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A review of the book "Biotechnology: the Science, the Products, the Government, the Business," by Ronald P. Evens, is presented.

Current data models for representing geospatial data are decades old and well developed, but suffer from two major flaws. First, they employ a onesize-fits-all approach, in which no connection is made between the characteristics of data and the specific applications that employ the data. Second, they fail to convey adequate information about the gap between the data and the phenomena they represent. All spatial data are approximations of reality, and the errors they contain may have serious implications for geoprocessing activities that employ them. As a consequence of this lack of information, users of spatial data generally have a limited understanding of how errors in data affect their particular applications. This paper reviews extensive work on spatial data uncertainty propagation. It then proposes development of a data producer focused ontologically-driven GIS to implement the Monte Carlo based uncertainty propagation paradigm. We contend that this model offers tremendous advantages to the developers and users of spatial information by encapsulating with data appropriate uncertainty models for specific users and applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviews several books. 'Elsevier's Dictionary of Geographical Information Systems: In English, German, French and Russian,' by B. Deluska; 'Creating Location Services for the Wireless Web: Professional Developer's Guide,' by Johan Hjelm; 'Classification Methods for Remotely Sensed Data,' by Brandt Tso and Paul Mather; 'Spatial Databases: A Tour,' by Shashi Shekhar and Sanjay Chawla; 'Spatial Databases With Application to GIS,' by P. Rigaux, M. Scholl and A. Voisard.

Reviews the book `The Last Laugh: A New Philosophy of Near-Death Experiences, Apparitions, and the Paranormal,' by Raymond A. Moody Jr.

A review of the book "Physics and Biology: From Molecules to Life," edited by Jean-François Allemand and Pierre Desbiolles, is presented.

The article reviews the book "To catch a virus," by John Booss and Marilyn J. August.

The article reviews the book "Rabid: a cultural history of the world's most diabolical virus," by Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy.

The article reviews the book "Viruses: A Very Short Introduction" by Dorothy H. Crawford.

The article reviews the books "Studies in Viral Ecology: Volume 1: Microbial and Botanical Host Systems" and "Studies in Viral Ecology: Volume 2: Animal Host Systems," Volume 2, edited by Christon J. Hurst.

The article reviews the book "Viruses: Biology, Applications, and Control," by David R. Harper.

A review of the book "Sydney Brenner: A Biography," by Errol C. Friedberg, is presented.

The article reviews the book "Living in a microbial world," by Bruce V. Hofkin.

The article reviews the book "Who are we?: microbes, the puppet masters!" by Yuan Kun Lee.

Reviews two books about miracles. `The Book of Miracles: The Meaning of the Miracle Stories in Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and Islam,' by Kenneth L. Woodward; `God and the Sun at Fatima,' by Stanley Jaki.