bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Urbanization, Industrialization, and Mining
Authors: Mulder Ed de , Bremmer Chris
Published: November 2020

Urbanization, industrialization, and mining are three different responses by mankind to survive, to develop, to create wealth and prosperity, and to organize life. Of the three, mining is the oldest, accessing specific materials provided by nature. Urbanization originally was a community’s means of seeking shelter in a hostile natural environment. The co-operation involved in urbanization also provides benefit to all. Industrialization is the latest of these three processes and aims to concentrate production activities at one spot, which allows for increased scale and higher outputs. Industrialization is often linked with mining and more so with urbanization. Mining is obviously found in confined areas primarily determined by the availability of the required earth materials. Urbanization is determined by a mix of geographical (infrastructure), geological (firm underground and stable conditions), and strategic conditions. Moreover, economic, social, and political factors are increasingly important. The same can be said for the processes leading to the establishment of industrial sites. Urbanization, industrialization, and mining have in common that they not only profit from the environment in which they operate, but also affect the natural balances of that environment. Consequently, these activities generate some response in the subsurface, either small or more significant. In the course of time humankind has faced many of these responses, but they still may cause surprises. This chapter briefly describes the impact of urbanization, industrialization, and mining on the natural environment of north-western Europe, both in terms of assets and threats. Attention is given to monitoring the Earth’s response to these activities through the geological processes involved. For monitoring and prediction substantial information and knowledge of the subsurface is necessary and sources of such data are outlined. The chapter starts with some facts and figures, and is mainly based on Urban Geoscience by McCall et al. (1996). Information is also derived from the State of the Environment reports as published by the European Union. Much more attention is given to urbanization than to either of the other activities. However, since modern, urban, industrialized societies consume large amounts of primary resources, mining, industrialization, and urbanization are closely connected.
Rice and Forest Farming in East and South-East Asia
Authors: Barker Graeme
Published: November 2020

East and South-East Asia is a vast and diverse region (Fig. 6.1). The northern boundary can be taken as approximately 45 degrees latitude, from the Gobi desert on the west across Manchuria to the northern shores of Hokkaido, the main island of northern Japan. The southern boundary is over 6,000 kilometres away: the chain of islands from Java to New Guinea, approximately 10 degrees south of the Equator. From west to east across South-East Asia, from the western tip of Sumatra at 95 degrees longitude to the eastern end of New Guinea at 150 degrees longitude, is also some 6,000 kilometres. Transitions to farming within this huge area are discussed in this chapter in the context of four major sub-regions: China; the Korean peninsula and Japan; mainland South-East Asia (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, the Malay peninsula); and island South-East Asia (principally Taiwan, the Philippines, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Sulawesi, and New Guinea). The chapter also discusses the development of agricultural systems across the Pacific islands to the east, both in island Melanesia (the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands east of New Guinea) and in what Pacific archaeologists are terming ‘Remote Oceania’, the islands dotted across the central Pacific as far as Hawaii 6,000 kilometres east of Taiwan and Easter Island some 9,000 kilometres east of New Guinea—a region as big as East Asia and South-East Asia put together. The phytogeographic zones of China reflect the gradual transition from boreal to temperate to tropical conditions, as temperatures and rainfall increase moving southwards (Shi et al., 1993; Fig. 6.2 upper map): coniferous forest in the far north; mixed coniferous and deciduous forest in north-east China (Manchuria) extending into Korea; temperate deciduous and broadleaved forest in the middle and lower valley of the Huanghe (or Yellow) River and the Huai River to the south; sub-tropical evergreen broad-leaved forest in the middle and lower valley of the Yangzi (Yangtze) River; and tropical monsoonal rainforest on the southern coasts, which then extends southwards across mainland and island South-East Asia. Climate and vegetation also differ with altitude and distance from the coast.
Transitions to Farming in Europe: Ex Oriente Lux?
Authors: Barker Graeme
Published: November 2020

