Mathematics of Discrete Structures for Computer Science

This book introduces the detonation phenomenon in explosives. It is ideal for engineers and graduate students with a background in thermodynamics and fluid mechanics. The material is mostly qualitative, aiming to illustrate the physical aspects of the phenomenon. Classical idealized theories of detonation waves are presented first. These permit detonation speed, gas properties ahead of and behind the detonation wave, and the distribution of fluid properties within the detonation wave itself to be determined. Subsequent chapters describe in detail the real unstable structure of a detonation wave. One-, two-, and three-dimensional computer simulations are presented along with experimental results using various experimental techniques. The important effects of confinement and boundary conditions and their influence on the propagation of a detonation are also discussed. The final chapters cover the various ways detonation waves can be formed and provide a review of the outstanding problems

In this volume, which was originally published in 1996, noisy information is studied in the context of computational complexity; in other words the text deals with the computational complexity of mathematical problems for which information is partial, noisy and priced. The author develops a general theory of computational complexity of continuous problems with noisy information and gives a number of applications; deterministic as well as stochastic noise is considered. He presents optimal algorithms, optimal information, and complexity bounds in different settings: worst case, average case, mixed worst-average and average-worst, and asymptotic. The book integrates the work of researchers in such areas as computational complexity, approximation theory and statistics, and includes many fresh results as well. About two hundred exercises are supplied with a view to increasing the reader's understanding of the subject. The text will be of interest to professional computer scientists, statis

This book introduces the detonation phenomenon in explosives. It is ideal for engineers and graduate students with a background in thermodynamics and fluid mechanics. The material is mostly qualitative, aiming to illustrate the physical aspects of the phenomenon. Classical idealized theories of detonation waves are presented first. These permit detonation speed, gas properties ahead of and behind the detonation wave, and the distribution of fluid properties within the detonation wave itself to be determined. Subsequent chapters describe in detail the real unstable structure of a detonation wave. One-, two-, and three-dimensional computer simulations are presented along with experimental results using various experimental techniques. The important effects of confinement and boundary conditions and their influence on the propagation of a detonation are also discussed. The final chapters cover the various ways detonation waves can be formed and provide a review of the outstanding problems

In this volume, which was originally published in 1996, noisy information is studied in the context of computational complexity; in other words the text deals with the computational complexity of mathematical problems for which information is partial, noisy and priced. The author develops a general theory of computational complexity of continuous problems with noisy information and gives a number of applications; deterministic as well as stochastic noise is considered. He presents optimal algorithms, optimal information, and complexity bounds in different settings: worst case, average case, mixed worst-average and average-worst, and asymptotic. The book integrates the work of researchers in such areas as computational complexity, approximation theory and statistics, and includes many fresh results as well. About two hundred exercises are supplied with a view to increasing the reader's understanding of the subject. The text will be of interest to professional computer scientists, statis

In On the Origin of Species (1859), Charles Darwin put forward his theory of natural selection. Conventionally, Darwin's argument for this theory has been understood as based on an analogy with artificial selection. But there has been no consensus on how, exactly, this analogical argument is supposed to work – and some suspicion too that analogical arguments on the whole are embarrassingly weak. Drawing on new insights into the history of analogical argumentation from the ancient Greeks onward, as well as on in-depth studies of Darwin's public and private writings, this book offers an original perspective on Darwin's argument, restoring to view the intellectual traditions which Darwin took for granted in arguing as he did. From this perspective come new appreciations not only of Darwin's argument but of the metaphors based on it, the range of wider traditions the argument touched upon, and its legacies for science after the Origin.

