This is the remarkable story of an entrepreneurial firm that helped to create the petrochemical industry as we know it today. The author also highlights the important role chemical engineers played in developing and commercializing new technologies based on the conversion of hydrocarbons into petrochemicals, which also led to the transfer of technological dominance from Germany to the United States. These developments are illustrated by the participants’ personal histories, in the form of interviews and recorded oral histories. In addition, the book presents a highly relevant case study for engineers and managers in the chemical industry.
A Cultural History of Chemistry in the Modern Age covers the period from 1914 to the present. The impact of chemistry and the chemical industry on science, war, society, and the economy has made this era the “Chemical Age”. Having prospered in the West, chemical science spread across the globe and slowly became more diversified in terms of its ethnic and gendered mix. After flourishing for sixty years, the chemical industry was impacted by the Oil Crisis of the 1970s and became almost invisible in the West. While the industry has clearly delivered many benefits to society-such as new materials and better drugs-it has been excoriated by critics for its impact on the environment. The 6 volume set of the Cultural History of Chemistry presents the first comprehensive history from the Bronze Age to today, covering all forms and aspects of chemistry and its ever-changing social context. The themes covered in each volume are theory and concepts; practice and experiment; laboratories and technology; culture and science; society and environment; trade and industry; learning and institutions; art and representation. Peter J. T. Morris is Honorary Research Associate at the Science Museum, London, and at University College London, UK Volume 6 in the Cultural History of Chemistry set. General Editors: Peter J. T. Morris, University College London, UK, and Alan Rocke, Case Western Reserve University, USA.
This expansive history traces the hidden connections between oil and capitalism from the late 1800s to the current climate crisis. Beyond simplistic narratives that frame oil as 'prize' or 'curse', Crude Capitalism uncovers the surprising ways that oil is woven into the fabric of our modern world: the rise of an American-centered global order; the breakdown of Empire and anti-colonial rebellion; contemporary finance and US dollar hegemony; debt and militarism; and the emergence of new forms of synthetic consumption. Much more than an energy source or transport fuel, oil has a foundational place in all aspects of contemporary life - no challenge to the fossil fuel industry can be effective without taking this fact seriously. Crude Capitalism maps the varied geographies of oil, including the rise of OPEC, the importance of revolutionary and Post-Soviet Russia, the crucial role of African upstream reserves, and the new petrochemical circuits that link the Middle East, China, and East Asia. The book provides an original and fine-grained empirical analysis of corporate ownership and control, including refining and petrochemicals. By exposing these structures of power and placing oil in capitalism, the book makes an essential contribution to debates around oil-dependency and the struggle for climate justice.
Service science is an emerging field, but many still consider it lacking in substance. This book aims to change the situation by addressing the following questions: What is the big story about service? What are the main research problems in service? What does “a connected world” mean? Does service require a different kind of design science? What will be the next waves of the Web? How to support universal value co-creation? How to unite Cyberspace wilt physical space? Is it feasible to connect information resources everywhere?To answer these questions, the book presents and substantiates a digital connections scaling (DCS) model, complete with a population-oriented design paradigm and a new class of microeconomic production functions to explain the paths of transformation into the future — one of the most original results today. Next, the book analyzes new business designs on the Web and characterizes a service-led revolution for the Knowledge Economy. Thirdly, it develops systems planning and design methods to help implement the DCS model at the level of Information and Database Systems, Business Strategy, and Digitization Engineering, thereby enhancing these fields. Finally, certain intriguing new applications, especially “smart highways” and information supply chains, are discussed.
This volume presents a history of the Spacelab program, which was the first time that the United States space program worked with a foreign agency to design and develop a major element of a manned space vehicle.
