McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science - Technology Description:

McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology review:
5 stars (This Encylopedia is one for the angels) - There is something almost comical about the thought of reviewing the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. It is an amazing work, such a stunning compendium of erudition in such a wide array of difficult and rigorous subjects that the ordinary rules and reasons of writing a review don't really apply to it. Reviewing any other work would function with the assumption that you *had* actually read it; that you were familiar with it; and also that you were implicitly prepared to face intelligent rebuttal with regard to the opinion you offered and the comments you made. However, when it comes to The Encyclopedia, it would require more than ordinary intellectual stamina and range of interests to *read* it for review and the same notion applies to the possibility of rebuttal: if you are enough of an intellectual giant that you can talk intelligently about the sum of what is in The Encyclopedia, then who is there to rebutt you? Who is going to come out of the woodwork and dissaggree with what you have to say about it? No real 'revue' is possible or meaningful when talking about it, but some things can be said about it and nearly all those things are golden.My experience with The Encyclopedia goes back to my days in highschool, more than twenty years ago, when I regularly went to the library between classes and used the encyclopedia to answer the questions that occured to me at random. Back then, The Encyclopedia was a godsend for me, something that had answers to questions to that my teachers didn't have the time to answer. It was a browser's book for me; the kind of text that offered the cross-referenced characteristics of intertwined questions leading to other questions leading to yet other questions that exactly foreshadow the hypertext concepts that run the web today. Article after article pointed toward things that I would later find out more about only in adulthood, long years after I left the library. I can still clearly see the photo illustrating The Monroe Effect__where the forces generated by the shape of an explosive charge concentrate the force and direction of the explosive force. The illustration was a small gray photo showing the words 'Monroe Effect' stamped in reverse into a light-colored block of plastic explosive which lay next to a metal ingot which had had the words the same words imprinted into it by explosive force. I remember this and many other things from other articles that awakened my curiosity with regard to things and that remain with me and enrich my life to this day. However, I think that There is one clear flaw in The Encyclopedia: I can find no electronic edition of it. I have never seen a CD- or DVD-ROM edition of it and, the commercial considerations of McGraw-Hill aside, that seems like a great failing. When the Oxford Dictionary exists both on CD-ROM and on paper, and when all of National Geographic back to 1888 can be found in a DVD-ROM collection, it seems silly to have this great repository of scientific and technical erudition limited to non-computer readable forms. I could be wrong, an electronic edition mightt actually exist for all I know, but if I am right, I think that the world would profit by having a portable edition of the work available for scientists, technicians, doctors, teachers and any of the other groups who might want the information it has to offer at their fingertips in a portable form. Aside from this single flaw, I can honestly say that I my experience with The Encyclopedia is something that glows in my memory and I frankly admit that I covet the high-quality electronic edition that I wish were available.I suppose that this is less a review than it is a homage to the people and the will that worked to put The Encyclopedia together. All in all, I would like to say, 'Thank you' and that I can heartily recommend the encyclopedia not just to scientists and students in scientific fields but to anyone who is fascinated by things of the mind.