Ever since the speculations of the Victorians about the inexorable progress of Man from the savagery of foraging to agriculture and civilization, Europe has been one of the main theatres of debate about transitions from foraging to farming (Chapter 1). The dominant model in the twentieth century, first developed explicitly by Gordon Childe in The Dawn of European Civilization (1925) and The Danube in Prehistory (1929), has been that of ex oriente lux, ‘light from the Near East’. According to this theory, farming began in Europe because it was introduced by Neolithic farmers from South-West Asia, who brought with them domesticated plants and animals together with a new technology that included pottery and polished stone tools. They colonized a land thinly occupied by Mesolithic foragers except at the coastal margins. In southern Europe, the first farmers would have ‘taken to their boats and paddled or sailed on the alluring waters of the Mediterranean to the next landfall—and the next’ (Childe, 1957: 16). In temperate Europe, expansion was facilitated by ‘slash-and-burn’ (swidden) agriculture practised by the first farmers: they arrived at a particular location, cleared the forest, burnt the cut timber, and planted their crops, and then moved on after a few years. The first suite of 14C dates from European Neolithic sites obtained in the 1960s astonished archaeologists, because the (uncalibrated) dates of c.6000 bc from Greek Neolithic settlements such as Nea Nikomedeia and Knossos (Fig. 9.1) were 3,000 years older than Childe’s suggested date for the beginning of the European Neolithic: c.3000 BC. He established the latter by an elaborate process of cross-dating European prehistoric sites with historically dated cultures in the eastern Mediterranean, in turn dated by links to Pharaonic Egypt. At the same time, the 14C data appeared to confirm Childe’s ex oriente lux theory, because there was a clear trend of increasingly younger dates with distance from South-West Asia (J. G. D. Clark, 1965; Fig. 1.7). The dates of c .6000 BC in south-east Europe were in the same time-frame as dates for PPNB Neolithic settlements in South-West Asia, dates in central Europe and the Mediterranean were of the order of 4500 BC, and dates from Early Neolithic sites on the Atlantic margins of Europe were nearer 3000 BC.
Introduction
Authors: Harvey David
Published: November 2020

Future historians may well look upon the years 1978–80 as a revolutionary turning-point in the world’s social and economic history. In 1978, Deng Xiaoping took the first momentous steps towards the liberalization of a communist-ruled economy in a country that accounted for a fifth of the world’s population. The path that Deng defined was to transform China in two decades from a closed backwater to an open centre of capitalist dynamism with sustained growth rates unparalleled in human history. On the other side of the Pacific, and in quite different circumstances, a relatively obscure (but now renowned) figure named Paul Volcker took command at the US Federal Reserve in July 1979, and within a few months dramatically changed monetary policy. The Fed thereafter took the lead in the fight against inflation no matter what its consequences (particularly as concerned unemployment). Across the Atlantic, Margaret Thatcher had already been elected Prime Minister of Britain in May 1979, with a mandate to curb trade union power and put an end to the miserable inflationary stagnation that had enveloped the country for the preceding decade. Then, in 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States and, armed with geniality and personal charisma, set the US on course to revitalize its economy by supporting Volcker’s moves at the Fed and adding his own particular blend of policies to curb the power of labour, deregulate industry, agriculture, and resource extraction, and liberate the powers of finance both internally and on the world stage. From these several epicentres, revolutionary impulses seemingly spread and reverberated to remake the world around us in a totally different image. Transformations of this scope and depth do not occur by accident. So it is pertinent to enquire by what means and paths the new economic configuration––often subsumed under the term ‘globalization’––was plucked from the entrails of the old. Volcker, Reagan, Thatcher, and Deng Xaioping all took minority arguments that had long been in circulation and made them majoritarian (though in no case without a protracted struggle).
The Neoliberal State
Authors: Harvey David
Published: November 2020

The role of the state in neoliberal theory is reasonably easy to define. The practice of neoliberalization has, however, evolved in such a way as to depart significantly from the template that theory provides. The somewhat chaotic evolution and uneven geographical development of state institutions, powers, and functions over the last thirty years suggests, furthermore, that the neoliberal state may be an unstable and contradictory political form. According to theory, the neoliberal state should favour strong individual private property rights, the rule of law, and the institutions of freely functioning markets and free trade. These are the institutional arrangements considered essential to guarantee individual freedoms. The legal framework is that of freely negotiated contractual obligations between juridical individuals in the marketplace. The sanctity of contracts and the individual right to freedom of action, expression, and choice must be protected. The state must therefore use its monopoly of the means of violence to preserve these freedoms at all costs. By extension, the freedom of businesses and corporations (legally regarded as individuals) to operate within this institutional framework of free markets and free trade is regarded as a fundamental good. Private enterprise and entrepreneurial initiative are seen as the keys to innovation and wealth creation. Intellectual property rights are protected (for example through patents) so as to encourage technological changes. Continuous increases in productivity should then deliver higher living standards to everyone. Under the assumption that ‘a rising tide lifts all boats’, or of ‘trickle down’, neoliberal theory holds that the elimination of poverty (both domestically and worldwide) can best be secured through free markets and free trade. Neoliberals are particularly assiduous in seeking the privatization of assets. The absence of clear private property rights––as in many developing countries––is seen as one of the greatest of all institutional barriers to economic development and the improvement of human welfare. Enclosure and the assignment of private property rights is considered the best way to protect against the socalled ‘tragedy of the commons’ (the tendency for individuals to irresponsibly super-exploit common property resources such as land and water).
Imperial Architecture
Authors: Thomas Edmund
Published: November 2020

