This graduate-level textbook is the first pedagogical synthesis of the field of topological insulators and superconductors, one of the most exciting areas of research in condensed matter physics. ...Presenting the latest developments, while providing all the calculations necessary for a self-contained and complete description of the discipline, it is ideal for graduate students and researchers preparing to work in this area, and it will be an essential reference both within and outside the classroom.
The book begins with simple concepts such as Berry phases, Dirac fermions, Hall conductance and its link to topology, and the Hofstadter problem of lattice electrons in a magnetic field. It moves on to explain topological phases of matter such as Chern insulators, two- and three-dimensional topological insulators, and Majorana p-wave wires. Additionally, the book covers zero modes on vortices in topological superconductors, time-reversal topological superconductors, and topological responses/field theory and topological indices. The book also analyzes recent topics in condensed matter theory and concludes by surveying active subfields of research such as insulators with point-group symmetries and the stability of topological semimetals. Problems at the end of each chapter offer opportunities to test knowledge and engage with frontier research issues.Topological Insulators and Topological Superconductorswill provide graduate students and researchers with the physical understanding and mathematical tools needed to embark on research in this rapidly evolving field.
Scholars and practitioners are increasingly promoting so-called nature-based approaches for urban climate change adaptation. There is widespread consensus that they both support and require ...transdisciplinary approaches, notably by involving citizens in the change process and finding innovative ways to unite different actors’ efforts and capacities. However, there is little empirical evidence regarding the actual value of citizen involvement to sustainability in this field. Against this background, this paper examines whether (or not) current forms and conditions of citizen involvement help to create a platform to support nature-based solutions and ensure a transformative adaptation process. The results show that under current conditions, citizen engagement often hampers sustainable outcomes. In fact, current structures and mechanisms for mainstreaming nature and climate considerations into sectoral planning are limited and, furthermore, neglect citizen involvement. In addition, there is a blind spot with respect to personal spheres of transformation toward sustainability regarding citizens, civil servants, and decision-makers. Key constraints are power structures and the lack of cognitive/emotional and relational capacities required for improved democratic governance. If we are to tap into the potential of nature-based solutions to increase climate adaptation governance, we need targeted financial and human resources, and greater capacity to overcome current constraints and support all levels and phases of mainstreaming, notably planning, implementation, monitoring, and learning.
This book analyses the forms of popular science, the social and economic status of those who practiced it and the audience, and the settings for scientific dissemination and appropriation.
Synthetic biology, which aims to design and build organisms that serve human needs, has potential applications that range from producing biofuels to programming human behavior. The emergence of this ...new form of biotechnology, however, raises a variety of ethical questions -- first and foremost, whether synthetic biology is intrinsically troubling in moral terms. Is it an egregious example of scientists "playing God"?Synthetic Biology and Moralitytakes on this threshold ethical question, as well as others that follow, offering a range of philosophical and political perspectives on the power of synthetic biology.The contributors consider the basic question of the ethics of making new organisms, with essays that lay out the conceptual terrain and offer opposing views of the intrinsic moral concerns; discuss the possibility that synthetic organisms are inherently valuable; and address whether, and how, moral objections to synthetic biology could be relevant to policy making and political discourse. Variations of these questions have been raised before, in debates over other biotechnologies, but, as this book shows, they take on novel and illuminating form when considered in the context of synthetic biology.ContributorsJohn Basl, Mark A. Bedau, Joachim Boldt, John H. Evans, Bruce Jennings, Gregory E. Kaebnick, Ben Larson, Andrew Lustig, Jon Mandle, Thomas H. Murray, Christopher J. Preston, Ronald Sandler
The twentieth century was the era of "big science." Driven by strategic rivalries and fierce economic competition, wealthy governments invested heavily in national science establishments. Direct ...funding for institutions like the National Science Foundation and high-visibility projects, such as the race to the moon, fueled innovation, growth, and national prestige. But the big science model left poorer countries out in the cold. Today the organization of science is undergoing a fundamental transformation. In T he New Invisible College, Caroline Wagner combines quantitative data and extensive interviews to map the emergence of global science networks and trace the dynamics driving their growth. She argues that the shift from big science to global networks creates unprecedented opportunities for developing countries to tap science's potential. Rather than squander resources in vain efforts to mimic the scientific establishments of the twentieth century, developing country governments can leverage networks by creating incentives for top-notch scientists to focus on research that addresses their concerns and by finding ways to tie knowledge to local problem solving. T he New Invisible College offers both a guidebook and a playbook for policymakers confronting these tasks.
