- Table View
- List View
Charles Darwin: No Rebel, Great Revolutionary
by Michael RuseCharles Darwin's theory of evolution was one of the most significant revolutions in the history of science. Widely debated after the publication of the Origin of Species in 1859, it continues to be controversial. In this volume, Michael Ruse offers the definitive history of the theory of evolution through natural selection. Tracing Darwin's intellectual journey and experiences that lead him to his novel insights, Ruse explores his scientific contributions as well as their relationship to philosophical issues and religious implications, as well as being both inspiration and challenge to novelists and poets. He also shows how the Darwin's ideas continue to have contemporary relevance, as they shed light on social issues and problems, such as race, sexual orientation and the connections between Darwin's thinking to that of Sigmund Freud, and the status of women, including the possibility and desirability of social change. Written in an engaging, non-technical style, Ruse's volume serves as an ideal introduction to the ideas of one of the key figures in the history of modern science.
Charles Darwin: The Concise Story of an Extraordinary Man
by Tim M. BerraTwo hundred years after Charles Darwin's birth (February 12, 1809), this thoroughly illustrated, yet concise biography reveals the great scientist as husband, father, and friend. Tim M. Berra, whose "Darwin: The Man" lectures are in high demand worldwide, tells the fascinating story of the person and the idea that changed everything. Berra discusses Darwin’s revolutionary scientific work, its impact on modern-day biological science, and the influence of Darwin’s evolutionary theory on Western thought. But Berra digs deeper to reveal Darwin the man by combining anecdotes with carefully selected illustrations and photographs. This small gem of a book includes 20 color plates and 60 black-and-white illustrations, along with an annotated list of Darwin’s publications and a chronology of his life.
Charles Darwin: The Concise Story of an Extraordinary Man
by Tim M. BerraA brief biography of English naturalist responsible for the advancement of the science of evolution.Two hundred years after Charles Darwin’s birth (February 12, 1809), this thoroughly illustrated, yet concise biography reveals the great scientist as husband, father, and friend.Tim M. Berra tells the fascinating story of the man and the idea that changed everything. Berra discusses Darwin’s revolutionary scientific work, its impact on modern-day biological science, and the influence of Darwin’s evolutionary theory on Western thought. But Berra digs deeper to reveal Darwin the man by combining anecdotes with carefully selected illustrations and photographs.This small gem of a book includes 20 color plates and 60 black-and-white illustrations, along with an annotated list of Darwin’s publications and a chronology of his life.“Berra meets the essential curiosities a reader new to Darwin will have about a scientist still controversial in some quarters: Berra describes Darwin’s wealthy family background; notes his search for a purpose in life, which led to his embarkation on the survey ship HMS Beagle; chronicles Darwin’s fabled voyage on that ship; steers Darwin into his happy marriage to an heiress to the Wedgwood pottery fortune; and recounts the éclat with which On the Origin of Species burst upon the world in 1859. . . . A finer asset of this volume is its abundance of portraits and illustrations, including a suite of photos taken by Berra of Darwin’s home.” —Booklist
Charles Darwin: The Power of Place
by Janet BrowneIn 1858 Charles Darwin was forty-nine years old, a gentleman scientist living quietly at Down House in the Kent countryside, respected by fellow biologists and well liked among his wide and distinguished circle of acquaintances. He was not yet a focus of debate; his "big book on species" still lay on his study desk in the form of a huge pile of manuscript. For more than twenty years he had been accumulating material for it, puzzling over questions it raised, trying--it seemed endlessly--to bring it to a satisfactory conclusion. Publication appeared to be as far away as ever, delayed by his inherent cautiousness and wish to be