Former Google advertising strategist, now Oxford-trained philosopher James Williams launches a plea to society and to the tech industry to help ensure that the technology we all carry with us every day does not distract us from pursuing our true goals in life. As information becomes ever more plentiful, the resource that is becoming more scarce is our attention. In this 'attention economy', we need to recognise the fundamental impacts of our new information environment on our lives in order to take back control. Drawing on insights ranging from Diogenes to contemporary tech leaders, Williams's thoughtful and impassioned analysis is sure to provoke discussion and debate. Williams is the inaugural winner of the Nine Dots Prize, a new Prize for creative thinking that tackles contemporary social issues. This title is also available as Open Access.

Through cosmic communication, learn how these mysterious beings may hold the key to our spiritual evolution. UFOs and the Extra-terrestrial Message reveals how UFOs are much more than strange shapes in the sky; they may be part of a multi-dimensional universe, which has become a common concept in everything from quantum physics to sci-fi blockbusters. String theory, hyperspace and dark matter have led physicists to realise that the three dimensions we thought described the universe aren't enough – there may actually be numerous dimensions. As this possibility evolves, the real prospect of meeting our extra-terrestrial neighbours emerges. From ancient texts to little-known eyewitness accounts, Richard explores the evidence of extraterrestrial life. He also looks at X-file exposés, fascinating personal experiences of alien contact, channelled messages from cosmic beings – and shows how these messages hold the key to our spiritual advancement and even to world peace.

This book provides a broad overview of spaciousness in music theory, from mixing and performance practice, to room acoustics, psychoacoustics and audio engineering, and presents the derivation, implementation and experimental validation of a novel type of spatial audio system. Discussing the physics of musical instruments and the nature of auditory perception, the book enables readers to precisely localize synthesized musical instruments while experiencing their timbral variance and spatial breadth. Offering interdisciplinary insights for novice music enthusiasts and experts in the field of spatial audio, this book is suitable for anyone interested in the study of music and musicology and the application of spatial audio mixing, or those seeking an overview of the state of the art in applied psychoacoustics for spatial audio.

This book provides a detailed analysis on the history and development of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS) and the Conference on Disarmament (CD) and the coordination and cooperation between these two fora. Furthermore, it discusses the future challenges that these fora will have to deal with and conclude in which way the current system can change to cope with the evolution of space matters. This is necessary for the proper discussion of space matters because these matters cannot simply be divided between military and non-military, but are interrelated.

This book provides detailed insights into how space and popular culture intersect across a broad spectrum of examples, including cinema, music, art, arcade games, cartoons, comics, and advertisements. This is a pertinent topic since the use of space themes differs in different cultural contexts, and these themes can be used to explore various aspects of the human condition and provide a context for social commentary on politically sensitive issues. With the use of space imagery evolving over the past sixty years of the space age, this is a topic ripe for in-depth exploration. The book also discusses the contrasting visions of space from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the reality of today, and analyzes space vehicles and habitats in popular depictions of space from an engineering perspective, exploring how many of those ideas have actually been implemented in practice, and why or why not (a case of life imitating art and vice versa). As such, it covers a wide array of relevant and timely topics examining intersections between space and popular culture, and offering accounts of space and its effect on culture, language, and storytelling from the southern regions of the world.

How does one go about organizing something as complicated as a strategic-missile or space-exploration program? Stephen B. Johnson here explores the answer--systems management--in a groundbreaking study that involves Air Force planners, scientists, technical specialists, and, eventually, bureaucrats. Taking a comparative approach, Johnson focuses on the theory, or intellectual history, of "systems engineering" as such, its origins in the Air Force's Cold War ICBM efforts, and its migration to not only NASA but the European Space Agency.

Exploring the history and politics of aerospace development and weapons procurement, Johnson examines how scientists and engineers created the systems management process to coordinate large-scale technology development, and how managers and military officers gained control of that process. "Those funding the race demanded results," Johnson explains. "In response, development organizations created what few expected and what even fewer wanted--a bureaucracy for innovation. To begin to understand this apparent contradiction in terms, we must first understand the exacting nature of space technologies and the concerns of those who create them."

For the first time ever, compare the British and German World War II big guns duelling with each other and harrying shipping in the Channel. One of the longest-running battles of World War II took place across the English Channel, in which huge artillery guns attempted to destroy each other, created psychological terror among the local inhabitants living near the coast, and harassed shipping over a four-year period. Neil Short examines the array of powerful weapons located across the Strait of Dover. Superb colour artworks explore both fixed gun batteries (including 'Jane' and 'Clem', and batteries Todt and Lindemann) and railway artillery (such as the German K5 and K12 guns, and the British 18in. 'Boche Buster'). Construction and targeting technology used by each side are also covered in detail, and the locations of all the major sites around Dover and Calais are pinpointed on easy to follow maps.

