Plasma Physics: An Introduction to Laboratory, Space, and Fusion Plasmas, Alexander PielSpringer, New York, 2010. $79.95 (398 pp.). ISBN 978-3-642-10490-9
“Plasma physics is at the cusp of a new era.” So began the National Research Council’s most recent decadal survey, Plasma Science: Advancing Knowledge in the National Interest (National Academies Press, 2007). On the energy front, the laser-based National Ignition Facility came online two years ago and the magnetic-confinement ITER project in France is on track for first plasma in 2019 (see the news stories in PHYSICS TODAY, March 2011, page 26, and April 2010, page 20). In the space-physics arena, several solar satellites, including Hinode, STEREO, and the Solar Dynamics Observatory, have been launched in anticipation of the upcoming solar maximum; they are expected to yield spectacular images and data. In the lab and in the electronics manufacturing industry, low-temperature plasmas...