certain that his startling theory of evolution was correct.It is at this point that the concluding volume of Janet Browne's biography opens. The much-praised first volume, Voyaging, carried Darwin's story through his youth and scientific apprenticeship, the adventurous Beagle voyage, his marriage and the birth of his children, the genesis and development of his ideas. Now, beginning with the extraordinary events that finally forced the Origin of Species into print, we come to the years of fame and controversy.For Charles Darwin, the intellectual upheaval touched off by his book had deep personal as well as public consequences. Always an intensely private man, he suddenly found himself and his ideas being discussed--and often attacked--in circles far beyond those of his familiar scientific community. Demonized by some, defended by others (including such brilliant supporters as Thomas Henry Huxley and Joseph Hooker), he soon emerged as one of the leading thinkers of the Victorian era, a man whose theories played a major role in shaping the modern world. Yet, in spite of the enormous new pressures, he clung firmly, sometimes painfully, to the quiet things that had always meant the most to him--his family, his research, his network of correspondents, his peaceful life at Down House. In her account of this second half of Darwin's life, Janet Browne does dramatic justice to all aspects of the Darwinian revolution, from a fascinating examination of the Victorian publishing scene to a survey of the often furious debates between scientists and churchmen over evolutionary theory. At the same time, she presents a wonderfully sympathetic and authoritative picture of Darwin himself right through the heart of the Darwinian revolution, busily sending and receiving letters, pursuing research on subjects that fascinated him (climbing plants, earthworms, pigeons--and, of course, the nature of evolution), writing books, and contending with his mysterious, intractable ill health. Thanks to Browne's unparalleled command of the scientific and scholarly sources, we ultimately see Darwin more clearly than we ever have before, a man confirmed in greatness but endearingly human.Reviewing Voyaging, Geoffrey Moorhouse observed that "if Browne's second volume is as comprehensively lucid as her first, there will be no need for anyone to write another word on Darwin." The Power of Place triumphantly justifies that praise.From the Hardcover edition.
Charles Darwin: Victorian Mythmaker
by A N Wilson'Hugely enjoyable' - Spectator'A lucid, elegantly written and thought-provoking social and intellectual history' - Evening Standard'As a historian trying to put Darwin in the context of his time, there is surely no better biographer than Wilson' - The Times'A work of scholarship that is hard to put down' - Deborah CadburyCharles Darwin: the man who discovered evolution? The man who killed off God? Or a flawed man of his age, part genius, part ruthless careerist who would not acknowledge his debts to other thinkers?In this bold new life - the first single volume biography in twenty-five years - A. N. Wilson, the acclaimed author of The Victorians and God's Funeral, goes in search of the celebrated but contradictory figure Charles Darwin.Darwin was described by his friend and champion, Thomas Huxley, as a 'symbol'. But what did he symbolize? In Wilson's portrait, both sympathetic and critical, Darwin was two men. On the one hand, he was a naturalist of genius, a patient and precise collector and curator who greatly expanded the possibilities of taxonomy and geology. On the other hand, Darwin, a seemingly diffident man who appeared gentle and even lazy, hid a burning ambition to be a universal genius. He longed to have a theory which explained everything.But was Darwin's 1859 master work, On the Origin of Species, really what it seemed, a work about natural history? Or was it in fact a consolation myth for the Victorian middle classes, reassuring them that the selfishness and indifference to the poor were part of nature's grand plan? Charles Darwin: Victorian Mythmaker is a radical reappraisal of one of the great Victorians, a book which isn't afraid to challenge the Darwinian orthodoxy while bringing us closer to the man, his revolutionary idea and the wider Victorian age.
