bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
In My End Is My Beginning
Authors: Scarani Valerio
Published: November 2023

Nature makes innumerable variations on the theme ‘indistinguishability principle’. In certain variations the theme is obvious, in others it is more hidden – exactly as in music. I have presented the phenomena that most directly show the specificity of quantum physics; but to think that this book contains all of quantum physics would be like killing Schubert’s Trout in the first octaves. Think of the historical successes of quantum physics – the comprehension of chemistry, the discovery of the atom first and the world of elementary particles afterwards. Think of the research domains that, apart from increasing our understanding of Nature, have produced important applications – quantum optics with the laser, solid-state physics with semiconductors and superconductors, atomic physics with the atomic clocks required for precise synchronicity (for instance in the GPS system). Think of the most recent but fascinating domains such as mesoscopic physics or the physics of the Bose–Einstein condensates91 produced for the first time in 1995. Think of the frontiers of cosmology, for instance the so-called inﬂation that is supposed to describe the very first instants of our universe. Think of the impetus that the needs of physics have given to certain branches of mathematics. Think of all that, and you will have a more comprehensive summary of what quantum physics is – each of these points deserves many books for itself alone.
Where two fields meet
Authors: Mayhew Peter J
Published: November 2023

A teacher of mine once simplified his complex family history by saying that he, like all of us, originated from Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania (the ‘cradle of mankind’). Tropical Africa has been a cauldron of diversity not only for our own species. It is, to take one example, surprisingly fishy. The Great Lakes of East Africa (Figure 1.1), and surrounding rivers, contain a whopping 1500 species in just one fish family, the cichlids, familiar to freshwater aquarium enthusiasts. This makes cichlids the most species-rich family of vertebrates, beating such diverse and familiar groups as songbirds and mice. They are so diverse that many still await proper scientific description, and many more are doubtless completely undiscovered. Lakes Victoria and Malawi each contain about 500 species, and about 250 species are found in Lake Tanganyika. Diversity of this sort is what makes our planet such an interesting place, and of course, we have to find out what caused it.
Evolutionary cover-stories
Authors: Mayhew Peter J
Published: November 2023

Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. Vincent van Gogh People have long suspected that the first organisms must have been relatively simple. Since the origin of life, some organisms must therefore have undergone important evolutionary transitions that resulted in the kinds of species with which we are now familiar. In recent years, biologists have come to view these transitions not only as revolutions in the way living organ- isms looked and behaved, but also as solutions to similar problems. Understanding how they occurred brings us great insight into how natural selection works, and why modern, complex, organisms live and behave as they do.
Sons, daughters, and distorters
Authors: Mayhew Peter J
Published: November 2023

Most of us take for granted three facts about our gender: (1) that we each produce only male or female gametes, not both; (2) that about half of us are male and half are female; and (3) that this is a result of the mechanism of sex determination known as male heterogamety. In male heterogamety, possession of two similar (X) chromosomes determines a female individual, whereas possession of two non-identical chromosomes (X and Y) deter- mines a male. Because haploid sperm are produced by fair (Mendelian) segregation of the male sex chromosomes, half produce daughters and half sons. This keeps the sex ratio at approximate equality.
Voyagers, residents, and sleepers
Authors: Mayhew Peter J
Published: November 2023

One of the most important developments in evolutionary biology came in 1962 with the publication of ‘Animal dispersion in relation to social behaviour’ by Vero Wynne-Edwards. This was probably the most controversial biology book of its generation. In it, Wynne-Edwards proposed that animal populations were regulated by dispersal of surplus, less fit, individuals, which prevented overpopulation. Wynne-Edwards believed this behaviour to have evolved through differential survival and extinction of populations; those groups of individuals without this benevolent behaviour went extinct, leaving the remaining habitat to become populated by those that had (Figure 6.1). This process, group selection, ran counter to the Darwinian notion of selection between individuals, and was robustly rejected by the academic community. The principal legacy of the book was to focus attention on the mechanisms of natural selection and the evolution of social behaviour. The ideas that followed laid the foundations of modern evolutionary ecology.
A world of specialists
Authors: Mayhew Peter J
Published: November 2023

Imagine that most typical of ecological entities, a community of coexisting species. The community may be characterized by variables, such as the number of species and the number or type of interactions. The next several chapters will examine how evolution affects these fundamental properties of communities. This chapter specifically examines the evolution of the breadth of use of resources that govern the size of an organism’s ecological niche. Some species are generalist, having in some sense a broad niche (large range of environmental tolerance, broad diet, etc.). Most species, how- ever, are probably specialists in at least one sense. This is curious from an evolutionary perspective; we can imagine that a wide ecological niche would be extremely beneficial from a fitness perspective, allowing an organism to survive unexpected changes in its environment.
The good, the bad, and the commensal
Authors: Mayhew Peter J
Published: November 2023

