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Rating: 
Summary: Good for Grad Students
Review: This book, despite not being updated for about a decade, is still at the top of its class... This book should be on the desk of every scientist who is interested in interparticle forces. This book covers the theory and the development of colloid science from its early days to modern times. It is likely to be useful for theorists who will lean on the math and good references in the book and useful to experimentalists who seek to understand interparticle forces. Most experimentalists will probably also want to buy Jacob Israelachvili's book, which I haven't read much of, but I know Israelachvili is the man behind the surface forces apparatus (SFA), so many who seek to measure the interparticle forces described in WBR's book will want Jacob's book as well.I am a graduate student at Princeton, home to the authors, and, not surprisingly, this book is a strong reflection of two courses in the chemical engineering department called Colloidal Dispersions I and II. I'm taking the series now, and, if you are in the class, you already know you need the book, and you shouldn't be reading this review. I'd give the book 5 stars instead of 4, but I feel that it needs to be updated to reflect the increasing use of computer simulations (Note that I am biased, as a computer person) and new developments in colloid science. And lastly, though I feel the book is highly readable, the math is intense, and I suspect there are many scientists and engineers (myself included) who will have wished WBR had skipped fewer steps. Largely though, you can't blame the authors for that. The book would be a million pages long if they didn't skip steps. Try to use the extensive references to fill in the steps in the math if possible. On a value basis, a 4 star book that costs only 2/3 what you usually pay means you are getting a steal here.
Rating:
Summary: Good for Grad Students
Review: This book, despite not being updated for about a decade, is still at the top of its class... This book should be on the desk of every scientist who is interested in interparticle forces. This book covers the theory and the development of colloid science from its early days to modern times. It is likely to be useful for theorists who will lean on the math and good references in the book and useful to experimentalists who seek to understand interparticle forces. Most experimentalists will probably also want to buy Jacob Israelachvili's book, which I haven't read much of, but I know Israelachvili is the man behind the surface forces apparatus (SFA), so many who seek to measure the interparticle forces described in WBR's book will want Jacob's book as well. I am a graduate student at Princeton, home to the authors, and, not surprisingly, this book is a strong reflection of two courses in the chemical engineering department called Colloidal Dispersions I and II. I'm taking the series now, and, if you are in the class, you already know you need the book, and you shouldn't be reading this review. I'd give the book 5 stars instead of 4, but I feel that it needs to be updated to reflect the increasing use of computer simulations (Note that I am biased, as a computer person) and new developments in colloid science. And lastly, though I feel the book is highly readable, the math is intense, and I suspect there are many scientists and engineers (myself included) who will have wished WBR had skipped fewer steps. Largely though, you can't blame the authors for that. The book would be a million pages long if they didn't skip steps. Try to use the extensive references to fill in the steps in the math if possible. On a value basis, a 4 star book that costs only 2/3 what you usually pay means you are getting a steal here.
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