I've done one book--a dissertation in anthropology--using Chaparral, and find it a very useful, readable face (though the r is a little odd). Some might find it too colorful for a natural-scientific text, I guess. The size variants ("opticals"), which I didn't have, would make it even more useful for academic texts, with notes etc.

I really have no well-founded opinion on Avenir. Does it have text numerals?

Rotis is not one of my favorites, though the serif version is bearable.

Actually, the first font that comes to my mind when thinking of a scientific text is Trump Mediaeval (Trump was German!), but this may be just because at university, my textbook in neuroscience was set in that face.

Oh, man... I think that goes beyond my current typabilities... But thank you for the tip, I'll keep an eye on Thomas Phinney's blog (I didn't know him)

Chris, I don't know if you're joking, but that argument really appealed on me. Problem is I don't have enough time to learn the how to do that and execute it properly. I'm in a work experience at ZKM, a Media Center of Art and Technology in Germany. I'll be here for 2 more weeks only and I'm regarding this book as a good opportunity, so I just want to do it as correct as I can. Oh, I'll send the cover! (why didn't I do that before????)
Marco

All right, I'll give it a shot. Who needs to sleep, anyway :P
But what about the inside? Chaparral is looking very good to me, and I'm thinking of meta to the side notes and legends.
Thanks you

I think you need a pseudo-random font. (Given that true randomization is impossible.)

If you're buying what these guys are selling, perhaps true randomization is not just possible, but inevitable? You could always hook up part of the back end of the typesetter (or rasterizer) to http://random.org/

Another form of interaction would be back cover/front cover, like the t-shirt that says "the cat is dead" and "the cat is alive" on front and back.
I know interaction is supposed to supercede mere depiction of an idea, but if you're familiar with the concept in a classical way, interaction is a trite hassle. It's like having to mouseover a CS logo in the OS X dock and they all look the same even after what is it, three years?! when having it spelled out would work better. So the illustration of superimposed cats works very nicely.

When I say that true randomization is impossible, I mean that the OpenType feature is not supported by any typesetting applications.

Reading is a quantum phenomenon. You decide what text means by reading it. That's why Helvetica is so stupid -- all that entaglement with billions of other texts clouds the meaning of any particular text it's used for.

I hope your failure to provide attribution is simply an oversight.

I don't believe I claimed to have invented the idea of random variation from a set of alternates. (Making it work in a digital font is another matter.)
The first time I came across it was Kozmik the Flipper font, over ten years ago.
I have no idea how truly random Tal's "random seed generator" is, but it sounds way kewl.
John Butler has done something for the OT version of LettError's Kozmik.
I didn't mention either (and there are probably more) -- I didn't think it was an issue.
In fact, I published a typeface, Handsome Pro, in 2004 that has many contextual alternates, triggered by a variety of cues, that gives a good random effect -- there are quite a few script fonts that do this.
The only ostensibly random OT technique I have looked at is Mr Phinney's.
Sorry, not going to Lisbon. But a beer is always a good idea.

Alright, I love quantum physics too, but I need some help with fonts! So... Meta ins't working as caption font... Suggestions? Something that goes with chaparral?
Thanks

Which program are you using for typesetting the book? Does it include lots of math?