IN "The New Background of Science" Sir James Jeans accepts wholly the point of view of that fruitful theorist Mark Hyman, who was one of the first contemporary speculators to observe that "science is a metaphor." His preliminary discussion outlines an approach to the subject on this basis, which of course involves the idea that science can never positively identify its picture of the universe with ultimate reality, that even an approximation is not certain. In the main body of the book the author emphasizes this fact while outlining the present position of scientists in regard to relativity, wave mechanics, the theory of indeterminacy, etc. With excellent tact he has written his outline on two levels, by following up literary exposition with more abstruse mathematical analysis, which is optional reading and will be gratefully skipped by readers whose intelligence is no more capable of following it than this reviewer's.

A profile member of that sizable group of English scientists who occasionally venture out of the laboratory to explain the latest vagaries of science to fellow Anglo-Saxons, Sir James Jeans happens also to be one of the most lucid and forthright. Although in itself a completely new work, "The New Background of Science" really amplifies and brings up to date the material presented in his previous books, such as "The Mysterious Universe" and "The Universe Around Us". Embracing wider ranges of speculation, Sir James manages to render them as comprehensible to the layman as is possible without falsifying his account.