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Showing 1 - 20 of 104751 items
By Lynda Olman, Birgit Schneider. 2024
This book project examines global forest monitoring as a means to understand the promises and problems of global visualization for…
climate management.Specifically, the book focuses on Global Forest Watch, the most developed and widely available forest-monitoring platform, created in 1997 by the World Resource Institute. Forest maps are always political as they visualize power relations and form the grid within which forests become commodities. This dislocation of the idea of the forest from its literal roots in the ground has generated problems for forest visualization efforts designed to empower local communities. This book takes a critical humanistic approach to this problem, combining methods from the fields of rhetoric and media studies to suggest solutions to these problems for designers and users of platforms like the Global Forest Watch. To explain why global views of forests can be disempowering, the book relies on biopolitical and rhetorical theories of panopticism and how these views unfold a different violence on different regions of the Earth in relation to colonial history. Using this theoretical framework, the book explains the historical process by which forests came to be classified, quantified, and mapped on a global scale. Interviews with end-users of global forest visualization platforms reveal if and how these platforms support local action. Lastly, the book provides rhetorical solutions to articulate global and local views of forests without reducing one view to the other. These solutions involve looking to forests themselves for clues about how to generate more broadly effective and resilient visualizations.This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of forest studies, climate change, science communication, visualization studies, environmental communication, and environmental conservation.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.By Nagaiyar Krishnamurthy, Chiranjib Kumar Gupta. 2016
New Edition Now Covers Recycling, Environmental Issues, and Analytical DeterminationEmploying four decades of experience in the rare metal and rare…
earths industry, the authors of Extractive Metallurgy of Rare Earths, Second Edition present the entire subject of rare earth elements with depth and accuracy. This second edition updates the most imporBy Jeremy Shere. 2013
Where does the energy we use come from? It's absolutely vital to every single thing we do every day, but…
for most people, it is utterly invisible. Flick a switch and the lights go on. It might as well be magic. Science writer Jeremy Shere shows us in Renewable: The World-Changing Powerof Alternative Energy that energy is anything but magical. Producing it in fossil fuel form is a dirty, expensive—but also hugely profitable— enterprise, with enormous but largely hidden costs to the entire planet. The cold, hard fact is that at some point we will have wrung the planet dry of easily accessible sources of fossil fuel. And when that time comes, humankind will have no choice but to turn—or, more accurately, return—to other, cleaner, renewable energy sources. What will those sources be? How far have we come to realizing the technologies that will make these sources available?To find the answers, Shere began his journey with a tour of a traditional coal-fueled power plant in his home state of Indiana. He then continued on, traveling from coast to coast as he spoke to scientists, scholars and innovators. He immersed himself in the green energy world: visiting a solar farm at Denver's airport, attending the Wind Power Expo and a wind farm tour in Texas, investigating turbines deep in New York City's East River, and much more. Arranged in five parts—Green Gas, Sun, Wind, Earth, and Water—Renewable tells the stories of the most interesting and promising types of renewable energy: namely, biofuel, solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower. But unlike many books about alternative energy, Renewable is not obsessed with megawatts and tips for building home solar panels. Instead, Shere digs into the rich, surprisingly long histories of these technologies, bringing to life the pioneering scientists, inventors, and visionaries who blazed the way for solar, wind, hydro, and other forms of renewable power, and unearthing the curious involvement of great thinkers like Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Nicola Tesla.We are at an important crossroads in the history of renewable technologies. The possibilities are endless and enticing, and it has become increasingly clear that renewable energy is the way of the future. In Renewable, Jeremy Shere's natural curiosity and serious research come together in an entertaining and informative guide to where renewable energy has been, where it is today, and where it's heading.By Sonia Shah. 2010
In recent years, malaria has emerged as a cause célèbre for voguish philanthropists. Bill Gates, Bono, and Laura Bush are…