From ancient Egypt to the present day, the colossal size of buildings has been considered to reflect political power. For Herodotus, architecture was an expression of dominion; the Periclean monuments of Athens seemed visibly to encourage the Athenians to reclaim their Aegeanwide political ascendancy, since, as Isocrates remarked, ‘democracy had so adorned the city with temples and sacred images that even today visitors think it is worthy to rule not only the Greeks, but also all other peoples’. The Circus Maximus, rebuilt by Trajan, was ‘a seat worthy of the nation that conquered the world’. The correspondence between Trajan and the younger Pliny, his appointed legate in Bithynia, reveals the ideological purpose of provincial architecture. Pliny pointed out such meanings, although Trajan himself modestly affected to address only practicalities. For instance, Pliny remarks that a proposed canal near Nicomedia was ‘worthy of your greatness and your concern’. Architecture was as important in constructing imperial ideology as an emperor’s portraits or the legends and images on his coins; it legitimated his regime by promoting a particular ideal that commanded respect. It is generally agreed that buildings continued to play this role under Hadrian. The preceding discussion of Antonine buildings in the province of Asia now provides grounds to modify the view that, during the middle of the century, festivals or shows replaced public buildings as the major indicator of imperial ideology. One should, of course, be wary of using modern labels like ‘message’, ‘persuasion’, ‘propaganda’, or ‘ideology’ to describe the purpose of ancient forms. But in the present context the term ‘ideology’ seems particularly appropriate. As J. B. Thompson defines the concept, it highlights: . . . the ways in which meaning is mobilized in the service of individuals and groups, that is, the ways in which the meaning constructed and conveyed by symbolic forms serves, in particular circumstances, to establish and sustain structured social relations from which some individuals and groups benefit more than others, and which some individuals and groups have an interest in preserving while others may seek to contest. . . .
Agency and the Semantic Web
Authors: Walton Christopher
Published: November 2020

This highly topical text considers the construction of the next generation of the Web, called the Semantic Web. This will enable computers to automatically consume Web-based information, overcoming the human-centric focus of the Web as it stands at present, and expediting the construction of a whole new class of knowledge-based applications that will intelligently utilize Web content. The text is structured into three main sections on knowledge representation techniques, reasoning with multi-agent systems, and knowledge services. For each of these topics, the text provides an overview of the state-of-the-art techniques and the popular standards that have been defined. Numerous small programming examples are given, which demonstrate how the benefits of the Semantic Web technologies can be realized at the present time. The main theoretical results underlying each of the technologies are presented, and the main problems and research issues which remain are summarized. Based on a course on 'Multi-Agent Systems and the Semantic Web' taught at the University of Edinburgh, this text is ideal for final-year undergraduate and graduate students in Mathematics, Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, and Logic and researchers interested in Multi-Agent Systems and the Semantic Web.
Cultural Context and Form of Some of the Creswell Images: An Interpretative Model
Authors: Pettitt Paul B.
Published: November 2020

Since Dorothy Garrod (1926) coined the term ‘Creswellian’ to describe the British Late Upper Palaeolithic archaeology and in doing so emphasized its differences from the contemporary Late Magdalenian, the degree of connectedness of British Late Glacial hunter-gatherers with those of the continental mainland has been debated. Garrod pointed to the robust local tradition of single and double obliquely truncated backed pieces—Creswell and Cheddar Points respectively—and emphasized their dissimilarity, warranting in her opinion a separate taxonomic classification for the ‘provincial’ archaeology of Britain. Jacobi (1991) was the first to realize the problems with such a ‘splitting’ perspective, noting how the main type fossils of the Creswellian could be found among continental assemblages. While to a certain degree the problem can be seen as deriving from the specific culture-historical paradigm that Garrod was working within (Charles 1999), the degree of connection or distance between hunter-gatherer groups operating in Late Glacial Britain and those on the continent has remained a contentious issue. It is certainly difficult to find contemporary assemblages on the continent that contain all of the type fossils of British Late Glacial assemblages (Barton et al. 2003), and the few that exist are still undated (Jacobi 2004: 66). Consequently, the date and process by which the British assemblages became distinct remain to be established. The relative paucity in the UK of art mobilier and the total lack until April 2003 of parietal art of any form seemed to reinforce the distinction between Late Glacial Interstadial sites in Britain and on the continent. Engravings on bone, antler, and stone plaquettes and blocks are ubiquitous on continental sites, and the paucity of such materials on British sites could be seen in the context of Garrod’s regional emphasis to suggest a cultural difference. The discovery of the art, however, and its clear formal parallels with continental examples throw the issue of connectedness into sharp focus. Unlike sagaies, lithic armatures, and other tools, cave art is not a portable artefact. Whereas therefore design similarities between portable artefacts may result from exchange between far-flung and perhaps culturally distinct groups, formal similarities between rock art must suggest formal similarities of design and execution in the minds of artists; it is the concept that is portable.
Entscheidungsproblem: What’s in a Word?
Authors: Dasgupta Subrata
Published: November 2020

