New York Times Book of Science

This candy-box assortment of some 100 short articles and accompanying sidebars and diagrams selected from ``Science Times,'' a weekly feature of the New York Times , fails to deliver the comprehensiveness promised by the title. Organized under seven headings such as ``The Promise of Technology'' and ``Our Troubled Environment,'' the 1500-word capsules remain purely topical and are often dated. Individual articles by the 21 journalists represented sometimes shine, e.g., James Gleick's ``Why Does the Knuckleball Behave That Way?'' But readers will find a fuller treatment of current science topics in Robert Hazen and James Trefil's Science Matters (Nonfiction Forecasts, Dec. 14). Notwithstanding the fine journalism evident here, the sum of these pieces is less than its parts. (Feb.)