This book provides a developing country perspective on the internationalization of science and the role of Science, Technology and Innovation Diplomacy (STID) in leveraging scientific cooperation for sustainable development. In articles by individuals from government departments and academic & research institutions in nine developing countries, it provides a conceptual understanding of the subject and reveals the prevailing perceptions on its praxis/practices. The articles highlight the significance of international cooperation at bilateral, regional and multilateral levels and the need for strengthening the role of STID in foreign policy and strategies of governments. The book is a useful reference material to government officials, diplomats,academicians, researchers, science counsellors, international relations experts, science and technology professionals and other stakeholders from the developing countries and transition economies, dealing with economic and developmental policy issues and/or science, technology and innovation (STI) issues in understanding the praxis and prospects of STID. The book is also useful for scholars and international relations experts from developed countries in understanding STI and related issues that affect the relationship of developing countries and transition economies with their partners from the developed world.

Scientists who have had the opportunity of being associated with Professor Egon T. Degens, to whom this Festschrift is devoted, have been influenced by his ideas on subjects as varied as: extraterrestrial organic matter, origin of life, evolution of organisms, isotope biogeochemistry down to more imminent ones such as the carbon cycle and its implications on climate. This variety is also reflected in the papers in the present volume contributed by colleagues who have known Egon or have worked with him. Egon Theodor Degens was born on April 16, 1928 at Inden, Germany and had his education in Bonn and Wiirzburg. After a stint at the Pennsylvania State University he returned to Wiirzburg to help set up one of the first organic geochemistry laboratories in the world. This laboratory was the breeding ground for some of the eminent organic geochemists at work today. Later, he joined the California Institute of Technology and began his work on stable carbon isotopes, and later on biogeochemical compounds in natural waters. From California he moved on to the east coast, which led to yet another productive phase at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He was instrumental in the pioneering work carried out by the Woods Hole scientists in the Black Sea which is the largest anoxic basin in the world, and in the Red Sea where the first hydrothermal ore deposits on the seafloor were discovered.

Silicon is among the most abundant elements on earth. It plays a key but largely unappreciated role in many biogeochemical processes, including those that regulate climate and undergird marine food webs. "The Silicon Cycle" is the first book in more than 20 years to present a comprehensive overview of the silicon cycle and issues associated with it. The book summarizes the major outcomes of the project Land-Ocean Interactions: Silica Cycle, initiated by the Scientific Community on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). It tracks the pathway of silicon from land to sea and discusses its biotic and abiotic modifications in transit as well as its cycling in the coastal seas. Natural geological processes in combination with atmospheric and hydrological processes are discussed, as well as human perturbations of the natural controls of the silicon cycle.

Silicon is among the most abundant elements on earth. It plays a key but largely unappreciated role in many biogeochemical processes, including those that regulate climate and undergird marine food webs. "The Silicon Cycle" is the first book in more than 20 years to present a comprehensive overview of the silicon cycle and issues associated with it. The book summarizes the major outcomes of the project Land-Ocean Interactions: Silica Cycle, initiated by the Scientific Community on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). It tracks the pathway of silicon from land to sea and discusses its biotic and abiotic modifications in transit as well as its cycling in the coastal seas. Natural geological processes in combination with atmospheric and hydrological processes are discussed, as well as human perturbations of the natural controls of the silicon cycle.