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The Vlasov Equation 1: History and General Properties
by Pierre Bertrand Daniele Del Sarto Alain GhizzoThe Vlasov equation is the master equation which provides a statistical description for the collective behavior of large numbers of charged particles in mutual, long-range interaction. In other words, a low collision (or “Vlasov”) plasma. Plasma physics is itself a relatively young discipline, whose “birth” can be ascribed to the 1920s. The origin of the Vlasov model, however, is even more recent, dating back to the late 1940s. This “young age” is due to the rare occurrence of Vlasov plasma on Earth, despite the fact it characterizes most of the visible matter in the universe. This book – addressed to students, young researchers and to whoever wants a good understanding of Vlasov plasmas – discusses this model with a pedagogical presentation, focusing on the general properties and historical development of the applications of the Vlasov equation. The milestone developments discussed in the first two chapters serve as an introduction to more recent works (characterization of wave propagation and nonlinear properties of the electrostatic limit).
Vliesstoffe: Rohstoffe, Herstellung, Anwendung, Eigenschaften, Prüfung
by Hilmar Fuchs Wilhelm AlbrechtSeit der ersten Auflage dieses Referenzwerks gab es sowohl im Bereich der Herstellung als auch Anwendung von Vliesstoffen eine Reihe innovativer Neuerungen, und die weltweite Vliesstoffproduktion hat sich nahezu verdoppelt. Diesen Entwicklungen wird in der zweiten, komplett überarbeiteten Auflage Rechnung getragen und vermittelt allen Vliesstoff-Interessierten - vom Polymerchemiker bis zum Anwender - ein vertieftes Verständnis dieses dynamischen Gebiets. Neben neuen Herstellungsverfahren wie Meltblown, Nanoval, Airlaid, Elektrospinnen sowie Ultraschallverfestigung wurden auch die verschiedenen Verfahren zur Oberflächenmodifizierung, Konfektionierung und zum Recycling von Vliesstoffen mit aufgenommen. Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt liegt bei Vliesstoffen für technische Anwendungen wie Isolation, Schutztextilien und Filtern. Ein separater Abschnitt über Prüfverfahren für Rohstoffe, Zwischen- und Endprodukte erhöht den Wert als unentbehrliches Nachschlagewerk.
A Voice in the Wilderness: A Pioneering Biologist Explains How Evolution Can Help Us Solve Our Biggest Problems
by Professor Joseph L Graves Jr.Why understanding evolution—the most reviled branch of science—can help us all, from fighting pandemics to undoing racism Evolutionary science has long been regarded as conservative, a tool for enforcing regressive ideas, particularly about race and gender. But in A Voice in the Wilderness, evolutionary biologist Joseph L. Graves Jr.—once styled as the &“Black Darwin&”—argues that his field is essential to social justice. He shows, for example, why biological races do not exist. He dismantles recent work in &“human biodiversity&” seeking genes to explain the achievements of different ethnic groups. He decimates homophobia, sexism, and classism as well. As a pioneering Black biologist, a leftist, and a Christian, Graves uses his personal story—his journey from a child of Jim Crow to a major researcher and leader of his peers—to rewrite his field. A Voice in the Wilderness is a powerful work of scientific anti-racism and a moving account of a trailblazing life.
Voice Leading: The Science behind a Musical Art
by David HuronVoice leading is the musical art of combining sounds over time. In this book, David Huron offers an accessible account of the cognitive and perceptual foundations for this practice. Drawing on decades of scientific research, including his own award-winning work, Huron offers explanations for many practices and phenomena, including the perceptual dominance of the highest voice, chordal-tone doubling, direct octaves, embellishing tones, and the musical feeling of sounds "leading" somewhere. Huron shows how traditional rules of voice leading align almost perfectly with modern scientific accounts of auditory perception. He also reviews pertinent research establishing the role of learning and enculturation in auditory and musical perception.Voice leading has long been taught with reference to Baroque chorale-style part-writing, yet there exist many more musical styles and practices. The traditional emphasis on Baroque part-writing understandably leaves many musicians wondering why they are taught such an archaic and narrow practice in an age of stylistic diversity. Huron explains how and why Baroque voice leading continues to warrant its central pedagogical status. Expanding beyond choral-style writing, Huron shows how established perceptual principles can be used to compose, analyze, and critically understand any kind of acoustical texture from tune-and-accompaniment songs and symphonic orchestration to jazz combo arranging and abstract electroacoustic music. Finally, he offers a psychological explanation for why certain kinds of musical textures are more likely to be experienced by listeners as pleasing.