The present chapter deals with another feature of interactions between species: the degree of antagonism. Interactions between two species can be classified according to the fitness effects of the interaction on each species. Most people’s understanding of ecological communities is that they are full of exploiter–victim relationships, where one species benefits at the expense of another (+,-). Predation, herbivory, and parasitism are examples, and are of course ubiquitous in communities: they are the building blocks of food webs. Competition involves negative effects on both parties (-,-) and is also common between members of the same trophic level. Again, such relationships are to be expected in a Darwinian world where individual’s primary concern is its own reproductive success, rather than that of another individual of a different species.
Death of species
Authors: Mayhew Peter J
Published: November 2023

In the last chapter we saw how new evolutionary lineages may arise, increasing the number of branches on the tree of life. We will now consider how the number of branches might be depleted, thus ‘pruning’ the tree of life; the process known as extinction. At its limit, extinction is a population level phenomenon: it is the specific case of population dynamics when the number of individuals becomes zero. This sounds like a purely ecological process with little evolutionary perspective. Yet, as we shall see in both this and the next chapter, extinction has evolutionary causes and con- sequences. First, as populations decline, changes in genetic composition often occur, some with impacts on the phenotype of the organism.
Big ecology
Authors: Mayhew Peter J
Published: November 2023

Macroecology is the field that describes and attempts to explain statistical patterns of abundance, distribution, and diversity (Brown 1995; Gaston and Blackburn 2000). Macroecologists have identified a number of distinctive patterns in these variables that seem to be telling us something important about the rules governing ecology and evolution. In the development of the field, identifying patterns constitutes what Gaston and Blackburn (1999) describe as the ‘what’ stage of development, and is reasonably well advanced. Ultimately, we would like to know ‘how’ and ‘why’ the patterns are generated. This is not only because the patterns themselves seem to be important features of our biotic universe, but also because underlying them are fundamental principles of the workings of ecology and evolution.
Combining in diversity
Authors: Mayhew Peter J
Published: November 2023

Over the previous 14 chapters, I have recounted the major questions that evolutionary ecologists have addressed and some of the discoveries that they have brought to light. In this chapter, I will draw on this experience to explain what evolutionary ecology as a whole is trying to do. First, evolutionary ecology is primarily about understanding biological diversity. Both ecology and evolution are about understanding variation in a common set of variables, so it is natural that they should sometimes need to work together to do that. Second, evolution and ecology affect each other. Evolutionary ecology explores the different ways in which this happens. Third, the different topics in evolutionary ecology help explain each other. This occurs because many evolutionary or ecological traits are dependent on each other, and because many of the research tools are broadly applicable. Below I expand briefly on these themes in the light of the preceding chapters.
Selection on reproductive characters: conceptual foundations and their extension to pollinator interactions
Authors: Morgan Martin T
Published: November 2023

This chapter reviews conceptual insights and directions for understanding natural selection on reproductive characters. Evolutionary stable strategy (ESS) approaches are ideal for formulating concepts and thinking strategically about the phenotypic selection of reproductive characters. Quantitative genetic models (in the sense popularized by Lande) provide tools for characterizing phenotypic selection and inheritance on a microevolutionary scale, while relating closely to the conceptual insights of ESS analysis.
Floral design and the evolution of asymmetrical mating systems
Authors: Barrett Spencer C H , Hodgins Kathryn A
Published: November 2023

Floral traits that promote cross-pollination have a fundamental influence on the origin and maintenance of sexual polymorphisms in plants. This influence results from mating within and between sexual morphs, which determines the character of negative frequency-dependent selection and governs the evolution of morph ratios. The daffodil genus, Narcissus , exhibits exceptional diversity in floral design, pollination biology and sexual systems, and includes species with stylar monomorphism, stigma-height dimorphism, distyly and tristyly. Narcissus is unusual among heterostylous groups because species with stylar polymorphism possess a self-incompatibility system that permits intra-morph mating.
Ecological genetics of floral evolution
Authors: Conner Jeffrey K
Published: November 2023

The diversity of floral forms in nature can be explained largely as adaptations to the diversity of biotic and abiotic selective agents with which different plant species interact. Ecological genetics is the study of the process of adaptation, and therefore is an ideal approach to understanding floral adaptations. Here ı review work on selection and genetic variance and covariance of floral traits, as these are the principal determinants of adaptive evolution. Early work focused on simple floral polymorphisms, because they were amenable to study, but more recent work has used their simplicity to understand the genetic mechanisms underlying adaptation in unprecedented detail.
Voluntary Action: Brains, Minds, And Sociality
Authors: Maasen Sabine , Prinz Wolfgang , Roth Gerhard
Published: November 2023