This is Volume 2 of the book series The Road to Scientific Success: Inspiring Life Stories of Prominent Researchers. Authoritative scientists describe their life experiences in relation to how success was attained, how their careers were developed, how their research was steered, how priorities were set, and how difficulties were faced.These keys to success serve as a useful guide for anyone looking for advice on how to direct their career and conduct scientific research that will make an impact. The focus on the road to success (rather than scientific findings) and on personal experience aims to inspire and encourage readers to achieve greater success themselves.The objectives of this book series are:
To most of us, learning something "the hard way" implies wasted time and effort. Good teaching, we believe, should be creatively tailored to the different learning styles of students and should use strategies that make learning easier. Make It Stick turns fashionable ideas like these on their head. Drawing on recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and other disciplines, the authors offer concrete techniques for becoming more productive learners. Memory plays a central role in our ability to carry out complex cognitive tasks, such as applying knowledge to problems never before encountered and drawing inferences from facts already known. New insights into how memory is encoded, consolidated, and later retrieved have led to a better understanding of how we learn. Grappling with the impediments that make learning challenging leads both to more complex mastery and better retention of what was learned. Many common study habits and practice routines turn out to be counterproductive. Underlining and highlighting, rereading, cramming, and single-minded repetition of new skills create the illusion of mastery, but gains fade quickly. More complex and durable learning come from self-testing, introducing certain difficulties in practice, waiting to re-study new material until a little forgetting has set in, and interleaving the practice of one skill or topic with another. Speaking most urgently to students, teachers, trainers, and athletes, Make It Stick will appeal to all those interested in the challenge of lifelong learning and self-improvement.
The U.S. scientific community has long led the world in research on such areas as public health, environmental science, and issues affecting quality of life. These scientists have produced landmark studies on the dangers of DDT, tobacco smoke, acid rain, and global warming. But at the same time, a small yet potent subset of this community leads the world in vehement denial of these dangers. Merchants of Doubt tells the story of how a loose-knit group of high-level scientists and scientific advisers, with deep connections in politics and industry, ran effective campaigns to mislead the public and deny well-established scientific knowledge over four decades. Remarkably, the same individuals surface repeatedly-some of the same figures who have claimed that the science of global warming is "not settled" denied the truth of studies linking smoking to lung cancer, coal smoke to acid rain, and CFCs to the ozone hole. "Doubt is our product," wrote one tobacco executive. These "experts" supplied it. Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, historians of science, roll back the rug on this dark corner of the American scientific community, showing how ideology and corporate interests, aided by a too-compliant media, have skewed public understanding of some of the most pressing issues of our era.
The lean entrepreneurship movement has captivated Silicon Valley and entrepreneurs across the country. It's provided an agile framework to develop the right product solution for a given target market, and is now used by almost every fledgling company to do just that. The next challenge is growth - to achieve the financial returns and, more importantly, the impact they dreamed of when starting off on their adventure. Why do some companies realize the VC's goal of a 10x return on investment, while others flounder? What differentiates the companies that become part of the fabric of our lives and remain responsive, no matter how big they get from those that quickly fade? To find out, Ammirati looks at 20 different companies in pairs, who have achieved product-market fit at about the same point in history with the same general target customer-one of which has gone on to achieve real scale, while the other languished. As his research reveals, just a handful of choices-among them, who to partner with, how to finance growth, and how to use data-make all the difference in the world. With such intriguing examples as LinkedIn vs. Spoke, Facebook vs. Friendster, and McDonald's vs. White Castle, Ammirati shows the secret of "the science of growth" and how to cultivate it in any organization.
What is understanding and how does it differ from knowledge? How can we determine the big ideas worth understanding? Why is understanding an important teaching goal, and how do we know when students have attained it? How can we create a rigorous and engaging curriculum that focuses on understanding and leads to improved student performance in today's high-stakes, standards-based environment? Authors Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe answer these and many other questions in this second edition of Understanding by Design. Drawing on feedback from thousands of educators around the world who have used the UbD framework since its introduction in 1998, the authors have greatly revised and expanded their original work to guide educators across the K-16 spectrum in the design of curriculum, assessment, and instruction. With an improved UbD Template at its core, the book explains the rationale of backward design and explores in greater depth the meaning of such key ideas as essential questions and transfer tasks. Readers will learn why the familiar coverage- and activity-based approaches to curriculum design fall short, and how a focus on the six facets of understanding can enrich student learning. With an expanded array of practical strategies, tools, and examples from all subject areas, the book demonstrates how the research-based principles of Understanding by Design apply to district frameworks as well as to individual units of curriculum. Combining provocative ideas, thoughtful analysis, and tested approaches, this new edition of Understanding by Design offers teacher-designers a clear path to the creation of curriculum that ensures better learning and a more stimulating experience for students and teachers alike.