Charles Darwin: Victorian Mythmaker
by A N WilsonCharles Darwin: the man who discovered evolution? The man who killed off God? Or a flawed man of his age, part genius, part ruthless careerist who would not acknowledge his debts to other thinkers?In this bold new life - the first single volume biography in twenty-five years - A. N. Wilson, the acclaimed author of The Victorians and God's Funeral, goes in search of the celebrated but contradictory figure Charles Darwin.Darwin was described by his friend and champion, Thomas Huxley, as a 'symbol'. But what did he symbolize? In Wilson's portrait, both sympathetic and critical, Darwin was two men. On the one hand, he was a naturalist of genius, a patient and precise collector and curator who greatly expanded the possibilities of taxonomy and geology. On the other hand, Darwin, a seemingly diffident man who appeared gentle and even lazy, hid a burning ambition to be a universal genius. He longed to have a theory which explained everything.But was Darwin's 1859 master work, On the Origin of Species, really what it seemed, a work about natural history? Or was it in fact a consolation myth for the Victorian middle classes, reassuring them that the selfishness and indifference to the poor were part of Nature's grand plan? Charles Darwin: Victorian Mythmaker is a radical reappraisal of one of the great Victorians, a book which isn't afraid to challenge the Darwinian orthodoxy while bringing us closer to the man, his revolutionary idea and the wider Victorian age.(P)2017 John Murray Press Limited
Charles Darwin: Victorian Mythmaker
by A.N. WilsonA radical reappraisal of Charles Darwin from the bestselling author of Victoria: A Life.With the publication of On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin—hailed as the man who "discovered evolution"—was propelled into the pantheon of great scientific thinkers, alongside Galileo, Copernicus, and Newton. Eminent writer A. N. Wilson challenges this long-held assumption. Contextualizing Darwin and his ideas, he offers a groundbreaking critical look at this revered figure in modern science.In this beautifully written, deeply erudite portrait, Wilson argues that Darwin was not an original scientific thinker, but a ruthless and determined self-promoter who did not credit the many great sages whose ideas he advanced in his book. Furthermore, Wilson contends that religion and Darwinism have much more in common than it would seem, for the acceptance of Darwin's theory involves a pretty significant leap of faith.Armed with an extraordinary breadth of knowledge, Wilson explores how Darwin and his theory were very much a product of their place and time. The "Survival of the Fittest" was really the Survival of Middle Class families like the Darwins—members of a relatively new economic strata who benefited from the rising Industrial Revolution at the expense of the working classes. Following Darwin’s theory, the wretched state of the poor was an outcome of nature, not the greed and neglect of the moneyed classes. In a paradigm-shifting conclusion, Wilson suggests that it remains to be seen, as this class dies out, whether the Darwinian idea will survive, or whether it, like other Victorian fads, will become a footnote in our intellectual history.Brilliant, daring, and ambitious, Charles Darwin explores this legendary man as never before, and challenges us to reconsider our understanding of both Darwin and modern science itself.
Charles Darwin’s Barnacle and David Bowie’s Spider: How Scientific Names Celebrate Adventurers, Heroes, and Even a Few Scoundrels
by Stephen B. HeardAn engaging history of the surprising, poignant, and occasionally scandalous stories behind scientific names and their cultural significance Ever since Carl Linnaeus&’s binomial system of scientific names was adopted in the eighteenth century, scientists have been eponymously naming organisms in ways that both honor and vilify their namesakes. This charming, informative, and accessible history examines the fascinating stories behind taxonomic nomenclature, from Linnaeus himself naming a small and unpleasant weed after a rival botanist to the recent influx of scientific names based on pop-culture icons—including David Bowie&’s spider, Frank Zappa&’s jellyfish, and Beyoncé&’s fly. Exploring the naming process as an opportunity for scientists to express themselves in creative ways, Stephen B. Heard&’s fresh approach shows how scientific names function as a window into both the passions and foibles of the scientific community and as a more general indicator of the ways in which humans relate to, and impose order on, the natural world.
Charles Fort: Prophet of the Unexplained
by Damon KnightFrom the book: Charles Fort was convinced that there is a great deal going on in our universe which man has not as yet been able to explain. He was, of course, right. Fort amassed reports of events allegedly observed by humans around the world. Fort's books are full of reports of strange phenomena-such as those similar in every way to today's reports of flying saucers but centuries before they were called flying saucers. Boole gave scientists a powerful tool for attacking problems when the obvious approaches refused to yield informative results. Boole employed reductio ad absurdum. He exhausted all the impossibles and thereby isolated a "very probable" answer. Charles Fort, failing to gain the publishers'-and thereby society's-consideration of his positive theories, left world society with a Boolean-like confrontation of illogical events. Charles Fort as a man of true vision purposefully inverted the equations. By getting the publishers to publish the absurd, he proved his point that the publishers published only the absurd.
