Zero to Infinity
Andrew Pappachen is an Indian-American by heritage and an environmental engineer by profession. He retired as Director of Public Works from a big city government in New Jersey and lives in Montville, New Jersey, USA with his wife Somini. Currently, he is working as an Environmental Management Consultant. His Daughter Simmy lives in St. Petersburgh, Florida. His son Kevin is married to Grace and they live in Bergen County, New Jersey. Andrew has written and published several books both in English and in his native language, Malayalam, which is spoken in the State of Kerala, India. His latest English book, A Journey Alone is his biography along with the other two books, Love with the Ghost and Rays of Light From The darkness of A Prison cell are published by Author House. At the end of every book, Andrew concludes with certain philosophy of life that he believes in. In this book, Andrew tries an expedition thorough the universe, Earth and human life to find an answer to the purpose of life.
Seeding the Positive Anthropocene
There is a growing interest in the character and the challenge of the Anthropocene. Although efforts to pin down beginning dates of this epoch have been debated, there is a broad consensus that humanity is facing an unprecedented challenge to surviving on Earth, a challenge which humans have created ourselves. Undeniably, we have had and continue to have impacts on the planet as a whole. These include ravaging bushfires and unprecedented flooding caused by climate change, spiking levels of carbon dioxide levels, and widespread loss of biodiversity. The challenge has been expressed in various ways: the larger challenges of climate change or ocean garbage toxicity, the subtler challenges that would support such large efforts by cultivating a new aesthetic. The present book asks of us to reach for the deeper grounding of all such efforts. Perhaps that asking is best hinted at by pluralizing the word character in a paradoxical non-question: "What is to be the 'character' of the characters transforming the Anthropocene from its present negativity to a positive period of human flourishing." What is missing, what we are in the dark about, is the apparently simple turn that would have us asking, "What's what?"The focus must be concrete: so we are to think of miners and farmers and reformers and economists and educators, but primarily of ourselves as whats. Might we begin the positive Anthropocene's success by beginning to sow what comprehendingly?
The Classical-Quantum Correspondence
This Element provides an entry point for philosophical engagement with quantization and the classical limit. It introduces the mathematical tools of C*-algebras as they are used to compare classical and quantum physics. It then employs those tools to investigate philosophical issues surrounding theory change in physics. It discusses examples in which quantization bears on the topics of reduction, structural continuity, analogical reasoning, and theory construction. In doing so, it demonstrates that the precise mathematical tools of algebraic quantum theory can aid philosophers of science and philosophers of physics.
Computational Intelligence Methods for Bioinformatics and Biostatistics
This book constitutes revised selected papers from the 17th International Meeting on Computational Intelligence Methods for Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, CIBB 2021, which was held virtually during November 15-17, 2021. The 19 papers included in these proceedings were carefully reviewed and selected from 26 submissions, and they focus on bioinformatics, computational biology, health informatics, cheminformatics, biotechnology, biostatistics, and biomedical imaging.
Robots and Immigrants
Who steals jobs? Who owns jobs? Focusing on the competitive labour market, this book scrutinises the narratives created around immigration and automation. The authors explore how the advances in AI and demands for constant flow of immigrant workers eradicate political and working rights, fuelling fears over job theft and ownership. Shedding light on the multiple ways in which employment is used as an instrument of neoliberal governance, this revealing book sparks new debate on the role of automation and migration policies. It is an invaluable resource for academics and practitioners working in the areas of immigration and labour, capitalism and social exclusion, and economic models and political governance.
Musical Illusions and Phantom Words
In this ground-breaking synthesis of art and science, Diana Deutsch, one of the world's leading experts on the psychology of music, shows how illusions of music and speech--many of which she herself discovered--have fundamentally altered thinking about the brain. These astonishing illusions show that people can differ strikingly in how they hear musical patterns--differences that reflect variations in brain organization as well as influences of language on music perception. Drawing on a wide variety of fields, including psychology, music theory, linguistics, and neuroscience, Deutsch examines questions such as: When an orchestra performs a symphony, what is the "real" music? Is it in the mind of the composer, or the conductor, or different members of the audience? Deutsch also explores extremes of musical ability, and other surprising responses to music and speech. Why is perfect pitch so rare? Why do some people hallucinate music or speech? Why do we hear phantom words and phrases? Why are we subject to stuck tunes, or "earworms"? Why do we hear a spoken phrase as sung just because it is presented repeatedly? In evaluating these questions, she also shows how music and speech are intertwined, and argues that they stem from an early form of communication that had elements of both. Many of the illusions described in the book are so striking and paradoxical that you need to hear them to believe them. The book enables you to listen to the sounds that are described while reading about them.
