title: Coombs test

text: The indirect Coombs test, also referred to as the indirect antiglobulin test (IAT), is used to detect in-vitro antibody-antigen reactions. It is used to detect very low concentrations of antibodies present in a patient's plasma/serum prior to a blood transfusion. In antenatal care, the IAT is used to screen pregnant women for antibodies that may cause hemolytic disease of the newborn. The IAT can also be used for compatibility testing, antibody identification, RBC phenotyping, and titration studies.


title: Coombs test

text: The indirect Coombs test is used to screen for antibodies in the preparation of blood for blood transfusion. The donor's and recipient's blood must be ABO and Rh D compatible. Donor blood for transfusion is also screened for infections in separate processes.


title: Coombs test

text: A blood sample from the recipient and a blood sample from every unit of donor blood are screened for antibodies with the indirect Coombs test. Each sample is incubated against a wide range of RBCs that together exhibit a full range of surface antigens (i.e. blood types).


title: Coombs test

text: The indirect Coombs test is used to test a sample of the recipient's serum for antibodies against a sample of the blood donor's RBCs. This is sometimes called cross-matching blood.


title: Coombs test

text: The indirect Coombs test is used to screen pregnant women for IgG antibodies that are likely to pass through the placenta into the fetal blood and cause haemolytic disease of the newborn.


title: Coombs test

text: The IAT is a two-stage test. (A cross match is shown visually in the lower half of the schematic as an example of an indirect Coombs test).


title: Coombs test

text: Nonpatient, washed red blood cells (RBCs) with known antigens are incubated with patient serum containing unknown antibody content. If the serum contains antibodies to antigens on the RBC surface, the antibodies will bind to the surface of the RBCs.


title: Coombs test

text: The RBCs are washed three or four times with isotonic saline solution and then incubated with antihuman globulin. If antibodies have bound to RBC surface antigens in the first stage, RBCs will agglutinate when incubated with the antihuman globulin (also known Coombs reagent) in this stage, and the indirect Coombs test will be positive.


title: Coombs test

text: By diluting a serum containing antibodies the quantity of the antibody in the serum can be gauged. This is done by performing serial dilutions of the serum and finding the maximum dilution of test serum that is able to produce agglutination of relevant RBCs.


title: Coombs test

text: Coombs reagent (also known as Coombs antiglobulin or antihuman globulin) is used in both the direct Coombs test and the indirect Coombs test. Coombs reagent is antihuman globulin. It is made by injecting human globulin into animals, which produce polyclonal antibodies specific for human immunoglobulins and human complement system factors. More specific Coombs reagents or monoclonal antibodies can be used.


title: Coombs test

text: Both IgM and IgG antibodies bind strongly with their complementary antigens. IgG antibodies are most reactive at 37°C. IgM antibodies are easily detected in saline at room temperature as IgM antibodies are able to bridge between RBC's owing to their large size, efficiently creating what is seen as agglutination. IgG antibodies are smaller and require assistance to bridge well enough to form a visual agglutination reaction. Reagents used to enhance IgG detection are referred to as potentiators. RBCs have a net negative charge called zeta potential which causes them to have a natural repulsion for one another. Potentiators reduce the zeta potential of RBC membranes. Common potentiators include low ionic strength solution (LISS), albumin, polyethylene glycol (PEG), and proteolytic enzymes.


title: Coombs test

text: The Coombs test was first described in 1945 by Cambridge immunologists Robin Coombs (after whom it is named), Arthur Mourant and Rob Race. Historically, it was done in test tubes. Today, it is commonly done using automated Solid Phase or Gel technology.


title: Cod liver oil

text: Cod liver oil is a dietary supplement derived from liver of cod fish (Gadidae). As with most fish oils, it contains the omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and also vitamin A and vitamin D. Historically, it was given to children because vitamin D had been shown to prevent rickets, a consequence of vitamin D deficiency.


title: Cod liver oil

text: Cod liver oil has traditionally come in many grades. Cod liver oil for human consumption is pale and straw colored, with a mild flavor. Scandinavian Vikings produced cod liver oil by laying birch tree branches over a kettle of water, and fresh livers were laid over the branches. The water was brought to a boil and as the steam rose, the oil from the liver dripped into the water and was skimmed off. There was also a method for producing fresh raw cod liver oil.


title: Cod liver oil

text: In the Industrial Revolution, cod liver oil became popular for industrial purposes. Livers placed in barrels to rot, with the oil skimmed off over the season, was the main method for producing this oil. The resulting oil was brown and foul tasting. In the 1800s cod liver oil became popular as a medicine and both pale and brown oils were used. Brown oils were common because they were cheaper to produce. Some doctors believed in only using the fresh pale oil, while others believed the brown oil was better. The rancid brown oils tended to cause intestinal upset.


title: Cod liver oil

text: The Möller Process was invented by Peter Möller in 1850. The livers are ground with water into a slurry, then this is gently simmered until the oil rises to the top. The oil is skimmed off and purified. Other methods used in modern times include the Cold Flotation Process, pressure extraction, and pressure cooking. These all require further purification steps to get a pure oil.


title: Cod liver oil

text: Though similar in fatty acid composition to other fish oils, cod liver oil has higher concentrations of vitamins A and D. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, a tablespoon (13.6 grams or 14.8 mL) of cod liver oil contains 4,080 μg of retinol (vitamin A) and 34 μg (1360 IU) of vitamin D. The Dietary Reference Intake of vitamin A is 900 μg per day for adult men and 700 μg per day for women, while that for vitamin D is 15 μg per day. The Tolerable upper intake levels (ULs) are 3000 μg/day and 100 μg/day, respectively. People consuming cod liver oil as a source of omega-3 fatty acids should pay attention to how much vitamin A and vitamin D this adds to their diet.


title: Cod liver oil

text: Cod liver oil is approximately 20% omega-3 fatty acids. For this reason cod liver oil may be beneficial in secondary prophylaxis after a heart attack. Diets supplemented with cod liver oil have also been demonstrated to have beneficial effects on psoriasis and depression.


title: Cod liver oil

text: A tablespoon (13.6 g) of cod liver oil contains 136% of the UL for preformed vitamin A (retinol). Vitamin A accumulates in the liver, and can reach harmful levels sufficient to cause hypervitaminosis A. Pregnant women may want to consider consulting a doctor when taking cod liver oil because of the high amount of retinol.


title: Cod liver oil

text: Fatty acid oxidation and environmental toxins content are reduced when purification processes are applied to produce refined fish oil products.


title: Cod liver oil

text: In Newfoundland, cod liver oil was sometimes used as the liquid base for traditional red ochre paint, the coating of choice for use on outbuildings and work buildings associated with the cod fishery.


title: Cod liver oil

text: In Tübingen, Germany, drinking a glass of cod liver oil is the punishment for the loser at the traditional , a punting boat race by University of Tübingen groups.


title: Biosphere 2

text: Biosphere 2 is an American Earth system science research facility located in Oracle, Arizona. Its mission is to serve as a center for research, outreach, teaching, and lifelong learning about Earth, its living systems, and its place in the universe. It is a structure originally built to be an artificial, materially closed ecological system, or vivarium. It remains the largest closed ecological system ever created.


title: Biosphere 2

text: Constructed between 1987 and 1991, Biosphere 2 was originally meant to demonstrate the viability of closed ecological systems to support and maintain human life in outer space as a substitute for Earth's biosphere. It was designed to explore the web of interactions within life systems in a structure with different areas based on various biological biomes. In addition to the several biomes and living quarters for people, there was an agricultural area and work space to study the interactions between humans, farming, technology and the rest of nature as a new kind of laboratory for the study of the global ecology. Its mission was a two-year closure experiment with a crew of eight humans ("biospherians"). Long-term it was seen as a precursor to gaining knowledge about the use of closed biospheres in space colonization. As an experimental ecological facility it allowed the study and manipulation of a mini biospheric system without harming Earth's biosphere.