This book describes principles, industry practices and evolutionary methodologies for advanced safety studies, which are helpful in effectively managing volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environments within the framework of quantitative risk assessment and management and associated with the safety and resilience of structures and infrastructures with tolerance against various types of extreme conditions and accidents such as fires, explosions, collisions and grounding. It presents advanced computational models for characterizing structural actions and their effects in extreme and accidental conditions, which are highly nonlinear and non-Gaussian in association with multiple physical processes, multiple scales, and multiple criteria. Probabilistic scenario selection practices and applications are presented. Engineering practices for structural crashworthiness analysis in extreme conditions and accidents are described. Multidisciplinary approaches involving advanced computational models and large-scale physical model testing are emphasized. The book will be useful to students at a post-graduate level as well as researchers and practicing engineers.

New technological innovations offer significant opportunities to promote and protect human rights. At the same time, they also pose undeniable risks. In some areas, they may even be changing what we mean by human rights. The fact that new technologies are often privately controlled raises further questions about accountability and transparency and the role of human rights in regulating these actors. This volume - edited by Molly K. Land and Jay D. Aronson - provides an essential roadmap for understanding the relationship between technology and human rights law and practice. It offers cutting-edge analysis and practical strategies in contexts as diverse as autonomous lethal weapons, climate change technology, the Internet and social media, and water meters. This title is also available as Open Access.

A noted space expert explains the current revolution in spaceflight, where it leads, and why we need it.A new space race has begun. But the rivals in this case are not superpowers but competing entrepreneurs. These daring pioneers are creating a revolution in spaceflight that promises to transform the near future. Astronautical engineer Robert Zubrin spells out the potential of these new developments in an engrossing narrative that is visionary yet grounded by a deep understanding of the practical challenges.Fueled by the combined expertise of the old aerospace industry and the talents of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, spaceflight is becoming cheaper. The new generation of space explorers has already achieved a major breakthrough by creating reusable rockets. Zubrin foresees more rapid innovation, including global travel from any point on Earth to another in an hour or less; orbital hotels; moon bases with incredible space observatories; human settlements on Mars, the asteroids, and the moons of the outer planets; and then, breaking all limits, pushing onward to the stars.Zubrin shows how projects that sound like science fiction can actually become reality. But beyond the how, he makes an even more compelling case for why we need to do this--to increase our knowledge of the universe, to make unforeseen discoveries on new frontiers, to harness the natural resources of other planets, to safeguard Earth from stray asteroids, to ensure the future of humanity by expanding beyond its home base, and to protect us from being catastrophically set against each other by the false belief that there isn't enough for all.

In this comprehensive guide, Brixen takes the reader through the complex and confusing aspects of audio metering, imparting the knowledge and skills needed to utilize optional signal levels and produce high-quality audio. Covering all aspects of this fundamental subject, Audio Metering: Measurements, Standards and Practice begins with the basics, such as audio definitions and digital techniques, and works up to more complex topics like hearing and psychoacoustics. This revised and expanded third edition includes: Updated information on loudness metering, covering both existing and new standards. Definitions of terms such as LKFS, LUFS, gating, LRA. Explanations of signal types and musical sounds and structures. Further details on immersive audio. Skills needed for both small-room acoustics and large auditorium sound design without loss of sound quality. Descriptions of measurement signals and systems for audio and acoustic sound. A chapter on listening tests from small set-ups to large-scale comparisons of PA/SR-systems. Packed full of valuable information with a wide range of practical applications, this is the essential reference guide to audio metering for technicians, engineers, and tonmeisters, as well as sound designers working with acoustics, electroacoustics, broadcast, studio recording, sound art, archiving, audio forensics, and theatrical and live-audio setups.

This book includes the proceedings of the conference "Problems of the Geocosmos" held by the Earth Physics Department, St. Petersburg State University, Russia, every two years since 1996. Covering a broad range of topics in solid Earth physics and solar-terrestrial physics, as well as more applied subjects such as engineering geology and ecology, the book reviews the latest research in planetary geophysics, focusing on the interaction between the Earth's shells and the near-Earth space in a unified system. This book is divided into four sections: * Exploration and Environmental Geophysics (EG), which covers two broad areas of environmental and engineering geophysics - near-surface research and deep geoelectric studies; * Paleomagnetism and Rock Magnetism (P), which includes research on magnetostratigraphy, paleomagnetism applied to tectonics, environmental magnetism, and marine magnetic anomalies; * Seismology (S), which covers the theory of seismic wave propagation, Earth's structure from seismic data, global and regional seismicity and sources of earthquakes, and novel seismic instruments and data processing methods; and * Physics of Solar-Terrestrial Connections (STP), which includes magnetospheric phenomena, space weather, and the interrelationship between solar activity and climate.

