The book review column

In this column we review the following books.

1. The Access Principle by John Willinsky. Review by Scott Aaronson. The book is about how journals should be more available on-line and other issues about journals. I invited Scott Aaronson to do a review but also told him he could make it into an opinion piece on the issue. He has done so. At the end I have a rebuttal- sort of.

2. A Century of Scientific Publishing: A collection of essays Edited by Fredriksson. Review by William Gasarch. This is a colletion of essays about how scientific information has been published and distributed over the last century. Can the past be helpful in understanding and dealing with our current problems?

3. Mathematics of Physics and Engineering by Edward K. Blum and Sergey V. Lototsky. Review by Frederic Green. This is a textbook for a 1-semester course in physics that covers much of the interplay of math and physics.

4. Research Problems in Discrete Geometry by Brass, Moser, Pach. Review by William Gasarch. This is a collection of research problems in discrete geometry, together with their history, context, and (lots of) references. Problems deal with points and lines in the plane, convex polygons, and many other geometrical objects.