In 1900, the celebrated German mathematician David Hilbert (1862–1943), professor of mathematics in the University of Göttingen, delivered a lecture at the International Mathematics Congress in Paris in which he listed 23 significant “open” (mathematicians’ jargon for “unsolved”) problems in mathematics. Hilbert’s second problem was: Can it be proved that the axioms of arithmetic are consistent? That is, that theorems in arithmetic, derived from these axioms, can never lead to contradictory results? To appreciate what Hilbert was asking, we must understand that in the fin de siècle world of mathematics, the “axiomatic approach” held sway over mathematical thinking. This is the idea that any branch of mathematics must begin with a small set of assumptions, propositions, or axioms that are accepted as true without proof. Armed with these axioms and using certain rules of deduction, all the propositions concerning that branch of mathematics can be derived as theorems. The sequence of logically derived steps leading from axioms to theorems is, of course, a proof of that theorem. The axioms form the foundation of that mathematical system. The axiomatic development of plane geometry, going back to Euclid of Alexandria (fl . 300 BCE ) is the oldest and most impressive instance of the axiomatic method, and it became a model of not only how mathematics should be done, but also of science itself. Hilbert himself, in 1898 to 1899, wrote a small volume titled Grundlagen der Geometrie (Foundations of Geometry) that would exert a major influence on 20th-century mathematics. Euclid’s great work on plane geometry, Elements, was axiomatic no doubt, but was not axiomatic enough. There were hidden assumptions, logical problems, meaningless definitions, and so on. Hilbert’s treatment of geometry began with three undefined objects—point, line, and plane—and six undefined relations, such as being parallel and being between. In place of Euclid’s five axioms, Hilbert postulated a set of 21 axioms. In fact, by Hilbert’s time, mathematicians were applying the axiomatic approach to entire branches of mathematics.
A Paradigm Is Born
Authors: Dasgupta Subrata
Published: November 2020

In the ENIAC story so far, John von Neumann has had a fleeting presence. We saw that the BRL formed a high-powered scientific advisory committee at the start of World War II, well before the United States entered the war. von Neumann was a member of this committee and it is unlikely that anyone in the committee was as influential in the American scientific world or, for that matter, in the corridors of power in Washington, DC, than him. By the beginning of the 1940s, von Neumann had a massive reputation in the mathematical universe. His contributions spanned many regions of pure and applied mathematics, mathematical physics, even formal logic. He was one of the six mathematicians originally appointed as professors at the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton, when it was founded in 1933—another was Einstein. In 1944, von Neumann and economist Oskar Morgenstern (1902–1977) published a book titled The Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, thus founding and establishing for posterity the scientific discipline known as game theory. Herman Goldstine, who came to know von Neumann very well—first through their involvement with the BRL and then, after the war, at the Institute of Advanced Study, where Goldstine went to work with von Neumann on what came to be called the IAS computer project —wrote vividly about von Neumann’s intellectual persona, of his ever-ready receptiveness to new ideas, his responsiveness to new intellectual challenges, his mental restlessness when between projects, and the single-mindedness with which he pursued an idea that captured his attention. Oddly enough, despite his involvement with the BRL, he was apparently unaware of the ENIAC project until a chance meeting with Goldstine in a railway station in Aberdeen, Maryland. Goldstine recalls how the entire tone and tenor of their first conversation, initially casual and relaxed, changed when von Neumann realized that Goldstine was involved with the development of a high-speed electronic computer. There after, Goldstine writes, he felt as he was being grilled in a doctoral oral examination. Thus began their association, a relationship that only ended with von Neumann’s death from cancer in 1957.
Language Games
Authors: Dasgupta Subrata
Published: November 2020

It must have been entirely coincidental that two remarkable linguistic movements both occurred during the mid 1950s—one in the realm of natural language, the other in the domain of the artificial; the one brought about largely by a young linguist named Noam Chomsky (1928–), the other initiated by a new breed of scientists whom we may call language designers; the one affecting linguistics so strongly that it would be deemed a scientific revolution, the other creating a class of abstract artifacts called programming languages and also enlarging quite dramatically the emerging paradigm that would later be called computer science. As we will see, these two linguistic movements intersected in a curious sort of way. In particular, we will see how an aspect of Chomskyan linguistics influenced computer scientists far more profoundly than it influenced linguists. But first things first: concerning the nature of the class of abstract artifacts called programming languages. There is no doubt that those who were embroiled in the design of the earliest programmable computers also meditated on a certain goal: to make the task of programming a computer as natural as possible from the human point of view. Stepping back a century, we recall that Ada, Countess of Lovelace specified the computation of Bernoulli numbers in an abstract notation far removed from the gears, levers, ratchets, and cams of the Analytical Engine (see Chapter 2, Section VIII ). We have seen in the works of Herman Goldstine and John von Neumann in the United States, and David Wheeler in England that, even as the first stored-program computers were coming into being, eff orts were being made to achieve the goal just mentioned. Indeed, a more precise statement of this goal was in evidence: to compose computer programs in a more abstract form than in the machine’s “native” language. The challenge here was twofold: to describe the program (or algorithm) in such a language that other humans could comprehend, without knowing much about the computer for which the program was written—in other words, a language that allowed communication between the writer of the program and other (human) readers—and also to communicate the program to the machine in such fashion that the latter could execute the program with minimal human intervention.
Seduced by Drug Discovery
Authors: Cordes Eugene H.
Published: November 2020

