This fourth edition provides new and updated protocols on plant cell, tissue, and organ cultures. Chapters are divided into five parts that cover topics from general methodologies, statistical analysis and contamination control, highly specialized techniques, and laborious process of measuring the epigenetics changes in tissue cultures. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biol…
According to the 2018/2019 survey on Drug use in Secondary Education in Spain (ESTUDES), alcohol consumption is widespread among secondary education students. Almost 80% (77.9%) reported consuming alcohol at least once in their lifetime (76.3% in men and 79.4% in women), 77.5% consumed it sometime during the past year (74.1% in men and 77.5% in women), and 58.5% reported doing so sometime in th…
Alcohol caused 6.7% of all disability-adjusted life years (i.e., years of life lost due to premature mortality plus years lost to disability stemming from alcohol) in the Americas in 2016. The Americas had some of the highest rates of alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders in the world. In 2016, nearly 1 in every 12 adults (8.2%) in the Americas met criteria for an al…
Alcohol, whether you drink or not, is a commonly used drug you may interact with as a health professional in your community. The Alcohol and Health Series provides an opportunity to learn about alcohol from many different angles. This resources focuses on alcohol and the human body. Alcohol is a legally available drug in Alberta for those over 18 years old. Alcohol’s chemical name is ethanol …
Welcome to the Universe is a personal guided tour of the cosmos by three of today's leading astrophysicists. Inspired by the enormously popular introductory astronomy course that Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, and J. Richard Gott taught together at Princeton, this book covers it all—from planets, stars, and galaxies to black holes, wormholes, and time travel. Describing the lates…
The oceans are our planet's most distinctive and imposing natural habitat. They cover 71 percent of its surface; support a remarkably diverse and exquisitely adapted array of life forms, from microscopic viruses, bacteria, and plankton to the largest existing animals; and possess many of Earth's most significant, intriguing, and inaccessible ecosystems. In an era in which humans are significant…
Forests are home to a huge variety of plant and animal life – from tiny microscopic fungi species, to enormous trees that are sometimes taller than 80 metres high. Forests provide vital services that ensure people have clean air to breathe and water to drink (and they do it all for free!). For some people, the forest is a place where they go for work, for religious practices or even just for …
For Americans, preparedness must now account for man-made disasters as well as natural ones. Knowing what to do during an emergency is an important part of being prepared and may make all the difference when seconds count. Some of the things you can do to prepare for the unexpected, such as making an emergency supply kit and developing an emergency plan, are the same for both a natural or man-m…
The interplay between Geology and Biology has shaped the Earth from the early Precambrian, 4 billion years ago. Moving beyond the borders of the classical core disciplines, Geobiology strives to identify chains of cause-and-effect and synergisms between the geo- and the biospheres that have been driving the evolution of life in modern and ancient environments. Combining modern methods, geobiolo…
Earned Outstanding Academic Title distinction for Earth Sciences titles 2010 from the library magazine CHOICE While the human imprint is becoming increasingly apparent, Earth’s climate has shifted dramatically and frequently during the last few million years, alternating between ice ages, when vast glaciers covered Northern Europe and much of North America, and interglacials ? warm periods…
What are the forces behind ballistics? Why do rocks and rockets soar through the air in an arch? The game is on the line. Suddenly, you hear the crack of a bat and the roar of crowd. Where will the ball land? How far will it travel? Is it a home run? You might think that hitting a home run or nailing a three-pointer is just luck, but there are many forces at work that determine if you’v…
So warned the appalled editor of theChurch of England Magazine in 1840, after leaving a talk in a socialist hall by the London wine merchant and museum owner William Devonshire Saull (1783–1855). It was a reminder that the new science of the earth was not only startling and fashionable, but dangerous in dirty hands. Dissidents were harnessing geological armaments for use against t…
The atmosphere is a soup of chemicals. About seventy-eight percent of the soup is nitrogen and twenty-one percent is oxygen. The remaining one percent is a mix of the other gases, which play important role in health of the ecosystem. We move through this gaseous soup every day, pushing aside or breathing in billions of its moleculles. These moleculles not static, they are constantly interacting…
Frogs have played so central a role in biological research that many people’s only memory of actual biological study involves dissecting one in high school. It’s no surprise, then, that frogs have been central to scientifc discovery for centuries. Marcello Malpighi had at least an inkling of the concept we now call “model organisms.” He repeatedly extolled the frog as an out…
Today, a large set of engineering tasks is supported by mathematical models related to various scientific disciplines. This set of tasks is called Model-Based Engineer-ing (MBE). In this book, we restrict our attention to geometrical or morphological models, thermal models, mechanical models and statistical models, at various scales. The related ma…
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are ubiquitous, soil-borne, endophytic, obli-gate biotrophs that colonize the roots of 70–90% of terrestrial plants in various soil types and environmental conditions to establish mutually beneficial relationships (Branco et al. 2022; Shi et al. 2023). The evolutionary trajectory of AMF has been intrinsically tied t…
The aim of the monograph is to present the most significant results concerning the developed prototype of the biomimetic Multi-Spiked Connecting Scaffold (MSC-Scaffold) fixing in the periarticular bone of the components of a new generation of entirely non-cemented resurfacing arthroplasty (RA) endoprostheses, obtained by our bioengineering team during the real…
