1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910459820203321

Autore

Powell James Lawrence <1936->

Titolo

Four revolutions in the earth sciences : from heresy to truth / / James Lawrence Powell

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York : , : Columbia University Press, , 2015

©2015

ISBN

0-231-53845-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (385 p.)

Disciplina

550

Soggetti

Geology - History

Geological time

Continental drift

Meteoritic hypothesis

Global warming

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Preface -- Introduction -- PART I. DEEP TIME -- The Abyss of Time -- A Great Mistake Has Been Made -- The Bank of Time -- Account Overdrawn -- Strange Rays -- An Hourglass of Great Precision -- Geochronology -- Duck Soup -- PART II. CONTINENTAL DRIFT AND PLATE TECTONICS -- An Idea to Pursue -- A Very Trusting Man -- Dead on Arrival -- Geologists Unite Against Heresy -- Continental Drift: Not Even Wrong -- Postwar Surprises -- Wandering Poles or Drifting Continents? -- The Final Confrontation -- Spreading Seafloors -- HypotHESSes -- The Discovery of the Century -- All This Rubbish -- PART III. METEORITE IMPACT -- A Trivial Process -- To Hunt a Star -- The Moon's Face -- Rosetta Stone -- To a Rocky Moon -- Worlds in Collision -- Dinosaur Killer -- Out with a Bang -- Cosmic Pinball -- PART IV. GLOBAL WARMING -- Origins of the CO2 Theory -- Tedious Calculations of Extraordinary Interest -- Destructive Criticism -- A Unique Experiment of Planetary Dimensions -- Giant Brains -- Warming Is Unequivocal -- From Heresy to Truth -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Recommended



Reading -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Over the course of the twentieth century, scientists came to accept four counterintuitive yet fundamental facts about the Earth: deep time, continental drift, meteorite impact, and global warming. When first suggested, each proposition violated scientific orthodoxy and was quickly denounced as scientific-and sometimes religious-heresy. Nevertheless, after decades of rejection, scientists came to accept each theory. The stories behind these four discoveries reflect more than the fascinating push and pull of scientific work. They reveal the provocative nature of science and how it raises profound and sometimes uncomfortable truths as it advances. For example, counter to common sense, the Earth and the solar system are older than all of human existence; the interactions among the moving plates and the continents they carry account for nearly all of the Earth's surface features; and nearly every important feature of our solar system results from the chance collision of objects in space. Most surprising of all, we humans have altered the climate of an entire planet and now threaten the future of civilization. This absorbing scientific history is the only book to describe the evolution of these four ideas from heresy to truth, showing how science works in practice and how it inevitably corrects the mistakes of its practitioners. Scientists can be wrong, but they do not stay wrong. In the process, astonishing ideas are born, tested, and over time take root.



2.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910484846403321

Titolo

Complex Networks and Their Applications VII : Volume 1 Proceedings The 7th International Conference on Complex Networks and Their Applications COMPLEX NETWORKS 2018  / / edited by Luca Maria Aiello, Chantal Cherifi, Hocine Cherifi, Renaud Lambiotte, Pietro Lió, Luis M. Rocha

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Springer, , 2019

ISBN

3-030-05411-X

Edizione

[1st ed. 2019.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (XXVII, 893 p. 291 illus., 250 illus. in color.)

Collana

Studies in Computational Intelligence, , 1860-949X ; ; 812

Disciplina

006.3019

003.72

Soggetti

Computational intelligence

Artificial intelligence

Computational Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Sommario/riassunto

This book highlights cutting-edge research in the field of network science, offering scientists, researchers, students and practitioners a unique update on the latest advances in theory, together with a wealth of applications. It presents the peer-reviewed proceedings of the VII International Conference on Complex Networks and their Applications (COMPLEX NETWORKS 2018), which was held in Cambridge on December 11–13, 2018. The carefully selected papers cover a wide range of theoretical topics such as network models and measures; community structure and network dynamics; diffusion, epidemics and spreading processes; and resilience and control; as well as all the main network applications, including social and political networks; networks in finance and economics; biological and neuroscience networks; and technological networks.