This open access edited book provides new thinking on scientific identity formation. It thoroughly interrogates the concepts of community and identity, including both historical and contemporaneous ...analyses of several scientific fields. Chapters examine whether, and how, today’s scientific identities and communities are subject to fundamental changes, reacting to tangible shifts in research funding as well as more intangible transformations in our society’s understanding and expectations of technoscience. Authors: Karen Kastenhofer, Susan Molyneux-Hodgson, Clemens Blümel, Bettina Bock von Wülfingen, Béatrice Cointe, Carlos Cuevas-Garcia, Sarah R Davies, Alexander Degelsegger-Márquez, Juliane Jarke, Pierre-Benoît Joly, Marianne Noël, Benjamin Raimbault, Andrea Schikowitz, Sarah M. Schönbauer, Inga Ulnicane-Ozolina, Caitlin D. Wylie
Der vorgelegte Open Access Band befasst sich mit Identität und Gemeinschaft in den TechnoWissenschaften. Er widmet sich wesentlichen soziologischen Konzepten und präsentiert sowohl historische, als auch aktuelle Fallbeispiele, darunter Supramolekulare Chemie, Synthetische Biologie, Nanotechnologie und Nachhaltigkeitsforschung. AutorInnen: Karen Kastenhofer, Susan Molyneux-Hodgson, Clemens Blümel, Bettina Bock von Wülfingen, Béatrice Cointe, Carlos Cuevas-Garcia, Sarah R Davies, Alexander Degelsegger-Márquez, Juliane Jarke, Pierre-Benoît Joly, Marianne Noël, Benjamin Raimbault, Andrea Schikowitz, Sarah M. Schönbauer, Inga Ulnicane-Ozolina, Caitlin D. Wylie
Neuroscience research has exploded, with more than fifty thousand neuroscientists applying increasingly advanced methods. A mountain of new facts and mechanisms has emerged. And yet a principled ...framework to organize this knowledge has been missing. In this book, Peter Sterling and Simon Laughlin, two leading neuroscientists, strive to fill this gap, outlining a set of organizing principles to explain the whys of neural design that allow the brain to compute so efficiently. Setting out to "reverse engineer" the brain -- disassembling it to understand it -- Sterling and Laughlin first consider why an animal should need a brain, tracing computational abilities from bacterium to protozoan to worm. They examine bigger brains and the advantages of "anticipatory regulation"; identify constraints on neural design and the need to "nanofy"; and demonstrate the routes to efficiency in an integrated molecular system, phototransduction. They show that the principles of neural design at finer scales and lower levels apply at larger scales and higher levels; describe neural wiring efficiency; and discuss learning as a principle of biological design that includes "save only what is needed."Sterling and Laughlin avoid speculation about how the brainmightwork and endeavor to make sense of what is already known. Their distinctive contribution is to gather a coherent set of basic rules and exemplify them across spatial and functional scales.
Library education is changing. At a time when librarianship is increasingly seen as part of the information industry, Library and Information Science is also searching for its place in a new and ...rapidly developing university landscape.
This book analyzes the development of the contemporary university in light of present critical social theory, focusing on such aspects as academic acceleration, organizational accretion and the rise of an ”entrepreneurial spirit,” all of which have both epistemological and organizational consequences. Library and Information Science has proven well-suited to meet this development. One way has been through the rapid international growth of the iSchool movement, now counting close to a hundred member schools all across the world. iSchools not only meet the requirements of contemporary university development, but also contribute to a recontextualization of librarianship and library education. As the iSchool movement relates to a view of information as a commodity and the ”iField” to increased economic growth, it recontextualizes the library sector, traditionally connected to democratic development based on the ideas of the Enlightenment.
Educating librarians in the Contemporary University is written from a European perspective, and examples such as the EU research platform, Horizon 2020, Government Research Proposals, and policy documents from European iSchools are used in an attempt to understand the current development in Library and Information Science and its relevance for librarianship. As the European Research and Development Sector increasingly connects universities to the solution of various ”social challenges” with emphasis on commercial collaborations, the view on knowledge and use of university resources are affected in a way which seemingly make critical analyses difficult.
Questions are asked about the relation between iSchools, late capitalism and the development of Critical Librarianship. Is there a way of fulfilling the ambitions of the critical theory classics and achieve research and an education environment which encourage emancipatory goals within the iSchool movement?
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