Jeff Hecht
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Site Updates
I am trying to sell surplus copies of my book City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics, but have yet to succeed. I'm moving my notes on that effort and other site updates to the bottom of the page. If you have any problems with the site, or just want to buy a copy of the book for $5.00 -- including postage -- please contact me at [my first name]@[Website name].com or use the Contact form, which I tested and it works. There's nothing wrong with the books but they take up too much space in my attic, and I'd like to hear from you.
I am in process of updating information on Adventures in Self-Republishing, which is mentioned at the end of the Books page and may eventually be posted here in PDF format.
I am trying to sell surplus copies of my book City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics, but have yet to succeed. I'm moving my notes on that effort and other site updates to the bottom of the page. If you have any problems with the site, or just want to buy a copy of the book for $5.00 -- including postage -- please contact me at [my first name]@[Website name].com or use the Contact form, which I tested and it works. There's nothing wrong with the books but they take up too much space in my attic, and I'd like to hear from you.
I am in process of updating information on Adventures in Self-Republishing, which is mentioned at the end of the Books page and may eventually be posted here in PDF format.
About Me
I write about lasers and dinosaurs -- and other areas of science and technology -- for both the general public and for technical audiences. I have covered broad areas of science for New Scientist including paleontology, earth science, the environment, evolution, technology, astronomy, and planetary science. I was trained at Caltech in engineering, and my technical expertise is mainly in optics, lasers, fiber optics and electronics. I write about both current technology and the history of technology, and enjoy explaining both. I also have published three dozen short science fiction stories, listed in my Fiction page.
I write about lasers and dinosaurs -- and other areas of science and technology -- for both the general public and for technical audiences. I have covered broad areas of science for New Scientist including paleontology, earth science, the environment, evolution, technology, astronomy, and planetary science. I was trained at Caltech in engineering, and my technical expertise is mainly in optics, lasers, fiber optics and electronics. I write about both current technology and the history of technology, and enjoy explaining both. I also have published three dozen short science fiction stories, listed in my Fiction page.
Most of my writing is for magazines and web sites including New Scientist, IEEE Spectrum, Laser Focus World, Optics & Photonics News, Photonics Focus and Nature. My magazine writing ranges from science journalism and historical articles to tutorials and technical articles. You can find more information on my Magazine and Feature pages. I also consult on lasers, optics and fiber optics, speak about technical topics and give webinars, but am not currently traveling to give in-person talks.
I have written twelve nonfiction books, described in more detail on my Books page and elsewhere on this site. Four of them are on the history of lasers and fiber-optics, five cover laser and fiber-optic technology at various levels, and three of them are written for to introduce young readers to optics, coastal erosion, and mass extinctions.
My two most recent books are:
Lasers, Death Rays, and the Long, Strange Quest for the Ultimate Weapon, a history of lasers and other directed energy weapons from the days of Archimedes and Nikola Tesla to the present, published by Prometheus Books.
Understanding Lasers: An Entry-Level Guide An a tutorial on lasers now in its fourth edition.
My best-selling book is Understanding Fiber Optics, a tutorial on fiber optic communications that has sold over 100,000 copies in five editions. I have republished the fifth edition, originally published in 2006, in inexpensive paper and electronic editions; see my Understanding Fiber Optics page for details.
City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics, the history of fiber-optic communications, part of the Sloan Technology Series. It's a remarkable success story that earned Charles Kao the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Beam: The Race to Make the Laser: How the work of Charles Townes launched an intense race to perfect the laser, earning Townes a Nobel Prize and Gordon Gould millions of dollars in patent royalties, although Theodore Maiman won the race with a breakthrough no one had expected.
My two most recent books are:
Lasers, Death Rays, and the Long, Strange Quest for the Ultimate Weapon, a history of lasers and other directed energy weapons from the days of Archimedes and Nikola Tesla to the present, published by Prometheus Books.
Understanding Lasers: An Entry-Level Guide An a tutorial on lasers now in its fourth edition.
My best-selling book is Understanding Fiber Optics, a tutorial on fiber optic communications that has sold over 100,000 copies in five editions. I have republished the fifth edition, originally published in 2006, in inexpensive paper and electronic editions; see my Understanding Fiber Optics page for details.
