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Python for Scientists
Third Edition
The third edition of this practical introduction to Python has been thoroughly updated,
with all code migrated to Python 3 and made available as Jupyter notebooks. The note-
books are available online with executable versions of all the book’s content (and more).
The text starts with a detailed introduction to the basics of the Python language,
without assuming any prior knowledge. Building upon each other, the most important
Python packages for numerical math (NumPy), symbolic math (SymPy), and plotting
(Matplotlib) are introduced, with brand new chapters covering numerical methods
(SciPy) and data handling (Pandas). Further new material includes guidelines for writing
efficient Python code and publishing code for other users.
Simple and concise code examples, revised for compatibility with Python 3, guide
the reader and support the learning process throughout the book. Readers from the quan-
titative sciences, whatever their background, will be able to quickly acquire the skills
needed for using Python effectively.

j o h n m. s te wa rt was Emeritus Reader in Gravitational Physics at the University of

Cambridge, and a Life Fellow at King’s College, Cambridge, before his death in 2016.
He was the author of Non-equilibrium Relativistic Kinetic Theory (Springer, 1971) and
Advanced General Relativity (Cambridge, 1991), and he translated and edited Hans
Stephani’s General Relativity (Cambridge, 1990).

m i c h ae l m om m e rt is Assistant Professor for Computer Vision at the University of St.

Gallen, Switzerland, where he combines computer vision and Earth observation to im-
plement efficient learning methods for a wide range of use cases. Before, he was a solar
system astronomer and actively wrote scientific open-source code for this community.
Python for Scientists

Third Edition

JOHN M . S TE WA RT
University of Cambridge

MI C HAE L MO MM E RT
University of St. Gallen, Switzerland
 Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 8EA, United Kingdom
One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006, USA
477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia
314–321, 3rd Floor, Plot 3, Splendor Forum, Jasola District Centre, New Delhi – 110025, India
103 Penang Road, #05–06/07, Visioncrest Commercial, Singapore 238467

Cambridge University Press is part of Cambridge University Press & Assessment,

a department of the University of Cambridge.
We share the University’s mission to contribute to society through the pursuit of
education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.

www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781009014809
DOI: 10.1017/9781009029728
First and Second editions © John M. Stewart 2014, 2017
Third edition © Cambridge University Press & Assessment 2023
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions
of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take
place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press & Assessment.
First published 2014
Second edition 2017
Third edition 2023
Printed in the United Kingdom by CPI Group Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
A Cataloging-in-Publication data record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 978-1-009-01480-9 Paperback
Additional resources for this publication at www.cambridge.org/9781009014809.
Cambridge University Press & Assessment has no responsibility for the persistence
or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this
publication and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
Contents

Preface page xi

1 Introduction 1
1.1 Python for Scientists 1
1.2 Scientific Software 1
1.3 About This Book 4
1.4 References 4

2 About Python 5
2.1 What Is Python? 5
2.1.1 A Brief History of Python 6
2.1.2 The Zen of Python 7
2.2 Installing Python 8
2.2.1 Anaconda and Conda 9
2.2.2 Pip and PyPI 10
2.3 How Python Works 11
2.4 How to Use Python 11
2.4.1 The Python Interpreter 11
2.4.2 IPython and Jupyter 12
2.4.3 Integrated Development Environments 16
2.4.4 Cloud Environments 17
2.5 Where to Find Help? 17
2.6 References 19

3 Basic Python 22
3.1 Typing Python 22
3.2 Objects and Identifiers 23
3.3 Namespaces and Modules 26
3.4 Numbers 28
3.4.1 Integers 28
3.4.2 Real Numbers 28
3.4.3 Booleans 29
3.4.4 Complex Numbers 30
vi Contents

3.5 Container Objects 31

3.5.1 Lists 32
3.5.2 List Indexing 33
3.5.3 List Slicing 34
3.5.4 List Mutability 35
3.5.5 List Functions 36
3.5.6 Tuples 38
3.5.7 Strings 39
3.5.8 Dictionaries 41
3.5.9 Sets 42
3.6 Python if Statements 42
3.7 Loop Constructs 44
3.7.1 The for Loop 44
3.7.2 The while Loop 46
3.7.3 The continue Statement 46
3.7.4 The break Statement 47
3.7.5 List Comprehensions 48
3.8 Functions 49
3.8.1 Syntax and Scope 49
3.8.2 Positional Arguments 54
3.8.3 Keyword Arguments 54
3.8.4 Arbitrary Number of Positional Arguments 54
3.8.5 Arbitrary Number of Keyword Arguments 55
3.8.6 Anonymous Functions 55
3.9 Python Input/Output 56
3.9.1 Keyboard Input 56
3.9.2 The print() Function 56
3.9.3 File Input/Output 59
3.10 Error Handling 60
3.10.1 Traceback 60
3.10.2 Errors, Exceptions, and Warnings 62
3.11 Introduction to Python Classes 63
3.12 The Structure of Python 66
3.13 A Python Style Guide 67
3.14 References 68

