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| Against the Tide. An Autobiographical Account of a Professional Outsider | Buy a book...
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| Author(s): | L. C. Woods |
| Publisher: | Institute of Physics |
| ISBN: | 0750306094 |
| Format: | hardback |
| 319pp | |
| Price: | £26.00, $40.00 |
| Review Date: | 31 May 2000 |
| Review: | Leslie Wood, born in 1922, recalls his life – from a fisherman's son in New Zealand to Professor of Plasma Physics at Balliol College, Oxford. As a boy, Leslie Woods won a scholarship to university and later joined the RNZAF, becoming a fighter pilot in the Pacific during WW2. After the war, he won a scholarship to Merton College, Oxford and, after some years of research in aerodynamics, was appointed Professor of Engineering at the University of New South Wales. He was elected a Fellow of Balliol College Oxford in 1961, and researched the theory of magnetically-confined hot plasmas with a consultancy at Culham Laboratory. He became Professor of Plasma theory in 1970, but became disillusioned with the fusion energy project, which he believes survive on exaggerated claims of progress – the author explains why, in his view, magnetic fusion has not succeeded and outlines his own philosophy of science – he remains 'against the tide'. |