In addition to domestic animals the earliest records of mankind indicate that slavery, until the use of coal became widespread, has always been a significant aspect, or part, of nearly every society. Consider for example ancient Attica (Greece), in which 115,000 out of a total population of 315,000 were slaves 1]. For the lucky rulers slaves represented power, Joule/second or Watt. On a steady state basis a healthy adult generates about 100 Watts, or 100 J/s, while a highly conditioned endurance athlete can generate about 300 W for perhaps an hour. Today we obtain our energy from fossil...

TiO2 Nanotube Arrays: Synthesis, Properties, and Applications is the first book to provide an overview of this rapidly growing field. Vertically oriented, highly ordered TiO2 nanotube arrays are unique and easily fabricated materials with an architecture that demonstrates remarkable charge transfer as well as photocatalytic properties. This volume includes an introduction to TiO2 nanotube arrays, as well as a description of the material properties and distillation of the current research. Applications considered include gas sensing, heterojunction solar cells, water photoelectrolysis,...

A story of a young girl and boy who through their adventures discover their own strengths and weaknesses. And in the end, what matters most, is the bond they share with one another. Excerpt: There once was a rabbit, whose nickname was Yabut, but really his name was Fred. His nickname was Yabut, because of his habit, of saying "Yeah, but" before most things he said. Now Yabut the Rabbit had lots of friends, but his best friend was Darla the Squirrel. A great many folk, made many a joke, because Fred's best friend was a girl.

"Louis had a keen, intuitive understanding of the metaphysics of a knife in the back."

The door-darkening and nomadic Louis sweeps into town to take Ida, his on-gain off-again, away on holiday. When the long-suffering and law-abiding Ida discovers that Louis only wants her along to help him rob a bank, she comes up with a plan of her own. She will have the money and set up Louis for the fall. But soon it is Ida who the police decide is the criminal mastermind and, after Louiss supposedly long dead brother shows up with an axe in him, she becomes a murder suspect as well.

By turns bleak,...

That Recoil of Nature is a work of literary fiction with all the compelling elements of a good mystery. Echoing throughout this story are the similarities and conflicts between two generations - shaped by very different wars - around the ethics of violence, gender politics, and the nature of responsibility. The novel follows the story of a university student in 1972 - the poet and pacifist, Lawrence MacQuigau - as he discovers the events that embroiled his late mother Maddy, a doctor, twenty years before in the isolated northern village of Wegebow. Her patient, Emelie Gagnon, was slowly being...