4 NumPy: Numerical Math 72

4.1 Arrays 72
4.1.1 One-Dimensional Arrays 73
4.1.2 Basic Array Arithmetic 77
4.1.3 Two (and More)-Dimensional Arrays 79
4.1.4 Broadcasting 84
4.1.5 Array Manipulations 86
 Contents vii

4.2 Working with Arrays 94

4.2.1 Mathematical Functions and Operators 94
4.2.2 Sums and Products 96
4.2.3 Comparing Arrays 96
4.2.4 Advanced Array Indexing 99
4.2.5 Sorting and Searching 100
4.3 Constants 101
4.4 Random Numbers 102
4.5 Simple Statistics 104
4.6 Polynomials 107
4.6.1 Converting Data to Coefficients 107
4.6.2 Converting Coefficients to Data 107
4.6.3 Manipulating Polynomials in Coefficient Form 108
4.7 Linear Algebra 108
4.7.1 Basic Operations on Matrices 108
4.7.2 Matrix Arithmetic 110
4.7.3 Solving Linear Systems of Equations 111
4.8 File Input/Output 112
4.8.1 Text File Input/Output 112
4.8.2 Binary File Input/Output 115
4.9 Special Array Types 116
4.9.1 Masked Arrays 116
4.9.2 Structured Arrays 117
4.10 References 118

5 SciPy: Numerical Methods 120

5.1 Special Functions 120
5.2 Constants 121
5.3 Numerical Integration 122
5.3.1 Integrating over Functions 122
5.3.2 Integrating over Sampled Values 124
5.4 Optimization and Root Search 124
5.4.1 Local Univariate Optimization 124
5.4.2 Local Multivariate Optimization 125
5.4.3 Function Fitting 127
5.4.4 Root Search 129
5.5 Numerical Interpolation 131
5.5.1 Univariate Interpolation 131
5.5.2 Multivariate Interpolation 133
5.6 Linear Algebra 134
5.6.1 Matrix Operations 135
5.7 Statistics 138
5.7.1 Univariate Continuous Probability Distributions 139
5.7.2 Multivariate and Discrete Probability Distributions 141
viii Contents

5.7.3 Correlation Tests 144

5.7.4 Distribution Tests 145
5.8 Ordinary Differential Equations 147
5.8.1 Initial Value Problems 148
5.8.2 Boundary Value Problems 151
5.9 SciKits: A Whole New World 153
5.10 References 153

6 Matplotlib: Plotting 156

6.1 Getting Started: Simple Figures 156
6.1.1 Frontends 156
6.1.2 Backends 157
6.1.3 A Simple Figure 157
6.2 Object-Oriented Matplotlib 159
6.3 Customizing Plots 161
6.3.1 Figure Size 162
6.3.2 Axis Range and Scaling 162
6.3.3 Ticks 163
6.3.4 Grid 164
6.3.5 Legend 164
6.3.6 Transparency 164
6.3.7 Text and Annotations 164
6.3.8 Mathematical Formulae 165
6.3.9 Colors 166
6.4 Cartesian Plots 169
6.4.1 Line Plots 169
6.4.2 Scatter Plots 170
6.4.3 Error Bars 171
6.4.4 Plotting Filled Areas 172
6.4.5 Bar Plots 173
6.5 Polar Plots 174
6.6 Plotting Images 175
6.7 Contour Plots 178
6.8 Compound Figures 179
6.9 Multidimensional Visualization 181
6.9.1 The Reduction to Two Dimensions 181
6.9.2 3D Plots 181
6.10 References 185

