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This book is devoted to current ideas and developments in the biological sciences which stretch into fields such as engineering, medicine, quantum physics, computer modeling and genetics. In the past couple of years, biology and medicine have significantly evolved. The picture of the solitary biologist taking samples from the field and working in a lab with test tubes and chemical apparatus is a thing of the past. Today, bio-labs are filled with scientists across various disciplines like physics, mathematics and engineering. Most equipment are completely automated and robotic. They are often controlled by powerful computers acquiring and processing vast amounts of data for rigorous analysis. These advances have sped up the rate at which research is done in those fields. The topics presented in this book are simplified versions of these advances. Focusing on the how it works explanation, the notions presented here are made easy and simple to follow. Besides current research, the book elaborates on novel innovations in bio-related research (eg: ecosystem simulators, robotic surgery, natural experimentation and state-of-the-art instrumentation). Social and economic aspects of modern biology and medicine are also explored throughout this book; touching on issues related to disease spread, medical efforts and best scientific practices. The final part of this book walks through the mechanisms involved in the evolution of life on our planet. Along these lines, the evolution of Homo sapiens is briefly visited. In essence, this book involves taking a closer look at the mechanics of life.
Teleological thinking has been steadfastly resisted by modern biology. And yet, in nearly every area of research biologists are hard pressed to find language that does not impute purposiveness to living forms. The life of the individual organism, if not life itself, seems to make use of a variety of strate gems in achieving its purposes. But in an age when physical models dominate our imagination and when physics itself has become accustomed to uncertainty relations and complementarity, biologists have learned to live with a kind of schizophrenic language, employing terms like 'selfish genes' and 'survival machines' to describe the behavior of organisms as if they were somehow purposive yet all the while intending that they are highly complicated mechanisms. The present study treats a period in the history of the life sciences when the imputation of purposiveness to biological organization was not regarded an embarrassment but rather an accepted fact, and when the principal goal was to reap the benefits of mechanistic explanations by finding a. means of in corporating them within the guidelines of a teleological fmmework. Whereas the history of German biology in the early nineteenth century is usually dismissed as an unfortunate era dominated by arid speculation, the present study aims to reverse that judgment by showing that a consistent, workable program of research was elaborated by a well-connected group of German biologists and that it was based squarely on the unification of teleological and mechanistic models of explanation.
Progress in Mechanics of Structures and Materials by Peter J. Moss,Rajesh P. Dhakal Pdf
This is a collection of peer-reviewed papers originally presented at the 19th Australasian Conference on the Mechanics of Structures and Materials by academics, researchers and practitioners largely from Australasia and the Asia-Pacific region. The topics under discussion include: composite structures and materials; computational mechanics; dynamic analysis of structures; earthquake engineering; fire engineering; geomechanics and foundation engineering; mechanics of materials; reinforced and prestressed concrete structures; shock and impact loading; steel structures; structural health monitoring and damage identification; structural mechanics; and timber engineering. It is a valuable reference for academics, researchers, and civil and mechanical engineers working in structural and material engineering and mechanics.
