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scholarlybibliography,and there is a quite extensive 37-pagebibliography at the end. Anyone interested in aesthetics will find this volume useful. FRACTAL PROGRAMMING IN c by Roger T. Stevens.M&TBooks, Redwood City, CA, U.S.A., 1989.583 pp., illus. Trade, $24.95. ISBN: Reviewed by Clvord A. Pickover, IBM Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, U.S.A. This book is a dream come true for students, artists and even researchers who wish to explore the numerical properties and graphics of fractals. Written in a clear, concise language, the book contains ample program code, illustrations,equations and explanations to be of interest to a wide audience. Topics covered include strange attractors, bifurcation diagrams , snowflake curves, Mandelbrot andJulia sets, iterated function systems and a range of related topics. I found the chapters on Phoenix curves (a type ofJulia set) and Pharaoh’s Breastplate (a fractal set of circles) of the most interest. In Chapter 13,Roger Stevenssets forth one of the interesting themes of the book 1-55851-037-0. Fig. 1. CliffordPickover,computergraphicrepresentationof astrange attractor describedi nStevens’sFmctal PLogmrnmingin C. COMPUTER NETWORKS Museum ComputerNetwork Seekingto foster the application of computer technology to achievement of the cultural aims of museums, Museum Computer Network serves “Thosewho have investigated [fractals ] are not willing to reveal the secrets of how they compute their fractal curves,although they are more than willing to display their pretty pictures.” In Fractal Programming in C , Stevensgives away the secrets. To give an idea of the kind of figures in the book, Fig. 1shows a mathematical object known as a strange attractor [11.I first reported this attractor in Ref. [2], and Stevens explains to the reader precisely how to create this shape. I hope readers enjoy reproducing the structure. References 1. P. Sorenson, “Pickover’sStrange Attractor”, Sppn‘alEfferls Business 1,No. 3, 6-7,53 (1989). 2. C. Pickover, “ANote On Rendering 3-D Strange-Attractors”,Computersand Graphics 12, No. 2,263-267 (1988).RC 12977. SYMMETRY 2; UNIFYING HUMAN UNDERSTANDING Istvan Hargittai, ed. Pergamon Press, Oxford, U.K. 1989. 1,072pp., illus. Trade, $110. ISBN: 0-08-037237-6. Reviewed by RogerF. Malina, Centerfor EWAstrophysics, University o f California , Berkelq, CA 94720, U.S.A. The editor of this 1,000-pageopus, chemist Istvan Hargittai, has accomplished an amazing task. He has found authors with new things to say about symmetry.Hargittai published a similar book in 1986entitled Symmet ?: UnafjingHuman Understanding. Symmet? 2 covers the same groundthe bridging role of symmetry in diverse fields. However this second volume extends the discussion to new areas (robotics, economics, medical sciences) and deepens it in wellknown areas (crystallography,art, physics, etc.).The two volumes have involved scientistsand artistsfrom 23 countries. Symmetry has for some time been discussed as a truly transdisciplinary tool-one that has usefulnessin disciII .Publications museum professionalsand institutions wishing to improve the means of developing, managing and conveying museum information through the use of automation. The networks objectives are (1) to support the development and implementation of standplines from the sciencesand mathematics to the arts and music.As such it is clearly a basic cognitive device that human beings use to impose, or elicit, a sense of order on or from the world around. Yet, as pointed out by the author B. P. Fabricant, the connection between symmetry and the laws of physics is actuallya fairlyrecent successstory.The pivotal role of symmetryin modern physics can be traced to Albert Einstein and his 1905 paper introducing Special Relativity. Before then physics laws were more often framed in terms of conservation laws. In the contemporary arts strict symmetriesare normally viewed as devicesfor the decorative arts, devices that in fact need to be avoided altogether or at least used only as initial points of departure to introduce perceptual interest. The authors in this book, however, clearlydemonstrate that the expanded understanding of symmetry now emerging from the sciences and mathematics can be used profitably in the arts. In the social sciences it is not clear whether symmetry can play any kind of pivotal role. B. P. Fabricant in his article discussesgambling (roulette, blackjackand parimutuel ),the stock market, consumer markets and the role of government in symmetrical markets. His conclusions...