Voice Leading: The Science behind a Musical Art (The\mit Press Ser.)
by David HuronAn accessible scientific explanation for the traditional rules of voice leading, including an account of why listeners find some musical textures more pleasing than others.Voice leading is the musical art of combining sounds over time. In this book, David Huron offers an accessible account of the cognitive and perceptual foundations for this practice. Drawing on decades of scientific research, including his own award-winning work, Huron offers explanations for many practices and phenomena, including the perceptual dominance of the highest voice, chordal-tone doubling, direct octaves, embellishing tones, and the musical feeling of sounds “leading” somewhere. Huron shows how traditional rules of voice leading align almost perfectly with modern scientific accounts of auditory perception. He also reviews pertinent research establishing the role of learning and enculturation in auditory and musical perception.Voice leading has long been taught with reference to Baroque chorale-style part-writing, yet there exist many more musical styles and practices. The traditional emphasis on Baroque part-writing understandably leaves many musicians wondering why they are taught such an archaic and narrow practice in an age of stylistic diversity. Huron explains how and why Baroque voice leading continues to warrant its central pedagogical status. Expanding beyond choral-style writing, Huron shows how established perceptual principles can be used to compose, analyze, and critically understand any kind of acoustical texture from tune-and-accompaniment songs and symphonic orchestration to jazz combo arranging and abstract electroacoustic music. Finally, he offers a psychological explanation for why certain kinds of musical textures are more likely to be experienced by listeners as pleasing.
Voice Machines: The Castrato, the Cat Piano, and Other Strange Sounds
by Bonnie GordonAn exploration of the castrato as a critical provocation to explore the relationships between sound, music, voice instrument, and machine. Italian courts and churches began employing castrato singers in the late sixteenth century. By the eighteenth century, the singers occupied a celebrity status on the operatic stage. Constructed through surgical alteration and further modified by rigorous training, castrati inhabited human bodies that had been “mechanized” to produce sounds in ways that unmechanized bodies could not. The voices of these technologically enhanced singers, with their unique timbre, range, and strength, contributed to a dramatic expansion of musical vocabulary and prompted new ways of imagining sound, the body, and personhood. Connecting sometimes bizarre snippets of history, this multi-disciplinary book moves backward and forward in time, deliberately troubling the meaning of concepts like “technology” and “human.” Voice Machines attends to the ways that early modern encounters and inventions—including settler colonialism, emergent racialized worldviews, the printing press, gunpowder, and the telescope—participated in making castrati. In Bonnie Gordon’s revealing study, castrati serve as a critical provocation to ask questions about the voice, the limits of the body, and the stories historians tell.
Voice Male: The Untold Story of the Pro-Feminist Men's Movement
by Michael S. Kimmel Rob A. OkunVOICE MALE: The Untold Story of the Profeminist Men's Movement takes you inside one of the most important social justice movements you may never have heard of-the social transformation of masculinity. Although it's been underway since the late 1970s, it still largely remains under the radar of much of society. <P> Thematically arranged essays by leading experts and moving first-person stories illustrate how a growing movement of changing men has discovered in feminism the basis for redefining masculinity and creating healthier lives. <P> The longtime editor of Voice Male magazine, Rob Okun, introduces readers to men examining contemporary manhood from a variety of perspectives-from boys on the journey to manhood to men overcoming violence; from fatherhood and mentoring to navigating life as a man of color; as a gay man, and as a survivor. The voices of a chorus of women can also be heard in these pages. <P> Long recognized for articulating a hopeful vision of the future of men, Okun sensitively presents a vivid portrait sure to be accessible to a wide audience interested in what is happening with men. His many years as a gender justice activist have not just deepened his skill as a chronicler of the profeminist men's movement but also helped to strengthen his voice as a spokesperson articulating men's second act. Voice Male offers compelling evidence of a new direction for men and illuminates what's around the bend on the path to gender justice.
Voices Against War: A Century of Protest
by Lyn SmithBased on nearly 200 personal testimonies from the Imperial War Museum's Collections, this landmark book tells the stories of those of those who participated in anti-war protest from the First World War 1914-18 to the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.Voices Against War is a compelling, emotional and very moving human story, essential for understanding war in its entirety.
