Coastal Alert: Energy Ecosystems And Offshore Oil Drilling (Island Press Critical Issues Series, No. 2)

Book Description

Explains how citizens can protect coastal resources from the damaging effects of offshore oil drilling.

Book Description

Significant advancements have been made in pathogen detection technologies during the last decade. Indexing of plants and plant parts for the presence of specific pathogens has been most effective in some instances for avoiding and/or controlling disease. The new technologies for detecting low levels of pathogens will increase the value of indexing as a tool for plant disease control. Providing an overview of the status of detection technology, this volume is directed not only to scientists and students interested in detection technology, but also to those interested in formulating and implementing disease control and quarantine regulations. This book provides a conceptual framework which presents the current scientific literature, state-of-the-art assessments, and speculations on future developments and requirements of pathogen indexing methods. Chapters cover the different pathogen groups, review current practices in areas where detection technology has become important, and provide perspectives on how indexing technologies can be applied, how well it has worked, and which problems remain. Statistical treatment of detection limits, sampling strategies, risk assessment, cost, standardization, and quality control are also covered.

Book Description

Technology is becoming molecularly precise. Nanotechnology, otherwise known as molecular engineering, will soon create effective machines as small as DNA. This capacity to manipulate matter -- to program matter -- with atomic precision will utterly change the economic, ecological, and cultural fabric of our lives. This book, which is accessible to a broad audience while providing references to the technical literature, presents a wide range of potential applications of this new material technology.

The first chapter introduces the basic concepts of molecular engineering and demonstrates that several mutually reinforcing trends in current research are leading directly into a world of surprisingly powerful molecular machines. Nine original essays on specific applications follow the introductory chapter. The first section presents applications of nanotechnology that interact directly with the molecular systems of the human body. The second presents applications that function, for the most part, outside the body. The final section details the mechanisms of a universal human-machine interface and the operation of an extremely high resolution display system.

Customer Reviews:

NanoUtopian Dreams.......2003-04-30

Crandall presents ten essays out of which to construct your nanoUtopian dream. Another example of a genre called fictional science where the reader must supply the plot, characters and action. What is all this talk of nanobots and utility fog? Is man not already constructed from nanomachines? One might already ask if molecules of nicotine, aspirin, heroin or cocaine are nanomachines since they control the flow of neurotransmitters. Is molecular engineering merely the search for molecular shapes that will fit together like lego blocks-just like the search for new drugs?

Many are enamored by the way the cells and bacteria of the body construct our reality. They would like to copy these processes and rename them nanotechnology. Viewing cells and proteins as nanomachines is not new. Evolution, itself, could be viewed as a way of encapsulating cooperating cells into human shaped terrariums. Crandall quotes Richard Preston on the flesh eating Ebola Zaire virus: "seven mysterious proteins that ...work as a relentless machine, a molecular shark, and they consume the body as the virus makes copies of itself."

These writers suggest ways man could profit by controlling the design of these cellular machines. Richard Crawford's contribution suggests man designed molecules could be injected into the blood steam in order to do the bidding of cosmetic surgeons. He sees big cash to be made. Edward Reifman proposes diamond teeth but would this put dentists in the unemployment line? Brian Wowk manipulates phase array optics to enable the reader to construct a STAR TREK holodeck. J. Storrs Hall envisions filling one's environment with utility fog, placing one within a kind of pixel coated TV screen where objects in your personal space can be moved as easily as pictures on that screen. Tom McKendree worries that nanosized assemblers will make goods so plentiful that nothing will be of any value. Crandall, himself, suggests that when room runs out on earth we might repackage man into geodesic spheres, floating ecospheres, in stationary orbit high above the planet. All pretty good fictional science but why not read Greg Bear where you also get the plot, characters and action.

amazing!.......2001-10-20

Ok so the title (of the review) is kida corny, but dont worry,i did read the book and il have to say its a good book and has a few good ideas, so all in all its a good book.