The Interpreters of Genesis and the Interpreters of Nature; Essay #4 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition"
This Book "The Interpreters of Genesis and the Interpreters of Nature; Essay #4 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition"" has been considered important throughout the human history, and so that this work is never forgotten we have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped and designed. These books are not made of scanned copies of their original work and hence the text is clear and readable.
The Roots of Engagement
In recent years, emerging economies in the Global South have increased the overall demand for raw materials and bolstered the price of oil, minerals, and other commodities. As a result, resource-rich countries in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa have experienced an important economic bonanza and reduced levels of poverty and inequality. However, for communities living near the extractive frontier, mining has caused serious environmental degradation, and many in these communities have protested local extractive industries. Departing from the existing literature, The Roots of Engagement examines the individual-level factors that shape a person's opinions over resource extraction. It looks at what makes some individuals accept extractive activities close to their homes, while other individuals strongly reject them. Moreover, it asks why some individuals focus on the potential benefits of employment and local development, while other individuals focus on the defense of livelihoods and the ecological risks associated with mining. Mois矇s Arce, Michael S. Hendricks, and Marc S. Polizzi find that an individual's level of social engagement--defined by a person's participation in local organizations--is critical for understanding these differences. The greater the participation in local organizations, they argue, the greater the rejection of proposed mining activities. This individual-level approach unveils the fluidity of attitudes over resource extraction, even in areas that appear uniformly opposed to mining; the processes of attitude formation rooted in micro-politics and collective behaviors; and a cross-regional perspective on campaigns against mining. Based on three original public opinion surveys and interviews conducted in T穩a Mar穩a in Peru, Fuleni in South Africa, and Rancho Grande in Nicaragua, The Roots of Engagement is the first book to measure social engagement in organizations and its connection to attitudes about extraction and development.
Theory and Practice in the Interdisciplinary Production and Reproduction of Scientific Knowledge
This book addresses the urgent need for a large and systematic analysis of current interdisciplinary (ID) research and practice. It demonstrates how ID is essentially a cognitive phenomenon, something different from the frivolous and inconsequential attempt of trying to overcome the disciplinary competencies and exigencies. By ID, the authors show that it is a manifestation of the transversal rationality that underlies current scientific activity. It is the very progress of specialized disciplines that requires interdisciplinary new research practices and new forms of articulation between domains, something that has a strong impact on the traditional disciplinary structure of scientific and educational institutions. Divided into two parts, the book presents a conceptual framework as well as several case studies on ID practices. The book aims at covering three main themes. It contributes to the stabilization of ID meaning and characterizes the main ID theorizations which have been proposed until now. It builds an innovative and broad understanding of the several ID determinations as an essentially cognitive phenomenon and of its institutional implications at the level of disciplinary structures and curricular organization. Finally, it distinguishes and maps the diversity of ID procedures and practices which are being used and tested by contemporary scientific and educational institutions. This book is addressed to philosophers, scientists and every one interested in science production and reproduction, including science teaching.
Meta-Research
This volume presents state-of-the art design, analysis and integration approaches for biomedical data including novel statistical models for a comprehensive and powerful synthesis and assessment of scientific evidence. Chapters detail principles of systematic reviews, semi-automated tools for systematic searches, fixed- and random-effects meta-analytical models, living systematic reviews, meta-analysis of genetic studies, meta-analysis of pragmatic and explanatory trials, network meta-analysis, and other modern approaches for data synthesis. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and cutting-edge, the Meta- Research: Methods and Protocols book, written by global experts, will introduce the reader in a step-by-step process to the methods of the vital and highly promising field of evidence synthesis.
The Asymmetric Nature of Time
This open access monograph offers a detailed study and a systematic defense of a key intuition we typically have, as human beings, with respect to the nature of time: the intuition that the future is open, whereas the past is fixed. For example, whereas it seems unsettled whether there will be a fourth world war, it is settled that there was a first world war.The book contributes, in particular, three major and original insights. First, it provides a coherent, non-metaphorical, and metaphysically illuminating elucidation of the intuition. Second, it determines which model of the temporal structure of the world is most appropriate to accommodate the intuition, and settles on a specific version of the Growing Block Theory of time (GBT). Third, it puts forward a naturalistic foundation for GBT, by exploiting recent results of our best physics (viz. General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, and Quantum Gravity). Three main challenges are addressed: the dismissal of temporal asymmetries as non-fundamental phenomena only (e.g., thermodynamic or causal phenomena), the epistemic objection against GBT, and the apparent tension between GBT and relativistic physics. It is argued that the asymmetry between the open future and the fixed past must be grounded in the temporal structure of the world, and that this is neither precluded by our epistemic device, nor by the latest approaches to Quantum Gravity (​e.g., the Causal Set Theory). Aiming at reconciling time as we find it in ordinary experience and time as physics describes it, this ​innovative book ​will raise the interest of both academic researchers and ​graduate students working on the philosophy of time. More generally, it ​presents contents of interest for all metaphysicians and non-dogmatic philosophers of physics.This is an open access book.
