In this unique illustrated book, PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, senior visiting scholars, and staff describe their personal experiences in working with the late Prof. Ahmed H. Zewail at Caltech. Their reminiscences provide snapshots of their rich interactions, reflecting the great scientific achievements, as well as the human and humorous sides of Ahmed H. Zewail. The contributors tell us their stories covering a period of forty years, beginning from the time of Zewail's arrival at Caltech in 1976. Some of them cover the time when Zewail was starting his pioneering work on femtochemistry at the end of 80's, while others relate events long after he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1999) and had embarked on a new career in ultrafast electron imaging. The aims and scope of this book is to provide both scientists and non-scientists descriptions of the experiences of scientists in the early or mature stages of their careers when interacting with one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century, from developing the field of femtochemistry to pioneering ultrafast electron diffraction and imaging technology. The personal dimension of Zewail's leadership is reflected in all the contributions, and highlighted by special tributes from two of his children. The scientific and anecdotal stories recounted in the book give a rare view of experiences in shaping science. The reader will get firsthand accounts of how a Nobel Prize winner interacted daily with his co-workers to develop the laser-based science and technology for which he was internationally recognized. The recounted experiences may serve as a basis for scientists developing their own research, tutoring students, and supervising postdoctoral researchers.

Epigenetics is defined as heritable changes that do not affect the DNA sequence but influence gene expression. Epigenetic changes occur at the levels of DNA, histone, protein, and chromatin structures. Proper epigenetic modifications are essential for cell differentiation and function during development, while some epigenetic modifications are passed on from parents to offspring through gametes. Therefore, alterations of epigenetic states would have serious consequences for human development and health. This realization and the advent of new technologies have encouraged the advance of epigenetic studies in recent years. Nonetheless, many aspects of epigenetics, such as regulatory mechanisms and evolutional advantages, remain to be better understood.Written by 26 scientists at the forefront of epigenetics research, this book discusses the different facets of epigenetics: from gametogenesis to child development, as well as from mechanistic studies in animal models to reviews of human clinical data.

For the past decade, new research fields utilizing microfluidics have been formed. General micro-integration methods were proposed, and the supporting fundamental technologies were widely developed. These methodologies have made various applications in the fields of analytical and chemical synthesis, and their superior performances such as rapid, simple, and high efficient processing have been proved. Recently, the space is further downscaling to 101–103nm scale (we call the space extended-nano space). The extended-nano space located between the conventional nanotechnology (100–101nm) and microtechnology (>1μm), and the research tools are not well established. In addition, the extended-nano space is a transient space from single molecules to bulk condensed phase, and fluidics and chemistry are not unknown. For these purposes, basic methodologies were developed, and new specific phenomena in fluidics and chemistry were found. These new phenomena were applied to unique chemical operations such as concentration and ion selection. The new research fields which are now being created are quite different from those in microspace. Unique devices are also increasingly being reported. In this book, we describe the fundamental technologies for extended-nano space and show the unique liquid properties found in this space and applications for single molecule or cell analysis.

From Black Holes and Big Bangs to the Higgs boson and the infinitesimal building blocks of all matter, modern science has been spectacularly successful, with one glaring exception - intelligence. Intelligence still remains as one of the greatest mysteries in science. How do you chat so effortlessly? How do you remember, and why do you forget? From a basis of ten maxims What Makes You Clever explains the difficulties as well as the persuasive and persistent over-estimations of progress in Artificial Intelligence. Computers have transformed our lives, and will continue to do so for many years to come. But ever since the Turing Test proposed in 1950 up to IBM's Deep Blue computer that won the second six-game match against world champion Garry Kasparov, the science of artificial intelligence has struggled to make progress. The reader's expertise is engaged to probe human language, machine learning, neural computing, holistic systems and emergent phenomenon. What Makes You Clever reveals the difficulties that scientists grapple with in their efforts to understand your cleverness, and points to possible ways forward

Are you a young person? Middle-aged? Old? It doesn't really matter. Each of us grows older every second. Most of us age without taking charge of our life course, without a plan for our ageing. This book offers some operating instructions for life, a guide to engaging passionately with age! Dealing with a plethora of subjects, such as health, happiness, loneliness, dementia, sex, gender, marriage, abuse, respect, wage, wealth, class, and care, the book touches on how ageing affects us as individuals and as a society. It explores a few of the mysteries and miracles of life, and some of its myths. It encourages us to cope creatively with the mundaneness of our continuing life. The author invites you to join her as she delves into these questions about life and ageing with curiosity and contemplation, and with a sense of awe and adventure.