Since the discovery in 1921 of ferroelectric properties in Rochelle salt by Valasek, no new ferroelectric material was found until Busch and Scherrer in Switzerland in 1935 discovered ferroelectricity in Potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP). However, during the Second World War, researchers in the US in 1943 discovered ferroelectric materials such as BaTiO3 having ferroelectric properties well above room temperature, that led to an explosion of research after the war in Western and Central Europe, Russia, and Japan, because of their promising and potential applications.This book gives an overview of relevant experimental and theoretical work in ferroelectricity. It is organized into three Sections, corresponding to three time periods. The first (1921-1960) includes early work by Valasek, works by Busch and Scherrer, Mason and Mattias, Shirane and Takeda, ending with theoretical work by Cochran on crystal stability and the soft mode theory of ferroelectricity. The second one (1961-2002) includes a number of experimental and theoretical publications on ferroelectric materials and ferroelectric transitions. The number of international meetings began to increase, and the number of papers increased exponentially. New subfields at that time included ferroelectric liquid crystals, thin films, dipolar glasses and relaxors.The last and final section (2002-2021) includes more recent publications on fundamental structural studies, neutron diffraction work on PZT, quantum tunneling and zero-point energy in ferroelectrics, investigations on the anomalous temperature dependence behavior of liquid water and other recent developments.The book will be a useful compendium on ferroelectrics for materials scientists, and/or PhD graduate students on ferroelectrics all around the world.

Beginning with the famous Olber's paradox, a number of cosmological paradoxes, such as the missing mass, dark energy, and the baryon-to-photon ratio, have been and are today the subject of many scientific controversies. The Big Bang model, anticipated by Lemaitre in 1927 and reformulated twenty years later by Gamow, Alpher and Herman, is one of the most spectacular successes in the entire history of physics. It remains today surrounded by considerable theoretical speculation without sufficient observational support.

This book discusses such paradoxes in depth with physical and logical content and historical perspective, and has not much technical content in order to serve a wide audience.

Beginning with the famous Olber's paradox, a number of cosmological paradoxes, such as the missing mass, dark energy, and the baryon-to-photon ratio, have been and are today the subject of many scientific controversies. The Big Bang model, anticipated by Lemaitre in 1927 and reformulated twenty years later by Gamow, Alpher and Herman, is one of the most spectacular successes in the entire history of physics. It remains today surrounded by considerable theoretical speculation without sufficient observational support.

This book discusses such paradoxes in depth with physical and logical content and historical perspective, and has not much technical content in order to serve a wide audience.

'Cosmic Paradoxes' was an outcome of a Conference-Summer Course on 'Astrophysical Cosmology: Frontier Questions' held at El Escorial, Madrid, on August 16-19, 1993. The Scientific Directors were John C Mather, Director of NASA's COBE (Cosmic Background Radiation Explorer), and Jose M Torroja, Secretary of the Spanish Academy of Sciences. Julio A Gonzalo, UAM, was in charge of coordinating the event. The first speaker was Ralph A Alpher, one of the pioneers who predicted very early the CBR (Cosmic Background Radiation). The CBR was observed by A Penzias and R Wilson, Bell Telephone Labs, in 1965. Thereafter it was measured with unprecedented precision by the COBE in 1989, characterizing the Planck spectral distribution of the CBR (J C Mather) and detecting its minute anisotropies (G Smoot). In 2003 the WMAP, NASA's satellite successor of the COBE, confirmed COBE's results, and gave an excellent quantitative estimate of the 'age' of the universe as 13.7 +/- 0.2 Gyrs, in support of the Big Bang theory of cosmic origins.In the Third Edition of this book, almost coincident with the launch reports of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), includes recent work discussing evidence in favor of an open finite universe. A further discussion of the Heisenberg-Lemaitre time (Appendix D) takes into consideration that the cosmic expansion velocity at very early times is R(yHL) c and reviews in more detail the thermal history of the universe.