only a few of the personalities who have lent their names—and opened their pocketbooks—in hopes of curing the disease. Still, in a time when every emergent disease inspires waves of panic, why aren't we doing more to eradicate one of our oldest foes? And how does a parasitic disease that we've known how to prevent for more than a century still infect 500 million people every year, killing nearly 1 million of them?In The Fever, the journalist Sonia Shah sets out to answer these questions, delivering a timely, inquisitive chronicle of the illness and its influence on human lives. Through the centuries, she finds, we've invested our hopes in a panoply of drugs and technologies, and invariably those hopes have been dashed. From the settling of the New World to the construction of the Panama Canal, through wars and the advances of the Industrial Revolution, Shah tracks malaria's jagged ascent and the tragedies in its wake, revealing a parasite every bit as persistent as the insects that carry it. With distinguished prose and original reporting from Panama, Malawi, Cameroon, India, and elsewhere, The Fever captures the curiously fascinating, devastating history of this long-standing thorn in the side of humanity.By William B. Scott, Michael J. Coumatos, William J. Birnes. 2009
In Space Wars, Scott, Coumatos, and Birnes created a fascinating war gaming scenario of how World War III might unfold…
in above the Earth's surface. Now this thrilling team of writers reunites with Counterspace, an even more chilling fictionalized look at America's most catastrophic fears. What if North Korea detonated a nuclear weapon in space and silenced dozens of satellites? What if an Iranian missile threatened to destroy Israel, while a Venezuelan "research" satellite endangered one of the US's most promising space initiatives?What if tech-savvy terrorist cells unleashed back-to-back horrors in California, creating an avalanche of crises overnight, as national leaders robbed of spy satellite imagery were forced to make decisions in the "blind"?These are the scenarios of Counterspace, a frighteningly plausible look at threats to the United States and the world. Scott, Coumatos, and Birnes use war gaming scenarios to show how the US Strategic Command might choose to fight off these menaces and prevent global disaster. Combining current and future technology with our enemies' grandest plans, Counterspace is equally a terrifying possibility and a hopeful affirmation that America can and will be ready to face such dangers, told with the pulse-pounding power of a modern day thriller.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.By Erno Rubik. 2020
The first book by the reclusive inventor of the world’s most iconic puzzle THE RUBIK’S CUBE. Erno Rubik inspires us…
with what he’s learned in a lifetime of creating, curiosity, and discovery.Erno Rubik was a child when he first became obsessed with puzzles of all kinds. “Puzzles,” he writes, “bring out important qualities in each of us: concentration, curiosity, a sense of play, the eagerness to discover a solution.” To Rubik puzzles aren’t just games—they’re creativity machines. He encourages us to embrace our inner curiosity and find the puzzles that surround us in our everyday lives. “If you are determined, you will solve them,” he writes. Rubik’s own puzzle, the Cube, went on to be solved by millions worldwide for over forty years, become one of the bestselling toys of all time, and to be featured as a global symbol of intelligence and ingenuity.In Cubed, Rubik covers more than just his journey to inventing his eponymous cube. He makes a case for always being an amateur—something he has always considered himself to be. He discusses the inevitability of problems during any act of invention. He reveals what it was like to experience the astonishing worldwide success of an object he made purely for his own play. And he offers what he thinks it means to be a true creator (hint: anyone can do it). Steeped in the wisdom and also the humility of a born inventor, Cubed offers a unique look at the imperfect science of creation.By Samuel C. Florman. 1987
Civil engineer Samuel C. Florman's The Civilized Engineer is aimed at both those observing and commenting externally on engineering, and…
the practicing engineer—to reveal something of the art behind great engineering achievements, and to stimulate debate upon the author's hypothesis that "in its moment of ascendance, engineering is faced with the trivialization of its purpose and the debasement of its practice."By Kailei Pew. 2024
What do swim fins, Popsicles®, Infection-Detecting Stitches, the Braille alphabet, and Taco vs. Burrito all have in common? They were…
all invented by kids! When Remya Jose had to spend many hours washing her family’s laundry by hand, she invented a pedal powered washing machine that could finish the chore in only 20 minutes! When Tripp Phillips’ Lego creations kept falling apart, he developed a glue strong enough to hold his creations together that would wash off when he was ready to build something new! And when Fatima Al Kaabi didn’t have anyone willing to teach her about robotics, she turned to the internet to teach herself all the skills she needed—and created multiple crowd-pleasing robots in the process! From Popsicles® and swim fins to robots and glitter shooting prosthetics, Kailei Pew's middle grade nonfiction debut is full of fun and inspiring stories, illustrated by Shannon Wright, about real kid inventors who proved that even the youngest people can change the world.Did you know that the number of atoms in a cookie is about the same number of stars in the…
