William Brock – författare

The Fontana History of Chemistry, which draws extensively on both the author’s own original research and that of other scholars world wide, is conceived as a work of synthesis. Nothing like it has been attempted in decades.Beginning with the first tentative chemical explorations where primitive technology and techniques were deployed, Dr Brock proceeds via the alchemists’ futile, but frequently profitable, efforts to turn lead into gold to recount the emergence of the modern discipline of chemistry as fashioned by Boyle, Lavoisier and Dalton. He provides a particularly generous critical account of chemical developments during the last 150 years, emphasizing the roles of purity, analysis and synthesis, the exploration of reaction mechanisms, and the industrialization of chemical change, while also weighing up just how chemistry has been taught and disseminated.While brilliantly successful in explaining and exploiting chemical change, modern chemistry – in academy and factory alike – with its recondite language and symbolism and its associations with pollution and danger, prompts more fear than excitement in the uninitiated bystander. This book seeks to enlighten that bystander: to assess links between theory and practice, to reveal recurrent cycles and themes, and to encourage a heightened awareness of the human dimensions of the chemical sciences which might in turn promote a better public understanding of chemistry and the modern chemical and phamaceutical industries..

The Fontana History of Chemistry, which draws on both the author’s own original research and that of other scholars, is an unrivalled work of synthesis.Beginning with the first tentative chemical explorations, Dr Brock proceeds via the alchemists’ futile, but frequently profitable, efforts to turn lead into gold to recount the emergence of the modern discipline of chemistry as fashioned by Boyle, Lavoisier and Dalton. Brock chronicles chemical developments during the last 150 years, emphasizing the roles of purity, analysis and synthesis, the exploration of reaction mechanisms, the industrialization of chemical change, and how chemistry has been taught and disseminated.While brilliantly successful in explaining and exploiting chemical change, modern chemistry can prompt more fear than excitement in the uninitiated. This book seeks to enlighten: to assess links between theory and practice and to encourage a heightened awareness to promote a better public understanding of chemistry and the modern phamaceutical industries..

Although the spatial dimension is embedded in most issues studied by environmental and resource economics, its incorporation into economic models is not widespread. As a result, significant aspects of important problems remain hidden, which could lead to policy failures. This Element fills this gap by exploring how space can be integrated into environmental and resource economics. The emergence of spatial patterns in economic models through Turing's mechanism is explained and an extension of Pontryagin's maximum principle under spatial dynamics is provided. Examples of the use of spatial dynamics serve to illustrate why space matters in environmental policy design. Moreover, the differentiation of policy when spatial transport mechanisms are considered is made clear. The tools presented, along with their applications, provide foundations for future research in spatial environmental and resource economics in which the underlying spatial dimension - which is very real - is fully taken into account.

Although the spatial dimension is embedded in most issues studied by environmental and resource economics, its incorporation into economic models is not widespread. As a result, significant aspects of important problems remain hidden, which could lead to policy failures. This Element fills this gap by exploring how space can be integrated into environmental and resource economics. The emergence of spatial patterns in economic models through Turing's mechanism is explained and an extension of Pontryagin's maximum principle under spatial dynamics is provided. Examples of the use of spatial dynamics serve to illustrate why space matters in environmental policy design. Moreover, the differentiation of policy when spatial transport mechanisms are considered is made clear. The tools presented, along with their applications, provide foundations for future research in spatial environmental and resource economics in which the underlying spatial dimension - which is very real - is fully taken into account.