J. M. Ziman – författare

After expanding steadily for centuries, science is reaching its limits to growth. We can no longer afford the ever increasing cost of exploring ever wider research opportunities. In the competition for resources, science is becoming much more tightly organised. A radical, pervasive and permanent structural change is taking place. It already affects the whole research system, from everyday laboratory life to national budgets. The scientific enterprise cannot avoid fundamental change, but excessive managerial insistence on accountability, evaluation, 'priority setting', etc. can be very inhospitable to expertise, innovation, criticism and creativity. Can the research system be reshaped without losing many features that have made science so productive? This trenchant analysis of a deep-rooted historical process does not assume any technical knowledge of the natural sciences, their history, philosophy, sociology or politics. It is addressed to everybody who is concerned about the future of science and its place in society.

In this 1974 book a practising scientist and gifted expositor sets forth an exciting point of view on the nature of science and how it works. Professor Ziman argues that the true goal of all scientific research is to contribute to the consensus of universally accepted knowledge. He explores the philosophical, psychological and sociological consequences of the principle, and explains how, in practice, the consensus is established and how the work of the individual scientist becomes a part of it. The intellectual form of scientific knowledge is determined by the need for the scientist to communicate his findings and to make them acceptable to others. Professor Ziman's essay, being written in plain English, and requiring only the slenderest knowledge of science, can (and should) be read by any educated person; as he says 'all genuine scientific procedures of thought and argument are essentially the same as those of everyday life'.

This is a textbook of advanced quantum theory for graduate students and research workers which gives a connected mathematical derivation of the important results, concentrating on the central ideas without burdening the exposition with elaborate detail or unnecessary rigour, and explains, in the simplest possible terms, the symbols and concepts which frequently confront the active research worker in solid state, nuclear and high-energy physics, and in theoretical chemistry. Professor Ziman brings to his task the sympathetic guidance of a lecturer who has not forgotten the difficulties that he himself had to surmount in mastering his subject.

Originally published in 1969, volume one of The Physics of Metals is an advanced treatise written by a team of international experts. It presents a definitive account of a major field of modern physics and will be of value to both experimental and theoretical solid state physicists and metallurgists seeking a clear explanation of the physical phenomena occurring in metals, without recourse to elaborate mathematics. The volume is based around the electronic properties of metals and has articles on the calculation of band structures, observation of the Fermi surface, effects of a magnetic field, surface and size effects, conduction of heat and electricity, liquid metals, alloys and special properties of transition metals. The work was inspired by the desire to honour Sir Nevill Mott by writing an account of some of the topics treated in Mott and Jones' classic work The Theory of the Property of Metals and Alloys.

Originally published in 1979, this book discusses how the physical and chemical properties of disordered systems such as liquids, glasses, alloys, amorphous semiconductors, polymer solutions and magnetic materials can be explained by theories based on a variety of mathematical models, including random assemblies of hard spheres, tetrahedrally-bonded networks and lattices of 'spins'. The text describes these models and the various mathematical theories by which the observable properties are derived. Techniques and concepts such as the mean field and coherent approximations, graphical summation, percolation, scaling and the renormalisation group are explained and applied. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in theoretical and experimental physics.

Professor Ziman's classic textbook on the theory of solids was first pulished in 1964. This paperback edition is a reprint of the second edition, which was substantially revised and enlarged in 1972. The value and popularity of this textbook is well attested by reviewers' opinions and by the existence of several foreign language editions, including German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Polish and Russian. The book gives a clear exposition of the elements of the physics of perfect crystalline solids. In discussing the principles, the author aims to give students an appreciation of the conditions which are necessary for the appearance of the various phenomena. A self-contained mathematical account is given of the simplest model that will demonstrate each principle. A grounding in quantum mechanics and knowledge of elementary facts about solids is assumed. This is therefore a textbook for advanced undergraduates and is also appropriate for graduate courses.

After expanding steadily for centuries, science is reaching its limits to growth. We can no longer afford the ever increasing cost of exploring ever wider research opportunities. In the competition for resources, science is becoming much more tightly organised. A radical, pervasive and permanent structural change is taking place. It already affects the whole research system, from everyday laboratory life to national budgets. The scientific enterprise cannot avoid fundamental change, but excessive managerial insistence on accountability, evaluation, 'priority setting', etc. can be very inhospitable to expertise, innovation, criticism and creativity. Can the research system be reshaped without losing many features that have made science so productive? This trenchant analysis of a deep-rooted historical process does not assume any technical knowledge of the natural sciences, their history, philosophy, sociology or politics. It is addressed to everybody who is concerned about the future of science and its place in society.