Starred Review。 What Aczel did for mathematician Fermat（Fermat’s Last Theorem）he now does for Descartes in this splendidstudy about the French philosopher and mathematician （1596–1650）most famous for his paradigm-smashing declaration， “I think;therefore， I am。” Part historical sketch， part biography and partdetective story， Aczel’s chronicle of Descartes’s hidden workhinges on his lost secret notebook。 Of 16 pages of codedmanu*， one and a half were copied in 1676 by fellowphilosopher and mathematician Leibniz。 For him， Descartes’sin*ion of the cryptic letters“GFRC” immediately revealed hisassociation with the occult fraternity of the Rosicrucians—Leibnizwas also a member。 The notebook also revealed to Leibniz adiscovery made by Descartes that would have transformedmathematics。 As Aczel so deftly demonstrates， Descartes'smathematical theories were paths to an understanding the order andmystery of the cosmos， and he kept the notebook hidden because itcont

Editor Max Brockman introduces the work of some of today’sbrightest and most innovative young scientists in this fascinatingand exciting collection of writings that describe the veryboundaries of our knowledge. Future Science features nineteen young scientists, most of whomare presenting their innovative work and ideas to a generalaudience for the first time. Featured in this collection areWilliam McEwan (son of the novelist), a virologist, discussing hisresearch into the biology of antiviral immunity; Naomi Eisenberger,a neuroscientist, wondering how social rejection affects usphysically; Jon Kleinberg, a computer scientist, showing whatmassive datasets can teach us about society and ourselves; andAnthony Aguirre, a physicist, who gives readers a tantalizingglimpse of infinity.

In this book, a new approach is pioneered in providing a unifiedtheory in continuum mechanics. General Continuum Mechanics isintended for the beginner, but it develops advanced materialcovering interdisciplinary subjects. With applications ofconvective, Lagrangian, and Eulerian coordinates and the first andsecond laws of thermodynamics, the first-year graduate student willlearn solid mechanics and fluid mechanics as an integrated subject.Electromagnetic continuum and relativistic continuum are included.The conservational properties of mass, momentum, and energy onearth and in the universe constitute the ingredients of this book.They are the monumental contributions of Newton, Maxwell, andEinstein, a panorama of beauty of universal laws that evolved overthe last four centuries. No boundaries are needed to separate them,but rather we integrate them in harmony and place them inperspective. This is the book for interdisciplinary studies tocarry out the modern scientific projects in which engineering,physics, and

For everyone who has looked up at the stars on a clear nightand longed to know more about them, here is the perfectintroduction and guide to discovering the stars. Discover the Stars leads you on a tour of all the stars andconstellations visible with the naked eye and introduces you todeep-sky objects that can be seen with binoculars or a simpletelescope. The tour is conducted by the editor of Astronomymagazine, Richard Berry, whose two-color, computer-plotted sky mapsand clear instructions make stargazing fun and productive from yourfirst night out. The heart of Discover the Stars is two sections of big, beautifulsky maps and charts. The first section features twelve maps thatshow the entire sky overhead as it appears during each month of theyear. These outline all the constellations visible anywhere in theNorthern Hemisphere, and the accompanying text reveals the richancient mythology that surrounds the star groups. The second section is made up of twenty-three star ch

The ecological literature on marsupials is dominated byde*ive natural history, and there has hitherto been littleattempt at either synthesis or evolutionary interpretation. Thisbook attempts to provide such a synthesis, by drawing on both thede*ive data base and predictions from the burgeoningliterature on behavioural and evolutionary ecology. It documentsthe excellent potential the study of marsupials provides forresolution of theoretical questions of general importance inbiology. It does this in three ways. First, by describing theimpressive diversity of marsupial life history strategies andtrophic roles. Second, by careful comparison with the eutherians,the scope of the marsupial radiation is used to analyse the role ofdevelopmental constraints and adaptive radiation in determining thediversification of higher taxa. Lastly, it is suggested that theaccessibility of marsupial young during their obligatory pouch lifefacilitates measurement, manipulation and assessment of kinship notpossible in other mammalia

This rigourous and self-contained book describes mathematicaland, in particular, stochastic methods to assess the performance ofnetworked systems. It consists of three parts. The first part is areview on probability theory. Part two covers the classical theoryof stochastic processes (Poisson, renewal, Markov and queuingtheory), which are considered to be the basic building blocks forperformance evaluation studies. Part three focuses on therelatively new field of the physics of networks. This part dealswith the recently obtained insights that many very different largecomplex networks - such as the Internet, World Wide Web, proteins,utility infrastructures, social networks - evolve and behaveaccording to more general common scaling laws. This understandingis useful when assessing the end-to-end quality of communicationsservices, for example, in Internet telephony, real-time video andinteracting games. Containing problems and solutions, this book isideal for graduate students taking courses in performanceanalys

Rental housing subsidy programmes have been an important partof the American welfare system since the 1930s. The Benefits ofSubsidized Housing Programs: An Intertemporal Approach is anempirical study of the distributive effects of the entire system ofrental housing subsidies for lower-income households based on anational sample. Using the 1977 Annual Housing Survey, ProfessorHammond has evaluated the benefits of all federal, state and localgovernment rental housing subsidy programmes taken as a wholeacross the nation. Additionally, she has estimated the changes inconsumption patterns resulting from these programmes and therelationship between household benefit and household income;household size; age, education, sex, and race of the head of thehousehold; and the geographic location of the household.

How do plant and animal populations change genetically toevolve and adapt to their local environments? How do populationsgrow and interact with one another through competition andpredation? How does behaviour influence ecology and evolution?Introduction to Population Biology covers all these areas and more.Taking a quantitative and Darwinian perspective, the basic theoryof population processes is developed using mathematical models. Toallow students of biology, ecology and evolution to gain a realunderstanding of the subject, key features include: ? step-by-stepinstructions for spreadsheet simulations of many basic equations toexplore the outcomes or predictions of models ? worked examplesshowing how the equations are applied to biological questions ?problem sets together with detailed solutions to help the readertest their understanding ? real-life examples to help the readerrelate the theory to the natural world