How to Excel in Your Doctoral Viva
How to excel in your doctoral viva offers an accessible guide to approaching and preparing for a PhD viva examination. The book explains what the viva is, how the process works, and what the purpose of the viva is. It guides the reader through the course of preparing for their viva examination, with chapters focusing on organisation to dealing with viva concerns. Contributions from over 25 academics ranging from critical care to theology provide a unique insight into the experiences of PhD candidates and examiners, and make this book an invaluable resource for students completing PhDs across the sciences.
Computational Psychiatry
Psychiatrists and neuroscientists discuss the potential of computational approaches to address problems in psychiatry including diagnosis, treatment, and integration with neurobiology. Modern psychiatry is at a crossroads, as it attempts to balance neurological analysis with psychological assessment. Computational neuroscience offers a new lens through which to view such thorny issues as diagnosis, treatment, and integration with neurobiology. In this volume, psychiatrists and theoretical and computational neuroscientists consider the potential of computational approaches to psychiatric issues. This unique collaboration yields surprising results, innovative synergies, and novel open questions. The contributors consider mechanisms of psychiatric disorders, the use of computation and imaging to model psychiatric disorders, ways that computation can inform psychiatric nosology, and specific applications of the computational approach. Contributors Susanne E. Ahmari, Huda Akil, Deanna M. Barch, Matthew Botvinick, Michael Breakspear, Cameron S. Carter, Matthew V. Chafee, Sophie Den癡ve, Daniel Durstewitz, Michael B. First, Shelly B. Flagel, Michael J. Frank, Karl J. Friston, Joshua A. Gordon, Katia M. Harl矇, Crane Huang, Quentin J. M. Huys, Peter W. Kalivas, John H. Krystal, Zeb Kurth-Nelson, Angus W. MacDonald III, Tiago V. Maia, Robert C. Malenka, Sanjay J. Mathew, Christoph Mathys, P. Read Montague, Rosalyn Moran, Theoden I. Netoff, Yael Niv, John P. O'Doherty, Wolfgang M. Pauli, Martin P. Paulus, Frederike Petzschner, Daniel S. Pine, A. David Redish, Kerry Ressler, Katharina Schmack, Jordan W. Smoller, Klaas Enno Stephan, Anita Thapar, Heike Tost, Nelson Totah, Jennifer L. Zick
Philosophical Perspectives in Quantum Chemistry
This book explores the philosophy and the foundations of quantum chemistry. It features chapters written by experts in the field. The contributions analyze quantum chemistry as a discipline, in particular, its relation with both chemistry and physics from the viewpoint of realism and reduction. Coverage includes such topics as quantum chemistry as an "in-between" discipline, molecular structure and quantum mechanics, quantum chemical models, and atoms and molecules in quantum chemistry.The interest of this book is twofold. First, the contributions aim to update and refresh the discussions regarding the foundations of quantum chemistry. Second, they seek to develop new philosophical perspectives that this discipline can suggest to philosophers of science.From its origins, quantum chemistry filled a problematic position in the disciplinary space. On the one hand, it is a branch of theoretical chemistry. On the other hand, it appeals essentially to theoretical tools coming from physics. This peculiar position triggered conceptual questions about its own identity. Inside this book, readers will find updated discussions on the foundations and the philosophy of this complex discipline.
Plates
This book covers the essentials of developments in the area of plate structures and presents them so that the readers can obtain a quick understanding and overview of the subject. Several theoretical models are employed for their analysis and design starting from the classical thin plate theory to alternatives obtained by incorporation of appropriate complicating effects or by using fundamentally different assumptions. The book includes pedagogical features like end-of-chapter exercises and worked examples to help students in self-learning. The book is extremely useful for the senior undergraduate and postgraduate students of aerospace engineering and mechanical engineering.
Research in Chemistry Education
Explores the teaching and learning of chemistry across the African continentPresents the best papers from the Second African Conference on Research in Chemistry EducationProvides examples of classroom activities and teaching strategies in chemistry education
Language and Scientific Research
This book analyzes the role of language in scientific research and develops the semantics of science from different angles. The philosophical investigation of the volume is divided into four parts, which covers both basic science and applied science: I) The Problem of Reference and Potentialities of the Language in Science; II) Language and Change in Scientific Research: Evolution and Historicity; III) Scientific Language in the Context of Truth and Fiction; and IV) Language in Mathematics and in Empirical Sciences. Language plays a key role in science: our access to the theoretical, practical or evaluative dimensions of scientific activity begins with the mastery of language, continues with a deepening in the use of language and reaches the level of contribution when it creates new terms or changes them in sense and reference. This reveals the compatibility between objectivity in semantic contents and historicity in the progress of science. This volume is a valuable enrichment to students, academics and other professionals interested in science in all its forms, who seek to deepen the role that language plays in its structure and dynamics.