Voices from the Pandemic: Americans Tell Their Stories of Crisis, Courage and Resilience
by Eli SaslowFrom the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter, a powerful and cathartic portrait of a country grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic—from fear and overwhelm to extraordinary resilience—told through voices of people from all across AmericaThe Covid-19 pandemic was a world-shattering event, affecting everyone in the nation. From its first ominous stirrings, renowned journalist Eli Saslow began interviewing a cross-section of Americans, capturing their experiences in real time: An exhausted and anguished EMT risking his life in New York City; a grocery store owner feeding his neighborhood for free in locked-down New Orleans; an overwhelmed coroner in Georgia; a Maryland restaurateur forced to close his family business after forty-six years; an Arizona teacher wrestling with her fears and her obligations to her students; rural citizens adamant that the whole thing is a hoax, and retail workers attacked for asking people to wear masks; patients struggling to breathe and doctors desperately trying to save them.Through Saslow's masterful, empathetic interviewing, we are given a kaleidoscopic picture of a people dealing with the unimaginable. These deeply personal accounts make for cathartic reading, as we see Americans at their worst, and at their resilient best.
Voices in the Ocean
by Susan CaseyFrom Susan Casey, the New York Times bestselling author of The Devil's Teeth and The Wave, a breathtaking look into the mysterious world of dolphins and their conflicted history with man. Since the dawn of recorded history, humans have felt a kinship with the sleek and beautiful dolphin, an animal whose playfulness, sociability and intelligence seems like an aquatic mirror of mankind. In recent decades, scientists have discovered dolphins recognize themselves in reflections, count, feel despondent, adorn themselves, rescue each other (and humans), deduce, infer, form cliques, throw tantrums, gossip and scheme. Several native peoples trace their lineage to dolphins. They are the stars of multi-million dollar aquatic theme parks, money which has fueled a sinister illicit trade as shown in the documentary Blackfish. The U.S. Navy has a secret program using dolphins as undersea soldiers. The theory that they are a superior, extraterrestial species is popular among the new age fringe. They are the victims of brutal slaughters as depicted in the documentary The Cove. To swim with a dolphin is a transporting experience, an encounter with a being seemingly so like us, yet so alien. No writer is better positioned to portray these magical creatures than Susan Casey, whose combination of personal reporting, intense scientific research, and evocative prose made The Wave and The Devil's Teeth contemporary classics of writing on the oceans. For two years Casey traveled the world, and has written a thrilling book about the other intelligent life on the planet.
Voices in the Ocean
by Susan CaseyFrom Susan Casey, the New York Times bestselling author of The Wave and The Devil's Teeth, a breathtaking journey through the extraordinary world of dolphins Since the dawn of recorded history, humans have felt a kinship with the sleek and beautiful dolphin, an animal whose playfulness, sociability, and intelligence seem like an aquatic mirror of mankind. In recent decades, we have learned that dolphins recognize themselves in reflections, count, grieve, adorn themselves, feel despondent, rescue one another (and humans), deduce, infer, seduce, form cliques, throw tantrums, and call themselves by name. Scientists still don't completely understand their incredibly sophisticated navigation and communication abilities, or their immensely complicated brains. While swimming off the coast of Maui, Susan Casey was surrounded by a pod of spinner dolphins. It was a profoundly transporting experience, and it inspired her to embark on a two-year global adventure to explore the nature of these remarkable beings and their complex relationship to humanity. Casey examines the career of the controversial John Lilly, the pioneer of modern dolphin studies whose work eventually led him down some very strange paths. She visits a community in Hawaii whose adherents believe dolphins are the key to spiritual enlightenment, travels to Ireland, where a dolphin named as "the world's most loyal animal" has delighted tourists and locals for decades with his friendly antics, and consults with the world's leading marine researchers, whose sense of wonder inspired by the dolphins they study increases the more they discover. Yet there is a dark side to our relationship with dolphins. They are the stars of a global multibillion-dollar captivity industry, whose money has fueled a sinister and lucrative trade in which dolphins are captured violently, then shipped and kept in brutal conditions. Casey's investigation into this cruel underground takes her to the harrowing epicenter of the trade in the Solomon Islands, and to the Japanese town of Taiji, made famous by the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove, where she chronicles the annual slaughter and sale of dolphins in its narrow bay. Casey ends her narrative on the island of Crete, where millennia-old frescoes and artwork document the great Minoan civilization, a culture which lived in harmony with dolphins, and whose example shows the way to a more enlightened coexistence with the natural world. No writer is better positioned to portray these magical creatures than Susan Casey, whose combination of personal reporting, intense scientific research, and evocative prose made The Wave and The Devil's Teeth contemporary classics of writing about the sea. In Voices in the Ocean, she has written a thrilling book about the other intelligent life on the planet.From the Hardcover edition.
