For the millions who remain curious about the world around them, but gained little from science at school, this book offers a way forward. Based on live discussions with adults from all walks of life, each chapter begins with an everyday experience, like swallowing a pill or watching a bee on a flower. The main scientific ideas underlying each topic are then explored, so that understanding of a set of fundamental concepts builds up gradually throughout the book. In contrast to more traditional approaches to science learning, topics range freely across the subject areas. The story of Covid, for example includes aspects of biology, chemistry, mathematics and social behaviour. Plain English is used throughout and mathematical expressions are avoided. Key points are illustrated with clear diagrams and photographs. By drawing on questions and perspectives of ordinary people, the book offers an introduction to basic ideas in science as a whole, rather than any one particular subject. For the adult wishing to make good a gap in their understanding it provides a starting point for entering the rich world of popular science.

It presents the research that addresses a diverse array of topics on the impact of climate change on plant-microbe interactions and microbial aquatic life, change-induced aggravations in microbial populations and processes. The book also addresses microbial foodborne diseases resulting from challenging climates. Other topics include algae as indicators of climate change and strategies for facilitating sustainable agro-ecosystems.

"Origin of the Earth" is an outgrowth of the Lunar and Planetary Institute Conference on the Origin of the Earth, which was held in Berkeley, California, in December 1988, with leading earth and planetary scientists participating. Among the topics covered are theoretical models of the solar nebula, planetary accretion and models of the differentiation of the Earth into the familiar regimes of hydrosphere, crust, mantle and core. A central theme of the book is a discussion of the "giant impact" model for the formation of the Moon. This popular model of lunar origin has severe implications for the early history of the Earth. Contributors discuss whether the "giant impact" model is incorrect in relation to the Earth, or whether natural processes conspired to erase all traces of its consequences. These and other issues related to the Earth's origin and early differentiation are covered.

The ancient Greeks called it Gaia; the Romans Terra. We know it simply as Earth, the planet we call home. And what a planet it is. Formed around 4.6 billion years ago from the debris of the big bang and long-dead stars, at first it was nothing special, but somehow it evolved to become the most amazing place in the known Universe. The only living planet we know of, it also has a very unusual moon, a remarkably dynamic surface, a complex atmosphere and a deeply mysterious interior. This is Planet Earth is dedicated to the wonders of Planet Earth. Its past is long and dramatic and its future shrouded in mystery. Yet despite centuries of research, only now are we starting to understand Earth's complexity. ABOUT THE SERIES New Scientist Instant Expert books are definitive and accessible entry points to the most important subjects in science; subjects that challenge, attract debate, invite controversy and engage the most enquiring minds. Designed for curious readers who want to know how things work and why, the Instant Expert series explores the topics that really matter and their impact on individuals, society, and the planet, translating the scientific complexities around us into language that's open to everyone, and putting new ideas and discoveries into perspective and context.

Earth Systems Protection and Sustainability qualifies imperatives and discusses the use of mathematical approaches to assess and achieve sustainability in threatened and vulnerable Earth systems globally. Mathematical advances in this context include both operational and Boolean methods, as well as linguistic, logic-based Bayesian approaches and generative mathematics relevant to scenario formation. The mathematic methods are refined into functional areas and deeper learning, which enable the use of searching algorithms to achieve optimal solutions for the circular nature and application of sustainability. Pertinent sections and synergistic elements are covered in order to synthesize key informative nodes, advising of the very real dangers facing planet Earth and its biodiversity. Each volume stands in its own right. Analytical and scientific chapters are blended with social resilience and socio-economic development consideration, thus enabling the settings of sustainability within varying scenarios of climatic forces and species dynamics. Volume 1 focuses on ground-breaking evolutionary expansion assisting with life's continuation on Earth, sustainable management of pathogens and halophyte uses in agroecology, bioremediation methods in drilling waste management, conservation and sustainability of diversity, climate change mitigation strategies, displacement management in a large scale ongoing crisis, risk reduction and management policy, sustainably intelligent-driven markets, sustainability consensus in an uncertain environment and path planning in static and dynamic environments. Pictorial contributions made from across the world refine particularly urgent problems for attention, and provide solutions and methods of environmental sustainability operated in communities, complementing the descriptive chapter sections. Both volumes are targeted for a global audience of academic, professional, classroom, governmental, unit and community members, and seek to include all sectors to ensure ongoing and comprehensive Earth Systems Protection.