Irc-Set 2020
This book highlights leading-edge research in multi-disciplinary areas in Physics, Engineering, Medicine, and Health care, from the 6th IRC Conference on Science, Engineering and Technology (IRC-SET 2020) held in July 2020 at Singapore. The papers were shortlisted after extensive rounds of reviews by a panel of esteemed individuals who are pioneers in their domains. The book also contains excerpts of the speeches by eminent personalities who graced the occasion, thereby providing written documentation of the event.
Modal Empiricism
This book proposes a novel position in the debate on scientific realism: Modal Empiricism. Modal empiricism is the view that the aim of science is to provide theories that correctly delimit, in a unified way, the range of experiences that are naturally possible given our position in the world. The view is associated with a pragmatic account of scientific representation and an original notion of situated modalities, together with an inductive epistemology for modalities. It purports to provide a faithful account of scientific practice and of its impressive achievements, and defuses the main motivations for scientific realism. More generally, Modal Empiricism purports to be the precise articulation of a pragmatist stance towards science.This book is of interest to any philosopher involved in the debate on scientific realism, or interested in how to properly understand the content, aim and achievements of science.
How the World Really Works
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "A new masterpiece from one of my favorite authors... [How The World Really Works] is a compelling and highly readable book that leaves readers with the fundamental grounding needed to help solve the world's toughest challenges."--Bill Gates "Provocative but perceptive . . . You can agree or disagree with Smil--accept or doubt his 'just the facts' posture--but you probably shouldn't ignore him."--The Washington Post An essential analysis of the modern science and technology that makes our twenty-first century lives possible--a scientist's investigation into what science really does, and does not, accomplish. We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us don't know how the world really works. This book explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our material world and its globalization, to risks, our environment and its future, How the World Really Works offers a much-needed reality check--because before we can tackle problems effectively, we must understand the facts. In this ambitious and thought-provoking book we see, for example, that globalization isn't inevitable--the foolishness of allowing 70 per cent of the world's rubber gloves to be made in just one factory became glaringly obvious in 2020--and that our societies have been steadily increasing their dependence on fossil fuels, such that any promises of decarbonization by 2050 are a fairy tale. For example, each greenhouse-grown supermarket-bought tomato has the equivalent of five tablespoons of diesel embedded in its production, and we have no way of producing steel, cement or plastics at required scales without huge carbon emissions. Ultimately, Smil answers the most profound question of our age: are we irrevocably doomed or is a brighter utopia ahead? Compelling, data-rich and revisionist, this wonderfully broad, interdisciplinary guide finds faults with both extremes. Looking at the world through this quantitative lens reveals hidden truths that change the way we see our past, present and uncertain future.
Explorations in Archaeology and Philosophy
This volume explores various themes at the intersection of archaeology and philosophy: inference and theory; interdisciplinary connections; cognition, language and normativity; and ethical issues. Showcasing this heterogeneity, its scope ranges from the method of analogical inference to the evolution of the human mind; from conceptual issues in assessing the health of past populations to the ethics of cultural heritage tourism. It probes the archaeological record for evidence of numeracy, curiosity and creativity, and social complexity. Its contributors comprise an interdisciplinary cluster of philosophers, archaeologists, anthropologists, and psychologists, from a variety of career stages, of whom many are leading experts in their fields. Chapter 3 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
How Flying Bees Pilot, and other arthropod wonders
After publishing, with Ted Bullock, the two-volume work on Invertebrate Neurobiology, in 1962 Adrian selected a new topic, and built up a group at St Andrews (and later at the Australian National University), specializing in the optics, neuron anatomy and electrophysiology of the arthropod compound eye, which offered a wide variety of topics.Neuron anatomy of insect visual systems was a classical study in the early 20th century, but yielded few explanations of how nerve cells, fibres, and their connections could explain anything. The electrophysiology began in mid-century as a novelty and generated a great deal of interesting biophysics of neurons, and their membranes and synapses (useful for medical sciences), but few explanations of the origin of behavioural patterns. The problem was that recordings were of the activity, but the meanings of the messages in the neurons were not revealed except in the peripheral sensory systems. By 1990, interest had shifted to the perception of colour and recognition of place by the honeybee, which is easily trained to return to a target. This analysis revealed a small number of responsible feature detectors that together revealed the nature of the messages, but not which neurons were active. However, we could explain how honeybees recognize, distinguish, and learn places, including foraging places.The final step, which is now progressively rolled out in this account of recent discoveries, is the innate detection and analysis of the honeybee's own three-dimensional surroundings, without reward, to detect the positions of surrounding objects from the relative motions caused by parallax as the bees themselves move in flight. This leads to an explanation of the amazing resolution and vast number of axes of the insect eye.These results further illustrate the advantage of sticking on one natural system or family of research efforts, and become deeply embedded in related topics, because it takes a persistent effort to understand the antiintuitive natural world.More information is available on my website: www.adrian-horridge.org
West Cumbria Mining
The politics of fuel laid bare...Walk at dusk with the ghosts of John Clare, Orwell and Chatwin into the contours of a censored past and a rapidly decaying present. A cost of living crisis that has been controlling and crippling the edgelands for decades.Developing the deep research and emotion of Boundary Songs, the focus here is on the fractured terrain of Whitehaven and echoes the restless narrator of Sebald's Rings of Saturn, who connects a paper-laden office with a distant childhood, 'to gather into itself the pallor of the fading light'.