Read this one first!.......2000-12-17

Most nanotechnolgy books and articles start out with lots of hype to excite the reader, and then follow it up with a meandering discussion of how this might really be possible. This book was no exception. It did a good job of building up themes and exploring them in detail. The treatment of "utility fog" was extremely well done, as was the discussion of a "holodeck" type image technology.

The language and style is easily accessible to those with a basic science education, and it was refreshing that this book avoided the doomsday predictions of nanotechnology and kept the unbounded prediction for when this will all happen to a minimum.

Published in 1996, the content of this book is a good introduction, but is in danger of becoming dated due to the fast moving nature of this field. This might be the first nanotechnology book to read, but not the last for a true fan of the topic. This book might not be for you, if you've been able to read Nanosystems by K. Eric Drexler, but if you want an entertaining walk through visions of future technology, check this one out.

Entertaining, sometimes thought-provoking, futurist essays.......1999-02-18

The opening chapter, written by editor Crandall, is a good, necessarily cursory, summation of nanotechnology at the time of publication. The inclusion of a long list of web sites with up-to-date information is a welcome way to keep the material fresh.

If you're looking to get serious and read a discussion of recent research, look elsewhere. The remaining chapters fall into the realm of pure speculation, where futurists practice the fine art of making guesses to which no one will hold them.

Ultimately, it is exactly this light-heartedness and high-level thought experimentation that makes the book a good weekend's read. Enjoy it the way you would enjoy a work of science fiction with its technology premise solidly rooted in today's understanding of the universe.

If you enjoy this kind of reading, I would strongly encourage you to read _The Diamond Age_ by Neal Stephenson.

The Premier Technology of the 21st Century........1996-09-14

Nanotechnology, The Premier Technology of the 21st Century, is about building things atom by atom like biology does.
About making extraordinary things from ordinary mater (see http://planet-hawaii.com/nanozine/WHATNANO.HTM).

After reading nanotechnology, Molecular Speculations on Global Abundance (The MIT Press), I found an ancient bottle washed ashore by the tide.
I popped the top and to my surprise, a Green Genie materialized before my eyes.
You have three wishes boomed the Arabian aberration.
Cool.
Ill have nanotechnology. And your other two wishes? And to his surprise I said, Pack up and join the ether. Who needs magic if you have atomic precision chemistry.
This attitude is amply backed up by the stream of authors and their thoughts presented in BC Crandalls latest work.

Prepare for anew wave of startling ideas written by a group of the Worlds foremost nanotechnologist.
Attention Nano Venture Capitalists.
This is the info you are looking for.
Read and profit.
Now a summery of the authors and their chapters:

1. Molecular engineering.
BC Crandall, the books editor, founder of Molecular Realities, Memetic Engineering and co-founder of Prime Arithmetics inc., starts the work with a thorough intro to the concept beginning with an explanation of the atom, the workings of chemistry and self assembling natural machines like DNA in a style comfortably accessible to the uninitiated layperson.
Then Crandall moves on to A Genealogy of Nanotechnology. How ideas and discoveries of the past, (the study of artificial life concepts, the invention of scanning tunneling microscopes, walking molecules) have transported science to the brink of this incredible power.
Excellent and mandatory background information.

2. In-Vivo Nanoscope and the Two-Week Revolution.

Ted Kaehler of Apple Computer, has a two part chapter that sheds a calibrating light on the time table and extreme complexity of developing nanotechnology through the eyes of a computer scientist (Carnegie-Mellon) with a physics background (Stanford).
Kaehler argues that a great deal of early nano (preassembler) devices must be developed and understood before moving on.
His example in part one of his chapter is an early nano-like multi-purpose bioprobe unobtrusively investigating the immune system in a living organism.
This device is connected to desk top computers in a normal lab scene.
This is early nanotechnology.
The bioprobe was extremely expensive to hand craft (no assemblers yet exist).
The information from the experiment is richly rewarding and will be added to a massive library of knowledge needed to make the sophisticated cell repair machines of a mature nanofuture.
Venture capitalist: There will be many steps to mature nanotechnology that need financing and because of the novel utility of these breakthroughs, such first on the block investments should produce fabulous returns.