The Voices of Nature: How and Why Animals Communicate
by Nicolas MathevonSongs, barks, roars, hoots, squeals, and growls: exploring the mysteries of how animals communicate by soundWhat is the meaning of a bird’s song, a baboon’s bark, an owl’s hoot, or a dolphin’s clicks? In The Voices of Nature, Nicolas Mathevon explores the mysteries of animal sound. Putting readers in the middle of animal soundscapes that range from the steamy heat of the Amazon jungle to the icy terrain of the Arctic, Mathevon reveals the amazing variety of animal vocalizations. He describes how animals use sound to express emotion, to choose a mate, to trick others, to mark their territory, to call for help, and much more. What may seem like random chirps, squawks, and cries are actually signals that, like our human words, allow animals to carry on conversations with others.Mathevon explains how the science of bioacoustics works to decipher the ways animals make and hear sounds, what information is encoded in these sound signals, and what this information is used for in daily life. Drawing on these findings as well as observations in the wild, Mathevon describes, among many other things, how animals communicate with their offspring, how they exchange information despite ambient noise, how sound travels underwater, how birds and mammals learn to vocalize, and even how animals express emotion though sound. Finally, Mathevon asks if these vocalizations, complex and expressive as they are, amount to language.For readers who have wondered about the meaning behind a robin’s song or cicadas’ relentless “tchik-tchik-tchik,” this book offers a listening guide for the endlessly varied concert of nature.
Voices Of The Soviet Space Program
by Slava GerovitchIn this remarkable oral history, Slava Gerovitch presents interviews with the men and women who witnessed Soviet space efforts firsthand. Rather than comprising a "master narrative," these fascinating and varied accounts bring to light the often divergent perspectives, experiences, and institutional cultures that defined the Soviet space program.
Voices of the Wild
by Bernie KrauseWild Soundscapes is the first comprehensive guide to listening to--and recording--nature. Learn how to tune in to nature's biophonies, or creature symphonies; how to use simple microphones to hear more; and how to record, mix, and play with sounds you gather. Keep it simple or launch yourself into a new creative field. Whether you're an amateur naturalist, novice field recordist, musician, want to create your own natural sound library, or just want to gain further appreciate of the natural world, this is the book for you. Bernie Krause, a professional field recordist and bioacoustician, shares his expertise in exploring nature's sonic landscapes. Wild Soundscapes comes with a full-length CD, narrated by Krause, sampling a variety of natural sounds: the crashing sea, the singing of ants, the bugling of Yellowstone elk, the plop of falling Costa Rican crabs, and more. With the help of this CD, Krause demonstrates techniques and tricks for field recording success.
Voicetracks: Attuning to Voice in Media and the Arts (Leonardo)
by Norie NeumarkThe affects, aesthetics, and ethics of voice in the new materialist turn, explored through encounters with creative works in media and the arts.Moved by the Aboriginal understandings of songlines or dreaming tracks, Norie Neumark's Voicetracks seeks to deepen an understanding of voice through listening to a variety of voicing/sound/voice projects from Australia, Europe and the United States. Not content with the often dry tone of academic writing, the author engages a “wayfaring” process that brings together theories of sound, animal, and posthumanist studies in order to change the ways we think about and act with the assemblages of living creatures, things, places, and histories around us.Neumark evokes both the literal—the actual voices within the works she examines—and the metaphorical—in a new materialist exploration of voice encompassing human, animal, thing, and assemblages. She engages with artists working with animal sounds and voices; voices of place, placed voices in installation works; voices of technology; and “unvoicing,” disturbances in the image/voice relationship and in the idea of what voice is. She writes about remixes, the Barbie Liberation Organisation, and breath in Beijing, about cat videos, speaking fences in Australia, and an artist who reads (to) the birds. Finally, she considers ethics and politics, and describes how her own work has shaped her understandings and apprehensions of voice.