Innovating STEM Education
In recent years, there has been a focus on promoting the uptake of STEM subjects in schools. This has been driven by the need to ensure that young people gain the knowledge and skills essential to help them participate in a society in which mathematics, science and technology are increasingly important. Nevertheless, reform efforts, including curriculum development, have treated the STEM subjects mostly in isolation. Recognizing that efforts for education within each individual STEM discipline would encourage a wide range of conservations about different important aspects of teaching and learning, this conference considered the potential benefits and challenges for the integration of various STEM's characteristics into education. In order to prepare students to address the problems of our society, it is necessary to provide them with opportunities to understand these problems through rich, engaging and powerful experiences that integrate the disciplines of STEM.This volume contains selected papers presented at the Hellenic Conferences "Innovating STEM education -HiSTEM 2016 and 2018" organized by the Postgraduate Program "Interdisciplinary Approach on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics in Education -STEM Education" (stemeducation.upatras.gr). The first eleven papers were presented at the HiSTEM 2016 Conference and the last six papers at the HiSTEM 2018 Conference. These papers were selected after a peer review process from the conferences' submitted papers. The conferences provided a platform for dissemination of best practices in teaching and learning STEM in Greece and also inspired and empowered STEM educators to improve teaching quality, to increase engagement in STEM education and career pathways, to connect students with real life industry relevancy and to drive creativity, inquiry-based learning, problem-solving and project-based learning.
Scientific Representation
This Element presents a philosophical exploration of the notion of scientific representation. It does so by focussing on an important class of scientific representations, namely scientific models. Models are important in the scientific process because scientists can study a model to discover features of reality. But what does it mean for something to represent something else? This is the question discussed in this Element. The authors begin by disentangling different aspects of the problem of representation and then discuss the dominant accounts in the philosophical literature: the resemblance view and inferentialism. They find them both wanting and submit that their own preferred option, the so-called DEKI account, not only eschews the problems that beset these conceptions, but further provides a comprehensive answer to the question of how scientific representation works. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Karl Popper
Karl R. Popper is widely regarded as one of the most influential 20th century philosophers. In this new biography, Weinert provides a comprehensive and accessible account of his life and work, also addressing Popper's role as a public intellectual. Drawing on a wide range of sources and interviews with former colleagues and collaborators, he recounts not only the wide interest from the scientific community, but also the inspiration that politicians took from Popper's work. The book surveys the vast and varied intellectual landscape of Popper's philosophical journey during his long career: from the natural and social sciences (physics, evolution, sociology) to political philosophy and the philosophy of mind. It pays significant attention to Popper's critical method - i.e., the notion that ideas and institutions should be exposed to rigorous tests - the approach that led him to a fervent defence of objectivity, rationality and realism, against all forms of irrationalism, as well as a passionate advocacy of freedom, social justice and liberal democracy, against all forms of authoritarianism. The book brings Popper into focus as a modern Enlightenment philosopher.
Equity in Stem Education Research
1 Intersectional Identities in the Geosciences.- 2 Youths' Sense-Making and Participation in a Sociopolitical Science Unit on Type 2 Diabetes.- 3 Fostering Social Connectedness and Interest in Science Through Sports.- 4 Teacher Candidates and the Equitable, Inclusive Science Classroom.- 5 Re-Envisioning a Literacy-Centered Science Teacher Education in the Shadow of COVID-19: Towards Engagement and Change.- 6 Investigating the Impact of Sociotransformative Constructivism on the Professional Preparation of Pre-Service Science Teachers in Costa Rica.- 7 Designing Science Learning Environments that Support Emergent Multilingual Students to Problematize Electrical Phenomena.- 8 Inequalities in Digital Access and Digital Science Instruction Among Poor Rural Children.- 9 Post-Tenure Confessions of an Early Career Science Education Researcher.- 10 Striving for more: Beyond the Guise of Objectivity and Equality.