Kaehler goes on to explain away the myth of the Two-Week Revolution, referring to the concept that very shortly after the building of the first self replicating assembler, every nanotechnology idea conceived and nanotech product would spread across the planet and into space like wild fire. Arguing from the experience of complex systems builders, Kaehler predicts that lots of debugging and product cycle improvement are inevitable.
The two-week revolution will not happen.
Two weeks after the first assembler works, it will be in the shop for repairs.
And not many of the things that it builds in those two weeks will work either.
The pervasive use of assemblers in our lives depends on the development of several new fields of study and entire new layers of infrastructures.
It will be a human endeavor operating at human speeds. It wont happen without thousands of cycles of experimental feedback, and it wont happen in the first two weeks.
Good news for society as we will have, mercifully, more time to adapt.
(Good sources tell me, he argues the other side as well, that while it won't be 2 weeks, it won't be all that long either, especially with good design ahead.)

3. Cosmetic Nanosurgery

Former senior editor at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories prestigious monthly, Energy and Technology Review , Richard Crawford blows the doors off the $18 + Billion Cosmetic industry, showing how even early nanotechnology can actually deliver on the bogus promises made today by copywriters for their big business Oil of Old Lady clients.
He shows relatively simple designs for early nanodevices that change hair color, texture and skin color (I would love a tan in the winter!).
No more bitter baldness for male and female. Cast off unwanted facial and body hair. Such would be converted into CO2, H2O and sulfur crystals at the source. <

>Enjoy wrinkle repair, full body tight skin well before the assembler.
Later, with cell repair machines working at the molecular level, full body makeover.
Look completely different every month. Shock your friends by morphing into a Klingon.

Alas, there is a bleak, dark side, the sleazy underbelly of this nanotechnology utilization: Inevitably, there will be people who dont know how to leave well enough alone.
Many who never liked their own youthful appearance will opt instead to copy some popular model or other sex symbol.
It could become very confusing, with dozens of pop-idol look-alikes crowding the parks and boulevards of our future metropolis.
Some may relish the prospect, but we may never see the last of the Elvis clones.
(Oh.. My... God..! What did I do in a past life to be sent to this Universe?)

4. Diamond Teeth

Famed nano D.D.S. Edward M. Reifman also has a B.S. in mechanical engineering, magna cum laude, and an M.S. in biomedical engineering. After graduation and before obtaining his D.D.S., Reifman went to work for Hughes Aircraft designing communications satellites. (Makes sense.)

As a warm up for early, then sophisticated nanotechnology, the Dr. offers some really advanced dental tech like a CAD-CAM system with a fiber optic wand to quickly take 3D measurements of a tooth to be capped and a portable milling machine to make perfect caps on the spot.
On to early nano and a hand held (Tricorder like) PET scanner that not only sees in 3D, but detects abnormal bone and gum densities, all vessels, and specific sites where further tooth or jawbone loss will likely occur. Then early nanites are introduced to rebuild problem areas.

Nanotechnology will deliver the holy grail of dentistry: long-lasting, cavity-free teeth. Advanced nanotechnology will deliver another coup: arresting or neutralizing the genetics behind a degenerating, aging jawline.
We could eventually see the replacement of the entire jaw and teeth with diamondoid matrix.
But why stop there? We can expand this approach to improve or replace the bodys entire skeletal structure.

5. Early Applications

Harry Chesley is a senior software architect at Macromedia, formally with Apple Computer and SRI International.
He has designed code for 25 years. Chesley presents a nuts and bolts presentation on building nanomachines.
Scale, shape, and energy needs are included.
You can get a real physical grasp of how these hypothetical mechanical marvels come together. Like all machines, they are built from components. Each machine needs storage and computing facilities. It seems that it will be possible to build a 1,000 MIPS (million instructions per second) molecular computer that fits inside a cube 0.4 microns (millionths of a meter) on a side.
This is roughly 1,000 times the computing power of todays personal computers.

