Jin Xu – författare

A thousand-year history of how China’s obsession with silver influenced the country’s financial well-being, global standing, and political stability"A wonderful book for understanding one thousand years of Chinese monetary history."--Debin Ma, Hitotsubashi UniversityThis revelatory account of the ways in which silver shaped Chinese history shows how an obsession with “white metal” held China back from financial modernization. First used as currency during the Song dynasty in around 900 CE, silver gradually became central to China’s economic framework and was officially monetized in the middle of the Ming dynasty during the sixteenth century. However, due to the early adoption of paper money in China, silver was not formed into coins but became a cumbersome “weighing currency,” for which ingots had to be constantly examined for weight and purity—an unwieldy practice that lasted for centuries. Jin Xu argues that even as China’s interest in silver spurred new avenues of trade and helped increase the country’s global economic footprint, in the long run silver played a key role in the struggles and entanglements that led to the decline of the Chinese empire.

This open access book comprehensively introduces biocomputing, focusing on its foundational theories, experimental operations, and computational models. Biocomputing represents an innovative computational paradigm that leverages biomolecules as a carrier for processing and storing information. As a core enabler of human progress, computational tools serve as critical benchmarks of societal advancement and are key drivers of technological innovation. While electronic computers currently dominate as the primary instruments for information processing, their underlying manufacturing technologies are approaching physical and practical limits. This has prompted the search for alternative computational models and tools to meet the demands of future advancements.Over recent decades, scientists have explored various fields to develop novel computational frameworks. These efforts have led to the emergence of groundbreaking paradigms, such as artificial neural networks inspired by brain-like information processing, evolutionary computing based on genetic mechanisms, biocomputing utilizing the unique properties of biomolecules, quantum computing exploiting quantum phenomena, and optical computing leveraging the properties of light.Designed as an essential resource for readers interested in the principles and applications of biocomputing, this book establishes a foundational understanding of the subject while serving as a bridge to more advanced theoretical and practical exploration. A basic knowledge of molecular biology is recommended for readers to engage with the material fully.The translation was done using artificial intelligence. Subsequently, a human revision was done primarily in terms of content.