Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, 1999. 90 pp.
Paperback: ISBN 0-19-850446-2. $12.95.

This short, inexpensive book is #84 in the Oxford Chemistry Primers series, which covers fundamental topics at the undergraduate level. The goal of the text is to provide an overview of computers and their use in chemistry.

One would think that a primer on computers in chemistry would provide the reader with a solid introduction to molecular modeling and associated calculation techniques and visualization methods, both static and dynamic. I would also expect discussion of data analysis and interpretation by computer. Very little of this information is included in this text. Instead, there is a fuller treatment of the components of computers (CPU, memory), digital logic (logic chips, flip flops), interfacing (different types of analog-to-digital converters), and programming (Basic, Fortran, assembly language). The entire section on computational chemistry is only 11 pages and emphasizes the interface style of the software, with nothing about the computations themselves or the chemical basis or uses for the calculations. Later sections discuss LaTeX, Word, and ISIS/Draw for presenting material, but not in detail. Mention is made of the use of the Internet in chemistry, but this section is only one page long.

I doubt this book will be widely useful as an introduction to computers in chemistry. It might help undergraduates who'd like a bit more information on computer hardware and interfacing than is found in a standard instrumental analysis textbook, but it falls short as a more general reference.