But now on to the fun stuff. In his An Opening Selection, Chesley offers a long delightful list of early applications, some of which I present for your enjoyment:

-Board games with billions of moving parts, allowing economic, logistical, and military games with incredible depth of simulation.
-Full-wall speakers for people

Book Description

The accurate determination of the structure of molecular systems provides information about the consequences of weak interactions both within and between molecules. These consequences impact the properties of the materials and the behaviour in interactions with other substances. The book presents modern experimental and computational techniques for the determination of molecular structure. It also highlights applications ranging from the simplest molecules to DNA and industrially significant materials.

Readership: Graduate students and researchers in structural chemistry, computational chemistry, molecular spectroscopy, crystallography, supramolecular chemistry, solid state chemistry and physics, and materials science.

Strength From Weakness; Structural Consequences of Weak Interactions in Molecules, Supermolecules, and Crystals.

Average customer rating:

Strength From Weakness; Structural Consequences of Weak Interactions in Molecules, Supermolecules, and Crystals.
Italy) Nato Advanced Research Workshop On Physical-chemical Properties From Weak Interactions (2001: Erice
Manufacturer: Kluwer Academic Pubs.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N6BNY8

Book Description

Geostatistics is a common tool in reservoir characterisation. Several texts discuss the subject, however this book differs in its approach and audience from currently available material. Written from the basics of statistics it covers only those topics that are needed for the two goals of the text: to exhibit the diagnostic potential of statistics and to introduce the important features of statistical modeling. This revised edition contains expanded discussions of some materials, in particular conditional probabilities, Bayes Theorem, correlation, and Kriging. The coverage of estimation, variability, and modeling applications have been updated. Seventy examples illustrate concepts and show the role of geology for providing important information for data analysis and model building. Four reservoir case studies conclude the presentation, illustrating the application and importance of the earlier material. This book can help petroleu

Book Description

Masterwork of the genre features detective Philip Trent in a case involving the murder of millionaire American financier Sigsbee Manderson, slain while on holiday in England. Trent matches wits with Scotland Yard's Inspector Murth. "One of the few genuine classics of detective fiction." — The New York Times.

Download Description

Identified by Dorothy L. Sayers as the first modern mystery novel. Author E.C. Bentley was primarily a newspaperman.

Customer Reviews:

Trent's Last Case.......2006-11-10

This quick read was an entertaining glimpse into early last century detective fare. Its plot twists were great.

Beware the Kessinger Publishing edition!.......2006-09-28

This is a wonderful story -- I highly recommend it. HOWEVER, beware of the edition published by Kessinger. It is apparently an unedited, unproofread and minimally (if at all) formatted direct printout of the open source copy available on Gutenberg.org. (This was verified by comparing the typos in the two versions. They're identical.) It appears that what this outfit does is downloads/copies/cuts-and-pastes the text file, converts it to a proportional font, and prints it as is. Superficially, the result looks respectable enough, until you start to read the thing. First, there's the book's odd format -- 7 1/2 x 9 1/4 inches -- about the size and shape of, say, your child's math workbook. It's awkward to handle and the simple mechanics of reading becomes an unpleasant chore. The text is properly single spaced, however there's a double space between each paragraph. This brings the eye up short and makes your brain involuntarily expect some sort of climax.

At the end of each PARAGRAPH, mind you.

Imagine a page or two of dialogue.

Talk about interrupting...

...the flow.

In short, this is a very annoying publication, made more so by the fact that there's nothing on the Amazon page or the publisher's web site to indicate the nature of this product. It goes a long way toward spoiling what should be the unalloyed pleasure of this terrific classic mystery. Buy a good used copy instead.

A Unique Mystery.......2006-08-09

I bought this book becauae 1. I enjoy detective novels and 2. Becauae it was mentioned in a recent book entitled 'Bad Twin' "written" by a passenger on the doomed Oceanic flight 815.

If you're looking for a good yarn check this out. It's a fast read and it's fairly inexpensive. If you're looking for a LOST tie-in it's not here.

The novelty of this story is that the case is solved before the book is two-thirds of the way through. I won't go on and spoil it but anyone who likes to solve mysteries or figure out the twist in stories should enjoy this one.