One of the key topics for establishing meaningful links between brain sciences and education is the development of reading. How does biology constrain learning to read? How does experience shape the development of reading skills? How does research on biology and behaviour connect to the ways that schools, teachers and parents help children learn to read, particularly in the face of disabilities that interfere with learning? This book addresses these questions and illuminates why reading disorders have been hard to identify, how recent research has established a firm base of knowledge about the cognitive neuroscience of reading problems and the learning tools for overcoming them, and finally, what the future holds for relating mind, brain and education to understanding reading difficulties. Connecting knowledge from neuroscience, genetics, cognitive science, child development, neuropsychology and education, this book will be of interest to both academic researchers and graduate students

Henry Ward Beecher, a nineteenth-century American Congregationalist pastor and journal editor, was a renowned public speaker active in campaigns against slavery and for social reform. He was an advocate of the theory of evolution and firmly believed that Christianity should adapt itself in the face of change. In Evolution and Religion (published in two volumes in 1885, two years before his death) he first discusses the implications of the 'new' evolutionary philosophy for various key Christian doctrines such as the divine nature, human sinfulness, the inspiration of the Bible, and divine providence, and then explores how evolutionism might affect the ethics and practice of Christianity. Beecher's charisma, enthusiasm and flamboyant oratory is evident even in print, and this book stands as a lasting testimony to this influential activist and thinker. It provides rich and enjoyable source material for historians of nineteenth-century science, religion and society.

Why didn't the matter in our Universe annihilate with antimatter immediately after its creation? The study of CP violation may help to answer this fundamental question. This book presents theoretical tools necessary to understand this phenomenon. Reflecting the explosion of new results over the last decade, this second edition has been substantially expanded. It introduces charge conjugation, parity and time reversal, before describing the Kobayashi-Maskawa (KM) theory for CP violation and our understanding of CP violation in kaon decays. It reveals how the discovery of B mesons has provided a new laboratory to study CP violation with KM theory predicting large asymmetries, and discusses how these predictions have been confirmed since the first edition of this book. Later chapters describe the search for a new theory of nature's fundamental dynamics. This book is suitable for researchers in high energy, atomic and nuclear physics, and the history and philosophy of science.

J. Howard Sobel has long been recognized as an important figure in philosophical discussions of rational decision. He has done much to help formulate the concept of causal decision theory. In this volume of essays Sobel explores the Bayesian idea that rational actions maximize expected values, where an action's expected value is a weighted average of its agent's values for its possible total outcomes. Newcomb's Problem and The Prisoner's Dilemma are discussed, and Allais-type puzzles are viewed from the perspective of causal world Bayesianism. The author establishes principles for distinguishing options in decision problems, and studies ways in which perfectly rational causal maximizers can be capable of resolute choices. Sobel also views critically Gauthier's revisionist ideas about maximizing rationality. This collection will be a desideratum for anyone working in the field of rational choice theory, whether in philosophy, economics, political science, psychology or statistics. Howar

One of the key topics for establishing meaningful links between brain sciences and education is the development of reading. How does biology constrain learning to read? How does experience shape the development of reading skills? How does research on biology and behaviour connect to the ways that schools, teachers and parents help children learn to read, particularly in the face of disabilities that interfere with learning? This book addresses these questions and illuminates why reading disorders have been hard to identify, how recent research has established a firm base of knowledge about the cognitive neuroscience of reading problems and the learning tools for overcoming them, and finally, what the future holds for relating mind, brain and education to understanding reading difficulties. Connecting knowledge from neuroscience, genetics, cognitive science, child development, neuropsychology and education, this book will be of interest to both academic researchers and graduate students

This book, first published in 2005, builds on institutionalist theory in both economics and political science to offer a general political economy framework for the study of welfare capitalism. Based on the key idea that social protection in a modern economy, both inside and outside the state, can be understood as protection of specific investments in human capital, the book offers a systematic explanation of popular preferences for redistributive spending, the economic role of political parties and electoral systems, and labor market stratification (including gender inequality). Contrary to the popular idea that competition in the global economy undermines international differences in the level of social protection, the book argues that these differences are made possible by a high international division of labor. Such a division is what allows firms to specialize in production that requires an abundant supply of workers with specific skills, and hence high demand for protection.