universe? Geoff Engelstein tackles the big questions of the universe and how it works using the sweet and simple chocolate cookie as guide. By exploring what goes into the cookie—the ingredients and the steps—we learn about how everything works, from the tiny world of subatomic particles to galactic clusters. Topics include: The Big Bang Explained with Chocolate ChipsQuantum Mechanics Explained with Milk and CookiesChaos Explained with VanillaAnd more!Filled with fascinating facts and laugh-out-loud moments, it's a richly visual and deeply fascinating scientific exploration of the world. And cookies.By Lucy Birmingham, David McNeill. 2012
A riveting account of Japan's triple disaster and an insightful look into what the responses of its people reveal about…
the national characterBlending history, science, and gripping storytelling, Strong in the Rain brings the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Japan in 2011 and its immediate aftermath to life through the eyes of the men and women who experienced it. Following the narratives of six individuals, the book traces the shape of a disaster and the heroics it prompted, including that of David Chumreonlert, a Texan with Thai roots, trapped in his school's gymnasium with hundreds of students and teachers as it begins to flood, and Taro Watanabe, who thought nothing of returning to the Fukushima plant to fight the nuclear disaster, despite the effects that he knew would stay with him for the rest of his life. This is a beautifully written and moving account from Lucy Birmingham and David McNeill of how the Japanese experienced one of the worst earthquakes in history and endured its horrific consequences.Bustle's "17 Best Nonfiction Books Coming Out In September 2018""With This is the Way the World Ends Jeff Nesbit has…
delivered an enlightening - and alarming - explanation of the climate challenge as it exists today. Climate change is no far-off threat. It's impacting communities all over the world at this very moment, and we ignore the scientific reality at our own peril. The good news? As Nesbit underscores, disaster is not preordained. The global community can meet this moment — and we must." —Senator John KerryA unique view of climate change glimpsed through the world's resources that are disappearing.The world itself won’t end, of course. Only ours will: our livelihoods, our homes, our cultures. And we’re squarely at the tipping point.Longer droughts in the Middle East. Growing desertification in China and Africa. The monsoon season shrinking in India. Amped-up heat waves in Australia. More intense hurricanes reaching America. Water wars in the Horn of Africa. Rebellions, refugees and starving children across the globe. These are not disconnected events. These are the pieces of a larger puzzle that environmental expert Jeff Nesbit puts together Unless we start addressing the causes of climate change and stop simply navigating its effects, we will be facing a series of unstoppable catastrophes by the time our preschoolers graduate from college. Our world is in trouble – right now. This Is the Way the World Ends tells the real stories of the substantial impacts to Earth’s systems unfolding across each continent. The bad news? Within two decades or so, our carbon budget will reach a point of no return. But there’s good news. Like every significant challenge we’ve faced—from creating civilization in the shadow of the last ice age to the Industrial Revolution—we can get out of this box canyon by understanding the realities and changing the worn-out climate conversation to one that’s relevant to every person. Nesbit provides a clear blueprint for real-time, workable solutions we can tackle together.By Martin Cohen, Andrew McKillop. 2012
Today, there are over one hundred nuclear reactors operating in our backyards, from Indian Point in New York to Diablo…
Canyon in California. Proponents claim that nuclear power is the only viable alternative to fossil fuels, and due to rising energy consumption and the looming threat of global warming, they are pushing for an even greater investment. Here, energy economist Andrew McKillop and social scientist Martin Cohen argue that the nuclear power dream being sold to us is pure fantasy. Debunking the multilayered myth that nuclear energy is cheap, clean, and safe, they demonstrate how landscapes are ravaged in search of the elusive yellowcake to fuel the reactors, and how energy companies and politicians rarely discuss the true costs of nuclear power plants - from the subsidies that build the infrastructure to the unspoken guarantee that the public will pick up the cleanup cost in the event of a meltdown, which can easily top $100 billion dollars.By The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. 2024
This is volume 75 issue 1 of The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. Since 1950, The British Journal…
for the Philosophy of Science (BJPS) has presented the best new work in the discipline. An international leader in the philosophy of science, BJPS showcases outstanding research on a variety of topics, from the nature of models and simulations to mathematical explanation and foundational issues in the physical, life, and social sciences. Published on behalf of the British Society for the Philosophy of Science, the journal offers innovative and thought-provoking papers that open up new areas of inquiry or shed new light on well-known issues.Science journalist Sally Adee breaks open the field of bioelectricity—the electric currents that run through our bodies and every living…