This resource is part of a series produced by the Zoological Society of London and the University of Cambridge, which aims to (1) assess seabirds’ vulnerability to climate change in the North-East Atlantic, and (2) identify potential conservation actions that could reduce this vulnerability. This guidance collates information fromthe scientifc literature, non-governmental organisations’ …
The original aim of the project was to co-produce knowledge ethically on climate change adaptation in collaboration with the reindeer Sámi communities and aca-demia by using the search conference method. This approach entails community members coming together to reflect in a structured way on problems affecting their community and seeking common ground on how to understand…
The ocean is of great importance to earth, not just to coastal nations but also to landlocked communities and countries. The ocean regulates our planet. It produces vast amounts of the oxygen we breathe and acts as a global climate control system by absorbing, storing, and releasing heat and gasses. It is a source of food and essential nutri…
In 2020, the invisible realm of micro-matter came to shape our lives in unprecedented ways. A virus so small that it is only visible through advanced electron microscopes suddenly threatened global economies, brought healthcare systems to the brink of collapse, pushed countless people into extreme poverty, amplified fierce political and social …
This text advances from the basic laws of electricity and magnetism to classical electromagnetism in a quantum world. Suitable for first-year graduate students in physics who have taken an undergraduate course in electromagnetism, it focuses on core concepts and related aspects of math and physics. Progressing from the basic laws of electricity and magnetism and their unification by Maxwell an…
Classical electromagnetism - one of the fundamental pillars of physics - is an important topic for all types of physicists from the theoretical to the applied. The subject is widely recognized to be one of the most challenging areas of the physics curriculum, both for students to learn and for lecturers to teach. Although textbooks on electromagnetism are plentiful, hardly any are written in th…
Trawling has been recognised as a profoundly damaging practice with lasting nega-tive consequences on seabed ecology and marine life since its first mention in a 1376 parliamentary petition. Mobile fishing gear (including any dredge, trawl, or similar device) is used to tow or push a net with a boat to catch fish. Bottom trawl-ing, in particular, grew from a need to kee…
The global production of plastics continues to increase year on year, with 460 million tonnes produced in 2019 (OECD 2022). This is likely to increase, with projections from a business-as-usual scenario predicting a threefold increase in the amount of plastics use, waste, and cumulative presence in aquatic environments (OECD 2022). The most recent …
In many countries, policies regarding reduction of unwanted catch anddiscards are crafted in response to concerns regarding accountability, conservation,and waste as well as scientific needs to fully account for all sources offishingmortality. It is important to note, however, that unwanted catch is minimal andmost, or all, of the catch has value in somefisheries. Utilisation rates are very hig…
After 30 years of research, the author of The History of Correlation organized his notes into a manuscript draft during the lockdown months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Getting it into shape for publication took another few years. It was a labor of love. Readers will enjoy learning in detail how correlation evolved from a completely non-mathematical concept to one today that is virtually always vi…
The story of two brilliant nineteenth-century scientists who discovered the electromagnetic field, laying the groundwork for the amazing technological and theoretical breakthroughs of the twentieth centuryTwo of the boldest and most creative scientists of all time were Michael Faraday (1791-1867) and James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879). This is the story of how these two men - separated in age by f…
Calculus is the key to much of modern science and engineering. It is the mathematical method for the analysis of things that change, and since in the natural world we are surrounded by change, the development of calculus was a huge breakthrough in the history of mathematics. But it is also something of a mathematical adventure, largely because of the way infinity enters at virtually every twist…
The proof, at last, that we do all live in a random and irrational universe. For centuries scientists believed that the universe was a vast machine - with enough detail, you could predict exactly what would happen. Admittedly real life wasn't like that. But only, they argued, because we didn't have enough data to be certain. Then the cracks began to appear. It proved impossible to predict…
In Science for Life acclaimed science writer Brian Clegg cuts through the vested interests and confusing contradictory statements that litter the media and the internet, to give a clear picture of what science is telling us right now about changing our lives for the better. Discover the much-advertised antioxidants that aren't good for you, the truth about fat and sugar and why one of the he…
A semi-popular science book on reproductive genetics: why, you may ask? Because reproduc-tion is the central theme in both biology and evolutionary biology.How can a species persist? The relay baton in the form of the fusion of the egg and sperm cell creates a new generation that gets to run another lap and pass on the baton. What lies behind this metaphor, and how does it work? What are the im…
Have you ever wondered what humans did before numbers existed? How they organized their lives, traded goods, or kept track of their treasures? What would your life be like without them? Numbers began as simple representations of everyday things, but mathematics rapidly took on a life of its own, occupying a parallel virtual world. In Are Numbers Real? Brian Clegg explores the way that maths …