title: Biosphere 2

text: Its seven biome areas were a rainforest, an ocean with a coral reef, a mangrove wetlands, a savannah grassland, a fog desert, and two anthropogenic biomes: a agricultural system and a human habitat with living spaces, laboratories and workshops. Below ground was an extensive part of the technical infrastructure. Heating and cooling water circulated through independent piping systems and passive solar input through the glass space frame panels covering most of the facility, and electrical power was supplied into Biosphere 2 from an onsite natural gas energy center.


title: Biosphere 2

text: Biosphere 2 was only used twice for its original intended purposes as a closed-system experiment: once from 1991 to 1993, and the second time from March to September 1994. Both attempts ran into problems including low amounts of food and oxygen, die-offs of many animals and plants included in the experiment (though this was anticipated since the project used a strategy of deliberately "species-packing" anticipating losses as the biomes developed), group dynamic tensions among the resident crew, outside politics, and a power struggle over management and direction of the project. Nevertheless, the closure experiments set world records in closed ecological systems, agricultural production, health improvements with the high nutrient and low caloric diet the crew followed, and insights into the self-organization of complex biomic systems and atmospheric dynamics. The second closure experiment achieved total food sufficiency and did not require injection of oxygen.


title: Biosphere 2

text: In June 1994, during the middle of the second experiment, the managing company, Space Biosphere Ventures, was dissolved, and the facility was left in limbo. Columbia University assumed management of the facility in 1995 and used it to run experiments until 2003. It then appeared to be in danger of being demolished to make way for housing and retail stores, but was taken over for research by the University of Arizona in 2007. The University of Arizona took full ownership of the structure in 2011.


title: Biosphere 2

text: The Biosphere 2 project was launched in 1984 by businessman and billionaire philanthropist Ed Bass and systems ecologist John P. Allen, with Bass providing US$150 million in funding until 1991. Bass and Allen had met in the 1970s at the Synergia Ranch, a counterculture community led by Allen, who advocated Buckminster Fuller's "Spaceship Earth" concept and explored the idea of biospheres as a refuge from disasters such as nuclear war. Several other former members of Synergia Ranch also joined the Biosphere 2 project.


title: Biosphere 2

text: Construction was carried out between 1987 and 1991 by Space Biosphere Ventures, a joint venture whose principal officers were John P. Allen, inventor and executive chairman; Margaret Augustine, CEO; Marie Harding, vice-president of finance; Abigail Alling, vice president of research; Mark Nelson, director of space and environmental applications, William F. Dempster, director of system engineering, and Norberto Alvarez-Romo, vice president of mission control.


title: Biosphere 2

text: It was named "Biosphere 2" because it was meant to be the second fully self-sufficient biosphere, after the Earth itself ("Biosphere 1").


title: Biosphere 2

text: The glass and spaceframe facility is located in Oracle, Arizona at the base of the Santa Catalina Mountains, about 50 minutes north of Tucson. Its elevation is around above sea level.


title: Biosphere 2

text: The above-ground physical structure of Biosphere 2 was made of steel tubing and high-performance glass and steel frames. The frame and glazing materials were designed and made to specification by a firm run by a one-time associate of Buckminster Fuller, Peter Jon Pearce (Pearce Structures, Inc.). The window seals and structures had to be designed to be almost perfectly airtight, such that the air exchange would be extremely low, permitting tracking of subtle changes over time. The patented airtight sealing methods, developed by Pearce and William Dempster, achieved a leak rate of less than 10% per year. Without such tight closure, the slow decline of oxygen which occurred at a rate of less than % per month during the first two-year closure experiment might not have been detected.


title: Biosphere 2

text: During the day, the heat from the sun caused the air inside to expand and during the night it cooled and contracted. To avoid having to deal with the huge forces that maintaining a constant volume would create, the structure had large diaphragms kept in domes called "lungs" or variable volume structures.


title: Biosphere 2

text: Since opening a window was not an option, the structure also required a sophisticated system to regulate temperatures within desired parameters, which varied for the different biomic areas. Though cooling was the largest energy need, heating had to be supplied in the winter and closed loop pipes and air handlers were key parts of the energy system. An energy center on site provided electricity and heated and cooled water, employing natural gas and backup generators, ammonia chillers and water cooling towers.


title: Biosphere 2

text: The first closed mission lasted from September 26, 1991 to September 26, 1993. The crew were: medical doctor and researcher Roy Walford, Jane Poynter, Taber MacCallum, Mark Nelson, Sally Silverstone, Abigail Alling, Mark Van Thillo, and Linda Leigh.


title: Biosphere 2

text: The agricultural system produced 83% of the total diet, which included crops of bananas, papayas, sweet potatoes, beets, peanuts, lablab and cowpea beans, rice, and wheat. Especially during the first year, the eight inhabitants reported continual hunger. Calculations indicated that Biosphere 2's farm was amongst the highest producing in the world "exceeding by more than five times that of the most efficient agrarian communities of Indonesia, southern China, and Bangladesh."


title: Biosphere 2

text: They consumed the same low-calorie, nutrient-dense diet that Roy Walford had studied in his research on extending lifespan through diet. Medical markers indicated the health of the crew during the two years was excellent. They showed the same improvement in health indices such as lowering of blood cholesterol, blood pressure, enhancement of immune system. They lost an average of 16% of their pre-entry body weight before stabilizing and regaining some weight during their second year. Subsequent studies showed that the biospherians' metabolism became more efficient at extracting nutrients from their food as an adaptation to the low-calorie, high nutrient diet. "The overall health of the biospherians crews inside Biosphere 2 confirm that the original design of the Biosphere 2 technosphere systems did avoid a buildup of toxins, and the bioregenerative technologies and life systems inside Biosphere 2 maintained a healthy environment."


title: Biosphere 2

text: Some of the domestic animals that were included in the agricultural area during the first mission included: four African pygmy goats and one billy goat; 35 hens and three roosters (a mix of Indian jungle fowl ("Gallus gallus"), Japanese silky bantam, and a hybrid of these); two sows and one boar Ossabaw dwarf pigs; and tilapia fish grown in a rice and azolla pond system originating millennia ago in China.


title: Biosphere 2

text: A strategy of "species-packing" was practiced to ensure that food webs and ecological function could be maintained if some species did not survive. The fog desert area became more chaparral in character due to condensation from the space frame. The savannah was seasonally active; its biomass was cut and stored by the crew as part of their management of carbon dioxide. Rainforest pioneer species grew rapidly, but trees there and in the savannah suffered from etiolation and weakness caused by lack of stress wood, normally created in response to winds in natural conditions. Corals reproduced in the ocean area, and crew helped maintain ocean system health by hand-harvesting algae from the corals, manipulating calcium carbonate and pH levels to prevent the ocean becoming too acidic, and by installing an improved protein skimmer to supplement the algae turf scrubber system originally installed to remove excess nutrients. The mangrove area developed rapidly but with less understory than a typical wetland possibly because of reduced light levels. Nevertheless, it was judged to be a successful analogue to the Everglades area of Florida where the mangroves and marsh plants were collected.