A Practical Guide to Scanning Electron Microscopy in the Biosciences
Grimorium sub Rosa Nocturna
Perhaps The Devil is a component of The Human Unconscious or something more? Yet even if The Devil is merely an aspect of Human Unconscious, is it not wiser to harness this part of one's psyche, rather than treat this part of oneself as an enemy? The traditional formula for becoming a Witch involves making a pact with The Devil. By this pact, The Witch harnesses those parts of her mind that Christianity (etc.) forbids the use of. Could you benefit from harnessing your unconscious mind to the fulfillment of your ambitions, in This World? In addition to the fun of demon summoning and The Traditional Initiation into Witchcraft, this grimoire contains many other secrets, including an essay on Oriental sex yoga techniques that allow The Male to withhold orgasm, during coitus, thus to prolong the sexual encounter. Any male can use these exercises easily. This grimoire also contains extensive information on The Anatomy of the Soul, The Cosmology of The World of Human Imagination, A Treatise on The Black Mass, The Ritual Formulae for The Three Initiatory Grades of Sylvan Wicca, The Dreaming Formula of Wytchwood, and many other arcana. This grimoire contains all The Aspirant to Witchcraft needs to become a Witch, establish a Coven, and initiate other Souls into Witchcraft.
Towards Responsible Plant Data Linkage: Data Challenges for Agricultural Research and Development
This open access book provides the first systematic overview of existing challenges and opportunities for responsible data linkage, and a cutting-edge assessment of which steps need to be taken to ensure that plant data are ethically shared and used for the benefit of ensuring global food security - one of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. The volume focuses on the contemporary contours of such challenges through sustained engagement with current and historical initiatives and discussion of best practices and prospective future directions for ensuring responsible plant data linkage. The volume is divided into four sections that include case studies of plant data use and linkage in the context of particular research projects, breeding programs, and historical research. It address technical challenges of data linkage in developing key tools, standards and infrastructures, and examines governance challenges of data linkage in relation to socioeconomic andenvironmental research and data collection. Finally, the last section addresses issues raised by new data production and linkage methods for the inclusion of agriculture's diverse stakeholders. This book brings together leading experts in data curation, data governance and data studies from a variety of fields, including data science, plant science, agricultural research, science policy, data ethics and the philosophy, history and social studies of plant science.
From Evolutionary Biology to Economics and Back
This book offers a comprehensive exploration of the major key concepts common to economics and evolutionary biology. Written by a group of philosophers of science, biologists and economists, it proposes analyses of the meaning of twenty-five concepts from the viewpoint respectively of economics and of evolutionary biology -each followed by a short synthesis emphasizing major discrepancies and commonalities. This analysis is surrounded by chapters exploring the nature of the analogy that connects evolution and economics, and chapters that summarize the major teachings of the analyses of the keywords. Most scholars in biology and in economics know that their science has something in common with the other one, for instance the notions of competition and resources. Textbooks regularly acknowledge that the two fields share some history - Darwin borrowing from Malthus the insistence on scarcity of resources, and then behavioral ecologists adapting and transforming game theory into evolutionary game theory in the 1980s, while Friedman famously alluded to a Darwinian process yielding the extant firms. However, the real extent of the similarities, the reasons why they are so close, and the limits and even the nature of the analogy connecting economics and biological evolution, remain inexplicit. This book proposes basis analyses that can sustain such explication. It is intended for researchers, grad students and master students in evolutionary and in economics, as well as in philosophy of science.
Towards Responsible Plant Data Linkage: Data Challenges for Agricultural Research and Development
This open access book provides the first systematic overview of existing challenges and opportunities for responsible data linkage, and a cutting-edge assessment of which steps need to be taken to ensure that plant data are ethically shared and used for the benefit of ensuring global food security - one of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. The volume focuses on the contemporary contours of such challenges through sustained engagement with current and historical initiatives and discussion of best practices and prospective future directions for ensuring responsible plant data linkage. The volume is divided into four sections that include case studies of plant data use and linkage in the context of particular research projects, breeding programs, and historical research. It address technical challenges of data linkage in developing key tools, standards and infrastructures, and examines governance challenges of data linkage in relation to socioeconomic andenvironmental research and data collection. Finally, the last section addresses issues raised by new data production and linkage methods for the inclusion of agriculture's diverse stakeholders. This book brings together leading experts in data curation, data governance and data studies from a variety of fields, including data science, plant science, agricultural research, science policy, data ethics and the philosophy, history and social studies of plant science.
