Time-dependent Ising Model Description of Binary Liquid Mixture

Time dependent Ising model description of relaxation of concentrations near critical point in binary liquid mixtur

Inertial rotation sensor

Mechanism for inertial rotation sensing device for measuring spectral lines of rotating atoms seen by rotating observe

Why critics are wrong about the outcomes of TTIP but right to protest against it

The ‘Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership’ (TTIP) is the subject of increasingly fierce debate. Whilst some see the proposed US/EU trade deal as a vital boost for ‘free trade’, others fear we could cede control of everything, from the food on our plates to our public services, to ‘big business’. Dr Eva Heims argues it’s unlikely that the outcomes of TTIP will be as extreme as either side thinks, but its potential to perpetuate a global economic order already skewed towards large corporations should be taken seriously

The Cybernetics Group

This is the engaging story of a moment of transformation in the human sciences, a detailed account of a remarkable group of people who met regularly from 1946 to 1953 to explore the possibility of using scientific ideas that had emerged in the war years (cybernetics, information theory, computer theory) as a basis for interdisciplinary alliances. The Macy Conferences on Cybernetics, as they came to be called, included such luminaries as Norbert Wiener, John von Neumann, Margaret Mead, Gregory Bateson, Warren McCulloch, Walter Pitts, Kurt Lewin, F. S. C. Northrop, Molly Harrower, and Lawrence Kubie, who thought and argued together about such topics as insanity, vision, circular causality, language, the brain as a digital machine, and how to make wise decisions. Heims, who met and talked with many of the participants, portrays them not only as thinkers but as human beings. His account examines how the conduct and content of research are shaped by the society in which it occurs and how the spirit of the times, in this case a mixture of postwar confidence and cold-war paranoia, affected the thinking of the cybernetics group. He uses the meetings to explore the strong influence elite groups can have in establishing connections and agendas for research and provides a firsthand took at the emergence of paradigms that were to become central to the new fields of artificial intelligence and cognitive science. In his joint biography of John von Neumann and Norbert Wiener, Heims offered a challenging interpretation of the development of recent American science and technology. Here, in this group portrait of an important generation of American intellectuals, Heims extends that interpretation to a broader canvas, in the process paying special attention to the two iconoclastic figures, Warren McCulloch and Gregory Bateson, whose ideas on the nature of the mind/brain and on holism are enjoying renewal today. Steve J. Heims, once a research physicist, has devoted his attention to the history of twentieth century science for the past two decades

How participatory regulation is changing the nature of policymaking

Regulators are often shielded from political pressures, with decisions made on the basis of technical expertise rather than public opinion. Yet as Hanan Haber and Eva Heims explain, recent years have seen a growing trend for ‘participatory regulation’ across Europe, where citizens actively participate in the decision-making process. Drawing on a new study, they argue we are increasingly seeing a move away from regulation based on expertise to regulatory decisions that try to capture a range of different viewpoints and interests

Covid-19 vaccines and the competition between independent and politicised models of regulation

The regulatory approaches used to approve Covid-19 vaccines vary substantially across different countries. While some states assign responsibility for vaccine approval to independent regulatory agencies, politicians in other states have greater scope to influence decision-making. Eva Heims and Slobodan Tomic write that the current push to roll out vaccination programmes as quickly as possible is shining a light on competition between these independent and politicised models of regulation

You Have Got Me Guessing

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/3454/thumbnail.jp

A Review of the Thermodynamic, Transport, and Chemical Reaction Rate Properties of High-temperature Air

Thermodynamic and transport properties of high temperature air, and the reaction rates for the important chemical processes which occur in air, are reviewed. Semiempirical, analytic expressions are presented for thermodynamic and transport properties of air. Examples are given illustrating the use of these properties to evaluate (1) equilibrium conditions following shock waves, (2) stagnation region heat flux to a blunt high-speed body, and (3) some chemical relaxation lengths in stagnation region flow