Descriere: Energy: Markets and Regulation is a valuable survey of current thinking on energy economics, focusing on the regulation of energy markets. It covers nearly every aspect of the energy sector, including both international and domestic U.S. markets in oil and coal and the particular U.S. conditions in natural gas and nuclear power. It deals with resource estimation and energy supply and demand, and environmental control. Economic and institutional analysis of current problems includes an exploration of their historical background.The thirteen original contributions are dedicated to MIT economist and energy analyst M. A. Adelman. Adelman is the dean of academic economists concerned with energy markets and the effects of government regulation. All who work and teach in this area have been influenced by his ideas and insightful analysis, and many of the chapters in the book draw on and expand his earlier work.The preface by Charles P. Kindleberger and foreword by the editors outline the subject and introduce the essays. Their authors and topics are Paul R. Carpenter, Henry D. Jacoby, and Arthur W. Wright on the evolution of U.S. natural gas markets; G. Campbell Watkins on the interaction of U.S. and Canadian oil policies; Richard L. Gordon on world coal development; Martin B. Zimmerman on the problem of nuclear power in the United States; Paul W. MacAvoy on the EPA's record in controlling industrial air pollution; Robert W. Crandall and Theodore E. Keeler on public policies concerning the private auto; Philip K. Verleger, Jr. on the evolution of oil as a commodity; Jeffrey K. MacKie-Mason and Robert S. Pindyck on the theory and experience of cartels in the international minerals markets; Paul Leo Eckbo on worldwide petroleum taxation; Zenon S. Zannetos on oil tanker markets; Gordon M. Kaufman on oil and gas supply assessment; Paul G. Bradley on mineral and petroleum exploration; and Ernst R. Berndt and David 0. Wood on the influence of energy price shocks on U.S. productivity growth.
Autori: Richard L. Gordon (Editor) | Editura: MIT PR | Anul aparitiei: 1987 | ISBN: 9780262571876 | Categorie: Science
Matt Ridley
The Agile Gene: How Nature Turns on Nurture
"Bracingly intelligent, lucid, balanced--witty, too. . . . A scrupulous and charming look at our modern understanding of genes and experience." -- Oliver Sacks Armed with extraordinary new discoveries about our genes, acclaimed science writer Matt Ridley turns his attention to the nature-versus-nurture debate in a thoughtful book about the roots of human behavior. Ridley recounts the hundred years' war between the partisans of nature and nurture to explain how this paradoxical creature, the human being, can be simultaneously free-willed and motivated by instinct and culture. With the decoding of the human genome, we now know that genes not only predetermine the broad structure of the brain, they also absorb formative experiences, react to social cues, and even run memory. They are consequences as well as causes of the will.
What We Believe But Cannot Prove: Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty
More than one hundred of the world's leading thinkers write about things they believe in, despite the absence of concrete proof Scientific theory, more often than not, is born of bold assumption, disparate bits of unconnected evidence, and educated leaps of faith. Some of the most potent beliefs among brilliant minds are based on supposition alone -- yet that is enough to push those minds toward making the theory viable. Eminent cultural impresario, editor, and publisher of Edge (www.edge.org), John Brockman asked a group of leading scientists and thinkers to answer the question: What do you believe to be true even though you cannot prove it? This book brings together the very best answers from the most distinguished contributors. Thought-provoking and hugely compelling, this collection of bite-size thought-experiments is a fascinating insight into the instinctive beliefs of some of the most brilliant minds today.
Janine M. Benyus
Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature
Repackaged with a new afterword, this "valuable and entertaining" ( New York Times Book Review ) book explores how scientists are adapting nature's best ideas to solve tough 21st century problems. Biomimicry is rapidly transforming life on earth. Biomimics study nature's most successful ideas over the past 3.5 million years, and adapt them for human use. The results are revolutionizing how materials are invented and how we compute, heal ourselves, repair the environment, and feed the world. Janine Benyus takes readers into the lab and in the field with maverick thinkers as they: discover miracle drugs by watching what chimps eat when they're sick; learn how to create by watching spiders weave fibers; harness energy by examining how a leaf converts sunlight into fuel in trillionths of a second; and many more examples. Composed of stories of vision and invention, personalities and pipe dreams, Biomimicry is must reading for anyone interested in the shape of our future.