How to Learn and Practice Science
This book is a small but practical summary of how one can and should learn science. The author argues that science cannot be taught but has to be learnt. Based on historical examples he shows that practicing science means putting one's intellect into the understanding of simple questions like what, why, how and when events around you happen. The reader understands that the search for the cause and effect relationship of so called normal happenings is a very provocative experience and learning science leads one to it. This is underpinned by looking at everyday experiences and how they can help any lay-person learn science. The author also explains the methodology of science and discusses an integrated approach to science communication. Finally he elaborates on the influence and role of science in society. The book addresses interested general readers, teachers and science communicators.
Perspectives on Kuhn
This book presents essays and commentaries that continue on Thomas Kuhn's work from where he left off at the time of his death. Contrary to other books, this volume picks up the gauntlet to develop, from a contemporary perspective, some points that can be improved in the light of recent findings and conceptualizations in metatheory. Thus, this work pays a visit to the classical Kuhnian landscapes, but rather proposing interpretations, it takes them as the starting point to go further. One hundred years after Kuhn's birth, the editors and authors rekindle the passion and interest that have always surrounded the work of the great Boston philosopher and historian.
Oriented Self-Assembly of Colloidal Semiconductor Nanoplatelets on Liquid Interfaces
The Metaphysics of Laws of Nature
It can seem obvious that we live in a world governed by laws of nature, yet it was not until the seventeenth century that the concept of a law came to the fore. Ever since, it has been attended by controversy: what does it mean to say that Boyle's law governs the expansion of a gas, or that the planets obey the law of gravity? Laws are rules that permit calculations and predictions. What does the universe have to be like, if it is to play by them? This book sorts the most prominent answers into three families. Laws first arose in a theological context; they govern events only because God enforces them. Those wishing to reverse the order of explanation, and argue that the powers of objects fix the laws, struggled to claim for themselves the results of new science. The stand-off between these two families bred a third which rejects any kind of enforcer for the laws. On this view, laws summarize events; they do not govern anything. This book traces the fortunes of the three families, from their origins to the present day. It uses objections - and the revisions needed to answer them - to produce the best representative of each. Along the way, it tries to settle the rules of this game, the debate over laws of nature. What should we expect from an account of laws? The book aims to help readers develop their own desiderata and judge the merits of the competing positions.
Computational Methods in Systems Biology
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Computational Methods in Systems Biology, CMSB 2022, held in Bucharest, Romania, in September 2022.The 13 full papers and 4 tool papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 43 submissions. CMSB focuses on modeling, simulation, analysis, design and control of biological systems. The papers are arranged thematically as follows: Chemical reaction networks; Boolean networks; continuous and hybrid models; machine learning; software.
Atoms and Persons
What is consciousness? Does free will exist?There exists a widespread conviction that the recent scientific discoveries, especially those related to physics and biology, in particular in contemporary neurosciences, question the traditional attempts to give meaning to life and a basis for our moral compass. Current scientific thinking usually identifies the mind with the mere exchange of electrical signals among neurons. It claims that consciousness is an irrelevant epiphenomenon and that introspection is an unreliable instrument to achieve any form of knowledge. Also, that the physical universe is causally closed and therefore all that occurs only has physical causes and all kind of freedom is excluded. The problem of assigning meaning and purpose to our lives, to the essential conceptions of the value of human life and social justice, becomes practically insoluble if one accepts the predominant notions that supposedly stem from contemporary science. The clash between the scientific and humanistic conception of human beings seems to have no option but to abandon the latter.The aim of this book is to show that, contrary to what is usually considered, current advances in science allow to re-evaluate the role of consciousness and human freedom without entering into contradiction with empirical evidence or scientific theories in place today. The book starts by analyzing the certainties provided by the scientific thought and philosophical reflection while discussing the role and content of physical theories, and in particular, quantum mechanics. It discusses in detail the nature of quantum objects and the role they may have in consciousness. In particular, it analyzes models that allow phenomena of quantum nature to manifest themselves in the brains of animals and humans, and account for many of the properties of consciousness. Finally, we analyze how self-conscious and free entities like persons emerge, making compatible the scientific view with a renewed and better supported way of perceiving people, their values and culture.