HANDBOOK OF PETROLEUM GEOSCIENCE This reference brings together the latest industrial updates and research advances in regional tectonics and geomechanics. Each chapter is based upon an in-depth case study from a particular region, highlighting core concepts and themes as well as regional variations. Key topics discussed in the book are: Drilling solutions from the Kutch offshore basin Geophysical studies from a gas field in Bangladesh Exploring Himalayan terrain in India Tectonics and exploration of the Persian Gulf basin Unconventional gas reservoirs in the Bohemian Massif This book is an invaluable industry resource for professionals and academics working in and studying the fields of petroleum geoscience and tectonics.

Rifts and passive margins are extremely important for the petroleum industry, as they are areas of high sedimentation and can contain significant oil and gas resources. This book provides a comprehensive understanding of rifts and passive margins as a whole. It synthesises in one volume the existing information devoted to specific aspects of these vitally important hydrocarbon habitats. This collection of state-of-the-art information on the topic facilitates the better use of this knowledge to assess the risks of exploring and operating in these settings and the development of systematic and predictive hydrocarbon screening tools. The book will be invaluable for a broad range of readers, from advanced geology students and researchers to exploration geoscientists to exploration managers exploring for and developing hydrocarbon resources in analogous settings.

Plasmonic Materials and Metastructures: Fundamentals, Current Status, and Perspectives reviews the current status and emerging trends in the development of conventional and alternative plasmonic materials. Sections cover fundamentals and emerging trends of plasmonic materials development, including synthesis strategies (chemical and physical) and optical characterization techniques. Next, the book addresses fundamentals, properties, remaining barriers for commercial translation, and the latest advances and opportunities for conventional noble metal plasmonic materials. Fundamentals and advances for alternative plasmonic materials are also reviewed, including two-dimensional hybrid materials composed of graphene, monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides, boron nitride, etc. In addition, other sections cover applications of plasmonic metastructures enabled by plasmonic materials with improved material properties and newly discovered functionalities. Applications reviewed include quantum plasmonics, topological plasmonics, chiral plasmonics, nanolasers, imaging (metalens), active, and integrated technologies.

Approx.450 pages

The characterisation of fluid transport properties of rocks is one of the most important, yet difficult, challenges of reservoir geophysics, but is essential for optimal development of hydrocarbon and geothermal reservoirs. This book provides a quantitative introduction to the underlying physics, application, interpretation, and hazard aspects of fluid-induced seismicity with a particular focus on its spatio-temporal dynamics. It presents many real data examples of microseismic monitoring of hydraulic fracturing at hydrocarbon fields and of stimulations of enhanced geothermal systems. The author also covers introductory aspects of linear elasticity and poroelasticity theory, as well as elements of seismic rock physics and mechanics of earthquakes, enabling readers to develop a comprehensive understanding of the field. Fluid-Induced Seismicity is a valuable reference for researchers and graduate students working in the fields of geophysics, geology, geomechanics and petrophysics, and a practical guide for petroleum geoscientists and engineers working in the energy industry.

This book is about recent research in the area of profiling humans from their voice, which seeks to deduce and describe the speaker's entire persona and their surroundings from voice alone. It covers several key aspects of this technology, describing how the human voice is unique in its ability to both capture and influence the human persona -- how, in some ways, voice is more potent and valuable then DNA and fingerprints as a metric, since it not only carries information about the speaker, but also about their current state and their surroundings at the time of speaking. It provides a comprehensive review of advances made in multiple scientific fields that now contribute to its foundations. It describes how artificial intelligence enables mechanisms of discovery that were not possible before in this context, driving the field forward in unprecedented ways. It also touches upon related and relevant challenges posed by voice disguise and other mechanisms of voice manipulation. The book acts as a good resource for academic researchers, and for professional agencies in many areas such as law enforcement, healthcare, social services, entertainment etc.