Charles Proteus Steinmetz
by Robert W. BlyRevered in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a genius, but largely forgotten today, Steinmetz made the modern world possible through his revolutionary work on AC electricity transmission, the technology underlying today's power grid. More than just a great scientist and engineer, Steinmetz was also one of the most colorful characters in American life. Standing just four feet tall with a pronounced spine curvature, Steinmetz was as well known for his fiery political opinions, his fierce advocacy for social progress and education, his unusual home life, and his private menagerie as for his technical achievements.
Charles and Ada: The Computer's Most Passionate Partnership
by James Essinger Lisa Noel BabbageThe partnership of Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace was one that would change science forever. They were an unlikely pair – one the professor son of a banker, the other the only child of an acclaimed poet and a social-reforming mathematician – but perhaps that is why their work was so revolutionary. They were the pioneers of computer science, creating plans for what could have been the first computer. They each saw things the other did not: it may have been Charles who designed the machines, but it was Ada who could see their potential. But what were they like? And how did they work together? Using previously unpublished correspondence between them, Charles and Ada explores the relationship between two remarkable people who shared dreams far ahead of their time.
Charles and Emma (The Darwins' Leap of Faith)
by Deborah HeiligmanCharles Darwin published "The Origin of Species", his revolutionary tract on evolution and the fundamental ideas involved, in 1859. 150 years later, the theory of evolution continues to create tension between the scientific and religious communities. This same debate raged within Darwin himself, and played an important part in his marriage: his wife, Emma, was very religious, and her faith challenged Charles as he worked on his theory of evolution.
Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith
by Deborah HeiligmanCharles Darwin published The Origin of Species, his revolutionary tract on evolution and the fundamental ideas involved, in 1859. Nearly 150 years later, the theory of evolution continues to create tension between the scientific and religious communities. Challenges about teaching the theory of evolution in schools occur annually all over the country. This same debate raged within Darwin himself, and played an important part in his marriage: his wife, Emma, was quite religious, and her faith gave Charles a lot to think about as he worked on a theory that continues to spark intense debates.Deborah Heiligman's new biography of Charles Darwin is a thought-provoking account of the man behind evolutionary theory: how his personal life affected his work and vice versa. The end result is an engaging exploration of history, science, and religion for young readers. Charles and Emma is a 2009 National Book Award Finalist for Young People's Literature.
Charlie Numbers and the UFO Bash (The Charlie Numbers Adventures)
by Ben Mezrich Tonya MezrichCharlie and the Whiz Kids must separate fact from otherworldly fiction as they set out to find their missing classmate in this action-packed fourth novel of the Charlie Numbers Adventures series.As his school&’s resident numbers guy, Charlie Lewis has always thought that if something can&’t be proven with a math equation, it might as well be myth—which is exactly how he feels about UFOs. Charlie just can&’t believe in the existence of aliens without verifiable proof. Not even Janice, who&’s the smartest kid Charlie knows, can convince him. But when Charlie&’s classmate Anthem mysteriously disappears after bringing a supposed space rock to show-and-tell, it&’s up the Whiz Kids to uncover the truth. As Charlie and the gang trace Anthem&’s steps to his eerily empty house, it soon becomes clear that perhaps Anthem and his father are involved in something much bigger than a lost rock. From meeting with UFO enthusiasts, sneaking into hidden rooms, and being following by shadowy and dangerous agents, Charlie is finding it more and more difficult to stick to his convictions—because what if aliens do exist?
