Book excerpt: First published in 1848, authored by J.D. Dana, the Manual of Mineral Science now enters its 23rd edition. This new edition continues in the footsteps or its predecessors as the standard textbook in Mineralogy/Mineral Science/Earth Materials/Rocks and Minerals courses. This new edition contains 22 chapters, instead of 14 as in the prior edition. This is the result of having packaged coherent subject matter into smaller, more easily accessible units. Each chapter has a new and expanded introductory statement, which gives the user a quick overview of what is to come. Just before these introductions, each chapter features a new illustration that highlights some aspect of the subject in that particular chapter. All such changes make the text more readable, user-friendly and searchable. Many of the first 14 chapters are reasonably independent of each other, allowing for great flexibility in an instructor's preferred subject sequence. The majority of illustrations in this edition were re-rendered and/or redesigned and many new photographs, mainly of mineral specimens, were added. NEW Thoroughly Revised Lab Manual ISBN13: 978-0-471-77277-4 Also published by John Wiley & Sons, the thoroughly updated Laboratory Manual: Minerals and Rocks: Exercises in Crystal and Mineral Chemistry, Crystallography, X-ray Powder Diffraction, Mineral and Rock Identification, and Ore Mineralogy, 3e, is for use in the mineralogy laboratory and covers the subject matter in the same sequence as the Manual of Mineral Science, 23e.