Editorial

While we are now familiar with the American text books and earlier English books, we were not so familiar with the methods of Russian books. If the English specking countries were cut off from Russian books because of the cold war, it was again thanks to the cold war that we started knowing about Russian work better. After an initial neglect due to underrating of other cultures, in 1 954, when Russia announced that they had also sent a heavy satellite and also could make fusion bomb, every single publication in Russia was made available in English translations by the United States department of commerce and of course atomic energy establishments. Every journal was also translated.

The contact with the French culture was again very useful. Simplicity of presentation is the strength of the French. The method of calculating the ground state of the atom, given the electronic configuration is consuming a lot of time in the other systems. Although, chemistry text books did start using the diagramme with the spins, for the purpose of full calculation, the path is still long. These are very important for spectroscopic studies and it is performed without much of a strain. We have to get the works of the great Nobel Laureates and get them published in India in cheap editions if our students have to get a feel for the original writing.

The readings of the original masters had been extremely useful for a correct interpretation of the apparent contradictions in physics and I am sure that reading the masters directly will be very useful in the case of other branches also. German books are equally needed to understand the growth of science in Europe. Although half the new world talk Spanish and Portuguese, one has to create more opportunities to read them at least in translation. It should be as interesting as their literature.