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Infancy to childhood...childhood to adulthood...adulthood to death - life is a series of transitions we all must face. But sometimes, those transitions take on a life of their own, leading us down a path that few would travel willingly...
Phase transitions occur throughout nature. The most familiar example is the one that occurs in water – the abrupt, discontinuous transition from a liquid to a gas or a solid, induced by a subtle environmental change. Practically magical, the ever-so-slight shift of temperature or pressure can induce an astonishing transition from one entity to another entity that bears little resemblance to the first. So "convenient" a feature is seen throughout the domains of physics and chemistry, and one is therefore led to wonder whether it might also be common to biology. Indeed, many of the most fundamental cellular processes are arguably attributable to radical structural shifts triggered by subtle changes that cross a critical threshold. These processes include transport, motion, signaling, division, and other fundamental aspects of cellular function. Largely on the basis of this radical concept, a symposium was organized in Poitiers, France, to bring together people who have additional evidence for the role of phase transitions in biology, and this book is a compendium of some of the more far-reaching of those presentations, as well as several others that seemed to the editors to be compelling. The book should be suitable for anyone interested in the nature of biological function, particularly those who tire of lumbering along well trodden pathways of pursuit, and are eager to hear something fresh. The book is replete with fresh interpretations of familiar phenomena, and should serve as an excellent gateway to deeper understanding.
When the present symposium was first conceived, it was decided that more emphasis be given to contributions from biological laboratories than has typically appeared in previous bionics meetings. Accordingly, most of the invited speakers are biologists, in the broad sense of representing some area of the life sciences. Likewise, many of the submitted papers eventually chosen by the technical com mittee were from the life sCiences, rather than the physical sciences or mathe matics. In this way, it was hoped that a greater direct interest in the technological problems of bionics might be stimulated among biologists, upon whose work much of the success of bionics necessarily lies. Because of the wide interdisciplinary span of the papers, it was necessary to impose some artificial organization upon them, specifically for continuity in the transactions. We elected to put the biological papers first, followed by those which deal with reasonably specific models, and reserveto the last those papers reporting models which are more general in nature. The editorial function was kept to a minimum, with no major alterations of content and few of style being exercised. Several of the papers delivered at the symposium required a longer format for clarity and are included here in ex panded versions. Assitance in the preparation of this volume was received from the National Institute of Neurologic Diseases and Blindness, Grant number B-3896.
Algae, including cyanobacteria, are in the spotlight today for a number of reasons; firstly it has become abundantly clear over recent years that algae have been neglected in terms of basic research and that knowledge gap is being rapidly closed with the establishment of some surprising discoveries, such as the presence of Near-Infra-Red-Absorbing cyanobacteria and a wealth of natural products; secondly molecular approaches have provided a wealth of approaches to genetically modify algae and produce value-added products; thirdly it has become clear just how important, marine phytoplankton is to global carbon capture and the production of food globally; and fourthly, it has also become clear that algae present unparalleled opportunities to generate biofuels in a sustainable and non-polluting way. This volume presents 15 chapters by world experts on their subjects, ranging from reviews of algal diversity and genetics to in-depth reviews of special algal groups such as diatoms (which account for over 30% of marine carbon capture). Other chapters chart the ways in which this carbon capture occurs or how there are a multiplicity of ways in which algae intercept sun light and deploy this energy for carbon capture. A fascinating aspect here is the way in which sun light is harvested. A special chapter is devoted to the very recent and exciting possibility that algae use coherent light energy transformation to enhance the efficiency of light capture, an aspect of quantum physics that has implications for future developments at several levels and a variety of industries. Just how and why algae use Chlorophyll a as the major light capture pigment is discussed in several chapters. However, attention is also given to those cyanobacteria, which have been found to use the special Near-Infra Red absorbing chlorophylls mentioned above. And attention is also given to those algae that employ phycobiliproteins to fill in the “green window”, i.e., the spectral region from 400 – 650 nm, which is not efficiently covered by chlorophyll and carotenoid pigments. Photoinhibition and photoprotection is the subject area of several chapters and one which it is essential to understand a we work towards greater efficiency of algal photosynthesis. A final chapter is devoted to understanding the molecular basis for coral bleaching, a much-neglected area that is essential in trying to come up with solutions to this very worrying phenomenon, caused by global warming and ocean acidification. This is a book for research scientists, environmentalists, planners in a range of areas including those of marine resources, nutrient control and pollution of water bodies and that growing body of concerned citizens interested in controlling carbon emissions and global warming. Special attention has been given to generating a set of articles that will be read by university students, informed laymen and all those whose wish to understand the rapid changes that have come about in our knowledge of algae over the past decade.
