John Bockris - Books Published

Books Published

Of the 24 books published, only one was written at popular standard and this was a book on Hydrogen as a fuel and was published in eleven countries. The second book of the 24 authored by Bockris and was entitled: "Energy: The Solar-Hydrogen Alternative, and was first published in Australia in 1975. The book has historical importance: At that time, the future of energy was seen as being in coal. At the same time (from about 1969) there was a consciousness of environmental pollution, particularly in "smog" striking particularly the Los Angeles area.

The idea that there could be a future in which the difficulties due to carbonaceous fuels could be overcome was new and relieving.

It is reasonable to state that the 1975 book (published also in New York and London) was the beginning of a large field of alternative fuels, energy sources which would combine inexhaustibility with the absence of damage to the atmosphere. Solar energy, often cited, had not until this book been cited as a general source of energy. The major research project developed, NSF funded, at present 2012 at Cal-Tech can be seen as having its roots in this book.

There is of course difficulty in abbreviating a presentation of work which covers more than 700 papers and 25 books. A BIG division would include:

• Electrode Kinetic Chemistry
• Environmental Chemistry
• Condensed Matter Nuclear Reactions

The book which is the most popular consisted of Modern Electrochemistry with A.K. Reddy, published in 1970 and republished in 2000