7 SymPy: Symbolic Math 187

7.1 Symbols and Functions 187
7.2 Conversions from Python to SymPy and Vice Versa 190
 Contents ix

7.3 Matrices and Vectors 191

7.4 Some Elementary Calculus 193
7.4.1 Differentiation 193
7.4.2 Integration 193
7.4.3 Series and Limits 196
7.5 Equality, Symbolic Equality and Simplification 197
7.6 Solving Equations 199
7.6.1 Equations with One Independent Variable 200
7.6.2 Linear Equations with More than One Independent Variable 201
7.6.3 More General Equations 203
7.6.4 Solving Ordinary Differential Equations 204
7.6.5 Solving Partial Differential Equations 207
7.7 Plotting from within SymPy 207
7.8 References 212

8 Pandas: Data Handling 214

8.1 Series 214
8.2 DataFrames 216
8.2.1 Axis Labels and Indexes 218
8.2.2 Accessing Data 220
8.2.3 Modifying Data 224
8.2.4 Dealing with Missing Data 231
8.3 Specific Types of Data 234
8.3.1 Categorical Data 234
8.3.2 Textual Data 235
8.3.3 Dates and Times 237
8.4 Functions 238
8.5 Data Visualization 241
8.6 File Input/Output 243
8.7 Pandas Hints 246
8.8 References 247

9 Performance Python 250

9.1 How to Write Efficient Python Code 250
9.1.1 Measuring performance 250
9.1.2 Optimization Starts before Coding 253
9.1.3 Optimizing Basic Python 254
9.1.4 NumPy 256
9.2 Parallelization 259
9.2.1 Multithreading 260
9.2.2 Multiprocessing 263
9.3 What Else? 264
9.4 References 265
x Contents

10 Software Development Tools 267

10.1 Version Control 267
10.1.1 git 268
10.2 Create Your Own Python Module 274
10.3 Publish Your Code 276
10.3.1 GitHub 277
10.3.2 Python Package Index 277
10.4 References 278
Index 280
Preface

I bought a copy of Python for Scientists at a conference booth in 2016, looking for an
affordable and easily readable textbook for a Python course I was teaching at that time.
I was intrigued by how straightforwardly even complex things were explained in this
book. It was a perfect match for my course and my students, despite my impression that
the book was rather heavily focused on mathematical applications.
It has been five years since the second edition of Python for Scientists was released.
This is a long time in the life cycle of a programming language that is still under active
development. It was definitely time for an update.
Unfortunately, John is no longer with us to provide this update himself. Instead, I was
honored that this task was offered to me, and I could not decline.
Besides updating the Python code examples shown in the book, I took the opportunity
to also update the content of the book with the goal of making it accessible to a broader
audience of scientists, especially those with a quantitative focus in their work. This in-
cludes a more in-depth discussion of numerical mathematics with NumPy (Chapter 4)
and SciPy (Chapter 5), plotting capabilities with Matplotlib (Chapter 6), and, for the
first time, data handling with Pandas (Chapter 8), performance computing with Python
(Chapter 9), and an outline of software development techniques that are useful to scien-
tists (Chapter 10). However, in order to keep the book reasonably short and affordable,
other content, such as the detailed treatment of ordinary and partial differential equa-
tions, had to be significantly shortened or removed altogether – Python packages for
dealing with such problems exist, but their discussion is beyond the scope of this begin-
ner book.
I sincerely hope the third edition of Python for Scientists will be a useful companion on
your long journey to becoming a scientific programmer.

Michael Mommert
St. Gallen, November 2022
1 Introduction

1.1 Python for Scientists

The title of this book is Python for Scientists, but what does that mean? The dictionary
defines “Python” as either (a) a nonvenomous snake from Asia or Saharan Africa or (b)
a computer programming language, and it is the second option that is intended here. By
“scientist,” we mean anyone who uses quantitative models either to obtain conclusions
by processing precollected experimental data or to model potentially observable results
from a more abstract theory, and who asks “what if?” What if I analyze the data in a
different way? What if I change the model?
Given the steady progress in the development of evermore complex experiments that
explore the inner workings of nature and generate vast amounts of data, as well as the
necessity to describe these observations with complex (nonlinear) theoretical models,
the use of computers to answer these questions is mandatory. Luckily, advances in com-
puter hardware and software development mean that immense amounts of data or com-
plex models can be processed at increasingly rapid speeds. It might seem a given that
suitable software will also be available so that the “what if” questions can be answered
readily. However, this turns out not always to be the case. A quick pragmatic reason
is that while there is a huge market for hardware improvements, scientists form a very
small fraction of it and so there is little financial incentive to improve scientific soft-
ware. But for scientists, specialized, yet versatile, software tools are key to unraveling
complex problems.