In one sense, everybody knows what voluntary action is. We are all experts on this matter. Every day and every hour we perform a vast number of actions under the control of our will, and so we understand much of what other people do as well. By saying this, we do not mean to say that all actions people perform are voluntary. People act voluntarily in certain situations, but not (or less so) in certain others. This capacity to perform voluntary actions is tightly linked to our understanding of what it means to be an autonomous agent or person. By knowing what voluntary actions are, we also have a sense of what it means to be a person and vice versa.
How do we know about our own actions?
Authors: Prinz Wolfgang
Published: November 2023

The history of psychology is, to some extent, the story of a never-ending struggle against folk psychology. In a way, folk psychology provides us with ready-made answers to many of the questions we ask in science. As a consequence, everybody who shares a particular system of folk psychology convictions and beliefs is an expert in psychological matters. People already know the answers to the questions we pose and, therefore, they find much of our scientific effort redundant and superfluous.
Acquisition And Control Of Voluntary Action
Authors: Hommel Bernhard
Published: November 2023

This chapter deals with the cognitive underpinnings of voluntary action, here defined as goal-directed behaviour. It delineates how voluntary action emerges through the automatic acquisition of bilateral associations between cognitive codes of movement patterns and sensory movement effects. Once acquired, these associations can be used to choose movement patterns by activating codes of intended outcomes (the Lotze–Harleß principle). Actions are planned by specifying the intended outcomes, binding the activated codes, and integrating them with the anticipated trigger stimuli. Integrated action plans are then carried out automatically as soon as the trigger stimulus is encountered.
How do we control action?
Authors: Seitz RÜdiger J
Published: November 2023

The aim of this contribution is to provide an outline of the neural correlate underlying the control of voluntary action from the perspective of clinical neurology and systems physiology. Voluntary action has been defined as a consciously initiated process underlying goaldirected movement control. Based on evidence from functional neuro-imaging and from neurological syndromes, such as akinesia, neglect, and apraxia, a distributed model of information processing is proposed that describes the central position of action between the individual’s behaviour and the single movement.
Self-Generated Actions
Authors: Jeannerod Marc
Published: November 2023

Voluntary actions are consciously represented actions. However, this far too simple definition does not specify when consciousness is supposed to occur: is it prior to execution (i.e. at the representational stage), or during execution or even after the action is completed? In order to clarify some aspects of this problem, I will first examine the basic notion of a representation for action, and subsequently try to understand its role in ultimately generating a conscious intention and a voluntary action.
How voluntary are minimal actions?
Authors: Proust JoËLle
Published: November 2023

This chapter aims at exploring how intentional a piece of behaviour should be to count as an action, and how a minimal view of action, not requiring a richly intentional causation, may still qualify as voluntary. Knowing what counts as an action is not only a matter of nominal definition. It has important consequences for education and law, as well as ethics. One unresolved question in the domain of action consists in determining which features, if any, are distinctive of human action as contrasted with non-human animal action. The interest in studying what Kent Bach (1978) called ‘minimal actions’ is that they seem not to presuppose any prior intention, not even any conscious decision. Defining a minimal action as a guided bodily movement (not requiring an intentional belief–desire–causation) will help us to discuss some issues that become easily blurred within the folk psychological approach to fullfledged, richly intentional actions.
Between The Normative And The Symbolic: Juridical And Anthropological Accounts Of Voluntary Action
Authors: Maasen Sabine
Published: November 2023

Thus far, voluntary action has been investigated from three different perspectives: psychologists have inquired into the cognitive processes and social-personality aspects of goaldirected behaviour. Voluntariness, by their account, is either nothing but a convenient manner of speech, that should be abandoned from scientific discourse or, if anything, is a matter of constraining, but not triggering, goal-directed action. As regards the neurosciences, they enquire into the brain functions that process actions that we perceive as conscious or willed. In their view, consciousness, while not the ‘lord of the manor’ in our brains, can be understood as an automatic mechanism for monitoring actions.
A polytheistic conception of the sciences and the Virtues of deep variety
Authors: Shweder Richard A
Published: November 2023

‘Can we actually “know” the universe? My God, it is hard enough finding your way around in Chinatown …’ is a line from one of Woody Allen’s books. The line seems appropriate as the opening line for an essay in which I plan to examine some of the many problems with the idea of ‘unity of knowledge’ or ‘consilience’ as presented by the Harvard University biologist E. O. Wilson (1998). Concerning the gospel of ‘consilience’ I have doubts about its ‘unification metaphysics’ (material determination, all the way down) and its ‘unified learning’ pedagogy (with its emphasis on one particular, even peculiar, ‘natural science’ conception of knowledge; Wilson, 1998, p. 5, 3).
The Demography Of Social Class
Authors: Coleman D A
Published: November 2023

Demography is the formalization of the risks or chances involved in belonging to a particular society: risks of dying and ill-health, risks of marrying and giving birth, risks of migrating, or of living in a large or small household-many of the characteristics of daily life as well as of its beginning and end.

