Saying what one thinks can be difficult; sometimes one knows that a thought is there, but it takes time and effort to find its proper articulation. This book is about articulatory self-knowledge, or the sort of knowledge about one's own mind that results from successful attempts to articulate evasive thoughts of this kind. Rather than account for this phenomenon as mere verbal blockage or hermeneutical impoverishment, Lea Salje argues that the obstacle to articulation in these cases has to...

Our heads buzz with them while we're awake. They can spur us to action and creativity, or to daydream. They can be opinionated or contemplative, fleeting or recurring. We couldn’t do without them. Yet it remains surprisingly difficult to explain even the rudiments of thought without confusion or philosophical controversy.In clear, accessible and engaging style Thought: The Basics gets to grips with the nature of human thought, addressing important questions such as:

This book provides the state-of-the art of the present understanding of avalanche phenomena in both functional materials and geophysics. The main emphasis of the book is analyzing these apparently different problems within the common perspective of out-of-equilibrium phenomena displaying spatial and temporal complexity that occur in a broad range of scales. Many systems, when subjected to an external force, respond intermittently in the form of avalanches that often span over a wide range ...

This reference describes the role of various intermolecular and interparticle forces in determining the properties of simple systems such as gases, liquids and solids, with a special focus on more complex colloidal, polymeric and biological systems. The book provides a thorough foundation in theories and concepts of intermolecular forces, allowing researchers and students to recognize which forces are important in any particular system, as well as how to control these forces. This third ed...

Colloids are submicron particles that are ubiquitous in nature (milk, clay, blood) and industrial products (paints, drilling fluids, food). In recent decades it has become clear that adding depletants such as polymers or small colloids to colloidal dispersions allows one to tune the interactions between the colloids and in this way control the stability, structure and rheological properties of colloidal dispersions. This book offers a concise introduction to the fundamentals of depletion e...

The aim of this volume is to advance the understanding of the fundamental properties of fine magnetic particles and to discuss the latest developments from both the theoretical and experimental viewpoints, with special emphasis being placed on the applications in different branches of science and technology.All aspects of fine magnetic particles are covered in the 46 papers. The topics are remarkably interdisciplinary covering theory, materials preparation, structural characterization, opt...

State-of-the-art survey by leading experts in the field. Major foci are superheavy nuclei and neutron-rich exotic nuclei. In addition new developments in nuclear fission and nuclear cluster decay are shown. Finally developments in relativistic heavy ion collisions and the physics of supercritical fields are detailed.

This book covers various aspects of lasers in materials science, including a comprehensive overview on basic principles of laser-materials interactions and applications enabled by pulsed laser systems. The material is organized in a coherent way, providing the reader with a harmonic architecture.While systematically covering the major current and emerging areas of lasers processing applications, the Volume provides examples of targeted modification of material properties achieved th...

One of the major experimental difficulties in studying materials at extreme temperatures is unwanted contamination of the sample through contact with the container. This can be avoided by suspending the sample through levitation. This technique also makes metastable states of matter accessible, opening up new avenues of scientific enquiry, as well as possible new materials for technological applications. This book describes several methods of levitation, the most important being aerodynami...

This book provides the reader with an introduction to the physics of complex plasmas, a discussion of the specific scientific and technical challenges they present and an overview of their potential technological applications.Complex plasmas differ from conventional high-temperature plasmas in several ways: they may contain additional species, including nano meter- to micrometer-sized particles, negative ions, molecules and radicals and they may exhibit strong correlations or quant...

Explains the underlying structure that unites all disciplinesin chemistryNow in its second edition, this book explores organic,organometallic, inorganic, solid state, and materials chemistry,demonstrating how common molecular orbital situations arisethroughout the whole chemical spectrum. The authors explore therelationships that enable readers to grasp the theory thatunderlies and connects traditional fields of study withinchemistry, thereby providing a conceptual framework with w...