Over the past 4 billion years, microorganisms have contributed to shaping the earth and making it more habitable for higher forms of life. They are remarkable in their metabolic diversity and their ability to harvest energy from oxidation and reduction reactions. Research on these microbiological processes has led to the newly evolving fields...

Geospatial development links your data to places on the Earth’s surface. Writing geospatial programs involves tasks such as grouping data by location, storing and analyzing large amounts of spatial information, performing complex geospatial calculations, and drawing colorful interactive maps. In order to do this well, you’ll need...

Until around ten years ago, the only planets...

More than 40,000 species of mites have been described, and up to 1 million may exist on earth. These tiny arachnids play many ecological roles including acting as vectors of disease, vital players in soil formation, and important agents of biological control. But despite the grand diversity of mites, even trained biologists are often unaware...

Providing 95 percent of the 500 billion pounds of organic chemicals produced in the world, the petroleum and natural gas industries are responsible for products that ensure our...

Schumann resonance has been studied for more than half a century. The field became popular among researchers of the terrestrial environment using natural sources of electromagnetic radiation—lightning strokes, primarily—and now many Schumann observatories have been established around the world. A huge number of publications can be...

This work covers in some detail the application of neutron scattering to different fields of physics, materials science, chemistry, biology, the earth sciences and engineering. Its goal is to enable researchers in a particular area to identify aspects of their work in which neutron scattering techniques might contribute, conceive the...

Impact cratering is arguably the most ubiquitous geological process in the Solar System. It has played an important role in Earth’s history, shaping the geological landscape, affecting the evolution of life, and generating economic resources. However, it was only in the latter half of the 20th century that the importance of impact...

In a book written for mathematicians, teachers of mathematics, and highly motivated students, Harold Edwards has taken a bold and unusual approach to the presentation of advanced calculus. He begins with a lucid discussion of differential forms and quickly moves to the fundamental theorems of calculus and Stokes’ theorem. The result is...

This book gathers contributions by 16 international authors on the phenomenon “bats,” shedding some light on their morphology, the feeding behaviors (insects, fruits, blood) of different groups, their potential and confirmed transmissions of agents of diseases, their endo- and ectoparasites, as well as countless myths surrounding...

The fundamental concept of the book is to explain how to make thin film solar cells from the abundant solar energy materials by low cost. The proper and optimized growth conditions are very essential while sandwiching thin films to make solar cell otherwise secondary phases play a role to undermine the working function of solar cells. The...

This companion provides a collection of frequently needed numerical data as a convenient desk-top or pocket reference for atmospheric scientists as well as a concise source of information for others interested in this matter. The material contained in this book was extracted from the recent and the past scientific literature; it covers...