Solitons are a well-known and intriguing aspect of nonlinear behavior in a continuous system such as a fluid: a wave propagates through the medium without distortion. Liquid crystals are highly ordered systems without a rigid, long-range structure. Solitons in liquid crystals (sometimes referred to as "walls") have a wide variety of remarkable properties that are becoming important for practical applications such as electroluminescent display. This book, the first review of the subject to be published, contains not only surveys of the existing literature, but presents new results as well.

There is a lot of confusion and misconception concerning science. The nature and contents of science is an unsettled problem. For example, Thales of 2,600 years ago is recognized as the father of science but the word science was introduced only in the 14th century; the definition of science is often avoided in books about philosophy of science. This book aims to clear up all these confusions and present new developments in the philosophy, history, sociology and communication of science. It also aims to showcase the achievement of China's top scholars in these areas. The 18 chapters, divided into five parts, are written by prominent scholars including the Nobel laureate Robin Warren, sociologist Harry Collins, and physicist-turned-historian Dietrich Stauffer.

There is a lot of confusion and misconception concerning science. The nature and contents of science is an unsettled problem. For example, Thales of 2,600 years ago is recognized as the father of science but the word science was introduced only in the 14th century; the definition of science is often avoided in books about philosophy of science. This book aims to clear up all these confusions and present new developments in the philosophy, history, sociology and communication of science. It also aims to showcase the achievement of China's top scholars in these areas. The 18 chapters, divided into five parts, are written by prominent scholars including the Nobel laureate Robin Warren, sociologist Harry Collins, and physicist-turned-historian Dietrich Stauffer.

This book treats arts as part of science, from the unified perspective of Science Matters. It contains 17 chapters, with 18 contributors who are prominent humanists, professional artists, or scientists. It consists of three parts: Part I: Philosophy and History of Arts; Part II: Arts in Action; Part III: Understanding Arts. The book is aimed at both research scholars and laypeople, and is unique in two important aspects. It is probably the first and only book that academic professionals and practicing artists contribute to the same book, as equals, on the common theme of creating and understanding arts. (Artists here include Cristina Leiria whose huge Kun Iam (Goddess of Mercy) sculpture is an important landmark in Macau, and the famous movie director, Hark Tsui, who is publishing his first ever article on movie-making). Perhaps more importantly, a new understanding of the origin and nature of arts is offered for the first time, which is more convincing than all the other hypotheses put forth in the last two thousand years.

Solitons are a well-known and intriguing aspect of nonlinear behavior in a continuous system such as a fluid: a wave propagates through the medium without distortion. Liquid crystals are highly ordered systems without a rigid, long-range structure. Solitons in liquid crystals (sometimes referred to as "walls") have a wide variety of remarkable properties that are becoming important for practical applications such as electroluminescent display. This book, the first review of the subject to be published, contains not only surveys of the existing literature, but presents new results as well.

Among the various new directions in modern polymer science, the design and investigation of liquid crystal (LC) polymers have been the ones growing most actively and fruitfully. In spite of that, the possible formation of an anisotropic LC phase was only demonstrated theoretically for the first time in the 1950s by Onsager [1] and Flory [2], and then experimentally verified in the studies with polypeptides solutions. In essence, the studies of these LC lyotropic systems did not deviate from the theme of purely academic interest. It was at the beginning of the 1970s that the experimental "explosion" occurred, when aromatic polyamides were synthesized and their ability to form LC solutions in certain very aggressive solvents was discovered. The search for practical applications of such LC systems was crowned with the successful creation of the new generation of ultrastrong high-modulus ther mostable fibers, such as the Kevlar, due to the high degree of order of the macromolecules in the anisotropic LC state. In fact, these investigations coincided with the swift emergence on the practical "scene" of thermotropic low-molar-mass liquid crystals, with the use of these materials in microelectronics and electro optics (figures and let ters indicators, displays in personal computers, and flat TV, etc.). Polymer scientists also began to develop methods of synthesizing thermotropic LC polymers by incorporating mesogenic fragments in the main (main-chain LC polymers) or side branchings of the macromolecules (side-chain or comb shaped polymers).