The way people live and die can differ radically between different countries, different races and ethnic groups, and over periods of time. Demography provides a way of measuring these differences. But within all but the least complex of societies, there is also stratification by rank, income, or prestige (see Bendix and Lipset 1967), even in egalitarian ones (Rosenfeld 1951).
Demographic changes in a Snow Goose population: biological and management implications
Authors: Cooch E G , Cooke F
Published: November 2023

There is a threefold challenge facing biologists studying economically important species: firstly, to understand the basic demographic facts about the population; secondly, to draw the appropriate inferences from these facts; and thirdly, management implications have to be pointed out. If the factual information is flawed, it is irrelevant at best and irresponsible at worst to offer advice on management. In this paper, we report some of the essential demographic findings that have been made relating to the Lesser Snow Goose (Anser caerulescens caerulescens) population at La Perouse Bay (LPB), in Northern Manitoba, Canada. We provide population estimates for fecundity (production) and survival and show how the values change with time. We use these values to show that the changes in demographic parameters can explain the changes in population size, and attempt to identify the factors responsible for the demographic changes. This information will allow managers to devise policies concerning the target population levels, which may involve either a change or maintenance of the original population level. If managers wish to change the population levels, they will have the requisite information on which to attempt to alter the demography of the population.
Constraints on the demographic parameters of bird populations
Authors: Perrins C M
Published: November 2023

These parameters may not necessarily be in balance over short periods, say within a year or even between years, but over a long time such a balance must hold true. In practice few studies have measured all the variables in the above equation, especially since emigration and immigration have frequently proved intractable to study.
Population studies of White Storks ( Ciconia ciconia) in Europe
Authors: Bairlein Franz
Published: November 2023

Thus, long-term, concurrent information on breeding pairs is available for many parts of the species’ breeding range. These censuses revealed a general decrease in stork numbers in Europe, although the decline was not continuous and rather different changes occurred in various parts of the species’ range. In general, storks breeding west of the migratory divide (Fig. 10.1) and migrating to W. African winter quarters sharply decreased or even became extinct, whereas the eastern population (breeding east of the migratory divide, Fig. 10.1) appears to be relatively stable or even locally increasing in size and extending its breeding range. Besides these international censuses comprehensive, long-term annual counts of breeding storks are available from some regions, including ringing data and annual data on breeding success, so allowing a more detailed analysis.
Changes in the population size and demography of southern seabirds: management implications
Authors: Jouventin Pierre , Weimerskirch Henri
Published: November 2023

Oceans occupy some 70 per cent of the world surface. The greater part of the northern hemisphere consists of land, while oceans represent the majority of the southern hemisphere, in a contiguous body of water known collectively as the Austral of Antarctic Ocean in its circumpolar reaches. Here the seabird communities are the richest in the world in terms of both actual numbers and numbers of species. Despite the impact of sealing and whaling on subantarctic ecosystems, many of the islands and their avifaunas remain relatively undamaged. However, the situation is changing rapidly. With the increase of human activities, it is essential to monitor the seabird species likely to be affected, in order to identify the causes of demographic changes. When trying to explain the changes in population sizes, it is important to detect the environmental factors that could cause changes and to identify past and present human influences on seabird populations.
Seasonal and annual patterns of mortality in migratory shorebirds: some conservation implications
Authors: Evans P R
Published: November 2023

Population dynamics of shorebirds formed the subject of a research review by Evans and Pienkowski (1984), and the role of migration in population processes has been further discussed by Pienkowski and Evans (1984, 1985). The present chapter updates these reviews and focuses particularly on causes of mortality in shorebird populations, since these have important implications for conservation of the species concerned.
Parasites, cuckoos, and avian population dynamics
Authors: Son A P Dop , May R M
Published: November 2023

The last 10 years have seen significant increases in the understanding of the role that parasites and pathogens play in the regulation of host abundance. These advances are based, in part, on a theoretical framework developed to examine the population dynamics of parasite-host relationships (Anderson and May 1978,1979,1982; May and Anderson 1978,1979). In this chapter we use these models and their multispecies extensions to examine the patterns of parasite infections found in birds. The models were developed initially to determine those attributes of the interaction between parasites and their hosts that are important in determining observed patterns of population dynamics and community structure. They are described and derived in detail elsewhere (Anderson and May 1978; May and Anderson 1978; Dobson 1985, 1988#, and in preparation). Rather than repeat these derivations, we give attention to the graphical illustration of different extensions of the models, while presenting only the more transparent results of any algebraic analysis. The final discussion outlines the implications of this work for the conservation of endangered species of birds.
Control of bird pest populations
Authors: Fearf Christopher J
Published: November 2023