thing—its misunderstood history, and why new discoveries will lead to new ways around antibiotic resistance, cleared arteries, and new ways to combat cancer. You may be familiar with the idea of our body's biome: the bacterial fauna that populate our gut and can so profoundly affect our health. In We Are Electric we cross into new scientific understanding: discovering your body's electrome. Every cell in our bodies—bones, skin, nerves, muscle—has a voltage, like a tiny battery. It is the reason our brain can send signals to the rest of our body, how we develop in the womb, and why our body knows to heal itself from injury. When bioelectricity goes awry, illness, deformity, and cancer can result. But if we can control or correct this bioelectricity, the implications for our health are remarkable: an undo switch for cancer that could flip malignant cells back into healthy ones; the ability to regenerate cells, organs, even limbs; to slow aging and so much more. The next scientific frontier might be decrypting the bioelectric code, much the way we did the genetic code. Yet the field is still emerging from two centuries of skepticism and entanglement with medical quackery, all stemming from an 18th-century scientific war about the nature of electricity between Luigi Galvani (father of bioelectricity, famous for shocking frogs) and Alessandro Volta (inventor of the battery). In We Are Electric, award-winning science writer Sally Adee takes readers through the thrilling history of bioelectricity and into the future: from the Victorian medical charlatans claiming to use electricity to cure everything from paralysis to diarrhea, to the advances helped along by the giant axons of squids, and finally to the brain implants and electric drugs that await us—and the moral implications therein. The bioelectric revolution starts here.By Bob Reeves. 2015
Exam Board: AQALevel: AS/A-levelSubject: Computer ScienceFirst Teaching: September 2015First Exam: June 2016This title has been approved by AQA for use…
with the AS and A-level AQA Computer Science specifications. AQA A-level Computer Science gives students the chance to think creatively and progress through the AQA AS and A-level Computer Science specifications. Detailed coverage of the specifications will enrich understanding of the fundamental principles of computing, whilst a range of activities help to develop the programming skills and computational thinking skills at A-level and beyond. - Enables students to build a thorough understanding of the fundamental principles in the AQA AS and A-Level Computer Science specifications, with detailed coverage of programming, algorithms, data structures and representation, systems, databases and networks, uses and consequences.- Helps to tackle the various demands of the course confidently, with advice and support for programming and theoretical assessments and the problem-solving or investigative project at A-level.- Develops the programming and computational thinking skills for A-level and beyond - frequent coding and question practice will help students apply their knowledge of the principles of computer science, and design, program and evaluate problem-solving computer systems. Bob Reeves is an experienced teacher with examining experience, and well-respected author of resources for Computing and ICT across the curriculum.By Michael Paul Mason. 2008
Head Cases takes us into the dark side of the brain in an astonishing sequence of stories, at once true…
and strange, from the world of brain damage. Michael Paul Mason is one of an elite group of experts who coordinate care in the complicated aftermath of tragic injuries that can last a lifetime. On the road with Mason, we encounter survivors of brain injuries as they struggle to map and make sense of the new worlds they inhabit.Underlying each of these survivors' stories is an exploration of the brain and its mysteries. When injured, the brain must figure out how to heal itself, reorganizing its physiology in order to do the job. Mason gives us a series of vivid glimpses into brain science, the last frontier of medicine, and we come away in awe of the miracles of the brain's workings and astonished at the fragility of the brain and the sense of self, life, and order that resides there. Head Cases "[achieves] through sympathy and curiosity insight like that which pulses through genuine literature" (The New York Sun); it is at once illuminating and deeply affecting.By Brahim Benaissa, Roberto Capozucca, Samir Khatir, Gabriele Milani. 2024
This volume provides the latest developments in the field of steel and composite for engineering applications, as presented at the…
International Conference on Steel and Composite for Engineering Structures (ICSCES), held in Lecce, Italy on November 20-21, 2023. It covers interest topics like control and vibration, damage in composite materials, fracture and damage mechanics, construction management, damage tolerance, safety, security, and reliability, big data analytics, topology optimization and artificial intelligence, mechanical and material engineering, structural health monitoring, computer-aided design and manufacturing, crack initiation and propagation, performance and optimization, computational fracture mechanics, inverse problem, non-destructive testing, signal processing, artificial intelligence. It serves as a reference work for professionals and students in the areas of civil engineering, applied natural sciences and engineering management.By Keisuke Takahashi, Lauren Takahashi. 2024
This textbook is designed for students and researchers who are interested in materials and catalysts informatics with little to no…