This book, first published in 2005, builds on institutionalist theory in both economics and political science to offer a general political economy framework for the study of welfare capitalism. Based on the key idea that social protection in a modern economy, both inside and outside the state, can be understood as protection of specific investments in human capital, the book offers a systematic explanation of popular preferences for redistributive spending, the economic role of political parties and electoral systems, and labor market stratification (including gender inequality). Contrary to the popular idea that competition in the global economy undermines international differences in the level of social protection, the book argues that these differences are made possible by a high international division of labor. Such a division is what allows firms to specialize in production that requires an abundant supply of workers with specific skills, and hence high demand for protection.

To 'analyse' means to break into components and understand. But new readers find modern mathematical theories of politics so inaccessible that analysis is difficult. Where does one start? Analytical Politics is an introduction to analytical theories of politics, explicitly designed both for the interested professional and students in political science. We cannot evaluate how well governments perform without some baseline for comparison: what should governments be doing? This book focuses on the role of the 'center' in politics, drawing from the classical political theories of Aristotle, Hobbes, Rousseau, and others. The main questions in Analytical Politics involve the existence and stability of the center; when does it exist? When should the center guide policy? How do alternative voting rules help in discovering the center? An understanding of the work reviewed here is essential for anyone who hopes to evaluate the performance or predict the actions of democratic governments.

J. Howard Sobel has long been recognized as an important figure in philosophical discussions of rational decision. He has done much to help formulate the concept of causal decision theory. In this volume of essays Sobel explores the Bayesian idea that rational actions maximize expected values, where an action's expected value is a weighted average of its agent's values for its possible total outcomes. Newcomb's Problem and The Prisoner's Dilemma are discussed, and Allais-type puzzles are viewed from the perspective of causal world Bayesianism. The author establishes principles for distinguishing options in decision problems, and studies ways in which perfectly rational causal maximizers can be capable of resolute choices. Sobel also views critically Gauthier's revisionist ideas about maximizing rationality. This collection will be a desideratum for anyone working in the field of rational choice theory, whether in philosophy, economics, political science, psychology or statistics. Howar

This book brings together fourteen articles and papers written by Albert O. Hirschman. About half deal with the interaction of economic development with politics and ideology, the area in which Hirschman perhaps has made most noted contributions. Among these papers are 'The Rise and Declines of Development Economics', a magisterial and yet pointed essay in intellectual history and his famous article 'The Changing Tolerance for Income Inequality in the Course of Economic Development'. Hirschman's ability to trespass - or rather his inability not to trespass - from one social science to another and beyond is the unifying characteristic of the volume. Authoritative, searching surveys alternate here with essays presenting some of Hirschman's characteristic inventions, for instance the 'tunnel effect' and 'obituary-improving activities'. Three of the papers have not been published previously and a number of introductory notes have been especially drafted for the present volume to evoke the

An engaging, clear and fully updated introduction to a range of subjects for young children.A fact-packed introduction to a wide variety of topics, including History, Nature, How People Live and How Things Work. Full of extraordinary photographs, detailed diagrams and plenty of illustrations. Engaging text and clear explanations of what can be complex subjects. Also includes amazing facts about animals, Earth and space, and detailed maps and flags of the world.Chapters in this book include:- Our World- Animals and plants- How your body works- History- How people live- Science- How things work- Space- Maps of the world- Flags of the world

Some of a person's mental states have the power to represent real and imagined states of affairs: they have semantic properties. What Minds Can Do has two goals: to find a naturalistic or non-semantic basis for the representational powers of a person's mind, and to show that these semantic properties are involved in the causal explanation of the person's behaviour. In the process, this 1997 book addresses issues that are central to much contemporary philosophical debate. It will be of interest to a wide range of readers in philosophy of mind and of language, cognitive science, and psychology.