Unifies the simulation of all earthquake processes For researchers and specialist practitioners A unique presentation of a powerful emerging set of techniques

Focusing on systemic risks caused by climate change, this book examines how these risks can be effectively regulated to ensure resilience and avoid catastrophe. Systemic risks are risks that threaten the systems upon which society depends, including ecosystems, social systems, financial systems, and systems of infrastructure. Such risks are typically characterised by inherent complexity, profound uncertainty, and overwhelming ambiguity. In combination, these features pose significant regulatory challenges for policy and law-makers. Examining how different types of systemic risks caused by climate change are being regulated in four different jurisdictions - the EU, the UK, the US and Australia - this book identifies deficiencies associated with regulating systemic risks using a traditional approach, based on a linear relationship between risk and regulation, which is widely used to regulate risk. The book advances a regulatory approach that is, instead, founded on the concept of "risk governance". This involves a structured yet flexible, holistic, interdisciplinary and inclusive basis for responding to systemic risks; and it is, this book argues, a more effective basis for regulating systemic risks given their uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. This book will appeal to academics, policy and law-makers and practitioners working at the intersection of law and policy in the areas of regulation, risk management and climate change.

Develops theoretical background for real time SHM without assuming previous knowledge of the readers Simulates numerical systems and provide relevant code snippets Conducts experiments based on the demonstrations provided in the chapters and provide relevant benchmark results Establishes multidisciplinary applications for disparate industrial fields

Valorization of Dredged Sediments as Sustainable Construction Resources provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of research on the reuse of sediments as a raw material for civil engineering fields. Dredging is increasing in scale worldwide, while deep sea disposal is being eliminated and landfill disposal is becoming less sustainable. Yet these sediments offer a potentially useful resource for constructing pavements, soil, bricks, ceramic and clinker, for they provide fine and lightweight aggregates, supplementary cementitious materials and geopolymer binders. This has sparked considerable research on valorization, which is presented here. Covers the main re-uses of sediments and the valorization required Focuses on state-of-the-art research on practical guidance Discusses limitations and future perspectives for sediments valorization The book suits researchers and students working in the area, as well as industrial engineers and professionals working on recycling and dredging.

This book addresses development laws for axial strain and excess pore water pressure in silty clay around subway shield tunnels before and after freezing-thawing when subjected to subway loading, as well as the effect of freezing-thawing on the dynamic parameters of silty clay, including the dynamic modulus and damping ratio, introducing readers to the design and construction of bypasses in subway tunnels with the artificial freezing method. On this basis, it then studies the microstructures of silty clay before and after freezing-thawing cyclic loading by means of scanning electron microscope tests and mercury intrusion porosimetry tests. Lastly, the book presents a numerical simulation of the dynamics of silty clay around subway tunnels before and after thawing. Given its scope, it offers a valuable reference guide for construction researchers and designers alike, as well as senior undergraduate and graduate students at colleges and universities.

This book provides a general introduction to the most important geophysical exploration methods and their application to forensic sciences. It describes physical principles, campaign procedures and processing, as well as interpretation techniques, while also highlighting new acquisition and data analysis procedures. A large section of the book is devoted to applications, from measurements to the interpretation of data. Further, the book shows how to design and perform a forensic survey, and offers guidance on selecting the best method for the problem at hand, and on selecting the best type of data acquisition and processing. Written in straightforward language and chiefly intended as an introductory text for students in several scientific fields, the book also offers a useful guide for specialists who want to expand their expertise in this fascinating discipline.

Is the earth's climate really heating up? Are humans really responsible for the coming climatic disaster? Is there such a thing as a "tipping point" after which the climate warming will run an inexorable course culminating in an utter disaster of incalculable magnitude? Will the rising sea levels from the melting of Arctic and Antarctic ice and other sources of permafrost inundate large tracts of land, destroying cities and other major population centers? Will there be a great increase in the frequency and intensity of cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons? Will there be widespread droughts, mass starvation, pestilence and resulting wars? Will, in the end, life on Earth cease to exist? These are some of the things about which our leaders are warning us.

Or, are we going to experience another Ice Age with equally unpleasant catastrophe? If humans are responsible, how exactly have we brought this upon ourselves? Most importantly, can we do anything to remedy past and current mistakes and stave off the calamity? What steps are politically and economically possible? And are there any other reasonable, alternative ways we can hold the climatic status quo which have not been thought of yet but need to be?