Charlie Numbers and the Woolly Mammoth (The Charlie Numbers Adventures)
by Ben Mezrich Tonya MezrichCharlie and the Whiz Kids discover a prehistoric mammoth tusk and stumble right into the nefarious clutches of an eccentric billionaire in this hilarious third novel of the Charlie Numbers series.Charlie Numbers and his gang of Whiz Kids—along with a few new allies—are on another mission: this time, to uncover the truth behind the mysterious mammoth tusk they found buried in the Boston Public Gardens. Their hunch? Blake Headstrom, eccentric billionaire, philanthropist, and collector of some renown, has been smuggling mammoth tusks into the city. The only question is: Why? Selling woolly mammoth tusks isn&’t illegal…but selling elephant ivory is. And Charlie&’s certain Headstrom&’s plans are more sinister than they seem. But Headstrom is a powerful man, with powerful connections. If the Whiz Kids want to expose him for the criminal they know he is, they&’re going to have to catch him red-handed. Now if only Headstrom&’s henchmen weren&’t lurking at every turn…
Charlotte the Scientist Finds a Cure (Charlotte the Scientist)
by Camille AndrosIn this empowering picture book with a STEM focus, Charlotte, a budding bunny scientist, ignores the doubters and confidently finds a cure to the mysterious malady affecting the forest. The animals of the forest are all getting sick and no one can figure out why. Determined to get to the bottom of the mystery and help her friends and family, Charlotte dives into some serious medical science. But when the doctors and other scientists don&’t take her work seriously, she sets out to find a cure on her own, determined to show that she can make a difference. This empowering story about a smart, confident bunny encourages girls to be persistent and believe in themselves.
Charlotte the Scientist Is Squished (Charlotte the Scientist)
by Camille Andros Brianne FarleyCharlotte is a serious scientist. She solves important problems by following the scientific method. She has all the right equipment: protective glasses, a lab coat, a clipboard, and a magnifying glass. What she doesn’t have is space. She has so many brothers and sisters (she is a rabbit, after all) that she is too squished to work on her experiments! Can she use science to solve her problem? This funny, satisfying story is a playful introduction to the scientific method and perfect for sparking an interest in STEM subjects.
Charlotte's Bones: The Beluga Whale In A Farmer's Field (Tilbury House Nature Book #0)
by Erin Rounds Alison CarverMany thousands of years ago, when a sheet of ice up to a mile thick began to let go of the land, the Atlantic Ocean flooded great valleys that had been scooped out by glaciers, and the salty waves of an inland sea lapped the green hills of Vermont. Into this arm of the sea swam Charlotte. Her milky, smooth, muscled body sliced slowly through the water like scissors through silk. Like a chirping canary, her voice echoed across dark waters showing the way to her pod as belugas have done for millions of years. In 1849, a crew building a railroad through Charlotte, Vermont, dug up strange and beautiful bones in a farmer’s field. A local naturalist asked Louis Agassiz to help identify them, and the famous scientist concluded that the bones belonged to a beluga whale. But how could a whale’s skeleton have been buried so far from the ocean? The answer—that Lake Champlain had once been an arm of the sea—encouraged radical new thinking about geological time scales and animal evolution. Charlotte’s Bones is a haunting, science-based reconstruction of how Charlotte died 11,000 years ago in a tidal marsh, how the marsh became a field, how Charlotte found a second life as the Vermont state fossil, and what messages her bones whisper to us now about the fragility of life and our changing Earth. Lexile 940; F&P Level P
Charm Production in Deep Inelastic Scattering: Mellin Moments of Heavy Flavor Contributions to F2(x,Q^2) at NNLO (Springer Theses)
by Sebastian KleinThe production of heavy quarks in high-energy experiments offers a rich field to study, both experimentally and theoretically. Due to the additional quark mass, the description of these processes in the framework of perturbative QCD is much more demanding than it is for those involving only massless partons. In the last two decades, a large amount of precision data has been collected by the deep inelastic HERA experiment. In order to make full use of these data, a more precise theoretical description of charm quark production in deep inelastic scattering is needed. This work deals with the first calculation of fixed moments of the NNLO heavy flavor corrections to the proton structure function F2 in the limit of a small charm-quark mass. The correct treatment of these terms will allow not only a more precise analysis of the HERA data, but starting from there also a more precise determination of the parton distribution functions and the strong coupling constant, which is an essential input for LHC physics. The complexity of this calculation requires the application and development of technical and mathematical methods, which are also explained here in detail.