Quantum Aspects of Life by Derek Abbott,Paul C W Davies,Arun K Pati Pdf
This book presents the hotly debated question of whether quantum mechanics plays a non-trivial role in biology. In a timely way, it sets out a distinct quantum biology agenda. The burgeoning fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology, quantum technology, and quantum information processing are now strongly converging. The acronym BINS, for Bio-Info-Nano-Systems, has been coined to describe the synergetic interface of these several disciplines. The living cell is an information replicating and processing system that is replete with naturally-evolved nanomachines, which at some level require a quantum mechanical description. As quantum engineering and nanotechnology meet, increasing use will be made of biological structures, or hybrids of biological and fabricated systems, for producing novel devices for information storage and processing and other tasks. An understanding of these systems at a quantum mechanical level will be indispensable. Contents:Foreword (Sir R Penrose)Emergence and Complexity:A Quantum Origin of Life? (P C W Davies)Quantum Mechanics and Emergence (S Lloyd)Quantum Mechanisms in Biology:Quantum Coherence and the Search for the First Replicator (J Al-Khalili & J McFadden)Ultrafast Quantum Dynamics in Photosynthesis (A O Castro, F F Olsen, C F Lee & N F Johnson)Modelling Quantum Decoherence in Biomolecules (J Bothma, J Gilmore & R H McKenzie)The Biological Evidence:Molecular Evolution: A Role for Quantum Mechanics in the Dynamics of Molecular Machines that Read and Write DNA (A Goel)Memory Depends on the Cytoskeleton, but is it Quantum? (A Mershin & D V Nanopoulos)Quantum Metabolism and Allometric Scaling Relations in Biology (L Demetrius)Spectroscopy of the Genetic Code (J D Bashford & P D Jarvis)Towards Understanding the Origin of Genetic Languages (A D Patel)Artificial Quantum Life:Can Arbitrary Quantum Systems Undergo Self-Replication? (A K Pati & S L Braunstein)A Semi-Quantum Version of the Game of Life (A P Flitney & D Abbott)Evolutionary Stability in Quantum Games (A Iqbal & T Cheon)Quantum Transmemetic Intelligence (E W Piotrowski & J S≈adkowski)The Debate:Dreams versus Reality: Plenary Debate Session on Quantum Computing (For Panel: C M Caves, D Lidar, H Brandt, A R Hamilton, Against Panel: D K Ferry, J Gea-Banacloche, S M Bezrukov, L B Kish, Debate Chair: C R Doering, Transcript Editor: D Abbott)Plenary Debate: Quantum Effects in Biology: Trivial or Not? (For Panel: P C W Davies, S Hameroff, A Zeilinger, D Abbott, Against Panel: J Eisert, H M Wiseman, S M Bezrukov, H Frauenfelder, Debate Chair: J Gea-Banacloche, Transcript Editor: D Abbott)Nontrivial Quantum Effects in Biology: A Skeptical Physicist's View (H Wiseman & J Eisert)That's Life! — The Geometry of π Electron Clouds (S Hameroff) Readership: Graduate students and researchers in quantum physics, biophysics, nanosciences, quantum chemistry, mathematical biology and complexity theory, as well as philosophers of science. Keywords:Quantum Biology;Quantum Computation;Quantum Mechanics;Biophysics;Nanotechnology;Quantum Technology;Quantum Information Processing;Bio-Info-Nano-Systems (BINS);Emergence;Complexity;Complex Systems;Cellular Automata;Game Theory;Biomolecules;Photosynthesis;DNA;Genetic Code;DecoherenceKey Features:Is structured in a debate style, where contributors argue opposing positionsBrings together some of the finest minds and latest developments in the fieldIs entirely unique and there are no competing titles
The Mechanics of Homosexual Intercourse (Little House on the Bowery) by Lonely Christopher Pdf
Dennis Cooper unveils a mesmerizing debut story collection for his Little House on the Bowery fiction series. “[A] provocative and refreshing debut collection.” —Publishers Weekly “Praise seems superfluous for a book as accomplished, cohesive, and devastating as Lonely Christopher’s debut collection, so consider these words admiration instead, and admonishment: if you still think fiction counts for anything, then you should buy this book right now.” —Dale Peck, author of What We Lost and Time To Say Goodbye A selection of Dennis Cooper’s Little House on the Bowery series. Two boys lie on a bed, one of them is already dead; they listen to Glenn Gould playing Bach and talk about suicide and love. A lonely narrator mourns the end of a relationship and the disappearance of a mysterious object as a frustrated artist jumps out of a moving car on his birthday and runs for the last streetlamp in the universe. Awkward parents and angsty teens negotiate a dark suburban landscape, searching for something they can’t name, spelling out balletic sentences of failure and shame. Helicopters menace the night sky, a horse is murdered in a kitchen, victims go missing in swamps of ambiguity, and everybody waits for what the construction of a new road into town will bring: the end of the world or something worse. The Mechanics of Homosexual Intercourse, a radical map of shortcomings in our daily experiences in the form of a debut story collection, presents thematically related windows into serious emotional trouble and monstrous love. Lonely Christopher combines a striking emotional grammar with an unyielding imagination in the lovely-ugly architecture of his stories.
