KAPITSA
Sir,-I have been suspicious for some time of the qualifications of Listener non-fiction book reviewers. It appears that persons have been allowed to review popular works in special fields of knowledge without any great back. ground in these fields. I was therefore interested in the review of Kapitsa by A. M. Biew (April 18). A glance at the cover of this work in a library display caused me to reflect that, if the contents matched the cover, then sensation rather than veracity was the author’s aim. This snap judgment has since proved wildly optimistic. Your reviewer, apparently without a knowledge of physics, has swallowed the book whole. Readers may spend an entertaining five minutes with Sir John Cockroft’s devastating review in Nature (Feb. ruary 23, 1957, p. 392). This concludes: "This book does not even qualify as science fiction." The least qualifications which one might expect of a réwiewer is a training in physics. Better still, there are some people in New Zealand who worked at the Cavendish Laboratory during Kapitsa’s stay. They would easily detect the blatant distortions and glaring errors which occur in the account of the Cavendish period. The reviewer has an important duty to protect the public from the worthless and in particular bocus book.
E. W.
WAITE
(Patumahoe
(Our reviewer was fully qualified for the task by scientific training. We did not judge the book important enough to pequire specialist treatment-a judgment i supEe by our correspondent’s own opinion.-
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19570531.2.19.8
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 929, 31 May 1957, Page 11
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245KAPITSA New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 929, 31 May 1957, Page 11
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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