Mineralogical Magazine; December 2005; v. 69; no. 6;
p. 1079-1081
© 2005 Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland
Yoder, H. S. Jr. Centennial History of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Volume III. The Geophysical Laboratory.
Cambridge University Press, 2004, ISBN 052183080X xiv + 270. Price £60.00 (hardback).
I. Parsons
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This book is one of a series being produced by the Carnegie Institution of Washington to mark the centennial of its launch in 1901 with a donation of $10 million from Andrew Carnegie. The Geophysical Laboratory, one of its five units, was officially formed on December 12th 1905 and rapidly became the world’s leading laboratory for research in experimental petrology, mineralogy and ultimately geochemistry, a position it arguably maintains to this day. The annual arrival of what was invariably called the ‘gee-whiz lab yearbook’ (strictly the Annual Report of the Director of the Geophysical Laboratory, a post held by Hatten Yoder from 1971 to 1986) was a major event, awaited with excitement and trepidation by workers in lesser experimental labs. It gave a preview, prior to full publication (or not, in some cases!) of what the Laboratory’s scientists had been up to in the preceding year. In 1992 this all changed and was replaced by a pan-Institution glossy which aimed to impress (whom, I always wonder?) but not inform in any detail. A pity, because the lab still deserves its ‘gee-whiz’ accolade although it is no longer so obvious to scientists at the coal-face.
The book was completed by Hatten Yoder just a few weeks before his death in 2003. It describes comprehensively the development of the Laboratory over its many fields of endeavour since it was first mooted. The interesting opening chapter deals with events following Carnegie’s gift. The drive for the new lab came essentially from . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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