Assembling lectures notes and student questions from graduate and undergraduate courses they have taught for several years, Leroy (U. de Montréal) and Rancoita (Istituto Nazionale de Fisica Nucleare, Milan) introduce the basic principles of how radiation interacts with matter, and how that interaction is used to detect radiation. They cover electromagnetic interaction of radiation in matter, nuclear interactions, radiation environment and and damage in silicon semiconductors, scintillating media and scintillating detectors, solid state detectors, displacement damage and particle interactions in silicon devices, ionizing chambers, principles of particle energy determination, superheated droplet or bubble detectors and the search for cold dark matter, and applications in medical physics. No date is cited for the first edition; the second expands the discussion of radiation damage to silicon devices and of other topics. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)