Charming Decays of the Higgs, Z, and W Bosons: Development and Deployment of a New Calibration Method for Charm Jet Identification (Springer Theses)
by Spandan MondalThis book presents searches for the Higgs boson, Z boson, and W boson decaying into charm quark(s) performed with proton-proton collision data at √s = 13TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, CERN, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1 and recorded between 2016 and 2018. The searches are carried out using events in which the Higgs/Z/W boson is produced in association with a leptonically-decaying Z or W boson. This thesis also discusses a novel calibration algorithm for charm jet identification that enables maximal use of the available information related to charm jets. The new method is used to correct the entire distribution expected as output when jet flavour identification algorithms are applied to jets of different flavours. The calibrated results improve over traditional efficiency measurements and help enhance the sensitivities of the Higgs, Z, and W searches. This book primarily reports on the so-called resolved-jet topology of the Higgs/Z/W boson searches, where the boson candidates are reconstructed using two separate small-radius (AK4) jets. Upon statistically combining the results of the resolved-jet search with a complementary merged-jet approach, the observed (expected) upper limit on the Higgs decay to charm quarks corresponds to 14 (7.6) times the Standard Model expectation at the 95% CL which is the most stringent direct limit to date. A significance of 5.7σ (5.9σ) over the background-only prediction is observed (expected) in case of the search for charmed Z boson decays. Only the resolved-jet topology is used in the search for charmed W decays and the observed (expected) significance is 5.6σ (5.7σ) over the background-only prediction. These mark the first observations of charmed decays of the Z and W bosons at a hadron collider experiment.
Charming New Physics in Beautiful Processes? (Springer Theses)
by Matthew John KirkThis PhD thesis is dedicated to a subfield of elementary particle physics called “Flavour Physics”. The Standard Model of Particle Physics (SM) has been confirmed by thousands of experimental measurements with a high precision. But the SM leaves important questions open, like what is the nature of dark matter or what is the origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the Universe. By comparing high precision Standard Model calculations with extremely precise measurements, one can find the first glimpses of the physics beyond the SM – currently we see the first hints of a potential breakdown of the SM in flavour observables. This can then be compared with purely theoretical considerations about new physics models, known as model building. Both precision calculations and model building are extremely specialised fields and this outstanding thesis contributes significantly to both topics within the field of Flavour Physics and sheds new light on the observed anomalies.
Charnolophagy in Health and Disease: With Special Reference to Nanotheranostics
by Sushil SharmaThis book introduces charnolophagy (CP) as energy-driven, lysosomal-dependent mitochondrial inclusion-specific pleomorphic Charnoly body (CB) autophagy (ATG) involving free radical-induced Ca2+ dyshomeostasis, ΔΨ collapse, and ATP depletion in congenital diseases, pressure ulcers, metabolic diseases, hepatic diseases, diabetes, obesity, inflammatory diseases, musculoskeletal diseases, sarcopenia, cachexia, respiratory diseases, gastrointestinal diseases, hyperlipidemia, skin and hair diseases, pulmonary diseases, cardiovascular diseases, renal diseases, sepsis-induced multi-organ failure, reproductive diseases, inflammatory diseases, ophthalmic diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, drug addiction, aging, microbial (including COVID-19) infections, and belligerent malignancies implicated in early morbidity and mortality and disease-specific spatiotemporal, targeted, safe, and effective evidence-based personalized theranostic charnolopharmacotherapeutics to cure them. Basic DRESS and GELS principles, nanoparticles to cure chronic multidrug-resistant (MDR) diseases, antioxidants as free radical scavengers, CB antagonists, CP regulators, and CS stabilizers to curb CB molecular pathogenesis (CBMP) are described for better quality of life and longevity. Specific guidelines for environmental protection and preservation of zoological and botanical species at the verge of extinction, Triple "I" Hypothesis for mitochondrial quality control, and transcriptional regulation of CSexR and CSendoR to cure chronic diseases are presented. Novel CP index is introduced to evaluate MDR malignancies and other chronic diseases. WHO, CDC, FDA, NIH, policy planners, cosmetologists, trichologists, players, athletes, dancers, wrestlers, equestrians, young women, aging population, toxicologists, environmental protectionists, pharmaceutical industry, biomedical scientists, researchers, medical students, physicians, nurses, paramedical professionals, and global audience will be interested in this interesting book to prevent pandemics and raise healthcare awareness.