Some of a person's mental states have the power to represent real and imagined states of affairs: they have semantic properties. What Minds Can Do has two goals: to find a naturalistic or non-semantic basis for the representational powers of a person's mind, and to show that these semantic properties are involved in the causal explanation of the person's behaviour. In the process, this 1997 book addresses issues that are central to much contemporary philosophical debate. It will be of interest to a wide range of readers in philosophy of mind and of language, cognitive science, and psychology.

"The Inimitable" Charles Dickens captured the ethos of Victorian England in his writing and was undeniably a celebrated author--indeed a celebrity author--in his own time. With writing that ranged from hilarious caricature to gritty social realism, he managed to effectively blend entertainment with wide-ranging social critique. No element of Victorian society was spared, as his novels put the spotlight on class structures, education, industrialization and urbanization, the legal system, attitudes toward the poor and orphans, gender relations, and global networks. This keen exploration of social issues speaks to 21st century readers, and a continued interest in Dickensian characters, plots, and themes motivated this updated guide for students, teachers, and fans alike. This companion to Dickens's major works carefully curates material relating to the author's life and times to allow deeper engagement with his Victorian era writings. Entries covering each of Dickens's major works include

Based on a close reading of Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu’s extant films, this book provides insights into the ways the director created narrative structures and used symbolism to construct meaning in his films. Against critics’ insistence that Ozu was indifferent to plot and unlikely to use symbols, Geist demonstrates otherwise, revealing the director’s subtle iconographic paradigms. Her incisive understanding of the historical and cultural context in which the films were conceived amplifies her analysis of the films’ structure and meaning. Ozu: A Closer Look guides the reader through Ozu’s early, silent films and his sound films made during Japan’s wars in Asia and the subsequent American Occupation, then takes up specific themes relevant to his later, better-known films. These themes include religion, gender, and the influence of traditional Japanese painting. Geist also examines the impact that Ozu’s films had on specific directors in Europe, America, and Japan. Intended for f

This second edition expands the provocative analysis of the racist colonial dynamics at play in philanthropy and finance into other sectors and offers practical advice on how anyone can be a healer.The world is out of balance. With increasing frequency, we are presented with the inescapable truth that systemic racism and colonial structures are foundational principles to our economies. The $1 trillion philanthropic industry is one example of a system that mirrors oppressive colonial behavior. It’s an industry whose name means “the love for humankind,” yet it does more harm than good. In Decolonizing Wealth, Edgar Villanueva looks past philanthropy’s glamorous, altruistic façade and into its shadows: white supremacy, savior complexes, and internalized oppression. Across history and to the present day, the accumulation of wealth is steeped in trauma. How can we shift philanthropy toward social reconciliation and healing if the cornerstones are exploitation, extraction, and control?

The Movement Theory of Control (MTC) makes one major claim: that control relations in sentences like 'John wants to leave' are grammatically mediated by movement. This goes against the traditional view that such sentences involve not movement, but binding, and analogizes control to raising, albeit with one important distinction: whereas the target of movement in control structures is a theta position, in raising it is a non-theta position; however the grammatical procedures underlying the two constructions are the same. This book presents the main arguments for MTC and shows it to have many theoretical advantages, the biggest being that it reduces the kinds of grammatical operations that the grammar allows, an important advantage in a minimalist setting. It also addresses the main arguments against MTC, using examples from control shift, adjunct control, and the control structure of 'promise', showing MTC to be conceptually, theoretically, and empirically superior to other approaches.

The Movement Theory of Control (MTC) makes one major claim: that control relations in sentences like 'John wants to leave' are grammatically mediated by movement. This goes against the traditional view that such sentences involve not movement, but binding, and analogizes control to raising, albeit with one important distinction: whereas the target of movement in control structures is a theta position, in raising it is a non-theta position; however the grammatical procedures underlying the two constructions are the same. This book presents the main arguments for MTC and shows it to have many theoretical advantages, the biggest being that it reduces the kinds of grammatical operations that the grammar allows, an important advantage in a minimalist setting. It also addresses the main arguments against MTC, using examples from control shift, adjunct control, and the control structure of 'promise', showing MTC to be conceptually, theoretically, and empirically superior to other approaches.