City of Light: The Story of Fiber Optics, the history of fiber-optic communications, part of the Sloan Technology Series. It's a remarkable success story that earned Charles Kao the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Beam: The Race to Make the Laser: How the work of Charles Townes launched an intense race to perfect the laser, earning Townes a Nobel Prize and Gordon Gould millions of dollars in patent royalties, although Theodore Maiman won the race with a breakthrough no one had expected.
What's New
Disclosure: To make it easy for you to buy copies of my books, I have included links to Bookshop.org where I have a list of most of my books. I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org so I will earn a commission if you buy books using those links. I chose Bookshop.org because they support independent bookstores. The only income I receive from other links on this site is author royalties paid by the publishers.
INSTRUCTOR MANUALS FOR UNDERSTANDING FIBER OPTICS
When Understanding Fiber Optics was marketed as a textbook, the publishers had me write Instructor's Guides which included answers to questions and quizzes in the book, worked-out problems with calculations shown, resources and suggestions for instructors in planning their courses. Because the book is now largely used for self-study, I am making them available inexpensively to everyone who wants one .
PDF copies of the Instructor's Manual for the fifth edition are available at Payhip and Google Play for $2.99, and they are now available through the SPIE Digital Library. I recommend the PDF version as the best buy; they are as easily readable as print copies. The cost of paper and postage makes print versions more expensive, but many people like them; I am self-publishing print copies through Amazon for $8.95 which should also be available from other vendors. I am also making eBook versions available for $2.99 at Amazon and elsewhere, but that format is awkward because you need to turn the reader on its side to be able to follow the math used in the worked-out problems, and that means you need to flip through many pages.
Instructors' manuals also are available for third or fourth editions of Understanding Fiber Optics . Unfortunately, they were written many years ago using now-obsolete software, so the more complex parts of the formulas showing problems and solutions are garbled, so I am making free PDF copies available online. The third (1999) edition is at https://payhip.com/b/2wJ34 The instructor guide for the fourth (2002) edition is at https://payhip.com/b/4Z8gd.
Disclosure: To make it easy for you to buy copies of my books, I have included links to Bookshop.org where I have a list of most of my books. I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org so I will earn a commission if you buy books using those links. I chose Bookshop.org because they support independent bookstores. The only income I receive from other links on this site is author royalties paid by the publishers.
INSTRUCTOR MANUALS FOR UNDERSTANDING FIBER OPTICS
When Understanding Fiber Optics was marketed as a textbook, the publishers had me write Instructor's Guides which included answers to questions and quizzes in the book, worked-out problems with calculations shown, resources and suggestions for instructors in planning their courses. Because the book is now largely used for self-study, I am making them available inexpensively to everyone who wants one .
PDF copies of the Instructor's Manual for the fifth edition are available at Payhip and Google Play for $2.99, and they are now available through the SPIE Digital Library. I recommend the PDF version as the best buy; they are as easily readable as print copies. The cost of paper and postage makes print versions more expensive, but many people like them; I am self-publishing print copies through Amazon for $8.95 which should also be available from other vendors. I am also making eBook versions available for $2.99 at Amazon and elsewhere, but that format is awkward because you need to turn the reader on its side to be able to follow the math used in the worked-out problems, and that means you need to flip through many pages.
Instructors' manuals also are available for third or fourth editions of Understanding Fiber Optics . Unfortunately, they were written many years ago using now-obsolete software, so the more complex parts of the formulas showing problems and solutions are garbled, so I am making free PDF copies available online. The third (1999) edition is at https://payhip.com/b/2wJ34 The instructor guide for the fourth (2002) edition is at https://payhip.com/b/4Z8gd.
Notes on services and privacy
SiteGround hosts this web site. Weebly and Square provide software and services to produce the web site and support sales of books (although so far that doesn't work). I am an affiliate of Bookstore.org which sells books through links on this site.
SiteGround, Weebly, Square, and Bookstore may use cookies to provide their services, but I don't use any myself. They may also use services of other outside parties, which I will attempt to list if I can figure out who they are.
SiteGround hosts this web site. Weebly and Square provide software and services to produce the web site and support sales of books (although so far that doesn't work). I am an affiliate of Bookstore.org which sells books through links on this site.
SiteGround, Weebly, Square, and Bookstore may use cookies to provide their services, but I don't use any myself. They may also use services of other outside parties, which I will attempt to list if I can figure out who they are.