History of aerosol science: Othmar Preining and E. James Davis (Eds.); Verlag der Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna, Austria, 2000 [Book Review]

Aerosol science grew out of the foundations laid by researchers from many disciplines whose motivations varied widely. Many sought to understand the nature and origins of haze and clouds, the atmospheric effects of industrial and natural atmospheric emissions, and the dispersal of pollutants or germs. Others studied aerosols to learn how to reduce health risks to miners, to protect the general population from the hazards of industrial progress or soldiers from chemical weapons. Those early researchers developed the instruments that enabled quantification of aerosol properties and the theoretical methods that have revealed the underlying physics. Who among recent generations of aerosol researchers realize that the first commercial electronic condensation nucleus counters were developed to detect submarines? The History of Aerosol Science, edited by Othnar Preining and Jim Davis, presents papers from the Symposium on the History of Aerosol Science that was held in Vienna in 1999. It provides a multifaceted glimpse of the events, the people, and the organizations that have transformed aerosol science from a backwater of traditional disciplines to its present internationally recognized place in the community of science.