Quantum-like Networks
Do brains compute? If they do, what do they compute and how do they do it? The first part of the book introduces the development of a model that simulates actual biological neurons more closely than do current standard models of neural networks, as well as the deduction of its physics-like and computational properties from first principles. The second part presents a collection of applications of the model to memory formation and loss, a general syntax for memory retrieval, language itself, and certain forms of aphasia. A linear development of the discussion with proofs in situ is employed by the author, making the book essentially self-contained. A pair of helpful appendices are provided to acquaint the reader with necessary fundamentals of topics in logic and mathematics. Quantum-like Networks: An Approach to Neural Behavior through their Mathematics and Logic will show you an entirely new approach to an ancient subject.
Into the Great Emptiness
By 1930, no place in the world was less well explored than Greenland. The native Inuit had occupied the relatively accessible west coast for centuries. The east coast, however, was another story. In August 1930, Henry George Watkins (nicknamed "Gino"), a twenty-three-year-old British explorer, led thirteen scientists and explorers on an ambitious expedition to the east coast of Greenland and into its vast and forbidding interior to set up a permanent meteorological base on the icecap, 8,200 feet above sea level. The Ice Cap Station was to be the anchor of a transpolar route of air travel from Europe to North America.The weather on the ice cap was appalling. Fierce storms. Temperatures plunging lower than -50簞 Fahrenheit in the winter. Watkins's scheme called for rotating teams of two men each to monitor the station for two months at a time. No one had ever tried to winter over in that hostile landscape, let alone manage a weather station through twelve continuous months. Watkins was younger than anyone under his command. But he had several daring trips to the Arctic under his belt and no one doubted his judgement.The first crisis came in the fall when a snowstorm stranded a resupply mission halfway to the top for many weeks. When they arrived at the ice cap, there were not enough provisions and fuel for another two-man shift, so the station would have to be abandoned. Then team member August Courtauld made an astonishing offer. To enable the mission to go forward, he would monitor the station solo through the winter. When a team went up in March to relieve Courtauld, after weeks of brutal effort to make the 130-mile journey, they could find no trace of him or the station. By the end of March, Courtauld's situation was desperate. He was buried under an immovable load of frozen snow and was disastrously short on supplies. On April 21, four months after Courtauld began his solitary vigil, Gino Watkins set out inland with two companions to find and rescue him.David Roberts, "veteran mountain climber and chronicler of adventures" (Washington Post), draws on firsthand accounts and archival materials to tell the story of this daring expedition and of the epic survival ordeal that ensued.
Natural History of the Columbia River Gorge
The Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area encompasses 292,500 acres in an 85-mile run of the Columbia River, beginning at the Sandy River about 17 miles east of Portland, Oregon, extending just beyond the Deschutes River to the east. It is bounded on either side of the river by more than fifty peaks and high points, giving it a fjord-like appearance. This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the natural history of the Columbia River Gorge, focusing on its geology, hydrology, geomorphology, weather, plants, animals and people. The beginning of each chapter includes recommended reading, and additional information and references are included throughout the text and in chapter notes. The book is intended to be supplemented with use of the field guides for those who want to learn more about the Gorge's geology and how to identify its birds, plants and animals. The text helps readers understand how the Gorge was formed, what makes it special, and how people have lived there over time.
Wild Sonoma
An all-access guide to the abundant natural splendor of Sonoma County.Wild Sonoma celebrates the spectacular and resilient natural landscapes of Sonoma County, which along with its neighboring counties is one of the world's premier winegrowing regions. Our exploration launches with an entertaining primer on ecology basics, including the impact of fire, before a fun fact-filled survey of sixty-two of the area's iconic and commonly encountered species--from vivacious acorn woodpeckers to disease-neutralizing Western fence lizards. It caps off with a tour of six sites to experience Sonoma's diverse natural beauty, with a special emphasis on access. Written by Wild LA author Charles Hood, introduced by renowned naturalist Jane Goodall, and illustrated by John Muir Laws, Wild Sonoma offers residents and tourists from eight to eighty a sense of wonder and cause for hope.
Nostradamus
It has been a long time since david purdue, sam cleave, and dr. Nina gould worked side by side together, but as they come together to confront a new enemy, they may have to seek help from an old one: julian corvus.As tensions mount and old grudges are brought back into focus, the lost prophecies of nostradamus prove to be the catalyst for a confrontation that could decide the fate of the future.From the jungles of south america to the darkest depths of the paris catacombs, purdue and his allies do whatever they can to ensure that the days to come will not be horrific... Inside you will read about...Early years as a doctorAltercation with the inquisitionThe start of the occultThe prophet of satanNostradamus' predictionsSharlatan or visionaryAnd much more!Nostradamus' most common theme is the military invasion of europe by an islamic alliance of nations in the early 21st century. Iran and turkey are mentioned most often, along with many other muslim nations that unite to invade southern and western europe. The united states is initially unable to help.