This issue is a collection of the papers read at the 'Workshop on Geomagnetic Observatory and Survey Practice' held during the XIVth General Assembly of IUGG (the International Union of Geology and Geophysics) in Hamburg, August 1983, sponsored by Division V of the International Association of Geomagnetism and Aeronomy (IAGA). The papers represent a snapshot taken at a very important time in the history of Geomagnetism and of the sciences which depend on measurements of one kind or another of the Earth's magnetic field. Research science now demands a much greater amount of information to be prepared and immediately made available to the scientific user. Experimental measurements are now required to be reduced, selected and made ready as information which can be recorded as data on magnetic tape in the form required for direct incorporation into the analytical programmes whiCh individual researchers run on digital computers. Computing has reduced the lead time between when observations are made and when they are required by researchers. Many scientific programmes, particularly those related to Solar-terrestrial geophysics, need data to be analysed as near as possible to the time it is recorded. In Geomagnetism these pressures apply to field variations where satellite based geophysical experiments require high resolution of the fine structure of external disturbance fields, and also to field mapping on a global and local scale where the demand for increased accuracy calls for better absolute observations and more frequent surveys.

The book deals primarily with the aspects of advances in Self-Potential geophysical data modeling, different interpretation techniques, new ideas and an integrated study to delineate the subsurface structures associated with exploration, contamination, buried paleochannels, archaeological investigations, glaciology, geomorphology, subsurface mapping and also in hydrocarbon exploration.The book is specifically aimed with the state-of-art information regarding research advances and new development in these areas of study, coupled to extensive modelling and field investigations obtained from around the world. It is extremely enlightening for the students, research workers, scientists, faculty members in Applied Geophysics, Near Surface Geophysics, Potential field, Electrical and Electromagnetic methods, Mathematical Modeling Techniques in Earth Sciences, as well as Environmental and other practical problems associated with Earth Sciences.

This book focuses on describing and applying risk analysis of vapour cloud explosions (VCEs) in various oil and gas facilities, such as petrol stations, processing plants, and offshore platforms. Discussing most of the complicated features of gas explosion accidents, the book studies in detail the gas explosion risk analysis approaches of different oil and gas facilities in order to develop more accurate, detailed, efficient and reliable risk analysis methods for VCEs under different conditions. Moreover, it introduces an advanced overpressure approach to predict VCEs using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling, and details applications of CFD using a FLame ACceleration Simulator (FLACS). The book is intended for researchers and organisations engaged in risk and safety assessments of VCEs in the oil and gas industry.

This book adopts numerical method to model soil constitutive relationship while it abandons the traditional idea of looking for plastic potential as the only way to model. Firstly, the triaxial compression tests of expansive soil, sand and clay under different stress paths are introduced; then the elastoplastic constitutive equations of expansive soil, sand and clay under various stress paths are established by numerical modeling method; finally, the constitutive equations are embedded in the finite element program and verified by comparing the finite element calculation results of the triaxial test soil samples with the corresponding test results. The modeling obtains high accuracy.

Given their tremendous success in commercial applications, machine learning (ML) models are increasingly being considered as alternatives to science-based models in many disciplines. Yet, these "black-box" ML models have found limited success due to their inability to work well in the presence of limited training data and generalize to unseen scenarios. As a result, there is a growing interest in the scientific community on creating a new generation of methods that integrate scientific knowledge in ML frameworks. This emerging field, called scientific knowledge-guided ML (KGML), seeks a distinct departure from existing "data-only" or "scientific knowledge-only" methods to use knowledge and data at an equal footing. Indeed, KGML involves diverse scientific and ML communities, where researchers and practitioners from various backgrounds and application domains are continually adding richness to the problem formulations and research methods in this emerging field. Knowledge Guided Machine Learning: Accelerating Discovery using Scientific Knowledge and Data provides an introduction to this rapidly growing field by discussing some of the common themes of research in KGML using illustrative examples, case studies, and reviews from diverse application domains and research communities as book chapters by leading researchers. KEY FEATURES First-of-its-kind book in an emerging area of research that is gaining widespread attention in the scientific and data science fields Accessible to a broad audience in data science and scientific and engineering fields Provides a coherent organizational structure to the problem formulations and research methods in the emerging field of KGML using illustrative examples from diverse application domains Contains chapters by leading researchers, which illustrate the cutting-edge research trends, opportunities, and challenges in KGML research from multiple perspectives Enables cross-pollination of KGML problem formulations and research methods across disciplines Highlights critical gaps that require further investigation by the broader community of researchers and practitioners to realize the full potential of KGML