Certain birds cause problems that necessitate preventive action. Birds are responsible for economic losses in agriculture (Wright et al. 1980), for problems associated with fouling in towns and cities (Feare 1985), for public and animal health hazards (Summers etal. 1984; Tosh etal. 1970), for dangers to aircraft (Blokpoel 1976), and for certain environmental problems where abundant predators threaten more ‘desirable’ species (Thomas 1972) or where exotics threaten indigenous species (Feare and Mungroo 1990; Douglas 1972; Zeleny 1969). Birds have been killed as attempts to resolve all of these problems.
The population dynamics of culling Herring Gulls and Lesser Black-backed Gulls
Authors: Coulson J C
Published: November 2023

Since 1972, extensive culling of Herring Gulls Larus argentatus and Lesser Black-backed Gulls L. fuscus has taken place in Britain. The reasons for culling have varied. Some culling was justified on the grounds of nature conservation; to protect vegetation, to create space for terns Sterna to nest or to reduce predation on nests and young of other seabird species (Anon. 1972, 1981). Elsewhere the culling was introduced to reduce the risk of ‘bird-strikes’ on aircraft near airbases (Blokpoel 1976) or reduce the nuisance caused by gulls nesting in towns, e.g. Scarborough and South Shields (Local Environmental Officers, personal communications). Large culls have also been made to reduce the risk of pollution of water supplies and to protect the quality of grouse moors, e.g. Abbeystead, Lancashire (M.A.F.F. personal communication). As a result of these activities, nearly 100 000 Herring and Lesser Black-backed Gulls have been killed in Britain between 1972 and 1987.
The relevance of population studies to the conservation of threatened birds
Authors: Green R E , Hirons G J M
Published: November 2023

The existence of many bird species is now threatened as human activities increasingly damage or destroy their habitats or directly affect their survival or reproductive success. The challenge faced by bird conservationists is to ensure the persistence of as many species as possible by devising ways in which they can coexist with human activity, often within a small remnant of their former range. What role should studies of avian population processes play in this task?
Bird-Parasite Interactions
Authors: Zuk M , Loye J E
Published: November 2023

Birds are hosts to many parasites, internal and external. The parasites inevitably form a burden to the host bird and therefore may affect its ability to grow, survive, and reproduce; its behaviour; and the distribution and abundance of the whole species. In consequence, bird-parasite systems have attracted attention from diverse fields and the literature has been spread out in a wide range of specialized journals. The editors of this book have drawn together a comprehensive range of experts in the field to provide an invaluable reference of current work in bird-parasite interactions. The book is divided into four parts. The introduction provides the contemporary context of research in bird-parasite systems and presents case studies which combine theoretical concepts with experimental data. Subsequent parts focus on the ecology; behavioural responses; and the effect of parasitism on sexual selection.
Parasite communities in wet and dry forest subpopulations of the Hawaii common amakihi
Authors: Riper Charles Van
Published: November 2023

Parasites can act in diverse ways upon a host population and in many instances the effects are subtle and often difficult to interpret. This is because, among other factors, differing environmental conditions and diverse host behavioural patterns have a profound influence upon parasite levels (Dogiel 1961; Bull 1964; Kennedy 1975; Holmes et al. 1977). Parasites can be a primary factor of population regulation, although the overall importance is probably more closely related to their role in increasing the susceptibility of the host to other mortality factors (Bradley 1972; Esch 1977; Forrester et al. 1978). This view is often extended to predict that, in times when food supplies are reduced, levels of parasite infection are greater (Esch et al. 1975). There are, however, few examples in which environmental variables and host behaviour in different habitats has been monitored so as to document the interrelationship of these differing variables upon parasite community structure. Although some attention has been given to the parasites of poultry and introduced birds in Hawaii (Alicata 1969; Lewin and Holmes 1971; Smith and Guest 1974; Lewin and Mahrt 1983), little work has been done on the native Hawaiian birds. Warner (1968) speculated on the presumed role that introduced avian malaria and pox played in the extinction of the Hawaiian avifauna, and more recently van Riper- et al. (1986) documented the impact that avian malaria is having on the extant endemic birds. Cid del Prado Vera et al. (1985) have identified nematodes, Baldwin (1948) cestodes, Goff (1980) ectoparasites, and Levine et al. (1980) new coccidia species from native birds. Van Riper and van Riper (1985) summarized all known avian parasites which have been reported in the land birds of Hawaii. But no information exists on parasite community structure in any native land bird species.
Ants, ticks, and nesting seabirds: dynamic interactions
Authors: Duffy David C
Published: November 2023