1.2 Scientific Software

Before we discuss what types of scientific software are available, it is important to

note that all computer software comes in one of two types: proprietary or open-source.
Proprietary software is supplied by a commercial firm. Such organizations have both
to pay wages and taxes and to provide a return for their shareholders. Therefore, they
have to charge real money for their products, and, in order to protect their assets from
their competitors, they do not tell the customer how their software works. Thus the end
users have little chance of being able to adapt or optimize the product for their own use.
2 Introduction

Since wages and taxes are recurrent expenditures, the company needs to issue frequent
charged-for updates and improvements (the Danegeld effect).
Open-source software, on the other hand, is available for free. It is usually developed
by computer-literate individuals, often working for universities or similar organizations,
who provide the service for their colleagues. It is distributed subject to anti-copyright
licenses, which give nobody the right to copyright it or to use it for commercial gain.
Conventional economics might suggest that the gamut of open-source software should
be inferior to its proprietary counterpart, or else the commercial organizations would
lose their market. As we shall see, this is not necessarily the case.
Next we need to differentiate between two different types of scientific software. The eas-
iest approach to extracting insight from data or modeling observations utilizes prebuilt
software tools, which we refer to as “scientific software tools.” Proprietary examples
include software tools and packages like Matlab, Mathematica, IDL, Tableau, or even
Excel and open-source equivalents like R, Octave, SciLab, and LibreOffice. Some of
these tools provide graphical user interfaces (GUIs) enabling the user to interact with
the software in an efficient and intuitive way. Typically, such tools work well for stan-
dard tasks, but they do offer only a limited degree of flexibility, making it hard if not
impossible to adapt these packages to solve some task they were not designed for. Other
software tools provide more flexibility through their own idiosyncratic programming
language in which problems are entered into a user interface. After a coherent group
of statements, often just an individual statement, has been typed, the software writes
equivalent core language code and compiles it on the fly. Thus errors and/or results can
be reported back to the user immediately. Such tools are called “interpreters” as they in-
terpret code on the fly, thus offering a higher degree of flexibility compared to software
tools with shiny GUIs.
On a more basic level, the aforementioned software tools are implemented in a pro-
gramming language, which is a somewhat limited subset of human language in which
sequences of instructions are written, usually by humans, to be read and understood by
computers. The most common languages are capable of expressing very sophisticated
mathematical concepts, albeit often with a steep learning curve. Although a myriad of
programming languages exist, only a handful have been widely accepted and adopted
for scientific applications. Historically, this includes C and Fortran, as well as their de-
scendants. In the case of these so-called compiled languages, compilers translate code
written by humans into machine code that can be optimized for speed and then pro-
cessed. As such, they are rather like Formula 1 racing cars. The best of them are capable
of breathtakingly fast performance, but driving them is not intuitive and requires a great
deal of training and experience. This experience is additionally complicated by the fact
that compilers for the same language are not necessarily compatible and need to be sup-
plemented by large libraries to provide functionality for seemingly basic functionality.
Since all scientific software tools are built upon compiled programming languages,
why not simply write your own tools? Well, a racing car is not usually the best choice
for a trip to the supermarket, where speed is not of paramount importance. Similarly,
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
SUGGESTED REFERENCES

Books
Radiation, Genes, and Man, Bruce Wallace and Theodosius
Dobzhansky, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., New York 10017,
1963, 205 pp., $5.00 (hardback); $1.28 (paperback).

Genetics in the Atomic Age (second edition), Charlotte Auerbach,

Oxford University Press, Inc., Fair Lawn, New Jersey 07410,
1965, 111 pp., $2.50.

Atomic Radiation and Life (revised edition), Peter Alexander, Penguin

Books, Inc., Baltimore, Maryland 21211, 1966, 288 pp., $1.65.

The Genetic Code, Isaac Asimov, Grossman Publishers, Inc., The

Orion Press, New York 10003, 1963, 187 pp., $3.95 (hardback);
$0.60 (paperback) from the New American Library of World
Literature, Inc., New York 10022.

Radiation: What It Is and How It Affects You. Ralph E. Lapp and Jack
Schubert, The Viking Press, New York 10022, 1957, 314 pp.,
$4.50 (hardback); $1.45 (paperback).