title: Biosphere 2

text: Biosphere 2, because of its small size and buffers, and concentration of organic materials and life, had greater fluctuations and more rapid biogeochemical cycles than are found in Earth's biosphere. Most of the introduced vertebrate species and virtually all of the pollinating insects died, though there was reproduction of plants and animals. Insect pests, like cockroaches, flourished. Many insects had been included in original species mixes in the biomes but a globally invasive tramp ant species, "Paratrechina longicornis", unintentionally sealed in, had come to dominate other ant species. The planned ecological succession in the rainforest and strategies to protect the area from harsh incident sunlight and salt aerosols from the ocean worked well, and a surprising amount of the original biodiversity persisted. Biosphere 2 in its early ecological development was likened to an island ecology.


title: Biosphere 2

text: Much of the evidence for isolated human groups comes from psychological studies of scientists overwintering in Antarctic research stations. The study of this phenomenon is "confined environment psychology" ("cf." environmental psychology); according to Jane Poynter, it was known to be a challenge and crews often split into factions.


title: Biosphere 2

text: Before the first closure mission was half over, the group had split into two factions and, according to Poynter, people who had been intimate friends had become implacable enemies, barely on speaking terms. Others point out that the crew continued to work together as a team to achieve the experiment's goals, mindful that any action that harmed Biosphere 2 might imperil their own health. This is in contrast to other expeditions where internal frictions may have led to unconscious sabotage of each other and the overall mission. All of the crew felt a very strong and visceral bond with their living world. They kept air and water quality, atmospheric dynamics and health of the life systems constantly in their attention in a very visceral and profound way. This intimate "metabolic connection" enabled the crew to discern and respond to even subtle changes in the living systems. "Appreciation of the value of biosphere interconnectedness and interdependency was appreciated as both an everyday beauty and a challenging reality". Walford later acknowledged, "I don't like some of them, but we were a hell of a team. That was the nature of the factionalism... but despite that, we ran the damn thing and we cooperated totally".


title: Biosphere 2

text: The factions inside the bubble formed from a rift and power struggle between the joint venture partners on how the science should proceed, as biospherics or as specialist ecosystem studies (perceived as reductionist). The faction that included Poynter felt strongly that increasing research should be prioritized over degree of closure. The other faction backed project management and the overall mission objectives. On February 14, a portion of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) resigned. "Time" magazine wrote: "Now, the veneer of credibility, already bruised by allegations of tamper-prone data, secret food caches and smuggled supplies, has cracked ... the two-year experiment in self-sufficiency is starting to look less like science and more like a $150 million stunt". In fact, the SAC was dissolved because it had deviated from its mandate to review and improve scientific research and became involved in advocating management changes. A majority of the SAC members chose to remain as consultants to Biosphere 2. The SAC's recommendations in their report were implemented including a new Director of Research Jack Corliss, allowing import/export of scientific samples and equipment through the facility airlocks to increase research and decrease crew labor, and to generate a formal research program. Some sixty-four projects were included in the research program that Walford and Alling spearheaded developing.


title: Biosphere 2

text: Undoubtedly the reduced oxygen and the calorie-restricted, nutrient-dense diet contributed to low morale. The Alling faction feared that the Poynter group were prepared to go so far as to import food, if it meant making them fitter to carry out research projects. They considered that would be a project failure by definition.


title: Biosphere 2

text: In November 1992, the hungry Biospherians began eating seed stocks that had not been grown inside the Biosphere 2. Poynter made Chris Helms, PR Director for the enterprise, aware of this. She was promptly dismissed by Margret Augustine, CEO of Space Biospheres Ventures, and told to come out of the biosphere. This order was, however, never carried out. Poynter writes that she simply decided to stay put, correctly reasoning that the order could not be enforced without effectively terminating the closure.


title: Biosphere 2

text: Isolated groups tend to attach greater significance to group dynamic and personal emotional fluctuations common in all groups. Some reports from polar station crews exaggerated psychological problems. Although some of the first closure team thought they were depressed, psychological examination of the biospherians showed no depression and fit the explorer/adventurer profile, with both women and men scoring very similarly to astronauts. One of the psychologists noted, "If I was lost in the Amazon and was looking for a guide to get out, and to survive with, then the biospherian crew would be top choices."


title: Biosphere 2

text: Among the problems and miscalculations encountered in the first mission were unanticipated condensation making the "desert" too wet, population explosions of greenhouse ants and cockroaches, morning glories overgrowing the rainforest area, blocking out other plants and less sunlight (40–50% of outside light) entering the facility than originally anticipated. Biospherians intervened to control invasive plants when needed to preserve biodiversity, functioning as "keystone predators". In addition, construction itself was a challenge; for example, it was difficult to manipulate the bodies of water to have waves and tidal changes. Engineers came up with innovative solutions to supplement natural functions the Earth's biosphere normally performs, e.g. vacuum pumps to create gentle waves in the ocean without endangering marine biota, sophisticated heating and cooling systems. All the technology was selected to minimize outgassing and discharge of harmful substances which might damage Biosphere 2's life.


title: Biosphere 2

text: There was controversy when the public learned that the project had allowed an injured member to leave and return, carrying new material inside. The team claimed the only new supplies brought in were plastic bags, but others accused them of bringing food and other items. More criticism was raised when it was learned that, likewise, the project injected oxygen in January 1993 to make up for a failure in the balance of the system that resulted in the amount of oxygen steadily declining. Some thought that these criticisms ignored that Biosphere 2 was an experiment where the unexpected would occur, adding to knowledge of how complex ecologies develop and interact, not a demonstration where everything was known in advance. H.T. Odum noted: "The management process during 1992–1993 using data to develop theory, test it with simulation, and apply corrective actions was in the best scientific tradition. Yet some journalists crucified the management in the public press, treating the project as if it was an Olympic contest to see how much could be done without opening the doors".


title: Biosphere 2

text: The oxygen inside the facility, which began at 20.9%, fell at a steady pace and after 16 months was down to 14.5%. This is equivalent to the oxygen availability at an elevation of . Since some biospherians were starting to have symptoms like sleep apnea and fatigue, Walford and the medical team decided to boost oxygen with injections in January and August 1993. The oxygen decline and minimal response of the crew indicated that changes in air pressure are what trigger human adaptation responses. These studies enhanced the biomedical research program.


title: Biosphere 2

text: Managing levels was a particular challenge, and a source of controversy regarding the Biosphere 2 project's alleged misrepresentation to the public. Daily fluctuation of carbon dioxide dynamics was typically 600 ppm because of the strong drawdown during sunlight hours by plant photosynthesis, followed by a similar rise during the nighttime when system respiration dominated. As expected, there was also a strong seasonal signature to levels, with wintertime levels as high as 4,000–4,500 ppm and summertime levels near 1,000 ppm. The crew worked to manage the by occasionally turning on a scrubber, activating and de-activating the desert and savannah through control of irrigation water, cutting and storing biomass to sequester carbon, and utilizing all potential planting areas with fast-growing species to increase system photosynthesis. In November 1991, investigative reporting in "The Village Voice" alleged that the crew had secretly installed the scrubber device, and claimed that this violated Biosphere 2's advertised goal of recycling all materials naturally. Others pointed out there was nothing secret about the carbon dioxide device and it constituted another technical system augmenting ecological processes. The carbon precipitator could reverse the chemical reactions and thus release the stored carbon dioxide in later years when the facility might need additional carbon.


title: Biosphere 2

text: The soils were selected to have enough carbon to provide for the plants of the ecosystems to grow from infancy to maturity, a plant mass increase of perhaps . The release rate of that soil carbon as carbon dioxide by respiration of soil microbes was an unknown that the Biosphere 2 experiment was designed to reveal. Subsequent research showed that Biosphere 2's farm soils had reached a more stable ratio of carbon and nitrogen, lowering the rate of release, by 1998.