In autumn 1978, a gentleman scientist named Ralph Hirschmann changed my life. At the time, Ralph was a 56-year-old chemist who had just been promoted to senior vice-president for basic research in chemistry in the Merck Research Laboratories of Merck and Company, a large and—in the opinion of many—the best pharmaceutical house in the world at that time. Ralph had spent his entire professional career at Merck, starting in 1950, and he had a substantial list of scientific accomplishments to his credit. One of these stood out above all others: the laboratory synthesis of a really big molecule. The focal point of chemistry is the molecule. Linking together atoms of the elements hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon, for example, with chemical bonds (think electron glue) creates molecules. There are a lot of different molecules on planet Earth—perhaps a hundred million—some assembled by living organisms and others made in chemistry labs. Some are very small, just two or three atoms linked together. The principal components of our atmosphere—nitrogen and oxygen—are examples. Nitrogen gas consists of two nitrogen atoms (N) linked together: N2. Likewise, oxygen gas is composed of two oxygen atoms (O) linked together: O2. Water provides a slightly more complex example. Two hydrogen atoms (H) are linked to an oxygen atom, H-O-H, more commonly written as H2O. Others are really big and contain thousands of atoms. This is where Ralph comes in. The outstanding achievement for which Ralph gained fame in the arcane world of chemistry was the total laboratory synthesis of a protein—known as ribonuclease S—completed in 1969. A word of warning here: chemistry is full of long words such as ribonuclease that are difficult to spell, difficult to pronounce, and have meaning only to a chemist. There is nothing that I can do about that, so get used to it. Proteins are big molecules—thousands of atoms. The work that Ralph did was in collaboration with another chemist at Merck—Bob Denkewalter.
Proteins: Molecular Wonders in Three Dimensions
Authors: Cordes Eugene H.
Published: November 2020

I grew up in a solid middle-class family, largely of German descent, in a city of modest size in central Nebraska. Like a lot of such families, our diet was based on meat and potatoes. It was an unwritten but religiously observed law in our home that two meals each day would include both meat and potatoes. The meat was turkey twice a year, ham on occasion, chicken or pork from time to time, but mostly beef. The potatoes were usually boiled or boiled potatoes subsequently sliced and fried. My brother and I also drank a lot of whole milk, at least a quart a day each and frequently more (skim milk was available, but no one gave much thought to “reduced fat” or “low fat” milk back in those days). On farms, a lot of people just drank what the cows had on tap. Between the meat, potatoes, and the whole milk, we got a lot of protein in our diet, which is good; we also got a lot of saturated fat in our diet and that is not so good. Adequate protein in our diet is essential for good health. Proteins in our diet break down to provide essential amino acids. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. The amino acids that are essential in our diet are those that our bodies cannot make or cannot make in adequate quantity for optimal health. For dietary proteins, two things matter: amount and quality. The amount of protein is a simple quantitative matter; it is measured in grams per day. The amount you need depends on several factors: your gender, age, size, level of exercise and other physical activity, and whether you are pregnant or lactating, for example. The quality of protein is not so easy to evaluate. Getting the essential amino acids in your diet is more important than getting the others. The highest quality proteins are those that contain an abundance of all the essential amino acids. Meats and dairy products are among the best sources of high-quality proteins.
The Perils of Primaxin
Authors: Cordes Eugene H.
Published: November 2020

The Perils of Pauline is a 1914 film serial in 20 episodes. In each episode, a villain, perhaps a pirate, menaces Pauline, played by Pearl White. In each episode, Pauline seems certain to meet her demise, only to escape or be rescued at the last possible moment. Outdoing the proverbial cat of nine lives, Pauline had 20. The Perils of Pauline bears more than a passing resemblance to drug discovery and development in which some villain, perhaps an issue of safety or efficacy, threatens the life of a project. I know of no better example of this than the course of getting the antibiotic Primaxin from the laboratory to the bedside. The perils of Primaxin plays out in a scientific serial of five episodes in which the project is rescued from impending disaster in each episode. The Primaxin story is one of the great tales of drug discovery in the world of antibiotics—the molecules that have power to prevent or cure bacterial infections. Primaxin is a triumph of the pharmaceutical industry in general and of Merck specifically. Victory did not come easily. The road from a drug discovery start to a marketable human health product is often rough, occasionally very rough, and sometimes impassable. The Primaxin story stands out for the number and nature of bumps and ruts that impeded passage. That Primaxin made it to the market for the benefit of countless patients with infectious diseases is a tribute to the wit and determination of the many scientists who saw it through. That story comes later. Let’s get started with some general background on the field of antibiotics. The next time you have the occasion to explore a cemetery, have a look at the tombstones for people born around 1900. A significant fraction of those tombstones will reveal that the date of death is within 10 years of the date of birth. Simply put, many people born around 1900 or earlier did not live to be 10 years old.
Avermectins: Molecules of Life Battle Parasites
Authors: Cordes Eugene H.
Published: November 2020