Report of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of

Atomic Radiation, General Assembly, 19th Session, Supplement
No. 14 (A/5814), United Nations, International Documents
Service, Columbia University Press, New York 10027, 1964, 120
pp., $1.50.
The Effects of Nuclear Weapons, Samuel Glasstone (Ed.), U. S.
Atomic Energy Commission, 1962, 730 pp., $3.00. Available from
the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing
Office, Washington, D. C. 20402.

Effect of Radiation on Human Heredity, World Health Organization,

International Documents Service, Columbia University Press,
New York 10027, 1957, 168 pp., $4.00.

The Nature of Radioactive Fallout and Its Effects on Man, Hearings

before the Special Subcommittee on Radiation of the Joint
Committee on Atomic Energy, Congress of the United States,
85th Congress, 1st Session, U. S. Government Printing Office,
1957, Volume I, 1008 pp., $3.75; Volume II, 1057 pp., $3.50.
Available from the Office of the Joint Committee on Atomic
Energy, Congress of the United States, Senate Post Office,
Washington, D. C. 20510.

Genetics, Radiobiology, and Radiology, Proceedings of the

Midwestern Conference, Wendell G. Scott and Evans Titus,
Charles C. Thomas Publisher, Springfield, Illinois 62703, 1959,
166 pp., $5.50.

Articles
Genetic Hazards of Nuclear Radiations, Bentley Glass, Science, 126:
241 (August 9, 1957).

Genetic Loads in Natural Populations, Theodosius Dobzhansky,

Science, 126: 191 (August 2, 1957).

Radiation Dose Rate and Mutation Frequency, W. L. Russell and 48

others, Science, 128: 1546 (December 19, 1958).
Ionizing Radiation and the Living Cell, Alexander Hollaender and
George E. Stapleton, Scientific American, 201: 95 (September
1959).

Radiation and Human Mutation, H. J. Muller, Scientific American, 193:

58 (November 1955).

Ionizing Radiation and Evolution, James F. Crow, Scientific American,

201: 138 (September 1959).

Motion Pictures
Radiation and the Population, 29 minutes, sound, black and white,
1962. Produced by the Argonne National Laboratory. This film
explains how radiation causes mutations and how these
mutations are passed on to succeeding generations. Mutation
research is illustrated with results of experimentation on
generations of mice. A discussion of work with fruit flies and
induced mutations is also included. This film is available for loan
without charge from the AEC Headquarters Film Library, Division
of Public Information, U. S. Atomic Energy Commission,
Washington, D. C. 20545 and from other AEC film libraries.

The following films were produced by the American Institute of

Biological Sciences and may be rented from the Text-Film Division,
McGraw-Hill Book Company, 330 West 42nd Street, New York 10036.

Mutation, 28 minutes, sound, color, 1962. This film discusses

chromosomal and genetic mutations as applied to man. Muller’s
work in inducing mutations by X rays is described.

These three films are 30 minutes long, have sound, are in black and
white, and were released in 1960. They are part of a 48-film series
that is correlated with the textbook, Principles of Genetics, (fifth
edition), Edmund W. Sinnott, L. C. Dunn, and Theodosius
Dobzhansky, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1958, 459 pp., $8.50.

Mutagen-Induced Gene Mutation. The narrator of this film is

Hermann J. Muller, who won a Nobel Prize in 1946 for his work in
the field of genetics. The measurement of X-ray dose in
roentgens and the dose required to double the spontaneous
mutation rate in Drosophila and mice are discussed. The
magnitude and meaning of permissible doses of high-energy
radiation are discussed. Other mutagenic agents (ultraviolet light
and chemical substances) are discussed, concluding with
comments on the importance of gene mutation in the present
and future.

Selection, Genetic Death and Genetic Radiation Damage. The

narrator of this film is Theodosius Dobzhansky, the coauthor of
this booklet. Genetic death is discussed in detail, as are
examples of how genetic loads are changed subsequent to
radiation exposure. While it is generally agreed that the great
majority of mutants are harmful when homozygous, more
evidence is needed about the beneficial and detrimental effects
of mutants when heterozygous. In the case of sickle cell 49
anemia, heterozygotes are adaptively superior to normal
homozygotes. This makes for balanced polymorphism, by which
a gene is retained in the population despite its lethality when
homozygous because of the advantage it confers when
heterozygous.

Gene Structure and Gene Action. The lecturer of this film is G. W.