title: Biosphere 2

text: The respiration rate was faster than the photosynthesis (possibly in part due to relatively low light penetration through the glazed structure and the fact that Biosphere 2 started with a small but rapidly increasing plant biomass) resulting in a slow decrease of oxygen. A mystery accompanied the oxygen decline: the corresponding increase in carbon dioxide did not appear. This concealed the underlying process until an investigation by Jeff Severinghaus and Wallace Broecker of Columbia University's Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory using isotopic analysis showed that carbon dioxide was reacting with exposed concrete inside Biosphere 2 to form calcium carbonate in a process called carbonatation, thereby sequestering both carbon and oxygen.


title: Biosphere 2

text: After Biosphere 2's first mission, extensive research and system improvements were undertaken, including sealing concrete to prevent the uptake of carbon dioxide. The second mission began on March 6, 1994, with an announced run of ten months. The crew was Norberto Alvarez-Romo (Capt.), John Druitt, Matt Finn, Pascale Maslin, Charlotte Godfrey, Rodrigo Romo and Tilak Mahato. The second crew achieved complete sufficiency in food production.


title: Biosphere 2

text: On April 1, 1994, a severe dispute within the management team led to the ousting of the on-site management by federal marshals serving a restraining order, and financier Ed Bass hired Steve Bannon, then-manager of the Bannon & Co. investment banking team from Beverly Hills, California, to run Space Biospheres Ventures. The project was put into receivership and an outside management team was installed for the receiver to turn around the floundering project. The reason for the dispute was threefold. Mismanagement of the mission had caused terrible publicity, financial mismanagement and lack of research. People alleged gross financial mismanagement of the project, leading to a loss of $25 million in fiscal year 1992. Some crew members and staff were concerned about Bannon, who had previously investigated cost overruns at the site; two former Biosphere 2 crew members flew back to Arizona to protest the hire and broke into the compound to warn current crew members that Bannon and the new management would jeopardize their safety.


title: Biosphere 2

text: At 3 a.m. on April 5, 1994, Abigail Alling and Mark Van Thillo, members of the first crew, allegedly vandalized the project from outside, opening one double-airlock door and three single door emergency exits, leaving them open for about 15 minutes. Five panes of glass were also broken. Alling later told the Chicago Tribune that she "considered the Biosphere to be in an emergency state ... In no way was it sabotage. It was my responsibility." About 10% of the Biosphere's air was exchanged with the outside during this time, according to systems analyst Donella Meadows, who received a communication from Alling saying that she and Van Thillo judged it their ethical duty to give those inside the choice of continuing with the drastically changed human experiment or leaving, as they didn't know what the crew had been told of the new situation. "On April 1, 1994, at approximately 10 AM ... limousines arrived on the biosphere site ... with two investment bankers hired by Mr. Bass ... They arrived with a temporary restraining order to take over direct control of the project ... With them were 6-8 police officers hired by the Bass organization ... They immediately changed locks on the offices ... All communication systems were changed (telephone and access codes), and [we] were prevented from receiving any data regarding safety, operations, and research of Biosphere 2." Alling emphasized several times in her letter that the "bankers" who suddenly took over "knew nothing technically or scientifically, and little about the biospherian crew."


title: Biosphere 2

text: Four days later, the captain Norberto Alvarez-Romo (by then married to Biosphere 2 chief executive Margaret Augustine) precipitously left the Biosphere for a "family emergency" after his wife's suspension. He was replaced by Bernd Zabel, who had been nominated as captain of the first mission but who was replaced at the last minute. Two months later, Matt Smith replaced Matt Finn.


title: Biosphere 2

text: The ownership and management company Space Biospheres Ventures was dissolved on June 1, 1994. This left the scientific and business management of the mission to the interim turnaround team, who had been contracted by the financial partner, Decisions Investment Co.


title: Biosphere 2

text: Mission 2 was ended prematurely on September 6, 1994. No further total system science has emerged from Biosphere 2 as the facility was changed by Columbia University from a closed ecological system to a "flow-through" system where could be manipulated at desired levels.


title: Biosphere 2

text: Steve Bannon left Biosphere 2 after two years, but his departure was marked by an "abuse of process" civil lawsuit filed against Space Biosphere Ventures by the former crew members who had broken in. Leading managers of Biosphere 2 from the original founding group stated both abusive behaviour by Bannon and others, and that the bankers’ actual goal was to destroy the experiment. During a 1996 trial, Bannon testified that he had called one of the plaintiffs, Abigail Alling, a "self-centered, deluded young woman" and a "bimbo". He also testified that when the woman submitted a five-page complaint outlining safety problems at the site, he promised to shove the complaint "down her throat". Bannon attributed this to "hard feelings and broken dreams." At the end of the trial, the court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and ordered Space Biosphere Ventures to pay them $600,000, but also ordered the plaintiffs to pay the company $40,089 for the damage they had caused.


title: Biosphere 2

text: A special issue of the Ecological Engineering journal edited by Marino and Howard T. Odum was published in 1999 as "Biosphere 2: Research Past and Present" represents the most comprehensive assemblage of collected papers and findings from Biosphere 2. The papers range from calibrated models that describe the system metabolism, hydrologic balance, and heat and humidity, to papers that describe rainforest, mangrove, ocean, and agronomic system development in this carbon dioxide-rich environment. Though several dissertations and many scientific papers used data from the early closure experiments at Biosphere 2, much of the original data has never been analyzed and is unavailable or lost, perhaps due to scientific politics and in-fighting.


title: Biosphere 2

text: The historian of science Rebecca Redier has claimed that because Biosphere 2's creators were perceived as outsiders to academic science, the project was scrutinized but poorly understood in the media, and that this scrutiny ceased after Columbia University assumed management, because it was assumed they were "proper" scientists.


title: Biosphere 2

text: One view of Biosphere 2 was that it was "the most exciting scientific project to be undertaken in the United States since President John F. Kennedy launched us toward the moon". Others called it "New Age drivel masquerading as science". John Allen and Roy Walford did have mainstream credentials. John Allen held a degree in Metallurgical-Mining Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. Roy Walford received his doctorate of medicine from the University of Chicago and taught at UCLA as a Professor of Pathology for 35 years. Mark Nelson obtained his Ph.D. in 1998 under Professor H.T. Odum in ecological engineering further developing the constructed wetlands used to treat and recycle sewage in Biosphere 2, to coral reef protection along the Yucatán coast where the corals were collected. Linda Leigh obtained her PhD with a dissertation on biodiversity and the Biosphere 2 rainforest working with Odum. Abigail Alling, Mark van Thillo and Sally Silverstone helped start the Biosphere Foundation where they worked on coral reef and marine conservation and sustainable agricultural systems. Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum co-founded Paragon Space Development Corporation which has studied the first mini-closed system and the first full animal life cycle in space and assisted in setting world records in high altitude descents.


title: Biosphere 2

text: Questioning the credentials of the participants (despite the contribution in the preparation phase of Biosphere 2 of worldwide top-level scientists and among others the Russian Academy of Sciences), Marc Cooper wrote that "the group that built, conceived, and directs the Biosphere project is not a group of high-tech researchers on the cutting edge of science but a clique of recycled theater performers that evolved out of an authoritarian—and decidedly non-scientific—personality cult". He was referring to the Synergia Ranch in New Mexico, where indeed many of the Biospherians did practice theater under John Allen's leadership, and began to develop the ideas behind Biosphere 2. They also founded the Institute of Ecotechnics and began innovative field projects in challenging biomes to advance the healthy integration of human technologies and the environment where many of the biospherian candidates gained experience in operating real-time complex projects.