'Markedness' refers to the tendency of languages to show a preference for particular structures or sounds. This bias towards 'marked' elements is consistent within and across languages, and tells us a great deal about what languages can and cannot do. This pioneering study presents a groundbreaking theory of markedness in phonology. De Lacy argues that markedness is part of our linguistic competence, and is determined by three conflicting mechanisms in the brain: (a) pressure to preserve marked sounds ('preservation'), (b) pressure to turn marked sounds into unmarked sounds ('reduction'), and (c) a mechanism allowing the distinction between marked and unmarked sounds to be collapsed ('conflation'). He shows that due to these mechanisms, markedness occurs only when preservation is irrelevant. Drawing on examples of phenomena such as epenthesis, neutralisation, assimilation, vowel reduction and sonority-driven stress, Markedness offers an important insight into this essential concept i

Inside Maker Comics: Design a Game!, the latest volume of First Second's DIY comic series, you'll find step-by-step instructions for six tabletop game design projects!Siblings Shen, Shondra, and Shontoya arrive at Ludum Omega Summer Camp with a passion for games, and Professor Zephyr is excited to teach this year’s students all about the art and science of game design! What makes a game fun? What kinds of games are out there? How can designers turn an okay game into a great one?With Maker Comics: Design a Game! as your guide, you’ll play and modify classic games to learn the fundamentals of design and build and test a prototype of a new game that’s all your own!

Inside Maker Comics: Design a Game!, the latest volume of First Second's DIY comic series, you'll find step-by-step instructions for six tabletop game design projects!Siblings Shen, Shondra, and Shontoya arrive at Ludum Omega Summer Camp with a passion for games, and Professor Zephyr is excited to teach this year’s students all about the art and science of game design! What makes a game fun? What kinds of games are out there? How can designers turn an okay game into a great one?With Maker Comics: Design a Game! as your guide, you’ll play and modify classic games to learn the fundamentals of design and build and test a prototype of a new game that’s all your own!

The inspiration for Netflix blockbuster starring Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt.A teen girl and her robot embark on a cross-country mission in this illustrated science fiction story, perfect for fans of Ready Player One and Black Mirror. In late 1997, a runaway teenager and her small yellow toy robot travel west through a strange American landscape where the ruins of gigantic battle drones litter the countryside, along with the discarded trash of a high-tech consumerist society addicted to a virtual-reality system. As they approach the edge of the continent, the world outside the car window seems to unravel at an ever faster pace, as if somewhere beyond the horizon, the hollow core of civilization has finally caved in.

Ridge functions are a rich class of simple multivariate functions which have found applications in a variety of areas. These include partial differential equations (where they are sometimes termed 'plane waves'), computerised tomography, projection pursuit in the analysis of large multivariate data sets, the MLP model in neural networks, Waring's problem over linear forms, and approximation theory. Ridge Functions is the first book devoted to studying them as entities in and of themselves. The author describes their central properties and provides a solid theoretical foundation for researchers working in areas such as approximation or data science. He also includes an extensive bibliography and discusses some of the unresolved questions that may set the course for future research in the field.

Creative writing has become a highly professionalised academic discipline, with popular courses and prestigious degree programmes worldwide. This book is a must for all students and teachers of creative writing, indeed for anyone who aspires to be a published writer. It engages with a complex art in an accessible manner, addressing concepts important to the rapidly growing field of creative writing, while maintaining a strong craft emphasis, analysing exemplary models of writing and providing related writing exercises. Written by professional writers and teachers of writing, the chapters deal with specific genres or forms - ranging from the novel to new media - or with significant topics that explore the cutting edge state of creative writing internationally (including creative writing and science, contemporary publishing and new workshop approaches).

