Encyclopedia of Agricultural, Food, and Biological Engineering

At first glance this heavy and rather pricey tome seems quite impressive, although this reviewer found it hard to understand just what audience a volume that draws together food science with bioengineering technological advances is addressing. Coverage is rather eclectic in places, with a stronger emphasis on agricultural and food sciences than on bioscience as a whole. Indeed, a book that brings together such disparate topics as deep fat frying, the global positioning system, neural networks, and biotherapeutics may well struggle to find an audience.

From the plaudits heaped on it and printed on the back cover, one might suspect...