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In recent decades, science has experienced a revolutionary shift.
The development and extensive application of computer modelling and
simulation has transformed the knowledge-making practices of
scientific fields as diverse as astro-physics, genetics, robotics
and demography. This epistemic transformation has brought with it a
simultaneous heightening of political relevance and a renewal of
international policy agendas, raising crucial questions about the
nature and application of simulation knowledges throughout public
policy. Through a diverse range of case studies, spanning over a
century of theoretical and practical developments in the
atmospheric and environmental sciences, this book argues that
computer modelling and simulation have substantially changed
scientific and cultural practices and shaped the emergence of novel
'cultures of prediction'. Making an innovative, interdisciplinary
contribution to understanding the impact of computer modelling on
research practice, institutional configurations and broader
cultures, this volume will be essential reading for anyone
interested in the past, present and future of climate change and
the environmental sciences.
In recent decades, science has experienced a revolutionary shift.
The development and extensive application of computer modelling and
simulation has transformed the knowledge-making practices of
scientific fields as diverse as astro-physics, genetics, robotics
and demography. This epistemic transformation has brought with it a
simultaneous heightening of political relevance and a renewal of
international policy agendas, raising crucial questions about the
nature and application of simulation knowledges throughout public
policy. Through a diverse range of case studies, spanning over a
century of theoretical and practical developments in the
atmospheric and environmental sciences, this book argues that
computer modelling and simulation have substantially changed
scientific and cultural practices and shaped the emergence of novel
'cultures of prediction'. Making an innovative, interdisciplinary
contribution to understanding the impact of computer modelling on
research practice, institutional configurations and broader
cultures, this volume will be essential reading for anyone
interested in the past, present and future of climate change and
the environmental sciences.
Presenting a study of geometric action functionals (i.e.,
non-negative functionals on the space of unparameterized oriented
rectifiable curves), this monograph focuses on the subclass of
those functionals whose local action is a degenerate type of
Finsler metric that may vanish in certain directions, allowing for
curves with positive Euclidean length but with zero action. For
such functionals, criteria are developed under which there exists a
minimum action curve leading from one given set to another. Then
the properties of this curve are studied, and the non-existence of
minimizers is established in some settings. Applied to a geometric
reformulation of the quasipotential of Wentzell-Freidlin theory (a
subfield of large deviation theory), these results can yield the
existence and properties of maximum likelihood transition curves
between two metastable states in a stochastic process with small
noise. The book assumes only standard knowledge in graduate-level
analysis; all higher-level mathematical concepts are introduced
along the way.
Using newly declassified documents, this book explores why U.S.
military leaders after World War II sought to monitor the far north
and understand the physical environment of Greenland, a crucial
territory of Denmark. It reveals a fascinating yet little-known
realm of Cold War intrigue and a delicate diplomatic duet between a
smaller state and a superpower amid a time of intense global
pressures. Written by scholars in Denmark and the United States,
this book explores many compelling topics. What led to the creation
of the U.S. Thule Air Base in Greenland, one of the world's
largest, and why did the U.S. build a nuclear-powered city under
Greenland's ice cap? How did Danish concern about sovereignty shape
scientific research programs in Greenland? Also explored here: why
did Denmark's most famous scientist, Inge Lehmann, became involved
in research in Greenland, and what international reverberations
resulted from the crash of a U.S. B-52 bomber carrying four nuclear
weapons near Thule in January 1968?
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