Many wonderful stories have contributed to the growth and worldwide renown of the fiber optics industry. From its improbable roots in the 1960s and the important early laser work by Stewart Miller and colleagues at Bell Laboratories to seminal discoveries by Coming’s Don Keck, Robert Maurer, and Peter Schultz in 1970 demonstrating that...

Ancient Greece and Rome aren't usually remembered for their sense of humour. However, in reality the ancient Greeks and Romans often refused to take themselves seriously. Strange and outlandish activities abounded - including somebody accidentally exposing himself while dancing sideways at his wedding (those wearing bed sheets didn't...

If you manage and administer SQL Server 2008 in the real world, you need this detailed guide at your desk. From planning to disaster recovery, this practical book explores tasks and scenarios that a working SQL Server DBA faces regularly and...

It is difficult to begin by answering these questions clearly and convincingly. This would be much easier, though quite superfluous, at the end of the...

The book's...

The sequel to the bestselling memoir Blood, Sweat & Tea. Tom Reynolds is an ambulance worker. On any given day he can be attacked by strangers, sworn at by motorists, puked on, covered in blood and other much more unpleasant substances. He could help to deliver a baby in the morning and witness the last moments of a dying man in the...

The purpose of this book is to convey to the reader some feeling for what is surely one of the most important and exciting voyages of discovery that humanity has embarked upon. This is the search for the underlying principles that govern the behaviour of our universe. It is a voyage that has lasted for more than two-and-a-half millennia, so...

Bill Gates’s dream of “a computer on every desktop” is becoming more and more of a reality—many people today work (and play) on computers both in the office and at home. But desktop computers are even becoming a thing of the past. Laptops, netbooks, and other portable computers, as well as Windows Mobile devices,...

The theory of relativity stands out as one of the greatest achievements in science. The “special theory”,which did not include gravity,was put forward by Einstein in 1905 to explain many troubling facts that had arisen in the study of electricity and magnetism. In particular, his postulate that the speed of light in vacuum is the...

This ambitious book is the first extended analysis of the intricate relationships between relativity theory, quantum mechanics, and Whitehead's cosmology....

Focusing on the important control problems in state-of-the-art robotics and automation, this volume features invited papers from a workshop held at CDC, San Diego, California. As well as looking at current problems, it aims to identify and discuss challenging issues that are yet to be solved but which will be vital to future research...

• Explores the widespread use of spells, drugs, curse tablets, and figurines, and the practitioners of magic in the ancient world
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