This book presents the outcome of an interdisciplinary and international workshop supported by the Volkswagen Stiftung (funding line 'Knowledge for Tomorrow') on the topic of 'Natural Resources, Socio-Ecological Sensitivity and Climate Change in the Volta-Oti Basin, West Africa'. The conference was jointly organised by Goethe-University Frankfurt (Germany) and the University of Kara (Togo) held from March 6 to 8, 2019 in northern Togo. It aimed to strengthen capacities of junior scientists from the sub-region, exchange and mobilise theoretical and methodological background from various scientific fields (Botany, Construction, Geology, Geography, Infrastructure, Politics, Remote Sensing, Sociology and Urban Planning). One goal was to deliver reliable elements for ongoing and profound environmental analyses that lie outside the common questions of the academic and civil society stakeholders. Ecosystem fragmentation and deforestation in West Africa are mainly triggered by humans such as agriculture and small-scale forest disturbances for charcoal and firewood production. Increasing population pressure, declining of carrying capacity and demand for agricultural land caused the reduction of land conservation capacities, even in protected areas. The complexity of interactions between environmental and socio-ecological systems and subsequent effects (sensitivity) has raised ongoing international awareness in light of ongoing climate change. By the example of natural resources, land use and stakeholders' perceptions within the Volta-Oti Basin the book's proceedings present, discuss and distribute new findings that will sustainably stimulate the international debate. The workshop also intended to overcome national borders and language barriers between the Anglophone (Ghana) and the Francophone (Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Togo) research communities, and supported better West African cooperation and networking. The young as well as the established partners formed new collaborations, and the event at the University of Kara (Togo) was a truly unique opportunity for all involved, not only to discuss science, but also to assess applied and best future management practices for the Oti-Volta Basin in West Africa.

This book gives a comprehensive introduction to the new geophysical detection theories, methods and technologies of tunnel engineering under complex geological conditions and environments. It mainly focuses on the application of 3D seismic technique, 3D high-power resistivity sounding, and 3D GPR, etc. There are 7 chapters in the book. Chapter 1 introduces the state of the art and developing trends of geophysical detection technologies for tunnel engineering. Chapter 2 analyzes the complex geological conditions and environments for tunnel construction and the latest geophysical detection technologies. Chapter 3 to Chapter 7 systematically elaborate on the 3D seismic techniques, 3D detection technologies for water content in tunnel surrounding rocks, 3D detection technologies for side/back slope, 3D detection technologies for shield tunneling, and 3D detection technologies for collapse treatment of tunnel construction. The book presents numerous case studies to illustrate the applications of these technologies.

- Provides a unified treatise of scientific and engineering aspects of earthquakes - Offers clear definitions and explanation of fundamental concepts. - Comprehensively explains procedures for determining factors/parameters essential in science and engineering of earthquakes. - Gives an inside view of procedures and solution techniques

Turbulence in Open Channel and River Flows covers turbulence and related fluid mechanics in open-channel flows, addressing both basic mechanisms and their applications. It helps readers understand the organized motion involved in turbulent flow and apply this understanding to the practice of hydraulic engineering, including mass and sediment transport. Chapters cover mathematical expansion procedures and basic fluid mechanics to help readers understand essentially physical phenomena, and present special techniques for measurement and accurate direct observation of open-channel turbulence in laboratory flumes or natural rivers. Topics related to environmental management and turbulence-related disasters are addressed. Includes detailed mathematical expansions and supporting supplements in an appendix Presents the mathematics and fluid mechanics needed to understand turbulence in open channels Includes experimental topics from the author's research, encouraging readers to measure and accurately observe turbulence in laboratories and rivers The book is ideal for graduate students, researchers and engineers in hydraulics and hydromechanics.

The integration of programming examples enhances the understanding of the theory Uses open-source Python which allows for easy programming and immediate visualization of results Easily integratable in modeling courses, including online teaching Covers a range of modeling techniques not covered in any other textbook Builds on example problems of increasing complexity

Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Coastal and Estuarine Studies, Volume 58.Hypoxia is a condition that occurs when dissolved oxygen falls below the level necessary to sustain most animal life. In U.S. coastal waters, and in the entire western Atlantic, we find the largest hypoxic zone in the northern Gulf of Mexico on the Louisiana/Texas continental shelf. The area affected, which is about the size of the state of New Jersey at its maximal extent, has increased since regular measurements began in 1985. Sediment cores from the hypoxic zone also show that algal production and deposition, as well as oxygen stress, were much lower earlier in the 190Os and that significant increases occurred in the latter half of the twentieth century. We publish this book against the background of such measurements, and to review how the developing and expanding hypoxic zone has affected living resources on this continental shelf.

Provides a well-explained and backgrounded, up-to-date account of close binary systems, in a fast-moving field of research that is growing in scientific importance Surveys a wide range of case-studies within the context of binary and multiple star systems Fills an acknowledged gap in current literature