This is a follow-on book to the introductory textbook "Physics of the Solar Corona" previously published in 2004 by the same author, which provided a systematic introduction and covered mostly scientific results from the pre-2000 era. Using a similar structure as the previous book the second volume provides a seamless continuation of numerous novel research results in solar physics that emerged in the new millennium (after 2000) from the new solar missions of RHESSI, STEREO, Hinode, CORONAS, and the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) during the era of 2000-2018. The new solar space missions are characterized by unprecedented high-resolution imaging, time resolution, spectral capabilities, stereoscopy and tomography, which reveal the intricate dynamics of magneto-hydrodynamic processes in the solar corona down to scales of 100 km. The enormous amount of data streaming down from SDO in Terabytes per day requires advanced automated data processing methods. The book focuses exclusively on new research results after 2000, which are reviewed in a comprehensive manner, documented by over 3600 literature references, covering theory, observations, and numerical modeling of basic physical processes that are observed in high-temperature plasmas of the Sun and other astrophysical objects, such as plasma instabilities, coronal heating, magnetic reconnection processes, coronal mass ejections, plasma waves and oscillations, or particle acceleration.

This book is a collection of papers presented at Acoustics and Vibration of Mechanical Structures 2017 - AVMS 2017 - highlighting the current trends and state-of-the-art developments in the field. It covers a broad range of topics, such as noise and vibration control, noise and vibration generation and propagation, the effects of noise and vibration, condition monitoring and vibration testing, modeling, prediction and simulation of noise and vibration, environmental and occupational noise and vibration, noise and vibration attenuators, as well as biomechanics and bioacoustics. The book also presents analytical, numerical and experimental techniques for evaluating linear and non-linear noise and vibration problems (including strong nonlinearity). It is primarily intended for academics, researchers and professionals, as well as PhD students in various fields of the acoustics and vibration of mechanical structures.

This book presents a collection of papers on topics in the field of strategic mine planning, including orebody modeling, mine-planning optimization and the optimization of mining complexes. Elaborating on the state of the art in the field, it describes the latest technologies and related research as well as the applications of a range of related technologies in diverse industrial contexts.

Geopressure drives fluid flow and is important for hydrocarbon exploration, carbon sequestration, and designing safe and economical wells. This concise guide explores the origins of geopressure and presents a step-by-step approach to characterizing and predicting pressure and least principal stress in the subsurface. The book emphasizes how geology, and particularly the role of flow along permeable layers, drives the development and distribution of subsurface pressure and stress. Case studies, such as the Deepwater Horizon blowout, and laboratory experiments, are used throughout to demonstrate methods and applications. It succinctly discusses the role of elastoplastic behaviour, the full stress tensor, and diagenesis in pore pressure generation, and it presents workflows to predict pressure, stress, and hydrocarbon entrapment. It is an essential guide for academics and professional geoscientists and petroleum engineers interested in predicting pressure and stress, and understanding the role of geopressure in geological processes, well design, hydrocarbon entrapment, and carbon sequestration.

Like planets in our solar system, exoplanets form, evolve, and interact with their host stars in many ways. As exoplanets acquire material and grow to the final size, their atmospheres are subjected to intense UV and X-radiation and high-energy particle bombardment from the young host star. Whether a planet can retain its atmosphere and the conditions for significant mass loss both depend upon the strength of the host star's high-energy radiation and wind, the distance of the exoplanet from its host star, the gravitational potential of the exoplanet, and the initial chemical composition of the exoplanet atmosphere. This introductory overview describes the physical processes responsible for the emission of radiation and acceleration of winds of host stars that together control the environment of an exoplanet, focusing on topics that are critically important for understanding exoplanetary atmospheres but are usually not posed from the perspective of host stars. Accordingly, both host stars and exoplanets are not studied in isolation but are treated as integrated systems. Stellar magnetic fields, which are the energy source for activity phenomena including high-energy radiation and winds, play a critical role in determining whether exoplanets are habitable. This text is primarily for researchers and graduate students who are studying exoplanet atmospheres and habitability, but who may not have a background in the physics and phenomenology of host stars that provide the environment in which exoplanets evolve. It provides a comprehensive overview of this broad topic rather than going deeply into many technical aspects but includes a large list of references to guide those interested in pursuing these questions. Nonspecialists with a scientific background should also find this text a valuable resource for understanding the critical issues of contemporary exoplanet research.

This book integrates concepts from physical acoustics with those from linear viscoelasticity and fractional linear viscoelasticity. Compressional waves and shear waves in applications such as medical ultrasound, elastography, and sediment acoustics often follow power law attenuation and dispersion laws that cannot be described with classical viscous and relaxation models. This is accompanied by temporal power laws rather than the temporal exponential responses of classical models. The book starts by reformulating the classical models of acoustics in terms of standard models from linear elasticity. Then, non-classical loss models that follow power laws and which are expressed via convolution models and fractional derivatives are covered in depth. In addition, parallels are drawn to electromagnetic waves in complex dielectric media. The book also contains historical vignettes and important side notes about the validity of central questions. While addressed primarily to physicists and engineers working in the field of acoustics, this expert monograph will also be of interest to mathematicians, mathematical physicists, and geophysicists.