Colonial nesting or use of traditional sites must be advantageous to birds or they would not be widely used nesting strategies (Hoogland and Sherman 1976; Wittenberger and Hunt 1985). However, such sites are also beneficial to the birds' parasites, providing them with a renewable, easily-locatable source of hosts, removing starvation and host-location as major sources of parasite mortality (Rothschild and Clay 1952). Large concentrations of ticks and other parasites are frequently observed at colonies of densely-nesting birds and at individual avian nest sites which are reused year after year (Rothschild and Clay 1952; Marshall 1981). Heavy infestations of parasites can lead to nest desertion by adult birds or to mortality of their young (Duffy 1983a, and references therem.
Coevolution of avian grooming and ectoparasite avoidance
Authors: Clayton Dale H
Published: November 2023

Ectoparasites severely reduce avian fitness when they occur in large numbers or when they serve as intermediate hosts for avian pathogens. In most cases, however, ectoparasites occur in small populations with little or no effect on the host. These small populations may be the result of host-parasite coevolution. If a parasite exerts selection on its host and the host exerts reciprocal selection on the parasite, repeated bouts of coevolutionary change can lead to coadaptation of host defence and parasite resistance. Although host defence can prevent the buildup of large parasite loads, energetic constraints will probably prohibit the evolution of perfect defence against parasites with coadaptations for resistance. Persistence of small loads on birds may therefore reflect a coevolutionary balance between defence and resistance
Bill colour and parasite levels of zebra finches
Authors: Burley Nancy , Tidemann Sonia C , Halupka Karl
Published: November 2023

While the Hamilton and Zuk hypothesis is usually applied to female choice of male traits (e.g. Borgia 1986; Read 1987; Zuk 1987; Ward 1988; this volume: Zuk, Chapter 16; M0ller, Chapter 17; Kirkpatrick et al., Chapter 18; Johnson and Boyce, Chapter 20; Spurrier et al. Chapter 21), for many species of birds with biparental care it is likely that both sexes participate in mate choice (Burley 1977). In such species offspring quality should be of concern to males as well as females. It is parsimonious to predict for these species that levels of coloration show the same direction of correlation with pathogen resistance in both sexes.
Software development strategies for global plant information systems
Authors: Allkin* R , Winfieldꝉ P J
Published: November 2023

An important issue in the design of a global system is not only the software design and its implementation, but the whole strategy for software implementation. Such a strategy needs to take account of the broad requirements and also the practical constraints. Building software for biologists is not an exact science, but an engineering task dependent on the skills and resources available. We propose a software development strategy that recognizes the scientific, political, and, above all, practical constraints in our community. Introduction In this chapter we consider alternative strategies for developing data management software for the botanical community. We use ‘botanical community’ to include scientists active in systematic research and any potential users of the information those scientists collect.
The communications scene
Authors: Davies Duncan , Bathurst Diana , Bathurst Robin
Published: November 2023

The increased use nowadays of pictures and images, instead of words, in everyday life is a topic needing consideration by anybody and everybody, from teachers to businessmen, from research workers in science to technicians in industry, as well as by the man or woman in the street and in the supermarket. Human societies have been influenced profoundly by the different ways in which information can be conveyed or recorded. and much inefficiency, violence, deception, and unhappiness has been the result of misunderstanding or of inadequate information and communication. This book is about the changing balance between the use of words and numbers, on the one hand, and of pictures and images on the other.
Pictures and words in biology and medicine
Authors: Davies Duncan , Bathurst Diana , Bathurst Robin
Published: November 2023

The subjects that could be covered in this chapter arc very wide and diverse. Human records and communication in medkine and biology c1re strongly dependent on pictures, and have been significantly improved by recent developments. This aspect alone could provide a complete chapter. Then, perception and communication by other species is worth considerable thought. finally, communication and recording within individual members of a species arc sophisticated topics. embracing the processes whereby the species is reproduced and evolutionary change is made possible. These matters deserve our attention.
Space
Authors: Gibson Roy
Published: November 2023

Space technology has brought about profound changes in the past few decades for science, for business, and for the world at large. It has enabled us to explore the Solar System and observe the universe beyond in ways that were previously impossible. The use of satellites has transformed telecommunications and has made remote observation of the Earth's surface possible, with dramatic effects on a variety of activities from war to weather forecasting. Space is now established as a multi-million-dollar industry. The author provides an authoritative account for the non-specialist of the great variety of human activities in space. He first surveys the history of the subject and describes the various systems available for putting payloads into space. He then considers manned space flight, space science, and the other uses of spacecraft, such as telecommunications and Earth observation. A survey of what is being done by the various countries that are engaged in space activities of one kind or another is followed by a discussion of the commercialization of space, and a postscript considers what activities in space may have to offer for the future. The text is written in a lucid and non-technical style, and a glossary of acronyms is provided.
Introduction
Authors: Gibson Roy
Published: November 2023