title: Biosphere 2

text: One of their own scientific consultants was earlier critical. Dr. Ghillean Prance, director of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, designed the rainforest biome inside the Biosphere. Although he later changed his opinion, acknowledging the unique scope of this experiment and contributed to its success as a consultant, in a 1983 interview (8 years before the start of the experiment), Prance said, "I was attracted to the Institute of Ecotechnics because funds for research were being cut and the institute seemed to have a lot of money which it was willing to spend freely. Along with others, I was ill-used. Their interest in science is not genuine. They seem to have some sort of secret agenda, they seem to be guided by some sort of religious or philosophical system." Prance went on in the 1991 newspaper interview to say "they are visionaries ... And maybe to fulfill their vision they have become somewhat cultlike. But they are not a cult, per se ... I am interested in ecological restoration systems. And I think all sorts of scientific things can come of this experiment, far beyond the space goal ... When they came to me with this new project, they seemed so well organized, so inspired, I simply decided to forget the past. You shouldn't hold their past against them."


title: Biosphere 2

text: Poynter in her memoir rebuts the critique that because some of the creative team of Biosphere 2 were not credentialed scientists, the results of the endeavor are invalid. "Some reporters hurled accusations that we were unscientific. Apparently because many of the SBV managers were not themselves degreed scientists, this called into question the entire validity of the project, even though some of the world’s best scientists were working vigorously on the project’s design and operation. The critique was not fair. Since leaving Biosphere 2, I have run a small business for ten years that sent experiments on the shuttle and to the space station, and is designing life support systems for the replacement shuttle and future moon base. I do not have a degree, not even an MBA from Harvard, as John [Allen] had. I hire scientists and top engineers. Our company’s credibility is not called into question because of my credentials: we are judged on the quality of our work". H.T. Odum noted that mavericks and outsiders have often contributed to the development of science: "The original management of Biosphere 2 was regarded by many scientists as untrained for lack of scientific degrees, even though they had engaged in a preparatory study program for a decade, interacting with the international community of scientists including the Russians involved with closed systems. The history of science has many examples where people of atypical background open science in new directions, in this case implementing mesocosm organization and ecological engineering with fresh hypotheses".


title: Biosphere 2

text: The Biosphere 2 Science Advisory Committee, chaired by Tom Lovejoy of the Smithsonian Institution, in its report of August 1992 reported: "The committee is in agreement that the conception and construction of Biosphere 2 were acts of vision and courage. The scale of Biosphere 2 is unique and Biosphere 2 is already providing unexpected scientific results not possible through other means (notably the documented, unexpected decline in atmospheric oxygen levels.) Biosphere 2 will make important scientific contributions in the fields of biogeochemical cycling, the ecology of closed ecological systems, and restoration ecology." Columbia University assembled outside scientists to evaluate the potential of the facility after they took over management, and concluded the following: "A group of world-class scientists got together and decided the Biosphere 2 facility is an exceptional laboratory for addressing critical questions relative to the future of Earth and its environment."


title: Biosphere 2

text: Ongoing research following the initial enclosure has produced positive results for current ecological understanding. Mark Nelson writes, "Several years of research on Biosphere 2's ocean demonstrated the devastating impacts from elevated atmospheric CO ... coral reef was studied at 200 ppm, 350 ppm, 700 ppm, and 1200 ppm of CO. Corals grew twice as fast at the lower levels ... compared to the 350 ppm levels in the 1990's Earth atmosphere. ... At 1200 ppm, coral growth declined 90 percent." Frank Press, a former secretary for the National Academy of Sciences, described the interaction as, "the first unequivocal experimental confirmation of the human impact on the planet."


title: Biosphere 2

text: In December 1995, the Biosphere 2 owners transferred management to Columbia University of New York City. Columbia ran Biosphere 2 as a research site and campus until 2003. Subsequently, management reverted to the owners.


title: Biosphere 2

text: In 1996, Columbia University changed the virtually airtight, materially closed structure designed for closed system research, to a "flow-through" system, and halted closed system research. They manipulated carbon dioxide levels for global warming research, and injected desired amounts of carbon dioxide, venting as needed. During Columbia's tenure, students from Columbia and other colleges and universities would often spend one semester at the site.


title: Biosphere 2

text: Research during Columbia's tenure demonstrated the devastating impacts on coral reefs from elevated atmospheric and acidification that will result from continued global climate change. Frank Press, former president of the National Academy of Sciences, described these interactions between atmosphere and ocean, taking advantage of the highly controllable ocean mesocosm of Biosphere 2, as the "first unequivocal experimental confirmation of the human impact on the planet".


title: Biosphere 2

text: Studies in Biosphere 2's terrestrial biomes showed that a saturation point was reached with elevated beyond which they are unable to uptake more. The studies' authors noted that the striking differences between the Biosphere 2 rainforest and desert biomes in their whole system responses "illustrates the importance of large-scale experimental research in the study of complex global change issues".


title: Biosphere 2

text: In January 2005, Decisions Investments Corporation, owner of Biosphere 2, announced that the project's campus was for sale. They preferred a research use to be found for the complex but were not excluding buyers with different intentions, such as big universities, churches, resorts, and spas. In June 2007, the site was sold for $50 million to CDO Ranching & Development, L.P. 1,500 houses and a resort hotel were planned, but the main structure was still to be available for research and educational use.


title: Biosphere 2

text: On June 26, 2007, the University of Arizona announced it would take over research at the Biosphere 2. The announcement ended fears that the structure would be demolished. University officials said private gifts and grants enabled them to cover research and operating costs for three years with the possibility of extending funding for ten years. It was extended for ten years, and is now engaged in research projects including research into the terrestrial water cycle and how it relates to ecology, atmospheric science, soil geochemistry, and climate change. In June 2011, the university announced that it would assume full ownership of Biosphere 2, effective July 1.


title: Biosphere 2

text: CDO Ranching & Development donated the land, Biosphere buildings and several other support and administrative buildings. In 2011, the Philecology Foundation (a nonprofit research foundation founded by Ed Bass) pledged US$20 million for the ongoing science and operations. In 2017, Ed Bass donated another $30 million to the University of Arizona in support of Biosphere 2, endowing two academic positions and setting up the "Philecology Biospheric Research Endowment Fund".


title: Biosphere 2

text: Science camps are also held on the premises. These have included a week-long 'space camp' for university undergraduates, and overnight camps for school students.


title: Biosphere 2

text: There are many small-scale research projects at Biosphere 2, as well as several large-scale research projects including:


title: Bismuth subsalicylate

text: Bismuth subsalicylate, sold generically as pink bismuth and under the brand names Pepto-Bismol and BisBacter, is an antacid medication used to treat temporary discomforts of the stomach and gastrointestinal tract, such as nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, and diarrhea.


title: Bismuth subsalicylate

text: Bismuth subsalicylate has the empirical chemical formula of CHBiO, and it is a colloidal substance obtained by hydrolysis of bismuth salicylate (Bi(CH(OH)CO)).


title: Bismuth subsalicylate

text: As a derivative of salicylic acid, bismuth subsalicylate displays anti-inflammatory and bactericidal action. It also acts as an antacid.


title: Bismuth subsalicylate

text: There are some adverse effects. It can cause a black tongue and black stools in some users of the drug when it combines with trace amounts of sulfur in saliva and the colon to form bismuth sulfide. Bismuth sulfide is a highly insoluble black salt, and the discoloration seen is temporary and harmless.


title: Bismuth subsalicylate

text: Long-term use (greater than six weeks) may lead to accumulation and toxicity. Some of the risks of salicylism can apply to the use of bismuth subsalicylate.


title: Bismuth subsalicylate

text: Children should not take medication with bismuth subsalicylate while recovering from influenza or chicken pox, as epidemiologic evidence points to an association between the use of salicylate-containing medications during certain viral infections and the onset of Reye syndrome. For the same reason, it is typically recommended that nursing mothers not use medication containing bismuth subsalicylate because small amounts of the medication are excreted in human breast milk, and these pose a theoretical risk of Reye's syndrome to nursing children.