Beadle of Cornell University. The Watson-Crick structure of DNA
is discussed in terms of mutation. Several tests of the chain
separation hypothesis for DNA replication are described
(experiments with heavy DNA, radioactive chromosomes, and
the replication of DNA in vitro). This working hypothesis is
presented: The coded information in DNA is transferred to RNA,
which serves as a template for polypeptide synthesis.
 PHOTO CREDITS
Dr. Asimov’s photograph by David R. Phillips, courtesy Chemical and
Engineering News
Page
4 James German, M.D.
6 Bausch & Lomb, Inc.
12 James German, M.D.
20 Indiana University
24 Robert C. Filz, Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories
25 J. K. Boggild, Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen University
26 Brookhaven National University
28, 31 Herman Yagoda, Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories
41 Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Footnotes
[1]
For more detail about cell division, see Radioisotopes and Life
Processes, another booklet in this series.

[2]
This is more commonly known as “Mongolism” or “Mongolian
idiocy” though it has nothing to do with the Mongolian people.

[3]
Actually, all waves have some of the characteristics of particles and
all particles have some of the characteristics of waves. Usually,
however, the radiation is predominantly one or the other and little
confusion arises under ordinary circumstances in speaking of
waves and particles as though they were separate phenomena.

[4]
For more about this subject, see Radioisotopes in Industry and
Radioisotopes in Medicine, companion booklets in this series.

[5]
For more about this subject, see Fallout from Nuclear Tests,
another booklet in this series.

[6]
For details on somatic effects of radiation, see Your Body and
Radiation, a companion booklet in this series.

[7]
Estimated average exposures to the gonads, based on 1963 report
of Federal Radiation Council.
[8]
One thousandth of a rem.

[9]
Nevertheless, it should be pointed out that the precautions taken in
the atomic energy industry are such that absorption of radiation is
not as severe a problem as one might suspect. Fully 95% of those
engaged in this work receive less than 1 rem a year. Only 1%
receive more than 5 rems.

UNITED STATES ATOMIC ENERGY

COMMISSION
Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg, Chairman
James T. Ramey
Dr. Gerald F. Tape
Dr. Samuel M. Nabrit
Wilfrid E. Johnson

ONE OF A SERIES ON
UNDERSTANDING THE ATOM

Nuclear energy is playing a vital role in the life of every man, woman,
and child in the United States today. In the years ahead it will affect
increasingly all the peoples of the earth. It is essential that all
Americans gain an understanding of this vital force if they are to
discharge thoughtfully their responsibilities as citizens and if they are
to realize fully the myriad benefits that nuclear energy offers them.

The United States Atomic Energy Commission provides this booklet to

help you achieve such understanding.
 Edward J. Brunenkant
Director
Division of Technical Information

This booklet is one of the “Understanding the Atom” Series.

Comments are invited on this booklet and others in the series; please
send them to the Division of Technical Information, U. S. Atomic
Energy Commission, Washington, D. C. 20545.

Published as part of the AEC’s educational assistance program, the

series includes these titles:

NUCLEAR POWER AND MERCHANT SHIPPING

PLUTONIUM
OUR ATOMIC WORLD
NUCLEAR ENERGY FOR DESALTING
CONTROLLED NUCLEAR FUSION
WHOLE BODY COUNTERS
PLOWSHARE
POPULAR BOOKS ON NUCLEAR SCIENCE
SNAP, NUCLEAR SPACE REACTORS
NUCLEAR REACTORS
ATOMS, NATURE, AND MAN
MICROSTRUCTURE OF MATTER
SYNTHETIC TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS
COMPUTERS
RESEARCH REACTORS
GENETIC EFFECTS OF RADIATION
POWER FROM RADIOISOTOPES
NONDESTRUCTIVE TESTING
RARE EARTHS
FOOD PRESERVATION BY IRRADIATION
FALLOUT FROM NUCLEAR TESTS
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIOISOTOPES IN INDUSTRY
ATOMS AT THE SCIENCE FAIR
RADIOISOTOPES AND LIFE PROCESSES
ATOMIC FUEL
ATOMIC POWER SAFETY
DIRECT CONVERSION OF ENERGY
CAREERS IN ATOMIC ENERGY
RADIOISOTOPES IN MEDICINE
ACCELERATORS
NUCLEAR TERMS, A BRIEF GLOSSARY
NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS
ATOMS IN AGRICULTURE
POWER REACTORS IN SMALL PACKAGES

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