Voicing Code in STEM: A Dialogical Imagination
by Pratim Sengupta Amanda Dickes Amy Voss FarrisAn exploration of coding that investigates the interplay between computational abstractions and the fundamentally interpretive nature of human experience.The importance of coding in K-12 classrooms has been taken up by both scholars and educators. Voicing Code in STEM offers a new way to think about coding in the classroom--one that goes beyond device-level engagement to consider the interplay between computational abstractions and the fundamentally interpretive nature of human experience. Building on Mikhail Bakhtin's notions of heterogeneity and heteroglossia, the authors explain how STEM coding can be understood as voicing computational utterances, rather than a technocentric framing of building computational artifacts. Empirical chapters illustrate this theoretical stance by investigating different framings of coding as voicing.
Voicing Politics: How Language Shapes Public Opinion (Princeton Studies in Political Behavior #45)
by Efrén Pérez Margit TavitsWhy your political beliefs are influenced by the language you speakVoicing Politics brings together the latest findings from psychology and political science to reveal how the linguistic peculiarities of different languages can have meaningful consequences for political attitudes and beliefs around the world. Efrén Pérez and Margit Tavits demonstrate that different languages can make mental content more or less accessible and thereby shift political opinions and preferences in predictable directions. They rigorously test this hypothesis using carefully crafted experiments and rich cross-national survey data, showing how language shapes mass opinion in domains such as gender equality, LGBTQ rights, environmental conservation, ethnic relations, and candidate evaluations.Voicing Politics traces how these patterns emerge in polities spanning the globe, shedding essential light on how simple linguistic quirks can affect our political views. This incisive book calls on scholars of political behavior to take linguistic nuances more seriously and charts new directions for researchers across diverse fields. It explains how a stronger grasp of linguistic effects on political cognition can help us better understand how people form political attitudes and why political outcomes vary across nations and regions.
Void: The Strange Physics of Nothing (Foundational Questions in Science)
by James Owen WeatherallThe New York Times bestselling author of The Physics of Wall Street &“deftly explains all you wanted to know about nothingness—a.k.a. the quantum vacuum&” (Priyamvada Natarajan, author of Mapping the Heavens). James Owen Weatherall&’s bestselling book, The Physics of Wall Street, was named one of Physics Today&’s five most intriguing books of 2013. In this work, he takes on a fundamental concept of modern physics: nothing. The physics of stuff—protons, neutrons, electrons, and even quarks and gluons—is at least somewhat familiar to most of us. But what about the physics of nothing? Isaac Newton thought of empty space as nothingness extended in all directions, a kind of theater in which physics could unfold. But both quantum theory and relativity tell us that Newton&’s picture can&’t be right. Nothing, it turns out, is an awful lot like something, with a structure and properties every bit as complex and mysterious as matter. In his signature lively prose, Weatherall explores the very nature of empty space—and solidifies his reputation as a science writer to watch. Included on the 2017 Best Book List by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) &“An engaging and interesting account.&”—The Economist &“Readers get a dose of biography while following such figures as Einstein, Dirac, and Newton to see how top theories about the void have been discovered, developed, and debunked. Weatherall&’s clear language and skillful organization adroitly combines history and physics to show readers just how much &‘nothing really matters.&’&”—Publishers Weekly
VoIP and PBX Security and Forensics
by Iosif I. AndroulidakisThis book begins with an introduction to PBXs (Private Branch Exchanges) and the scene, statistics and involved actors. It discusses confidentiality, integrity and availability threats in PBXs. The author examines the threats and the technical background as well as security and forensics involving PBXs. The purpose of this book is to raise user awareness in regards to security and privacy threats present in PBXs, helping both users and administrators safeguard their systems. The new edition includes a major update and extension to the VoIP sections in addition to updates to forensics.