These are the words of Dr. William C. Campbell, hereinafter known as Bill. Bill was Merck’s leading authority on parasitic diseases. He played the leading role in the discovery of the greatest antiparasitic drugs in history—ivermectin and abamectin. Having said this, and as Bill has pointed out, this drug discovery story, like all of them, was the result of a team effort involving hundreds of people. When you start giving credit by naming scientists who contributed, it is tough to know when to stop. If you try to name them all, you get a telephone book for a small village and you will still miss somebody. The other extreme is to name nobody, but I have already violated that alternative. So I will mention four scientists at Merck who, in addition to Bill, were the authors of the publication in the prestigious journal Science of the article announcing the discovery of ivermectin. They are Mike Fisher, the chemist who led the chemistry effort at Merck focused on the avermectins; Ed Stapley, who led Merck’s natural product screening effort; Georg Albers-Schönberg, who headed the group that elucidated the structure of the avermectins; and Ted Jacob, Merck’s leader of animal drug metabolism. Before getting into the story, a word about names—this time about molecules, not scientists. As I relate in this chapter, avermectins are a small family of related molecules. Ivermectin is a chemically modified derivative of one of the avermectins, and abamectin is one of the avermectins. Bill Campbell is an Irishman and native of Donegal. He took himself to Trinity College in Dublin for his undergraduate work where he did research under the direction of J. Desmond Smyth, a noted parasitologist. Near the end of Bill’s undergraduate days at Trinity College, Dr. Arlie Todd of the University of Wisconsin wrote Smyth to ask whether he had any promising students to recommend for graduate study. Smyth recommended Bill to Todd, along with two others.
What Makes a Healthy Soil?
Authors: White Robert E.
Published: November 2020

Soil scientists used to speak of soil quality, a concept expressing a soil’s “fitness for purpose.” The prime purpose was for agriculture and the production of food and fiber. However, to the general public soil quality is a rather abstract con­cept and in recent years the term has been replaced by soil health. A significant reason for this change is that health is a concept that resonates with people in a personal sense. This change is epitomized in the motto “healthy soil = healthy food = healthy people” on the website of the Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania (http://rodaleinstitute.org/). One consequence of this change is an increasing focus on the state of the soil’s biology, or life in the soil, an emphasis that is expressed through the promotion of organic and biodynamic systems of farming. Viticulture and winemaking are at the forefront of this trend. For example, Jane Wilson (2008), a vigneron in the Mudgee region of New South Wales, is quoted as saying, “the only way to build soil and release a lot of the available minerals is by looking after the biology,” and Steve Wratten (2009), professor of ecology at Lincoln University in New Zealand has said, “Organic viticulture rocks! It’s the future, it really is.” This exuberance has been taken up by Organic Winegrowers New Zealand, founded only in 2007, who have set a goal of “20 by 2020,” that is, 20% of the country’s vineyards under certified organic management by the year 2020. The Cornell Soil Health Assessment provides a more balanced assessment of soil health (Gugino et al., 2009). The underlying concept is that soil health is an integral expression of a soil’s chemical, physical, and biological attributes, which determine how well a soil provides various ecosystem functions, including nutrient cycling, supporting biodiversity, storing and filtering water, and maintaining resilience in the face of disturbance, both natural and anthropogenic. Although originally developed for crop land in the northeast United States, the Cornell soil health approach is readily adapted to viticulture, as explained by Schindelbeck and van Es (2011), and which is currently being attempted in Australia (Oliver et al., 2013; Riches et al., 2013).
Introduction
Authors: Fox Michael H.
Published: November 2020

“Get under your desks. The missiles are coming.” “The President has been shot!” “The National Guard has killed four students at Kent State.” “The river is burning!” These are my searing teenage and early adult memories. My formative years took place in the 1960s, when society was seemingly coming apart at the seams, with riots over the Vietnam War, riots over racial issues, and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. The Cold War was in full swing and there was great fear that the United States and the (former) Soviet Union would annihilate the world with a nuclear holocaust. In addition to these crises, the environment had become degraded to such an extent that the Cuyahoga River caught fire and the air in major cities was not safe to breathe. In response to this toxic mix of social and environmental ills, many citizens began questioning whether they could trust the government or technology. Fueled by this questioning, a new sense of activism led to (among other things) an environmental movement that helped establish the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to clean up our rivers and air. This was a time when books such as Silent Spring (1), The Population Bomb (2), and The Limits to Growth (3) were proclaiming dire consequences for our planet if we didn’t take our impacts on the planet more seriously. It was also a time when environmental activists became very concerned and vocal about the hazards of nuclear weapons and radiation in general. Fears of even a limited nuclear war leading to a “nuclear winter” were prevalent. As nuclear power plants were being proposed, fierce demonstrations took place to try to prevent them from being built and delaying the time line for actually building them to ten or more years. A large segment of society became convinced that virtually any exposure to radiation would cause cancer and that nuclear reactors were a major health hazard.
Nuclear Waste
Authors: Fox Michael H.
Published: November 2020