Creative writing has become a highly professionalised academic discipline, with popular courses and prestigious degree programmes worldwide. This book is a must for all students and teachers of creative writing, indeed for anyone who aspires to be a published writer. It engages with a complex art in an accessible manner, addressing concepts important to the rapidly growing field of creative writing, while maintaining a strong craft emphasis, analysing exemplary models of writing and providing related writing exercises. Written by professional writers and teachers of writing, the chapters deal with specific genres or forms - ranging from the novel to new media - or with significant topics that explore the cutting edge state of creative writing internationally (including creative writing and science, contemporary publishing and new workshop approaches).

This book contributes to emerging debates in political science and sociology on institutional change. Its introductory essay proposes a new framework for analyzing incremental change that is grounded in a power-distributional view of institutions and that emphasizes ongoing struggles within but also over prevailing institutional arrangements. Five empirical essays then bring the general theory to life by evaluating its causal propositions in the context of sustained analyses of specific instances of incremental change. These essays range widely across substantive topics and across times and places, including cases from the United States, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The book closes with a chapter reflecting on the possibilities for productive exchange in the analysis of change among scholars associated with different theoretical approaches to institutions.

This book contributes to emerging debates in political science and sociology on institutional change. Its introductory essay proposes a new framework for analyzing incremental change that is grounded in a power-distributional view of institutions and that emphasizes ongoing struggles within but also over prevailing institutional arrangements. Five empirical essays then bring the general theory to life by evaluating its causal propositions in the context of sustained analyses of specific instances of incremental change. These essays range widely across substantive topics and across times and places, including cases from the United States, Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The book closes with a chapter reflecting on the possibilities for productive exchange in the analysis of change among scholars associated with different theoretical approaches to institutions.

A thrilling anti-colonial sci-fi space heist from the author of THE DEEP SKY⭐A Goodreads Choice finalist for Readers' Favourite Science Fiction⭐'An enjoyable, richly imagined, space-faring adventure'Guardian'Come … forIndiana Jones-style outer space heist adventure, stay for the sensitively drawn characters and thoughtful exploration of other forms of life far beyond our own'Veronica RothSAVE ONE WORLD. DOOM HER OWN.Maya Hoshimoto was once the best art thief in the galaxy. For ten years, she returned stolen artifacts to alien civilizations – until a disastrous job forced her into hiding. Now she just wants to enjoy a quiet life as a graduate student of anthropology, but she's haunted by persistent and disturbing visions of the future.Then an old friend comes to her with a job she can't refuse: find a powerful object that could save an alien species from extinction. Except no one has seen it in living memory, and they aren't the only ones hunting for it.Maya sets out on a breakneck ques

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Research has shown that young babies - well before they form their first bond to a caring adult - enjoy participating in groups and group processes. Babies in Groups examines the consequences of these findings for science, for early education practice and policy, and for adult psychotherapy. The authors report research showing the extensive capacity of preverbal infants for group-communication in all-baby trios and quartets, backed by findings about primate sociability, the social brain, cultural histories, and human evolution. These studies open up new ways of imagining human development as fundamentally group-based. In addition, the authors explore the changes that a group-based vision of infancy could bring to early child education and care. They also show

The sixth Global Environment Outlook was launched in 2019 at the fourth UN Environment Assembly. It highlighted the ongoing damage to life and health from pollution and land degradation, and warned that zoonosis was already accounting for more than 60% of human infectious diseases. Since then the spread of COVID-19 has demonstrated the enormous challenges a global pandemic can cause for health care systems and the economy, as well as revealing potential environmental benefits of an altered lifestyle. This Technical Summary synthesizes the science and data in the GEO-6 report to make it accessible to a broad audience of policymakers, students and scientists. It demonstrates that more urgent and sustained action is required to address the degradation caused by our energy, food and waste systems and identifies a variety of transformational pathways for those seeking far-reaching policies for environmental and economic recovery. Also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