The movements and mysteries of heavenly bodies have fascinated people for many thousands of years. Three thousand years before Christ, the Babylonian astronomers are credited with having made observations of the sky, and by 1000 BC the sun clock was in use in Egypt. This line of research was continued by the Greek philosophers, notably Claudius Ptolemy in the second century AD. Indeed, Ptolemy’s theories held sway until the Renaissance. It was then the turn of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), the Polish astronomer, to revolutionize astronomical theories with his conviction that the Earth rotates on its axis and makes an annual orbit around the Sun. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) refined these new theories, describing the orbits of the planets as elliptical rather than circular (Fig. 1.1). (Modern assertions that Kepler fabricated some of the data in support of his theory should not be allowed to obscure the value of his contribution.)
Microgravity
Authors: Gibson Roy
Published: November 2023

Microgravity is the state of near-weightlessness that exists within a spacecraft which is in orbit around the Earth or has achieved escape velocity and is on its way towards other planets. The gravity on Earth is used as the standard measurement- I g-and the gravity experienced in a spacecraft is expressed as a fraction of that, for example, 1o- g, i.e. one millionth of the gravity on Earth. Inversely, the pressure to which astronauts are subjected during lift-off (hypergravity) is expressed in multiples of g: 3, 4, 5 g, etc. In the microgravity environment gravity-induced convection and the sedimentation processes are suppressed (the extent depends on the degree of microgravity achieved), and hydrostatic pressure disappears. In such an environment certain physical phenomena familiar on Earth are radically altered. For example, matter tends to levitate and the behavior of fluids becomes quite different. Realization of this fundamental change had led to the development of what is loosely termed ‘ microgravity research’. In fact, it means experiments conducted in a microgravity environment to gain a better understanding of the physical processes through an examination free of the disturbing force of gravity (Fig. 5.1). Microgravity research also includes, though at a very early stage, manufacturing materials of a composition which would be difficult, expensive or even impossible on Earth because of the presence of gravitational force.
Meteorology and Earth observation
Authors: Gibson Roy
Published: November 2023

When the first cloud pictures were received from satellites nearly thirty years ago, it was quickly realized that they could reveal valuable information not available from the meteorological stations on Earth. The world’s first meteorological satellite-Tiros 1-was launched by the USA in early 1960 and the prospects that it opened up led the United Nations General Assembly to ask the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to study the progress made in research on the Earth’s atmosphere and how weather forecasting might be improved, in particular through the use of satellites. Fortunately, therefore, there has been a steady tradition of international cooperation in this field, with the space agencies showing themselves very responsive to the needs of the meteorological organizations.
Risks and legal aspects
Authors: Gibson Roy
Published: November 2023

Space activities since the launch of Sputnik I in 19 57 have led to 3600 artificial satellites being put into orbit by 3000 launches. However, in addition to these intentional satellites, a large number of unintentional satellites-from used launcher stages to ejected lens caps-has been produced. Because of the potential danger to other satellites (and because they could be mistaken for aggressive missiles), the US Space Command-and formerly the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)-keeps track of them all. A total of around 20 000 such objects have been tracked, and of these 7200 are today still in orbit; only 5 per cent are operational satellites. The total weight of all his space junk is estimated at two million kg. Just how virulent this proliferation can be is to be seen by the unexplained explosion of an Ariane third stage in 1986; this alone produced 470 pieces of debris (Fig. 9.1). Using powerful ground based radars, objects as small as 100 mm or less can be tracked on a regular basis. Additionally, objects down to 10 mm can be tracked on a non-operational basis, using optical telescopes.
National and regional space activities: a brief survey
Authors: Gibson Roy
Published: November 2023

It is notoriously difficult to assemble reliable and comparable figures of governmental space funding, not only because some countries do not divulge their spending or quote it in hard currencies to equate with the major, freely exchangeable currencies, but also because their internal organization and working methods are so different from those in the majority of countries. Even in 1 e accessible countries it is difficult to be sure that all contributions have been included. Provided the reader is not looking for strict accuracy, however, the following table will give an idea of the total size of government space spending and of the relative annual expenditures of the major players. Approximate civil space expenditure, 1990, in USS millions.
Commercialization of space
Authors: Gibson Roy
Published: November 2023