I gazed over the railing into the crystal clear cooling pool glowing with blue Cherenkov light caused by particulate radiation traveling faster than the speed of light in water. I can see a matrix of square objects through the water, filling more than half of the pool. It looks like you could take a quick dip into the water, like an indoor swimming pool, but that would not be a good idea! It is amazing to think that this pool, about the size of a ranch house, is holding all of the spent fuel from powering the Wolf Creek nuclear reactor in Burlington, Kansas, for 27 years. The reactor was just refueled about a month before my visit, so 80 of the used fuel rod assemblies were removed from the reactor and replaced with new ones. The used fuel rods were moved underwater into the cooling pool, joining the approximately 1,500 already there. There is sufficient space for the next 15 years of reactor operation. There is no danger from standing at the edge of this pool looking in, though the levels of radon tend to be somewhat elevated and may electrostatically attach to my hard hat, as indeed some did. What I am gazing at is what has stirred much of the controversy over nuclear power and is what must ultimately be dealt with if nuclear power is to grow in the future—the spent nuclear fuel waste associated with nuclear power. What is the hidden danger that I am staring at? Am I looking at the unleashed power of Hephaestus, the mythical Greek god of fi re and metallurgy? Or is this a more benign product of energy production that can be managed safely? What exactly is in this waste? And is it really waste, or is it a resource? To answer that question, we have to understand the fuel that reactors burn. The fuel rods that provide the heat from nuclear fission in a nuclear reactor contain fuel pellets of uranium, an element that has an atomic number of 92 (the number of protons and also the number of electrons).
Rethinking Energy at the Crossroads
Authors: Araújo Kathleen
Published: November 2020

The discovery of oil in Pennsylvania in 1859 was a relatively inconspicuous precursor to what would become an epic shift into the modern age of energy. At the time, the search for “rock oil” was driven by a perception that lighting fuel was running out. Advances in petrochemical refining and internal combustion engines had yet to occur, and oil was more expensive than coal. In less than 100 years, oil gained worldwide prominence as an energy source and traded commodity. Along similar lines, electricity in the early 1900s powered less than 10% of the homes in the United States. Yet, in under a half a century, billions of homes around the world were equipped to utilize the refined form of energy. Estimates indicate that roughly 85% of the world’s population had access to electricity in 2014 (World Bank, n.d.b). For both petroleum and electricity, significant changes in energy use and associated technologies were closely linked to evolutions in infrastructure, institutions, investment, and practices. Today, countless decision-makers are focusing on transforming energy systems from fossil fuels to low carbon energy which is widely deemed to be a cleaner, more sustainable form of energy. As of 2016, 176 countries have renewable energy targets in place, compared to 43 in 2005 (Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century [REN21], 2017). Many jurisdictions are also setting increasingly ambitious targets for 100% renewable energy or electricity (Bloomberg New Energy Finance [BNEF], 2016). In 2015, the G7 and G20 committed to accelerate the provision of access to renewables and efficiency (REN21, 2016). In conjunction with all of the above priorities, clean energy investment surged in 2015 to a new record of $329 billion, despite low, fossil fuel prices. A significant “decoupling” of economic and carbon dioxide (CO2) growth was also evident, due in part to China’s increased use of renewable energy and efforts by member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to foster greater use of renewables and efficiency (REN21, 2016).
Icelandic Geothermal Energy: Shifting Ground
Authors: Araújo Kathleen
Published: November 2020

