The Macroscope

Throughout history, man has been searching for better ways to gather information about his universe. But although they may have longed for it, not even the most brilliant minds could conceive of a device as infinitely powerful or as immeasurably precise as the Macroscope, until the twenty-first century. This is a story of mans desperate search for a compromise between his mind and his heart, between knowledge and humanity.

Every day, more and more kinds of historical data become available, opening exciting new avenues of inquiry but also new challenges. This updated and expanded book describes and demonstrates the ways these data can be explored to construct cultural heritage knowledge, for research and in teaching and learning. It helps humanities scholars to grasp Big Data in order to do their work, whether that means understanding the underlying algorithms at work in search engines or designing and using their own tools to process large amounts of information.Demonstrating what digital tools have to offer and also what 'digital' does to how we understand the past, the authors introduce the many different tools and developing approaches in Big Data for historical and humanistic scholarship, show how to use them, what to be wary of, and discuss the kinds of questions and new perspectives this new macroscopic perspective opens up. Originally authored 'live' online with ongoing feedback from the wider digital history community, Exploring Big Historical Data breaks new ground and sets the direction for the conversation into the future.Exploring Big Historical Data should be the go-to resource for undergraduate and graduate students confronted by a vast corpus of data, and researchers encountering these methods for the first time. It will also offer a helping hand to the interested individual seeking to make sense of genealogical data or digitized newspapers, and even the local historical society who are trying to see the value in digitizing their holdings.

An advanced exploration ofwater-rock interactions Based on the author's fifteen years of teaching and tried-and-tested experiences in the classroom, here is a comprehensive exploration of water-rock interactions. Environmental Surfaces and Interfaces from the Nanoscale to the Global Scale covers aspects ranging from the theory of charged particle surfaces to how minerals grow and dissolve to new frontiers in W-R interactions such as nanoparticles, geomicrobiology, and climate change. Providing basic conceptual understanding along with more complex subject matter, Professor Patricia Maurice encourages students to look beyond the text to ongoing research in the field. Designed to engage the learner, the book features: Numerous case studies to contextualize concepts Practice and thought questions at the end of each chapter Broad coverage from basic theory to cutting-edge topics such as nanotechnology Both basic and applied science This text goes beyond W-R interactions to touch on a broad range of environmental disciplines. While written for advanced undergraduate and graduate students primarily in geochemistry and soil chemistry, Environmental Surfaces and Interfaces from the Nanoscale to the Global Scale will serve the needs of such diverse fields as environmental engineering, hydrogeology, physics, biology, and environmental chemistry.

It is clear that international law is not yet equipped to handle the “ecological goods and services” that exist simultaneously within and outside of all states. The global commons have always been understood as geographical spaces that exist only outside the political borders of states. A vital good such as a stable climate exists both within and outside all states, and shows traditional legal approaches to be ecological nonsense. With the recent possibility of measuring and monitoring the state and functioning of the Earth System through the Planetary Boundaries framework, it is now possible to define a “Safe Operating Space of Humankind” corresponding to a biogeophysical state of Earth. In this sense, the Common Home of Humanity is not a planet with 510 million square kilometres, but is a specific favourable state of the Earth System. Recent major scientific advances anticipate a legal paradigm shift that could overcome the disconnection between ecological realities and existing legal frameworks. If we recognize this qualitative and non-geographic space as a Common Natural Intangible Heritage of Humankind, all positive and negative “externalities” end up being included within a new maintenance system of the Common Home.

Michael R. Collings examines the life and work of American science fiction author Piers Anthony. Starmont Reader's Guide 20.

This Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of how water, energy and food are interconnected, comprising a coherent system: the nexus. It considers the interlinkages between natural resources, governance processes seeking coherence among water, energy and food policies, and the adoption of transdisciplinary approaches in the field.