title: Bismuth subsalicylate

text: Salicylates are very toxic to cats, and thus bismuth subsalicylate should not be administered to cats.


title: Bismuth subsalicylate

text: The British National Formulary does not recommend bismuth-containing antacids (unless chelated), cautioning that absorbed bismuth can be neurotoxic, causing encephalopathy, and that such antacids tend to be constipating.


title: Bismuth subsalicylate

text: There is an increased risk of bleeding when using bismuth subsalicylate and anticoagulation therapy, like Coumadin (Warfarin)


title: Bismuth subsalicylate

text: Bismuth subsalicylate is used as an antacid and antidiarrheal, and to treat some other gastrointestinal symptoms, such as nausea. The means by which this occurs is still not well documented. It is thought to be some combination of the following:


title: Bismuth subsalicylate

text: "In vitro" and "in vivo" data have shown that bismuth subsalicylate hydrolyzes in the gut to bismuth oxychloride and salicylic acid and less commonly bismuth hydroxide. In the stomach, this is likely an acid-catalyzed hydrolysis. The salicylic acid is absorbed and therapeutical concentrations of salicylic acid can be found in blood after bismuth subsalicylate administration. Bismuth oxychloride and bismuth hydroxide are both believed to have bactericidal effects, as is salicylic acid for enterotoxigenic "E. coli" a common cause of "traveler's diarrhea."


title: Bismuth subsalicylate

text: Organobismuth compounds have historically been used in growth media for selective isolation of microorganisms. Such salts have been shown to inhibit proliferation of "Helicobacter pylori", other enteric bacteria, and some fungi.


title: Bismuth subsalicylate

text: Despite its common usage and commercial significance, the exact structure of the pharmaceutical long remained undetermined, but was revealed, through the use of advanced electron crystallography techniques, to be a layered coordination polymer with the formula BiO(CHO). In the structure, both the carboxylate and phenol groups of the salicylate coordinate towards the bismuth cations. The determination of bismuth subsalicylate had long been hindered due to the small particle size as well as defects within the structure, arising from variations in the stacking arrangement of the bismuth subsalicylate layers, which could be observed as part of the structural investigation.


title: Bismuth subsalicylate

text: While bismuth salts were in use in Europe by the late 1700s, the combination of bismuth subsalicylate and zinc salts for astringency with salol (phenyl salicylate) appears to have begun in the US in the early 1900s as a remedy for life-threatening diarrhea in infants with cholera. At first sold directly to physicians, it was first marketed as "Bismosal" in 1918.


title: Bismuth subsalicylate

text: Pepto-Bismol began being sold in 1900 or 1901 by a doctor in New York. It was originally sold as a remedy for infant diarrhea by Norwich Pharmacal Company under the name "Bismosal: Mixture Cholera Infantum". It was renamed Pepto-Bismol in 1919. Norwich Eaton Pharmaceuticals was acquired by Procter and Gamble in 1982.


title: Bismuth subsalicylate

text: As of 1946 and 1959, Canadian advertisements placed by Norwich show the product as Pepto-Besmal both in graphic and text.


title: Bismuth subsalicylate

text: Pepto-Bismol is an over-the-counter drug currently produced by the Procter & Gamble company in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Pepto-Bismol is made in chewable tablets and swallowable caplets, but it is best known for its original formula, which is a thick liquid. This original formula is a medium pink in color, with a teaberry (methyl salicylate) flavor.


title: Bismuth subsalicylate

text: Generic bismuth subsalicylate, and other branded versions of the drug, are widely available in pill and liquid form.


title: Materials science

text: Materials science is an interdisciplinary field of researching and discovering materials. Materials engineering is an engineering field of designing and improving materials, and finding uses for materials in other fields and industries.


title: Materials science

text: The intellectual origins of materials science stem from the Age of Enlightenment, when researchers began to use analytical thinking from chemistry, physics, and engineering to understand ancient, phenomenological observations in metallurgy and mineralogy. Materials science still incorporates elements of physics, chemistry, and engineering. As such, the field was long considered by academic institutions as a sub-field of these related fields. Beginning in the 1940s, materials science began to be more widely recognized as a specific and distinct field of science and engineering, and major technical universities around the world created dedicated schools for its study.


title: Materials science

text: Materials scientists emphasize understanding how the history of a material ("processing") influences its structure, and thus the material's properties and performance. The understanding of processing-structure-properties relationships is called the materials paradigm. This paradigm is used to advance understanding in a variety of research areas, including nanotechnology, biomaterials, and metallurgy.


title: Materials science

text: Materials science is also an important part of forensic engineering and failure analysis investigating materials, products, structures or components, which fail or do not function as intended, causing personal injury or damage to property. Such investigations are key to understanding, for example, the causes of various aviation accidents and incidents.


title: Materials science

text: The material of choice of a given era is often a defining point. Phrases such as Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Steel Age are historic, if arbitrary examples. Originally deriving from the manufacture of ceramics and its putative derivative metallurgy, materials science is one of the oldest forms of engineering and applied science. Modern materials science evolved directly from metallurgy, which itself evolved from the use of fire. A major breakthrough in the understanding of materials occurred in the late 19th century, when the American scientist Josiah Willard Gibbs demonstrated that the thermodynamic properties related to atomic structure in various phases are related to the physical properties of a material. Important elements of modern materials science were products of the Space Race; the understanding and engineering of the metallic alloys, and silica and carbon materials, used in building space vehicles enabling the exploration of space. Materials science has driven, and been driven by, the development of revolutionary technologies such as rubbers, plastics, semiconductors, and biomaterials.


title: Materials science

text: Before the 1960s (and in some cases decades after), many eventual "materials science" departments were "metallurgy" or "ceramics engineering" departments, reflecting the 19th and early 20th century emphasis on metals and ceramics. The growth of materials science in the United States was catalyzed in part by the Advanced Research Projects Agency, which funded a series of university-hosted laboratories in the early 1960s, "to expand the national program of basic research and training in the materials sciences." In comparison with mechanical engineering, the nascent material science field focused on addressing materials from the macro-level and on the approach that materials are designed on the basis of knowledge of behavior at the microscopic level. Due to the expanded knowledge of the link between atomic and molecular processes as well as the overall properties of materials, the design of materials came to be based on specific desired properties. The materials science field has since broadened to include every class of materials, including ceramics, polymers, semiconductors, magnetic materials, biomaterials, and nanomaterials, generally classified into three distinct groups: ceramics, metals, and polymers. The prominent change in materials science during the recent decades is active usage of computer simulations to find new materials, predict properties and understand phenomena.


title: Materials science

text: A material is defined as a substance (most often a solid, but other condensed phases can be included) that is intended to be used for certain applications. There are a myriad of materials around us; they can be found in anything from buildings and cars to spacecraft. The main classes of materials are metals, semiconductors, ceramics and polymers. New and advanced materials that are being developed include nanomaterials, biomaterials, and energy materials to name a few.


title: Materials science

text: The basis of materials science is studying the interplay between the structure of materials, the processing methods to make that material, and the resulting material properties. The complex combination of these produce the performance of a material in a specific application. Many features across many length scales impact material performance, from the constituent chemical elements, its microstructure, and macroscopic features from processing. Together with the laws of thermodynamics and kinetics materials scientists aim to understand and improve materials.


title: Materials science

text: Structure is one of the most important components of the field of materials science. The very definition of the field holds that it is concerned with the investigation of "the relationships that exist between the structures and properties of materials". Materials science examines the structure of materials from the atomic scale, all the way up to the macro scale. Characterization is the way materials scientists examine the structure of a material. This involves methods such as diffraction with X-rays, electrons or neutrons, and various forms of spectroscopy and chemical analysis such as Raman spectroscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, chromatography, thermal analysis, electron microscope analysis, etc.


