Science

This book discusses the state of cryobiology, which is currently developing into an important and innovative field of medicine.
It is already routine to preserve and revive cells and small tissue samples through cooling. The current development of organ cryopreservation with the aim of preserving human transplant organs and making them available to remedy the shortage of transplants will be discussed. Preservation of the entire human body is also a long-term goal which may come a little more into reach by such development.
The processes involved in the cooling of tissues, using vitrification and cryoprotection, are discussed in detail.
The many experiments on cells, tissues and organs at non-cryogenic and cryogenic temperatures below 0°C are compiled and evaluated.
Obstacles to the methods and the development of means to overcome them are another topic.
The astonishing survival of cells following oxygen deprivation is presented with regard to the still inadequate methods of post-mortem tissue cryopreservation.
The possibilities of repairing and reactivating tissues form another chapter.
The book ends with an outlook on the development of amazing new methods and procedures for cryoprotection, the prevention of ice crystals and stress fractures, and the restoration of tissues.

The work addresses a general audience as well as academics and, in particular, scientists who want to find out about the state of research in the field of cryobiology cryoprotection in general and organ and body preservation in particular.

Renewable energy sources became a key research focus in the field of global environmental governance. Within this context, new technical innovations seek to overcome challenges resulting from volatile renewable energy production and lacking storage capacities. Blockchain, a distributed ledger technology using cryptography, gained prominence as an integral component within the increasingly decentralized and digitalized global energy infrastructure.

Against this background, Alexander Freier argues that the application of blockchain technologies represents a viable option to both enhance the efficiency and balancing of renewable energy as well as to subsequently reduce GHG emissions if the following three components are met: the ongoing implementation of technological advancements, an adequate global normative framework, and general trust on behalf of key market actors to promote blockchain in the energy sector on a global scale.

Departing from an analysis of the relationship between climate change and energy, Freier conducts a legal analysis to explore possible ʼbottom-upʼ perspectives for the implementation and transfer of technological innovation derived from climate contracts. This analysis examines the technological infrastructure surrounding blockchain energy as well as its application to the Brooklyn MicroGrid in the US and the WindNODE trading platform in Germany from an International Relations perspective.

In his groundbreaking book, Predictions: Society's Telltale Signature Reveals the Past and Forecasts the Future, Theodore Modis showed readers a fascinating new way to understand our society and ourselves by applying fundamental scientific concepts to predicting social phenomena. Now he pushes his physics-applied-to-life approach further and unearths street value in scientific findings. He shows that some fundamental truths cast into scientific laws are ubiquitous and enter our lives in subtle ways that we may not be aware of. In a kind of twenty-first century version of Plato's dialogues he offers new insights on life's many possibilities and ambiguities everywhere from managing business and personal relationships to finding purpose in one's existence.

This book will titillate the mind of all science-friendly readers.

This book is dedicated to one of the topical issues of the history and philosophy of medicine—the analysis of the research method of Galen of Pergamon, an outstanding physician of Antiquity (2nd century AD). Galen's works, on the one hand, were the outcome of the Hippocratic tradition and its development in medicine for more than 500 years and, on the other hand, have determined the further development of medical theory and practice up to the Scientific Revolution in the 17th–19th centuries.

Dmitry A. Balalykin argues that Galen used the apodictic method in the analysis of the phenomena of medical theory and practice. The application of the concept of “apodictics” in relation to the events in the history of medicine is still debatable, although there is no doubt about the use of this term towards, for example, the history of mathematics. The author analyzes a significant amount of sources, researching the development of the apodictic method in medicine before Galen and pointing to those key innovations that were applied by him. The synthesis of the philosophical theory of clinical practice in the works of the great physician of Antiquity is the prime focus of this book. It is intended for scholars who deal with various issues of the history and philosophy of the natural sciences, primarily medicine, and also a wide readership interested in the history of Antiquity and the history of science.

Is there such a thing as a fundamental reality, something which was around before our universe came into existence and which will still remain when all matter, time, and space itself ultimately disappear? Something fundamental which, in turn, can make space and time and matter arise from seemingly nothing? Under most cosmological and physical models, the last known remnants of reality are the disembodied laws of mathematics—beyond which it is extremely difficult to probe further.

Using contemporary physics, narrated at popular science level, Chris Ransford shows why full nothingness—a nothingness within which even the disembodied laws of mathematics would not exist—cannot possibly exist, and what most likely underpins and enables reality. This leads the author to a few thoughts as to how such knowledge may be verified and then deployed to achieve a better alignment with reality.

The water resources of the Selenga River/Lake Baikal system are essential to the ecosystems and economic development of the surrounding region. In this large river and lake basin, there are strong contrasts between relatively pristine areas and massive anthropogenic impacts on the environment. The effects of climate change are more pronounced than in most other parts of the earth, and the transition from socialism into a market-oriented economy has led to a boom in mining but also to a partial collapse of environmental monitoring and urban wastewater management systems. Moreover, the expansion of agriculture and mining has triggered considerable land use change, rising water consumption, and the release of contaminants that had previously been unknown to the region. The consequences for the water resources and the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems depending on them have become increasingly visible in recent years. This book, which is based on contributions to the 2014 Bringing Together Selenga-Baikal Research Conference, provides multidisciplinary insight into current water-related challenges and strategies for their solution from the viewpoint of the international scientific community.