The book is intended for scientists, brewers and students, who wish to delve more deeply into the world of hops. From the seedling to the bottled beer, this book communicates and clearly elucidates the latest scientific and technical findings as well as the principal elements in the value chain of hops. This book provides those curious about hops with an up-to-date and comprehensive guide to all relevant aspects of this fascinating plant.

A global catastrophic risk is one with the potential to wreak death and destruction on a global scale. In human history, wars and plagues have done so on more than one occasion, and misguided ideologies and totalitarian regimes have darkened an entire era or a region. Advances in technology are adding dangers of a new kind. It could happen again. In Global Catastrophic Risks 25 leading experts look at the gravest risks facing humanity in the 21st century, including asteroid impacts, gamma-...

Concepts once purely fiction -- robots, cyborg parts, artificial intelligences -- are becoming part of everyday reality. Soon robots will be everywhere, performing surgery, exploring hazardous places, making rescues, fighting fires, handling heavy goods. After a decade or two, they will be as unremarkable as the computer screen is now in offices, airports or restaurants.Cyborgs will be less obvious. These additions to the human body are interior now, as rebuilt joints, elbows and he...

One of the most important thinkers describes the literally mind-boggling possibilities that modern brain science could present for national security.” -LAWRENCE J. KORB, former US Assistant Secretary of DefenseFascinating and frightening.” -Bulletin of the Atomic ScientistsThe first book of its kind, Mind Wars covers the ethical dilemmas and bizarre history of cutting-edge technology and neuroscience developed for milita...

Neuromodulation will be the first comprehensive and in-depth reference textbook covering all aspects of the rapidly growing field of neuromodulation. This book provides a complete discussion of the fundamental principles of neuromodulation and therapies applied to the brain, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, autonomic nerves and various organs. The textbook is highly structured and organized into overarching sections that cover chronic pain, movement disorders, psychiatric disorders, epileps...

Embryonic stem cell research holds unique promise for developing therapies for currently incurable diseases and conditions, and for important biomedical research. However, the process through which embryonic stem cells are obtained involves the destruction of early human embryos. Katrien Devolder focuses on the tension between the popular view that an embryo should never be deliberately harmed or destroyed, and the view that embryonic stem cell research, because of its enormous promise, mu...

Patents protecting biotechnological invention are becoming ever more important. Because biotechnology has many differences with respect to other technologies, lessons learned in other fields of technology cannot simply be transferred to adopt a suitable strategy for dealing with biotechnology inventions.In this volume, general aspects of biopatent law will be discussed. This involves questions of patentability, including ethical issues and issues of technicality, as well as questio...

The surface modification of biomaterials plays a significant role in determining the outcome of biological-material interactions. With the appropriate modification a material's surface can be tailored to improve biocompatibility, adhesion and cell interactions. Consequently surface modification is vital in the development and design of new biomaterials and medical devices. Surface modification of biomaterials reviews both established surface modifications and those still in the early stage...

One of the key challenges current biomaterials researchers face is identifying which of the dizzying number of highly specialized characterization tools can be gainfully applied to different materials and biomedical devices. Since this diverse marketplace of tools and techniques can be used for numerous applications, choosing the proper characterization tool is highly important, saving both time and resources.Characterization of Biomaterials is a detailed and multidisciplinary discussion o...

The book provides an updated and detailed overview on advances in bioethanol. It looks at the historical perspectives, chemistry, sources and production of ethanol and discusses biotechnology breakthroughs and promising developments. The book also provides the details regarding the uses, advantages, problems, environmental effects and characteristics of bioethanol as a fuel. In addition, it presents information about ethanol in different parts of the world and also highlights the challenge...

This comprehensive work discusses novel biomolecular surfaces that have been engineered to either control or measure cell function at the atomic, molecular, and cellular levels. Each chapter presents real results, concepts, and expert perspectives of how cells interact with biomolecular surfaces, with particular emphasis on interactions within complex mechanical environments such as in the cardiovascular system. In addition, the book provides detailed coverage of inflammation and cellular ...

This work is to compile our current knowledge on GY phytoplasma biology at the genomic, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics level, as well as to summarize the approaches for their detection.Phytoplasma are the most poorly characterized plant pathogenic bacteria from the Mollicutes class. In recent years new biostatistics and bioinformatics approaches have improved our understanding of their biology and interactions with host grapevines and a great improvement has been made toward ...