Gale Encyclopedia of Science, Vol. 1 Book

First published in 1991, revised in 1996, and here presented in its third iteration, this six-volume reference is written for high school students and lay adults and is intended as an authoritative, accessible source of information about all fields of science. Arrangement of some 2,000 entries is alphabetical, and, somewhat redundantly, each volume devotes 19 pages to an alphabetical listing of all topics in the set; the subject index is in volume 6. Unfortunately, a thematic listing of entries is not provided. This deficiency makes it difficult to determine how material has been selected or balanced among the disciplines and to understand what types of entries (e.g. biographies, animal descriptions, diseases) predominate. Each signed entry includes a short listing of books, periodicals, and other resources, as well as cross references--which could have been aggregated to prepare a thematic index. Key terms are highlighted in bold type (a distraction for some readers); handily, definitions are included in boxes within the articles, but a comprehensive glossary would have been useful. Photos (most in color) and some diagrams support rather than dominate the text. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Contains more than 2,000 entries ranging from short definitions to major overviews of concepts in all areas of science.