The term ‘space commercialization’ is frequently used and seldom defined. In this present context, it should be taken to mean any activity directly or indirectly involving space techniques which leads to someone making a profit. Excluded are the contracts awarded to industry by civil and defence space agencies for the construction and launch of satellites for the agency’s own use. This is an important exception: the US government’s space contracts account for about 90 per cent of all space sales in the United States. Nevertheless, the US Department of Commerce projected US commercial space revenues in 1990 at around 3.5 million US dollars, excluding NASA and the Department of Defense. Some areas are more truly commercial than others. Take for example the international satellite telecommunications organizations, Intelsat and Inmarsat. Both pay industry to construct and launch communication satellites, and they make revenue by providing circuits to their members telecommunications entities in the various member states. Inmarsat, for example, is obliged to pay 14 per cent per annum in interest to its signatories and it does so-and more. This is by any standards a commercial operation.
Geometry of Electromagnetic Systems
Authors: Baldomir D , Hammond P
Published: November 2023

This book is addressed to engineers, applied mathematicians, and physicists involved in the design and analysis of electromagnetic systems. Its chief purpose is to clarify the structure of electromagnetism. It begins with the Faraday-Maxwell insight that in electromagnetism one is faced with an interconnected dynamical system in which space and time are closely linked with physical phenomena. An appropriate basis is given via differential geometry to describe local relationships, via and topology to describe the system. These tools are introduced in the context of Maxwell's equations in the familiar vector notation. Equations are greatly simplified by the geometrical approach, and the geometrical idea of symmetry unifies the various conservation laws. This book clarifies the relationship between fields, potentials, and sources. Links between macroscopic and quantum phenomena are explored from a geometric angle and there is a simple discussion of superconductivity.
The historical development of electromagnetism
Authors: Baldomir D , Hammond P
Published: November 2023

The purpose of this book is to deal with the relationship of electromagnetic phenomena to the geometry of space and time. Consequently the heading of this first chapter may come as a disappointment for the reader. Is it really necessary to review the mistaken notions of the past? Why should we not proceed at once to deal with the best modem explanation? Besides, since the authors are not professional historians, they may misread the historical evidence and attribute modern opinions to ancient writers. Our reply to such objections to a historical introduction is that the explanations we seek to develop in the book are explanations of difficulties, or to put it differently answers to questions, which arise in the study of electromagnetics. These questions come into focus most sharply by looking at them in their historical setting. There is little value in presenting answers where no questions have been asked, because the answers then become mere verbal assertions which reduce scientific discovery to a barren metaphysics. It is of course true that most explanatory theories given in the past were incomplete and erroneous in part, but this is equally true of our present theories. All human explanations are fallible, but this does not preclude progress. We should like the reader to be persuaded that a historical introduction is no optional extra but an essential part of the aim of a book dealing with explanation.
A geometrical approach to Maxwell’s equations
Authors: Baldomir D , Hammond P
Published: November 2023

Maxwell’s fundamental discovery was, as we have seen in the previous chapter, that electric and magnetic energy is distributed in the whole of space and is dependent on time. Previous ‘action at a distance’ theories had been modelled on Newton’s gravitational theory and had concentrated attention on the action between material bodies. Faraday and Maxwell made no sharp distinction between energy in free space and energy in space occupied by matter. In their field theory electromagnetic energy, and all physical processes related to it, were indissolubly linked with space rather than inserted into a space having independent existence. Moreover the movement of energy was related to space and time. In order to make full use of these insights we need a mathematical description which connects energy with space and time and this implies that a geometrical approach is required. We shall find that such an approach greatly clarifies both the physical and the mathematical relationships. The unavoidable cost, for some readers at least, is the introduction of unfamiliar mathematical tools and in particular the replacement of three-dimensional vector analysis by the far more general method of differential forms. We shall try to reduce the difficulties by introducing differential forms in the context of a review of well-known electromagnetic relationships. The trained mathematicians amongst our readers may find the treatment rather slow and incomplete, but we have in mind readers who are more at home with physical concepts than with abstract mathematical formulation. In any case Maxwell himself, who was no mean mathematician, held the view that equations need to be explained in words related to physical situations. For completeness a survey of the mathematics of differential forms is given in Appendix A.
Coordinates and coordinate transformations
Authors: Baldomir D , Hammond P
Published: November 2023

In the discussion of variational methods in the previous chapter we contrasted the Newtonian emphasis on the motion of particles with the Lagrangian idea of an invariant system property called the action, which has a stationary value under small arbitrary displacements of the coordinates and their associated velocities. Since the variation of the action leads to a set of differential equations (the Euler-Lagrange equations), which in classical mechanics are equivalent to Newton’s equations of motion, there is a close association between the two methods. However, the system approach has many advantages particularly in its application to electromagnetism, where the interconnections make the idea of isolated particles inadmissible.