title: Materials science

text: Atomic structure deals with the atoms of the materials, and how they are arranged to give rise to molecules, crystals, etc. Much of the electrical, magnetic and chemical properties of materials arise from this level of structure. The length scales involved are in angstroms (Å). The chemical bonding and atomic arrangement (crystallography) are fundamental to studying the properties and behavior of any material.


title: Materials science

text: To obtain a full understanding of the material structure and how it relates to its properties, the materials scientist must study how the different atoms, ions and molecules are arranged and bonded to each other. This involves the study and use of quantum chemistry or quantum physics. Solid-state physics, solid-state chemistry and physical chemistry are also involved in the study of bonding and structure.


title: Materials science

text: Crystallography is the science that examines the arrangement of atoms in crystalline solids. Crystallography is a useful tool for materials scientists. In single crystals, the effects of the crystalline arrangement of atoms is often easy to see macroscopically, because the natural shapes of crystals reflect the atomic structure. Further, physical properties are often controlled by crystalline defects. The understanding of crystal structures is an important prerequisite for understanding crystallographic defects. Mostly, materials do not occur as a single crystal, but in polycrystalline form, as an aggregate of small crystals or grains with different orientations. Because of this, the powder diffraction method, which uses diffraction patterns of polycrystalline samples with a large number of crystals, plays an important role in structural determination. Most materials have a crystalline structure, but some important materials do not exhibit regular crystal structure. Polymers display varying degrees of crystallinity, and many are completely non-crystalline. Glass, some ceramics, and many natural materials are amorphous, not possessing any long-range order in their atomic arrangements. The study of polymers combines elements of chemical and statistical thermodynamics to give thermodynamic and mechanical descriptions of physical properties.


title: Materials science

text: Materials, which atoms and molecules form constituents in the nanoscale (i.e., they form nanostructure) are called nanomaterials. Nanomaterials are subject of intense research in the materials science community due to the unique properties that they exhibit.


title: Materials science

text: Nanostructure deals with objects and structures that are in the 1 - 100 nm range. In many materials, atoms or molecules agglomerate together to form objects at the nanoscale. This causes many interesting electrical, magnetic, optical, and mechanical properties.


title: Materials science

text: In describing nanostructures, it is necessary to differentiate between the number of dimensions on the nanoscale.


title: Materials science

text: Nanotextured surfaces have "one dimension" on the nanoscale, i.e., only the thickness of the surface of an object is between 0.1 and 100 nm.


title: Materials science

text: Nanotubes have "two dimensions" on the nanoscale, i.e., the diameter of the tube is between 0.1 and 100 nm; its length could be much greater.


title: Materials science

text: Finally, spherical nanoparticles have "three dimensions" on the nanoscale, i.e., the particle is between 0.1 and 100 nm in each spatial dimension. The terms nanoparticles and ultrafine particles (UFP) often are used synonymously although UFP can reach into the micrometre range. The term 'nanostructure' is often used, when referring to magnetic technology. Nanoscale structure in biology is often called ultrastructure.


title: Materials science

text: Microstructure is defined as the structure of a prepared surface or thin foil of material as revealed by a microscope above 25× magnification. It deals with objects from 100 nm to a few cm. The microstructure of a material (which can be broadly classified into metallic, polymeric, ceramic and composite) can strongly influence physical properties such as strength, toughness, ductility, hardness, corrosion resistance, high/low temperature behavior, wear resistance, and so on. Most of the traditional materials (such as metals and ceramics) are microstructured.


title: Materials science

text: The manufacture of a perfect crystal of a material is physically impossible. For example, any crystalline material will contain defects such as precipitates, grain boundaries (Hall–Petch relationship), vacancies, interstitial atoms or substitutional atoms. The microstructure of materials reveals these larger defects and advances in simulation have allowed an increased understanding of how defects can be used to enhance material properties.


title: Materials science

text: Macrostructure is the appearance of a material in the scale millimeters to meters, it is the structure of the material as seen with the naked eye.


title: Materials science

text: Synthesis and processing involves the creation of a material with the desired micro-nanostructure. From an engineering standpoint, a material cannot be used in industry, if no economical production method for it has been developed. Thus, the processing of materials is vital to the field of materials science. Different materials require different processing or synthesis methods. For example, the processing of metals has historically been very important and is studied under the branch of materials science named "physical metallurgy". Also, chemical and physical methods are also used to synthesize other materials such as polymers, ceramics, thin films, etc. As of the early 21st century, new methods are being developed to synthesize nanomaterials such as graphene.


title: Materials science

text: Thermodynamics is concerned with heat and temperature and their relation to energy and work. It defines macroscopic variables, such as internal energy, entropy, and pressure, that partly describe a body of matter or radiation. It states that the behavior of those variables is subject to general constraints common to all materials. These general constraints are expressed in the four laws of thermodynamics. Thermodynamics describes the bulk behavior of the body, not the microscopic behaviors of the very large numbers of its microscopic constituents, such as molecules. The behavior of these microscopic particles is described by, and the laws of thermodynamics are derived from, statistical mechanics.


title: Materials science

text: The study of thermodynamics is fundamental to materials science. It forms the foundation to treat general phenomena in materials science and engineering, including chemical reactions, magnetism, polarizability, and elasticity. It also helps in the understanding of phase diagrams and phase equilibrium.


title: Materials science

text: Chemical kinetics is the study of the rates at which systems that are out of equilibrium change under the influence of various forces. When applied to materials science, it deals with how a material changes with time (moves from non-equilibrium to equilibrium state) due to application of a certain field. It details the rate of various processes evolving in materials including shape, size, composition and structure. Diffusion is important in the study of kinetics as this is the most common mechanism by which materials undergo change. Kinetics is essential in processing of materials because, among other things, it details how the microstructure changes with application of heat.


title: Materials science

text: Materials science is a highly active area of research. Together with materials science departments, physics, chemistry, and many engineering departments are involved in materials research. Materials research covers a broad range of topics; the following non-exhaustive list highlights a few important research areas.


title: Materials science

text: Nanomaterials describe, in principle, materials of which a single unit is sized (in at least one dimension) between 1 and 1000 nanometers (10 meter), but is usually 1 nm - 100 nm. Nanomaterials research takes a materials science based approach to nanotechnology, using advances in materials metrology and synthesis, which have been developed in support of microfabrication research. Materials with structure at the nanoscale often have unique optical, electronic, or mechanical properties. The field of nanomaterials is loosely organized, like the traditional field of chemistry, into organic (carbon-based) nanomaterials, such as fullerenes, and inorganic nanomaterials based on other elements, such as silicon. Examples of nanomaterials include fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, nanocrystals, etc.


title: Materials science

text: A biomaterial is any matter, surface, or construct that interacts with biological systems. The study of biomaterials is called "bio materials science". It has experienced steady and strong growth over its history, with many companies investing large amounts of money into developing new products. Biomaterials science encompasses elements of medicine, biology, chemistry, tissue engineering, and materials science.


title: Materials science

text: Biomaterials can be derived either from nature or synthesized in a laboratory using a variety of chemical approaches using metallic components, polymers, bioceramics, or composite materials. They are often intended or adapted for medical applications, such as biomedical devices which perform, augment, or replace a natural function. Such functions may be benign, like being used for a heart valve, or may be bioactive with a more interactive functionality such as hydroxylapatite-coated hip implants. Biomaterials are also used every day in dental applications, surgery, and drug delivery. For example, a construct with impregnated pharmaceutical products can be placed into the body, which permits the prolonged release of a drug over an extended period of time. A biomaterial may also be an autograft, allograft or xenograft used as an organ transplant material.