Once upon a time, science was not divided into disciplines as we know it today. There was no distinction between so-called social and natural sciences, not to mention the fragmentation of the latter into physics, chemistry, biology, geology, etc. According to legend, the scientists those days would do their research in whatever environment they happened to find comfortable, which more often than not was in bathtubs or giant hot tubs - remember Archimedes! Then, somehow, these days we find ourselves compartmentalized into different departments in our universities, or divisions in our research institutes. (We suspect, for one thing, that is to ensure that we will get our paychecks delivered on time at the end of each month. ) Anyway, as anyone who has worked in the real world knows: when one is confronted with a completely new problem or phenomenon, it is usually impossible to neatly assign the problem to physics, chemistry, or, for that matter, computer science. One needs to recall and fuse together the knowledge one learned before and, if that alone is insufficient, to consult experts in other areas. This points to the shortcomings of the compartmentalization of knowledge in our educational systems. In recent years, something has changed. Under the banner of Complex Systems, some brave souls are not afraid to tackle problems that are considered intractable by others, and dare to venture out of their trained disciplines or departments to which they are attached.

Structures in Nature are ubiquitous and fascinating. In natural and mathematical systems nonlinear structures, roughly speaking, are those resulting from nonlinear equations, the investigation of which forms a large and integral part of the new branch of science-the nonlinear science. Like nonlinear science in general, non linear structures is a truly interdisciplinary subject which involves physicists, chemists, biologists, material scientists, mathematicians, engineers, etc. In view of the recent rapid developments in this subject and the existence of a converging picture which acts to unify some of the previously considered separate subfields of research, we think it is time to bring together various experts to exchange ideas and share their newest findings. The Second Woodward Confer ence afforded us a chance to do exactly this. Accordingly, this second conference in the series was devoted to the subject of Nonlinear Structures in Physical Sys tems: Pattern Formation, Chaos and Waves, and was held at San Jose State Uni versity on November 17-18, 1989."

IJ:1 June of 1987 the Center for Applied Mathematics and Computer Science at San Jose State University received a bequest of over half a million dollars from the estate of Mrs. Marie Woodward. In the opening article of this collection of papers Jane Day, the founder of the Center, describes the background that led to this gift. In recognition of the bequest it was decided that a series of Woodward Conferences be established. The First Woodward Conference took place at San Jose State University on June 2-3 1988. The themes of the conference were the Theoretical, Computational and Practical Aspects of Wave Phenomena and these same themes have been used to divide the contributions to this volume. Part I is concerned with papers on theoretical aspects. This section includes papers on pseudo-differential operator techniques, inverse problems and the mathematical foundations of wave propagation in random media. Part II consists of papers that involve significant amounts of computation. Included are papers on the Fast Hartley Transform, computational algorithms for electromagnetic scattering problems, and nonlinear wave interaction problems in fluid mechanics. vi Part III contains papers with a genuine physics flavor. This final section illustrates the widespread importance of wave phenomena in physics. Among the phenomena considered are waves in the atmosphere, viscous fingering in liquid crystals, solitons and wave localization.

This textbook provides an introduction to the new science of nonlinear physics for advanced undergraduates, beginning graduate students, and researchers entering the field. The chapters, by pioneers and experts in the field, share a unified perspective. Nonlinear science developed out of the increasing ability to investigate and analyze systems for which effects are not simply linear functions of their causes; it is associated with such well-known code words as chaos, fractals, pattern formation, solitons, cellular automata, and complex systems. Nonlinear phenomena are important in many fields, including dynamical systems, fluid dynamics, materials science, statistical physics, and paritcel physics. The general principles developed in this text are applicable in a wide variety of fields in the natural and social sciences. The book will thus be of interest not only to physicists, but also to engineers, chemists, geologists, biologists, economists, and others interested in nonlinear phenomena. Examples and exercises complement the text, and extensive references provide a guide to research in the field.