J.A. Pierce: pioneer award winner, 1961

A biography of John Alvin Pierce is given, starting with his early interest in radio. Pierce received his amateur license and operated a spark transmitter at the age of twelve. His amateur activities led to work at the Cruft Laboratory of Harvard University under the supervision of Professor H.R. Mimno. This association with the Cruft Laboratory has continued to the present day with few interruptions. Pierce's work with different groups and in various areas is sketched, focusing on his work with Loran     

R. Buccheri, J. van Paradijs, M. A. Alpar, The Many of Neutron Stars

We see neutron stars principally by their radio and X-ray emission. Their appearance in these different bands depends on whether the emission comes from the surface or its magnetosphere. New phenomena continue to be found from neutron stars, which makes it an exciting and topical research area. This volume is a collection of the papers from a NATO Advanced Study Institute held in Italy in October 1996. Many, and for me the most interesting ones, are substantial reviews on topics such as Pulsar magnetic fields and glitches (M. Ruderman), Radio pulsar population properties (D. Lorimer), Gamma-ray emission from CGRO pulsars (G. Kanbach), Neutron stars and black holes in X-ray binaries (J. van Paradijs), Kilohertz quasi-periodic oscillations in low-mass X-ray binaries (M. van der Klis), Thermonuclear burning on rapidly accreting neutron stars (L. Bildsten), On the X-ray emission properties of rotation powered pulsars (W. Becker and J. Truemper). It will serve as a useful reference and source book for students in high energy astrophysics and related fields. The high price may deter its purchase by individuals, but it will be a good volume for a library needing recent coverage on neutron stars. It does not of course include the most recent developments on anomalous X-ray pulsars or magnetars. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

J. A. Docobo,A. Elipe,and H. A. McAlister (eds.), Visual Double Stars: Formation,Dynamics and Evolutionary Trucks

Space Science Reviews -     

J.-L. Starck,F. Murtagh,and A. Bijaoui,Image Processing and Data Analysis,The Multiscale Approach

Space Science Reviews -     

J. Mayo Greenberg,The Cosmic Dust Connection.

Space Science Reviews -     

C. J. Hogan,The Little Book of the Big Bang: A Cosmic Primer

Space Science Reviews -     

J. Franco and A. Carraminana (eds.), Interstellar Turbulence

Space Science Reviews -     

H. J. Habing and H. J. G. L. M. Lamers (eds.), Planetary Nebulae,IAU Symposium 180

Space Science Reviews -     

J. F. Lemaire,and K. I. Gringauz,with contributions from D. L. Carpenter and V. Bassolo,The Earth's Plasmasphere

Space Science Reviews -     

C. C. Petersen and J. C. Brandt,Hubble Vision,Early Adventures with the Hubble Space Telescope

Space Science Reviews -     

D. Winterhalter,J.T. Gosling,S.R. Habbal,W.S. Kurth,and M. Neugebauer (eds.). Solar Wind Eight

Space Science Reviews -     

Comments on `Existence and uniqueness of GPS solutions' by J.S.Abel and J.W. Chaffee

The commenter points out that a direct Global Positioning System (GPS) algorithm together with discussions on the existence and uniqueness of the solution appeared in his paper (J. Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, vol.9, p.715-17, Nov./Dec. 1986). Since the GPS solution is reduced to solving a quadratic equation, the existence and uniqueness can be easily tested. J.S. Abel and J.W. Chaffee, in the above-titled paper (ibid., vol.26, no.6, p.748-53, Sept. 1990), show that the GPS solution problem is similar to the hyperbolic-fix problem. The commenter notes that it can be inferred from his later work (ibid., vol.26. no.5, p.748-53, Sept. 1990) that the two solutions exist if and only if the four GPS satellites are coplanar, in which case the two solutions are mirror-symmetric with respect to the GPS plane