Charophytes of Europe
by Thomas Gregor Michelle T. Casanova Hendrik Schubert Irmgard Blindow Emile Nat Heiko Korsch Luc Denys Nick Stewart Klaus van de Weyer Roman RomanovThis book covers whole Europe within its geographical limits, providing not only an overview about biogeography and recent taxonomic status of Charophyte species but also in-depth information about recent knowledge about ecology, ontogenesis, morphology, palaeontology and systematics of this group of algae. This is the first comprehensive treatment of European Charophytes. In addition, the reader for the first time is provided by definitions of terms applied to Charophytes, sorting out several previous confusions about terminology. Special attention was paid on oospores in order to exploit their potential for supporting species delineation as well as analysis of sediment records. A red list, dealing also with threats and habitat conditions, completes the book.Altogether more than 70 taxon are described in detail, each of the descriptions giving full information about morphology, habitat conditions, distribution as well as variability; important characters for determination are illustrated by photographs and drawings. Hints for correct determination are given in a separate para, allowing correct species delineation even for critical species. This, together with a set of determination keys, will allow beginners and practitioners to get familiar with the determination of Charophytes, being often regarded notoriously difficult in the past.Authored by a large group of 70 specialists from all over Europe and Overseas, a commonly agreed taxonomy is provided, and all debates about taxonomic status and nomenclatural problems have been discussed beforehand extensively. By this, a sound reference for applied aspects is given, allowing for reliable cross-country comparisons especially with respect to bioindication purposes but also serving ground for biogeographical research, biodiversity issues and the emerging field of elucidating the process of territorialisation of land plants. The authors hope that this book will become the reference work for the coming decades it was designed for.
Charting Environmental Law Futures in the Anthropocene
by Michelle LimThis book explores a range of plausible futures for environmental law in the new era of the Earth’s history: the Anthropocene. The book discusses multiple contemporary and future challenges facing the planet and humanity. It examines the relationship between environmental law and the Anthropocene at governance scales from the global to the local. The breadth of issues and jurisdictions covered by the book, its forward-looking nature, and the unique generational perspective of the contributing authors means that this publication appeals to a wide audience from specialist academics and policy-makers to a broader lay readership.
Charting The Future Of Methane Hydrate Research In The United States
by Committee to Review the Activities Authorized Under the Methane Hydrate Research Development Act of 2000Methane hydrate is a natural form of clathrate - a chemical substance in which one molecule forms a lattice around a "guest" molecule with chemical bonding. In this clathrate, the guest molecule is methane and the lattice is formed by water to form an ice-like solid. Methane hydrate has become the focus of international attention because of the vast potential for human use worldwide. If methane can be produced from hydrate, a reasonable assumption given that there are no obvious technical or engineering roadblocks to commercial production, the nation's natural gas energy supply could be extended for many years to come. This report reviews the Department of Energy's (DOE) Methane Hydrate Research and Development Program, the project selection process, and projects funded to date. It makes recommendations on how the DOE program could be improved. Key recommendations include focusing DOE program emphasis and research in 7 priority areas; incorporating greater scientific oversight in the selection, initiation, monitoring, and assessment of major projects funded by the DOE; strengthening DOE's contribution to education and training through funding of fellowships, and providing project applicants with a set of instructions and guidelines outlining requirements for timely and full disclosure of project results and consequences of noncompliance.