'Cosmic Paradoxes' was an outcome of a Conference-Summer Course on 'Astrophysical Cosmology: Frontier Questions' held at El Escorial, Madrid, on August 16-19, 1993. The Scientific Directors were John C Mather, Director of NASA's COBE (Cosmic Background Radiation Explorer), and Jose M Torroja, Secretary of the Spanish Academy of Sciences. Julio A Gonzalo, UAM, was in charge of coordinating the event. The first speaker was Ralph A Alpher, one of the pioneers who predicted very early the CBR (Cosmic Background Radiation). The CBR was observed by A Penzias and R Wilson, Bell Telephone Labs, in 1965. Thereafter it was measured with unprecedented precision by the COBE in 1989, characterizing the Planck spectral distribution of the CBR (J C Mather) and detecting its minute anisotropies (G Smoot). In 2003 the WMAP, NASA's satellite successor of the COBE, confirmed COBE's results, and gave an excellent quantitative estimate of the 'age' of the universe as 13.7 +/- 0.2 Gyrs, in support of the Big Bang theory of cosmic origins.In the Third Edition of this book, almost coincident with the launch reports of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), includes recent work discussing evidence in favor of an open finite universe. A further discussion of the Heisenberg-Lemaitre time (Appendix D) takes into consideration that the cosmic expansion velocity at very early times is R(yHL) c and reviews in more detail the thermal history of the universe.

Beginning with the famous Olber's paradox, paradoxes such as the missing mass, dark energy, baryon to photon ratio and cosmic zero-point energy are examined in detail. The Heisenberg-Lemaitre's units, based on the total enormous but finite mass of the Universe, are introduced and rigorous solutions of Einstein's cosmological equations for an open Universe with cosmological constant are obtained. Energy conservation after the Big Bang is consistently required.This book discusses such paradoxes in depth with physical and logical content and historical perspective, and has not too technical content in order to serve a wide audience. In the second edition, the content is updated and new sections are added.

Beginning with the famous Olber's paradox, paradoxes such as the missing mass, dark energy, baryon to photon ratio and cosmic zero-point energy are examined in detail. The Heisenberg-Lemaitre's units, based on the total enormous but finite mass of the Universe, are introduced and rigorous solutions of Einstein's cosmological equations for an open Universe with cosmological constant are obtained. Energy conservation after the Big Bang is consistently required.This book discusses such paradoxes in depth with physical and logical content and historical perspective, and has not too technical content in order to serve a wide audience. In the second edition, the content is updated and new sections are added.

World Population: Past, Present, & Future uses a multidisciplinary approach to investigate in depth on important aspects of the evolution of world population not well addressed previously. The authors from the Universidad Autonoma, Madrid (Spain), professors Julio A Gonzalo, Manuel Alfonseca, and Felix-Fernando Munoz, point out that the recent pronounced growth in world population (accompanied by an even more pronounced growth in agricultural production) was due mainly to the increase of life expectancy and not to the (inexistent) growth in fertility rate. Using a 'rate equations' approach for the first time, they describe population trends and forecast the possibility of steps up (or down) in population rather than the exponential growth predicted by UN demographers around 1985 and thereafter. This book provides a new perspective that our planet is not overpopulated and could, in fact, house a considerably larger population.

The aim of this book is to analyze the all important implications of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle for a finite universe with very large mass-energy content such as ours. The earlier and main contributors to the formulation of Quantum Mechanics are briefly reviewed regarding the formulation of Heisenberg's Principle. After discussing "indeterminacy" versus "uncertainty", the universal constants of physics are reviewed and Planck's units are given. Next, a novel set of units, Heisenberg-Lemaitre units, are defined in terms of the large finite mass of the universe. With the help of Heisenberg's principle, the time evolution of the finite zero-point energy for the universe is investigated quantitatively. Next, taking advantage of the rigorous solutions of Einstein's cosmological equation for a flat, open and mixed universe of finite mass, the most recent and accurate data on the "age" (to) and the expansion rate (Ho) of the universe and their implications are reconsidered.

This book provides realistic answers to hotly debated scientific topics: Science is about quantitative aspects of natural realities (physical, chemical, biological) but it is the result of human intellectual inquiry and therefore not "per se" materialistic. This book, with contributions from experts in physics, cosmology, mathematics, engineering, biology and genetics, covers timely and relevant topics such as the origin of the universe, the origin of life on Earth, the origin of man (intelligent life) and the origin of science.