The Father of the Modern Mystery Novel.......2005-12-20

E. C. Bentley (July 10, 1875 - March 30, 1956), was a popular English novelist and humorist of the early twentieth century, and the inventor of the clerihew, an irregular form of humorous verse on biographical topics.

Born in London, Bentley worked as a journalist on several newspapers, including the Daily Telegraph. His first published collection of poetry, titled Biography for Beginners (1905), popularized the clerihew form; it was followed by two other collections, in 1929 and 1939. His detective novel, Trent's Last Case (1913), was much praised, numbering Dorothy L. Sayers among its admirers, and with its labyrinthine and mystifying plotting can be seen as the first truly modern mystery. The success of the work inspired him, after only 23 years, to write a sequel, Trent's Own Case (1936).

All lovers of the genre of mystery will enjoy his work immensely.

The First "Modern" Mystery Novel.......2005-01-14

Scholars consider it the first modern mystery novel. Agatha Christie called it "one of the three best detective stories ever written;" G.K. Chesterton went further, calling it "the finest detective story of modern times." The ever-erudite Dorothy Sayers flatly stated that every mystery novelist owed something to "its liberating and inspiring influence." Today, however, the vast majority of the reading public has never even heard of it.

The novel, of course, is E.C. Bentley's TRENT'S LAST CASE. By most accounts, Bentley wrote the book on a dare--much as Agatha Christie would later write THE MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR AT STYLES. When financier Sigsbee Manderson is found murdered at his country home, a London newspaper dispatches part-time artist, part-time journalist Trent to the scene. Within three days Trent cracks the case... or so he thinks. But is his solution correct? Or will it result in a terrible miscarriage of justice?

From a 2005 standpoint, TRENT'S LAST CASE is not a remarkable novel. Published in 1913, it feels overwritten, wordy, more Victorian in style than modern--and while the plot itself is interesting, it hardly compares to the unexpected twists offered by the very writers who so praised it and who were so influenced by it. But the fact remains that it was the first: Poe may have created the detective story and such writers as Doyle, Collins, and Dickens may have wrung romantic changes upon the theme, but it really wasn't until TRENT'S LAST CASE that the mystery novel as we presently think of it was born.

Most contemporary readers will likely find Bentley's style tough going, and although extremely influential the triple-twist plot has been done with considerably more drama in later novels. But say what you like, TRENT'S LAST CASE really is "the first," and that counts for a lot. Worth reading for the history of it!

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Three Famous Murder Novels: Before the Fact ;Trent's Last Case; The House of the Arrow

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Three Famous Murder Novels: Before the Fact ;Trent's Last Case; The House of the Arrow
Francis ; Bentley, E. C. ;Mason, A. E. W. Iles
Manufacturer: The Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000L3ILX4

Average customer rating:

Trent's Last Case.
E C Bentley
Manufacturer: Nelson 1920.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000L6E1DA

3 STAR OMNIBUS: TRENT'S LAST CASE, GREEN ICE, THE MIDDLE TEMPLE MURDER

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3 STAR OMNIBUS: TRENT'S LAST CASE, GREEN ICE, THE MIDDLE TEMPLE MURDER
WHITFIELD, FLETCHER BENTLEY
Manufacturer: KNOPF
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000ND7T08

THREE FAMOUS MURDER NOVELS: BEFORE THE FACT, TRENT'S LAST CASE, THE HOUSE OF THE ARROW [Modern Library Giant)

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THREE FAMOUS MURDER NOVELS: BEFORE THE FACT, TRENT'S LAST CASE, THE HOUSE OF THE ARROW [Modern Library Giant)
E.C. Bentley, and A.E.W. Mason Francis Iles
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000WUQO8K

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TRENT'S LAST CASE
E. C. Bentley
Manufacturer: Pocket Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LC5J5I

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Trent's Last Case

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HFKT18

Product Description

The classic work of the golden age of English detective fiction, in a trade paperback format.

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TRENT'S LAST CASE

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GY3GCE

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Trent's Last Case
E.C. Bentley
Manufacturer: Arrowsmith
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000WV1UTC

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Trent's Last Case
E. C. Bentley
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000NMHEYU

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