An in-depth exploration of how biomechanics and ecology work together Plants and animals interact with each other and their surroundings, and these interactions—with all their complexity and contingency—control where species can survive and reproduce. In this comprehensive and groundbreaking introduction to the emerging field of ecological mechanics, Mark Denny explains how the principles of physics and engineering can be used to understand the intricacies of these remarkable relationships. Denny opens with a brief review of basic physics before introducing the fundamentals of diffusion, fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, and heat transfer, taking care to explain each in the context of living organisms. Why are corals of different shapes on different parts of a reef? How can geckos climb sheer walls? Why can birds and fish migrate farther than mammals? How do desert plants stay cool? The answers to these and a host of similar questions illustrate the principles of heat, mass, and momentum transport and set the stage for the book's central topic—the application of these principles in ecology. Denny shows how variations in the environment—in both space and time—affect the performance of plants and animals. He introduces spectral analysis, a mathematical tool for quantifying the patterns in which environments vary, and uses it to analyze such subjects as the spread of invasive species. Synthesizing the book’s materials, the final chapters use ecological mechanics to predict the occurrence and consequences of extreme ecological events, explain the emergence of patterns in the distribution and abundance of organisms, and empower readers to explore further. Ecological Mechanics offers new insights into the physical workings of organisms and their environment.
Narrative Mechanics by Beat Suter,René Bauer,Mela Kocher Pdf
What do stories in games have in common with political narratives? This book identifies narrative strategies as mechanisms for meaning and manipulation in games and real life. It shows that the narrative mechanics so clearly identifiable in games are increasingly used (and abused) in politics and social life. They have »many faces«, displays and interfaces. They occur as texts, recipes, stories, dramas in three acts, movies, videos, tweets, journeys of heroes, but also as rewarding stories in games and as narratives in society - such as a career from rags to riches, the concept of modernity or market economy. Below their surface, however, narrative mechanics are a particular type of motivational design - of game mechanics.
The Mechanics of Claims and Permissible Killing in War by Alec D. Walen Pdf
According to the dominant account of rights, there are two ways to permissibly kill people: they have done something to forfeit their right to life, or their rights are outweighed by the significantly greater cost of respecting them. Contemporary just war theorists tend to agree that it is difficult to justify killing in the second way. Thus, they focus on the conditions under which rights might be forfeited. But it has proven hard to defend an account of forfeiture that permits killing when and only when it is morally justifiable. In The Mechanics of Claims and Permissible Killing in War, Alec D. Walen develops an alternative account of rights according to which rights forfeiture has a much smaller role to play. It plays a smaller role because rights themselves are more contextually contingent. They systematically reflect the different kinds of claims people can make on an agent. For example, those who threaten to cause harm without a right to do so have weaker claims not to be killed than innocent bystanders or those who have a right to threaten to cause harm. By framing rights as the output of a balance of competing claims, and by laying out a detailed account of how to balance competing claims, Walen provides a more coherent account of when killing in war is permissible.
THE MECHANICS OF LIFEByJ K LAMBwww.jklambauthor.comA short analysis of how life works and the dynamics of changing it.This is a thought provoking aid to understanding yourself, your fears and your life and will help enable you to accept who you are and who you want to become.You will be surprised, you are much better than you think you are!!_______Once upon a time there were two monks, one was old and wisened and walked with a stoop, the other was young, strong and zealous. They had embarked on a long journey to a destination that they had never travelled on this road to before. They didn't know how long the journey would take or what they would experience along the way. The only certainty they had, was knowing their destination.One day, as they approached a river that had been swollen by the recent rains, they observed a young man standing on the bank weeping. On questioning by the old monk, the young man confessed that he could not cross the river as he had a great fear of the flowing water and the imagined terrors that lay beneath the surface. The young monk dismissed the man as a fool and demonstrated his foolish imaginings by confidently wading across the river and reaching the other bank quite safely.The young man's fears still remained, so with a great effort the old monk lifted the young man onto his shoulders and carried him across the river. The young man was very grateful and promised the old monk a reward when they next met and continued on his way.The young monk was incensed that the old monk should be so foolhardy, he could have slipped, he could have hurt himself, he should have left the young man to fend for himself. On and on the young monk railed at the old monk for the rest of the afternoon.Finally, the old monk stopped walking, broke his silence and spoke patiently to the young monk. "You are perhaps right, I may have been foolhardy, and I may have made a mistake. The only difference between us is that I put the young man down at the side of the river".