In the tradition of such successful books on creativity as Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and The Artist's Way, artist and teacher Heather Williams presents a step-by-step approach to personal development — and artistic satisfaction. Many people — including Heather Williams — were never encouraged to embrace their creative side, and this shutting down of part of their inner life can create conflict. This book is an invitation into each person's creative instincts and is designed to lead gently toward developing both artistic and spiritual qualities. The book is divided into three sections: Pencils & Perception (observing and drawing what you see in the physical world); Crayons & Consciousness (drawing the interior landscape of memories, emotions, dreams, and patterns); and Ink & Intuition (drawing on the intuitive wisdom within yourself). This book is not intended to make everyone a commercial artist, but it will help readers to see and be in their world more fully.
This book presents the first established experimental results of an emergent field: 2-dimensional materials as platforms for quantum technologies, specifically through the optics of quantum-confined excitons. It also provides an extensive review of the literature from a number of disciplines that informed the research, and introduces the materials of focus – 2d Transition Metal Dichalcogenides (2d-TMDs) – in detail, discussing electronic and chemical structure, excitonic behaviour and response to strain. This is followed by a brief overview of quantum information technologies, including concepts such as single-photon sources and quantum networks. The methods chapter addresses quantum optics techniques and 2d-material processing, while the results section shows the development of a method to deterministically create quantum dots (QDs) in the 2d-TMDs, which can trap single-excitons; the fabrication of atomically thin quantum light-emitting diodes to induce all-electrical single-photon emission from the QDs, and lastly, the use of devices to controllably trap single-spins in the QDs –the first step towards their use as optically-addressable matter qubits.
"This new edition of Cartographic Relief Presentation was edited for clarity and consistency but preserves Imhof's insightful commentary and analytical style. Color maps, aerial photographs, and instructive illustrations are faithfully reproduced. The book offers guidelines for properly rendering terrain in maps of all types and scales whether drawn by traditional means or with the aid of a computer. Cartographic Relief Presentation was among the essential mapping and graphical design books of the twentieth century. Its continuing relevance for the twenty-first century is assured with this publication."--BOOK JACKET.
The Second International Congress on Photosynthesis Research took place in Stresa, Italy during June 24-29, 1971; two centuries after the discovery of Photosynthesis by Joseph Priestley in 1771. This important anniversary was celebrated at the Congress by a learned account of Priestley's life and fundamental discoveries given by Professor Robin HILL, F. R. S. Professor HILL's lecture opens the first of the three volumes which contains the contributions presented at the Congress. The manuscripts have been distributed into three volumes. Volume I con tains contributions in the areas of primary reactions and electron transport; Volume II ion transport and photophosphorylation, and Volume III carbon assimilation, regulatory phenomena, developmental aspects, and from the two special sessions of the Congress devoted to evolution and photorespiration. It is realized that this division is necessarily somewhat arbitrary since many contributions relate to more than one of the above mentioned titles. However, the large number of contributions (over 3000 typed pages) made it impossible to publish the proceedings in less than three volumes. The printing of these volumes and the organization of the Congress were made possible by a contribution from the Consigio Nazionale delle Ricerche of Italy. The generous support of the Istituto Lombardo Acca demia di Scienze e Lettere to the publication of these proceedings is gratefully acknowledged. The editors wish to express their appreciation to all the scientists who contributed the results of the investigations, for their coopera tion; and to Drs.
First published in 2003, Phonetic Interpretation presents innovative work from four core areas: phonological representations and the lexicon, phonetic interpretation and phrasal structure, phonetic interpretation and syllable structure, and phonology and natural speech production. Written by major figures in the fields of phonetics, phonology and speech perception, the chapters in this volume use a wide range of laboratory and instrumental techniques to analyse the production and perception of speech, their aim being to explore the relationship between the sounds of speech and the linguistic organisation that lies behind that. The chapters present evidence of the lively intellectual engagement of laboratory phonology practitioners with the complexities and richness of human language. The book continues the tradition of the series, Papers in Laboratory Phonology, by bringing linguistic theory to bear on an essential problem of linguistics: the relationship between mental models and the physical nature of speech.