James Croll (1821–90) was self-educated, but on gaining a post at the Glagow Andersonian Museum had the time to explore his academic interests. Despite his lack of formal training, he quickly became a leading light of the Scottish Royal Geological Society. Using physics, mathematics, geology and geography he explored the pressing scientific questions of the time. In this, his final book, published in 1889, Croll divides his focus between 'the probable origin of meteorites, comets and nebulae', the age of the sun and the impact of the pre-nebular condition of the universe on star evolution. Using both proven facts and theories, Croll explores the ideas and hypotheses then current, frequently crediting colleagues for their work, and building on it. Croll, who from humble beginnings became a Fellow of The Royal Society and of St Andrew's University, writes in a style which makes his works accessible to a lay readership.

Molecules in the early Universe acted as natural temperature regulators, keeping the primordial gas cool and, in turn, allowing galaxies and stars to be born. Even now, such similarly simple chemistry continues to control a wide variety of the exotic objects that populate our cosmos. What are the tools of the trade for the cosmic chemist? What can they teach us about the Universe we live in? These are the questions answered in this engaging and informative guide, The Chemically Controlled Cosmos. In clear, non-technical terms, and without formal mathematics, we learn how to study and understand the behaviour of molecules in a host of astronomical situations. We study the secretive formation of stars deep within interstellar clouds, the origin of our own Solar System, the cataclysmic deaths of many massive stars that explode as supernovae, and the hearts of active galactic nuclei, the most powerful objects in the Universe. We are given an accessible introduction to a wealth of astrophys

Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac was one of the founders of quantum theory. He is numbered alongside Newton, Maxwell and Einstein as one of the greatest physicists of all time. Together the lectures in this volume, originally presented on the occasion of the dedication ceremony for a plaque commemorating Dirac in Westminster Abbey, give a unique insight into the relationship between Dirac's character and his scientific achievements. The text begins with the dedication address given by Stephen Hawking at the ceremony. Then Abraham Pais describes Dirac as a person and his approach to his work. Maurice Jacob explains how Dirac was led to introduce the concept of antimatter, and its central role in modern particle physics and cosmology, followed by an account by David Olive of the origin and enduring influence of Dirac's work on magnetic monopoles. Finally, Sir Michael Atiyah explains the deep and widespread significance of the Dirac equation in mathematics.

Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac was one of the founders of quantum theory. He is numbered alongside Newton, Maxwell and Einstein as one of the greatest physicists of all time. Together the lectures in this volume, originally presented on the occasion of the dedication ceremony for a plaque commemorating Dirac in Westminster Abbey, give a unique insight into the relationship between Dirac's character and his scientific achievements. The text begins with the dedication address given by Stephen Hawking at the ceremony. Then Abraham Pais describes Dirac as a person and his approach to his work. Maurice Jacob explains how Dirac was led to introduce the concept of antimatter, and its central role in modern particle physics and cosmology, followed by an account by David Olive of the origin and enduring influence of Dirac's work on magnetic monopoles. Finally, Sir Michael Atiyah explains the deep and widespread significance of the Dirac equation in mathematics.

Molecules in the early Universe acted as natural temperature regulators, keeping the primordial gas cool and, in turn, allowing galaxies and stars to be born. Even now, such similarly simple chemistry continues to control a wide variety of the exotic objects that populate our cosmos. What are the tools of the trade for the cosmic chemist? What can they teach us about the Universe we live in? These are the questions answered in this engaging and informative guide, The Chemically Controlled Cosmos. In clear, non-technical terms, and without formal mathematics, we learn how to study and understand the behaviour of molecules in a host of astronomical situations. We study the secretive formation of stars deep within interstellar clouds, the origin of our own Solar System, the cataclysmic deaths of many massive stars that explode as supernovae, and the hearts of active galactic nuclei, the most powerful objects in the Universe. We are given an accessible introduction to a wealth of astrophys