prior experience in data science or programming languages. Starting with a comprehensive overview of the concept and historical context of materials and catalysts informatics, it serves as a guide for establishing a robust materials informatics environment. This essential resource is designed to teach vital skills and techniques required for conducting informatics-driven research, including the intersection of hardware, software, programming, machine learning within the field of data science and informatics. Readers will explore fundamental programming techniques, with a specific focus on Python, a versatile and widely-used language in the field. The textbook explores various machine learning techniques, equipping learners with the knowledge to harness the power of data science effectively. The textbook provides Python code examples, demonstrating materials informatics applications, and offers a deeper understanding through real-world case studies using materials and catalysts data. This practical exposure ensures readers are fully prepared to embark on their informatics-driven research endeavors upon completing the textbook. Instructors will also find immense value in this resource, as it consolidates the skills and information required for materials informatics into one comprehensive repository. This streamlines the course development process, significantly reducing the time spent on creating course material. Instructors can leverage this solid foundation to craft engaging and informative lecture content, making the teaching process more efficient and effective.By Neeraj Mishra, Sumel Ashique, Ashish Garg, Vadivalagan Chithravel, Krishnan Anand. 2024
This book provides a comprehensive overview of the role of exosomes in brain diseases, including stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease,…
Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, and depression. It covers the basics of exosome biogenesis, composition, and synthesis, as well as the therapeutic potential of exosomes in brain disorders. The correlation between exosomes and neuroinflammation, the challenges of using exosomes as a novel carrier, and engineered exosomes to deliver therapeutic protein are covered well in this book. Use of radiolabelled exosomes as a diagnostic tool and the toxicity studies of exosomes with potential overcome approaches. It is an essential resource for researchers, clinicians, and healthcare professionals working in the field of exosome research, especially on its applications in brain disorders.By Jesús Rodrigo-Comino, Luca Salvati. 2024
The open access book aims to show the readers novel, relevant and reproducible power of synergistic collaborations between European research…
groups and stakeholders with the objective to synthesize the existing knowledge and expertise about fire management and hazard and defining a concerted research agenda that promotes an integrated approach to create fire-resilient landscapes, taking into account biological, biochemical and physical, but also socio-economic, historical, geographical, sociological, perception and policy constraints. This is an urgent societal need due to the expected further intensification and geographical spreading of wildfire regimes under Global Change. Fire has been part of the Earth's System for the last 400 million years, and humans are the sole species that controls and manages fire. We have used fire for over a million years, both, as hunter-gatherers managing the landscape with fire and as farmers using fire as a low-cost, efficient and ecological tool for clearing and maintaining the productivity of the land. Fire has been highlighted as the most influential element in the development of human societies. The increase in prolonged dry and hot periods observed in many regions of the world is exacerbating the risk of fire. The causes of increased fire risk are not only linked to climate change but are also a consequence of economic and social changes and political decisions. Over the past few decades, many countries’ rural areas have seen significant depopulation and a reduction in land management as residents moved to cities or even other countries in search of work. The resulting rural depopulation has led to revegetation of the abandoned agricultural land, which favors fire spread. The enhanced risk of fires is moving beyond the capacity of even the best-funded wildland firefighting teams and therefore calls for the development of new approaches to fire management that are key nowadays at different scales. Instead of focusing primarily on increasing firefighting capabilities, a more effective approach is needed that focuses on long-term fire prevention through vegetation management by reducing fuel load or managing fuel type and fuel continuity at a landscape level. FIRElinks (COST Action CA18135) is developing the EU-spanning network of scientists and practitioners involved in forest fire research and land management with backgrounds such as fire dynamics, fire risk management, fire effects on vegetation, fauna, soil and water and socio-economic, historical, geographical, political perception and land management approaches. Among the different Working Groups, number 5 is aimed to connect communities from different scientific and geographic backgrounds, allowing the discussion of different experiences and the emergence of new approaches to fire research, human management, regional issues and socio-economic aspects.