Volatile Methylsiloxanes in the Environment (The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry #89)
by Vera Homem Nuno RatolaComprising 12 chapters, this book focuses on volatile methylsiloxanes (VMSs), the shorter-chained organosiloxanes, and reviews the main areas and environmental compartments where they have been found and studied. It opens with a detailed description of the structural and functional properties, toxic risks and possible transformations of VMSs in the environment and their main uses in various activities and products, as well as the identification of the main sources of emission. Further chapters examine the analytical strategies and protocols that have been used to address the quantification of VMSs, including the issue of possible cross-contaminations. The book also discusses the presence of VMSs in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and in water bodies, their atmospheric fate and levels in biota, as well as occurrences of VMSs in remote areas of the world. It closes with a comprehensive conclusion and discussion on future directions for upcoming studies. This book is not intended as a finishing line, but rather as an important step towards improving our understanding of VMSs, to fuel new collaborations between research groups and/or with industry and lastly to convince more researchers to explore the mysteries of these ubiquitous, yet understudied, chemicals.
Volcano Cowboys: The Rocky Evolution of a Dangerous Science
by Dick ThompsonTwenty years ago, Mt. St. Helens, in Washington State, "blew. " It was the volcano's first eruption in recorded time, although as early as 1978 a team of scientists from the US Geological Survey had labeled it "the most dangerous volcano in the Cascade Range. " In June 1991, Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines spewed forth its own mix of ash, gases, mud, lava, and all the other debris that had been building within the mountain for centuries. Between those two events, USGS scientists had been working at warp speed to learn more about predicting violent eruptions. Data from the nation's only Volcano Center was not helpful. Work there centered on volcanoes that responded to interior pressure by quietly releasing a slow-moving flow of lava, rather than spewing its entrails out in a blast. Survey members were presented with a rare opportunity when Mt. St. Helens showed signs of activity. Camped on the mountains flanks, daring the crater itself, they dug out rocks, tended recorders, began to learn how to use newly developed instruments. Here was an active volcano, believed to be on the verge of eruption by some, if not all, experts. Along with new instruments they had computer programs that saved them days and weeks of work. They learned techniques that revealed the dates of previous major eruptions and provided patterns for future predictions. After the eruption, studying Mt. St. Helens and other volcanoes, they learned more and more. By the time a newly-active Pinatubo threatened tens of thousands of villagers and the U. S. military's Clark Air Force Base, the men of the USGS were far better able to feel secure in urging local authorities and the Air Force brass to evacuate. It was still a gamble, but the odds were far better. And the work goes on. Thompson, a veteran science reporter for Time Magazine, spent many hours with the relative handful of scientists whom he calls "volcano cowboys. " (Considering their lifestyle and their rugged "laboratories" - the volcanoes themselves - the sobriquet is earned. ) They have loaned him their field notes, and one geologist gave him his as yet unpublished autobiography. The vivid material and Thompson's skill in bringing a good story to life has resulted in a book that celebrates these "cowboys" their tough and hazardous lives and the often harrowing decisions they must make.
Volcanoes
by Nell Cross BeckermanThe team behind the acclaimed book Caves returns with an enticing exploration of one of the most explosive wonders on the planet--Volcanoes!A rumble. A tremble. A grumble. Growing, growling, getting hot. When will it...POP?!Using evocative storytelling, Nell Cross Beckerman leads children on an adventure through the radioactive wonders that are volcanoes. From deep down on the ocean floor to extraterrestrial volcanoes, Beckerman guides readers with dramatic, poetic language. Nonfiction text on every page allows for deeper understanding of the topic.Illustrator Kalen Chock's stunning illustrations have been praised as "atmospheric" and "striking," and readers will be delighted as each new page brings a new surprise. Extensive backmatter includes an author's note, additional information on the types of volcanic eruptions and the questions volcanologists are trying to answer, and additional facts. An ideal choice for nature lovers, future explorers, and fans of Jason Chin and Kate Messner.
Volcanoes (Worldlife Library)
by Peter ClarksonWhat are volcanoes? Where and why do they happen? The aim of this book is to answer these questions and to explain one of the great natural wonders of the Earth. Volcano! Just the mention of the word creates a mental picture, which varies with the listener's own perception. An artist may think of the classical shape of Mount Fuji; a historian may recall the destruction of Pompeii by Vesuvius; a geologist may speculate about the gas content of the lava in relation to its viscosity; a newspaper editor may see the scope for spectacular photographs and stories of human suffering and heroism that will boost newspaper circulation. Whatever thoughts spring to mind, nobody can be but impressed by the awful power of a volcanic eruption and the devastation that may be caused.