Leading scientists offer a collection of essays that furnish illuminating explanations of recent discoveries in modern astrophysics--from the Big Bang to black holes--the possibility of life on other worlds, and the emerging technologies that make such research possible, accompanied by incisive profiles of such key figures as Carl Sagan and Georges Lemaetre. Original.
The last half century has seen an explosion in the study of late antiquity, which has characterised the period between the third and seventh centuries not as one of catastrophic collapse and ‘decline and fall’, but rather as one of dynamic and positive transformation. Yet research on cities in this period has provoked challenges to this positive picture of late antiquity. This study surveys the nature of this debate, examining problems associated with the sources historians use to examine late antique urbanism, and the discourses and methodological approaches they have constructed from them. It aims to set out the difficulties and opportunities presented by the study of cities in late antiquity in terms of transformations of politics, the economy, and religion, and to show that this period witnessed very real upheaval and dislocation alongside continuity and innovation in cities around the Mediterranean.
Annotation Rodgers (U. of Oxford) provides graduate students and other researchers a background to the inverse problem and its solution, with applications relating to atmospheric measurements. He introduces the stages in the reverse order than the usual approach in order to develop the learner's intuition about the nature of the inverse problem. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.
Who's Who in the Roman World is a wide-ranging biographical survey of one of the greatest civilizations in history. Covering a period from the 5th century BC to AD 364, this is an authoritative and hugely enjoyable guide to an era which continues to fascinate today. The figures included come from all walks of Roman life and include some of history's most famous - not to mention infamous - figures as well as hitherto little-known, but no less fascinating, characters. These include : * the notorious emperors - Caligula; Nero; Elagabalus; Commodus * the great poets, philosophers and historians - Virgil; Tacitus; Seneca; Ovid * the brilliant politicians and soldiers - Hannibal; Scipio; Caesar; Mark Antony; Constantine * noteworthy citizens - Acte, mistress of Nero; Catiline, the revolutionary; Spartacus, champion of the slaves; Gaius Verres, the corrupt governor of Sicily. The inclusion of cross-referencing, a glossary of terms, select bibliographies, maps, genealogies and an author's preface complete what is at once a superb reference resource and an enormously entertaining read.
This book is written for researchers and students interested in the function and role of chemical elements in biological or environmental systems. Experts have long known that the Periodic System of Elements (PSE) provides only an inadequate chemical description of elements of biological, environmental or medicinal importance. This book explores the notion of a Biological System of the Elements (BSE) established on accurate and precise multi-element data, including evolutionary aspects, representative sampling procedures, inter-element relationships, the physiological function of elements and uptake mechanisms. The book further explores the concept Stoichiometric Network Analysis (SNA) to analyze the biological roles of chemical species. Also discussed is the idea of ecotoxicological identity cards which give a first-hand description of properties relevant for biological and toxicological features of a certain chemical element and its geo biochemically plausible speciation form. The focus of this book goes beyond both classical bioinorganic chemistry and toxicology.