For thousands of years, mathematicians have used the timeless art of logic to see the world more clearly. In The Art of Logic, Royal Society Science Book Prize nominee Eugenia Cheng shows how anyone can think like a mathematician - and see, argue and think better. Learn how to simplify complex decisions without over-simplifying them. Discover the power of analogies and the dangers of false e…
"[Cheng] does a great service by showing us non-mathematician schlubs how real mathematical creativity works." -- Wall Street Journal How big is the universe? How many numbers are there? And is infinity + 1 is the same as 1 + infinity? Such questions occur to young children and our greatest minds. And they are all the same question: What is infinity? In Beyond Infinity, Eugenia Cheng takes u…
This book journeys into one of the most fascinating intellectual adventures of recent decades - understanding and exploring the final fate of massive collapsing stars in the universe. The issue is of great interest in fundamental physics and cosmology today, from both the perspective of gravitation theory and of modern astrophysical observations. This is a revolution in the making and may be in…
Volume 2 covers knowledge discovery in particle and astroparticle physics. Instruments gather petabytes of data and machine learning is used to process the vast amounts of data and to detect relevant examples efficiently. The physical knowledge is encoded in simulations used to train the machine learning models. The interpretation of the learned models serves to expand the physical knowledge re…
From 1814, linked to their educational work, Jesuits made significant contributions to the natural sciences, especially in the fields of astronomy, meteorology, seismology, terrestrial magnetism, mathematics, and biology in a worldwide network of universities, secondary schools and observatories.; Readership: All interested in the history of Jesuits and their contribution to the natural science…
The evolution of Australian radio astronomy from 1945 to 1960 has been studied in detail by numerous historians of science in recent years. This Open Access book is the first to present an overview of this remarkable chapter in Australian science. The book begins in the post-war period, as the Radiophysics Laboratory in Sydney switched from secret wartime research on radar to peacetime applicat…
Although (Soddy, Nature 92:399–400,1913)inferred the existence of isotopes early lastcentury, it was not until the discovery of theneutron by (Chadwick, Nature 129:312,1932)that isotopes were understood to result fromdiffering numbers of neutrons in atomicnuclei. (Urey, J Chem Soc 1947:562–581,1947) predicted that different isotopes wouldbehave slightly differently in chemical (andphys…
The National Mineral Deposit Database of China (2002)(also referred to as the Database 2002) has been ranking topin terms of daily data distribution volume in the NationalGeological Archives of China (also referred to as theNGAC). However, it cannot be updated in a sustainablemanner and cannot provide up-to-date, comprehensive dataat present. Therefore, a new edition of the database isurgently …
ifferential operators on metric graphs appear naturally in numerous applications where one is interested in describing transport or propagation of waves on a metric graph—a set of edges (bonds) joined at their end-points forming vertices (summits). Such problems became popular in the last two decades and are known nowadays as quantum graphs, despite that it is n…
From the rings of Saturn to the "canals" of Mars and the Great Red Dot of Jupiter, the planets of our Solar System have long fascinated humanity. Featuring many striking photos, this Very Short Introduction offers a fascinating portrait of the unique world of each planet as well as an illuminating discussion of moons, asteroids, and Trans-Neptunian objects. Leading planetary scientist David A. …
In Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction, best-selling author Frank Close provides a compelling and lively introduction to the fundamental particles that make up the universe. The book begins with a guide to what matter is made up of and how it evolved, and goes on to describe the fascinating and cutting-edge techniques used to study it. The author discusses particles such as quarks, elec…
This open access book provides a comprehensive exploration of the relationship between fungi and grapevines, covering contemporary mycological classifications, pathogens, the mycobiome, endophytes, and mycorrhizae. Inspired by the French book "La Vigne, Maladies Fongiques" by the same authors, which won first prize at the 2015 OIV book competition (Organisation Internationale de la Vigne et du …
n this chapter we motivate the study of disordered media through the example of a porous system. The basic terms in percolation theory are introduced, and you learn how to generate, visualize and measure on percolation systems in Python. We demonstrate how to find exact results for small systems in two dimensions by addressing all configuration…
This open access book explores the complementarity of hydropower with new energy sources such as solar and wind in the global energy transition. It analyzes the technological advantages, environmental impacts, and economic potential of combining hydropower and new energy sources, while examining the related policies and market mechanisms. Through a multidimensional approach, the book demonstrat…
This open access book provides graduate students and scientists with fundamental knowledge on the mechanics of granular suspensions as well as on the mathematical and numerical techniques that can be adopted to investigate geophysical flows. To this end, three formidably complex problems (sediment transport, flow-like landslide inception, and gravity currents) are considered. The reader will fi…
This open access textbook introduces beginning undergraduate students and high school students to the world of quantum mechanics and atomic spectroscopy. Requiring no previous knowledge of physics and no math beyond basic algebra and sines and cosines, this book focuses on concepts to make the excitement of atomic physics more accessible for learners than ever before. It comes replete with lear…
Paper, milk, clouds and white paint share a common property: they are opaque disordered media through which light scatters randomly rather than propagating in a straight path. For very thick and turbid media, indeed, light eventually propagates in a ‘diffusive’ way, i.e. similarly to how tea infuses through hot water. Frequently though, a material is neither perfectly opaque nor transparent…