It belongs in all academic libraries. General; undergraduate; graduate. K. L. Schick; Union College (NY)