Today’s energy sectors hold different potentials for saving on energy, carbon, and other greenhouse gases (GHGs). Buildings, for instance, represent more than 40% of energy use worldwide and one-third of GHGs (United Nations Environment Programme [UNEP], n.d.a). Improvements in heating, cooling, and powering of buildings, as well as industrial processes, can deliver substantial and cost-effective savings. In line with this, geothermal energy represents a more unusual form of renewable energy in that it can directly contribute to heating, cooling, and electricity services. Unlike a number of its counterparts, geothermal energy can provide a more stable and renewable form of energy that is largely unaffected by weather. The chapter focuses on geothermal energy adoption in Iceland, “a little country that roars,” according to UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christina Figueres (Iceland Monitor, 2014), when discussing leadership in renewable energy use and related action. In developing its renewable energy leadership, Iceland has wrestled, like many countries, with tradeoffs in energy, the environment, and economic development. The chapter highlights the interplay of these interests and explores the innovative engineering and industrial spillovers in Iceland’s geothermal adoption. Iceland is a country of roughly 333,000 people, and is a global leader in renewable energy use (Islandsbanki, 2010; Ministry of the Environment, 2010; Statistics Iceland, 2017). Two-thirds of the country’s primary energy consists of geothermal energy, with roughly nine out of ten Icelandic homes heated by the fuel source and a quarter of the country’s electricity powered by it (Orkustofnun, 2015; Ragnarsson, 2015). The nation leads globally in terms of geothermal heat capacity per capita and serves as a principal source of international training and consulting on geothermal energy, with a diverse industrial cluster that has developed around the technology (Gekon, n.d.; United Nations University Geothermal Training Programme [UN- GTP], n.d). The country’s low carbon development pathway reflects choices and debate about how to manage its natural resources and allow for foreign investment. Iceland began the 20th century as one of the poorest nations in Europe and is now a top-ranked country in the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index (Hannibalsson, 2008; United Nations Development Program [UNDP], 2015).
Clopidogrel Bisulfate (Plavix)
Authors: Li Jie Jack
Published: November 2020

Three types of blood cells exist in the human body: red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Red blood cells, 45% of the blood, transport oxygen from the lungs to other body parts. White cells, less than 1% of the blood, defend us against bacterial and viral invasions. Platelets, also less than 1% of the blood (55% of the remaining blood is plasma), are small cell fragments that are involved in helping the blood clot, a process known as blood coagulation. Coagulation takes place when the enzyme thrombin elicits platelets and fibrin, a blood protein. Without platelets, coagulation at the site of an injury does not occur and uncontrolled bleeding ensues. Individuals with no ability to clot have a genetic condition called hemophilia. These individuals must periodically administer a clotting factor to their blood to prevent constant bleeding. Conversely, thrombosis, the formation of blood clots inside blood vessels, can block coronary arteries and constrict vital oxygen supplies, resulting in a heart attack or stroke. Coronary thrombosis is a life-threatening blood clot in the artery. Deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) is commonly associated with long-distance air travel, when passengers are confined to cramped spaces for many hours. In contrast with thrombosis, in which the clot is stationary, embolus is when an object such as a clot migrates from one part of the body through blood circulation and causes blockage. A pulmonary embolism occurs when emboli travel to the lungs. Approximately 90% of heart attacks and 80% of strokes are caused by blood clots, which kill some 200,000 hospital patients in the US each year. Anticoagulants (blood thinners) are the drugs of choice to prevent and treat both thrombosis and embolism. To date, heparin, warfarin, and aspirin have all been widely used as blood thinners to prevent blood clots from forming. Heparin is one of the oldest medicines still in widespread clinical use. Heparin was extracted in 1916 by Jay McLean from dog’s liver in the laboratories of William Howell at the Johns Hopkins University.
Glaciers
Authors: Taillant Jorge Daniel
Published: November 2020

Though not traditionally thought of as strategic natural resources, glaciers are a crucial part of our global ecosystem playing a fundamental role in the sustaining of life around the world. Comprising three quarters of the world's freshwater, they freeze in the winter and melt in the summer, supplying a steady flow of water for agriculture, livestock, industry and human consumption. The white of glacier surfaces reflect sunrays which otherwise warm our planet. Without them, many of the planet's rivers would run dry shortly after the winter snow-melt. A single mid-sized glacier in high mountain environments of places like California, Argentina, India, Kyrgyzstan, or Chile can provide an entire community with a sustained flow of drinking water for generations. On the other hand, when global temperatures rise, not only does glacier ice wither away into the oceans and cease to act as water reservoirs, but these massive ice bodies can become highly unstable and collapse into downstream environments, resulting in severe natural events like glacier tsunamis and other deadly environmental catastrophes. But despite their critical role in environmental sustainability, glaciers often exist well outside our environmental consciousness, and they are mostly unprotected from atmospheric impacts of global warming or from soot deriving from transportation emissions, or from certain types of industrial activity such as mining, which has been shown to have devastating consequences for glacier survival. Glaciers: The Politics of Ice is a scientific, cultural, and political examination of the cryosphere -- the earth's ice -- and the environmental policies that are slowly emerging to protect it. Jorge Daniel Taillant discusses the debates and negotiations behind the passage of the world's first glacier-protection law in the mid-2000s, and reveals the tension that quickly arose between industry, politicians, and environmentalists when an international mining company proposed dynamiting three glaciers to get at gold deposits underneath. The book is a quest to educate general society about the basic science behind glaciers, outlines current and future risks to their preservation, and reveals the intriguing politics behind glacier melting debates over policies and laws to protect the resource. Taillant also makes suggestions on what can be done to preserve these crucial sources of fresh water, from both a scientific and policymaking standpoint. Glaciers is a new window into one of the earth's most crucial and yet most ignored natural resources, and a call to reawaken our interest in the world's changing climate.