title: Materials science

text: Semiconductors, metals, and ceramics are used today to form highly complex systems, such as integrated electronic circuits, optoelectronic devices, and magnetic and optical mass storage media. These materials form the basis of our modern computing world, and hence research into these materials is of vital importance.


title: Materials science

text: Semiconductors are a traditional example of these types of materials. They are materials that have properties that are intermediate between conductors and insulators. Their electrical conductivities are very sensitive to the concentration of impurities, which allows the use of doping to achieve desirable electronic properties. Hence, semiconductors form the basis of the traditional computer.


title: Materials science

text: This field also includes new areas of research such as superconducting materials, spintronics, metamaterials, etc. The study of these materials involves knowledge of materials science and solid-state physics or condensed matter physics.


title: Materials science

text: With continuing increases in computing power, simulating the behavior of materials has become possible. This enables materials scientists to understand behavior and mechanisms, design new materials, and explain properties formerly poorly understood. Efforts surrounding integrated computational materials engineering are now focusing on combining computational methods with experiments to drastically reduce the time and effort to optimize materials properties for a given application. This involves simulating materials at all length scales, using methods such as density functional theory, molecular dynamics, Monte Carlo, dislocation dynamics, phase field, finite element, and many more.


title: Materials science

text: Radical materials advances can drive the creation of new products or even new industries, but stable industries also employ materials scientists to make incremental improvements and troubleshoot issues with currently used materials. Industrial applications of materials science include materials design, cost-benefit tradeoffs in industrial production of materials, processing methods (casting, rolling, welding, ion implantation, crystal growth, thin-film deposition, sintering, glassblowing, etc.), and analytic methods (characterization methods such as electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, calorimetry, nuclear microscopy (HEFIB), Rutherford backscattering, neutron diffraction, small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), etc.).


title: Materials science

text: Besides material characterization, the material scientist or engineer also deals with extracting materials and converting them into useful forms. Thus ingot casting, foundry methods, blast furnace extraction, and electrolytic extraction are all part of the required knowledge of a materials engineer. Often the presence, absence, or variation of minute quantities of secondary elements and compounds in a bulk material will greatly affect the final properties of the materials produced. For example, steels are classified based on 1/10 and 1/100 weight percentages of the carbon and other alloying elements they contain. Thus, the extracting and purifying methods used to extract iron in a blast furnace can affect the quality of steel that is produced.


title: Materials science

text: Solid materials are generally grouped into three basic classifications: ceramics, metals, and polymers. This broad classification is based on the empirical makeup and atomic structure of the solid materials, and most solids fall into one of these broad categories. An item that is often made from each of these materials types is the beverage container. The material types used for beverage containers accordingly provide different advantages and disadvantages, depending on the material used. Ceramic (glass) containers are optically transparent, impervious to the passage of carbon dioxide, relatively inexpensive, and are easily recycled, but are also heavy and fracture easily. Metal (aluminum alloy) is relatively strong, is a good barrier to the diffusion of carbon dioxide, and is easily recycled. However, the cans are opaque, expensive to produce, and ae easily dented and punctured. Polymers (polyethylene plastic) are relatively strong, van be optically transparent, are inexpensive and lightweight, and can be recyclable, but are not as impervious to the passage of carbon dioxide as aluminum and glass.


title: Materials science

text: Another application of materials science is the study of ceramics and glasses, typically the most brittle materials with industrial relevance. Many ceramics and glasses exhibit covalent or ionic-covalent bonding with SiO (silica) as a fundamental building block. Ceramics - not to be confused with raw, unfired clay - are usually seen in crystalline form. The vast majority of commercial glasses contain a metal oxide fused with silica. At the high temperatures used to prepare glass, the material is a viscous liquid which solidifies into a disordered state upon cooling. Windowpanes and eyeglasses are important examples. Fibers of glass are also used for long-range telecommunication and optical transmission. Scratch resistant Corning Gorilla Glass is a well-known example of the application of materials science to drastically improve the properties of common components.


title: Materials science

text: Engineering ceramics are known for their stiffness and stability under high temperatures, compression and electrical stress. Alumina, silicon carbide, and tungsten carbide are made from a fine powder of their constituents in a process of sintering with a binder. Hot pressing provides higher density material. Chemical vapor deposition can place a film of a ceramic on another material. Cermets are ceramic particles containing some metals. The wear resistance of tools is derived from cemented carbides with the metal phase of cobalt and nickel typically added to modify properties.


title: Materials science

text: Another application of materials science in industry is making composite materials. These are structured materials composed of two or more macroscopic phases.


title: Materials science

text: Applications range from structural elements such as steel-reinforced concrete, to the thermal insulating tiles, which play a key and integral role in NASA's Space Shuttle thermal protection system, which is used to protect the surface of the shuttle from the heat of re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. One example is reinforced Carbon-Carbon (RCC), the light gray material, which withstands re-entry temperatures up to and protects the Space Shuttle's wing leading edges and nose cap. RCC is a laminated composite material made from graphite rayon cloth and impregnated with a phenolic resin. After curing at high temperature in an autoclave, the laminate is pyrolized to convert the resin to carbon, impregnated with furfural alcohol in a vacuum chamber, and cured-pyrolized to convert the furfural alcohol to carbon. To provide oxidation resistance for reuse ability, the outer layers of the RCC are converted to silicon carbide.


title: Materials science

text: Other examples can be seen in the "plastic" casings of television sets, cell-phones and so on. These plastic casings are usually a composite material made up of a thermoplastic matrix such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) in which calcium carbonate chalk, talc, glass fibers or carbon fibers have been added for added strength, bulk, or electrostatic dispersion. These additions may be termed reinforcing fibers, or dispersants, depending on their purpose.


title: Materials science

text: Polymers are chemical compounds made up of a large number of identical components linked together like chains. They are an important part of materials science. Polymers are the raw materials (the resins) used to make what are commonly called plastics and rubber. Plastics and rubber are really the final product, created after one or more polymers or additives have been added to a resin during processing, which is then shaped into a final form. Plastics which have been around, and which are in current widespread use, include polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polystyrene, nylons, polyesters, acrylics, polyurethanes, and polycarbonates and also rubbers, which have been around are natural rubber, styrene-butadiene rubber, chloroprene, and butadiene rubber. Plastics are generally classified as "commodity", "specialty" and "engineering" plastics.


title: Materials science

text: Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is widely used, inexpensive, and annual production quantities are large. It lends itself to a vast array of applications, from artificial leather to electrical insulation and cabling, packaging, and containers. Its fabrication and processing are simple and well-established. The versatility of PVC is due to the wide range of plasticisers and other additives that it accepts. The term "additives" in polymer science refers to the chemicals and compounds added to the polymer base to modify its material properties.


title: Materials science

text: Polycarbonate would be normally considered an engineering plastic (other examples include PEEK, ABS). Such plastics are valued for their superior strengths and other special material properties. They are usually not used for disposable applications, unlike commodity plastics.


title: Materials science

text: Specialty plastics are materials with unique characteristics, such as ultra-high strength, electrical conductivity, electro-fluorescence, high thermal stability, etc.


title: Materials science

text: The dividing lines between the various types of plastics is not based on material but rather on their properties and applications. For example, polyethylene (PE) is a cheap, low friction polymer commonly used to make disposable bags for shopping and trash, and is considered a commodity plastic, whereas medium-density polyethylene (MDPE) is used for underground gas and water pipes, and another variety called ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) is an engineering plastic which is used extensively as the glide rails for industrial equipment and the low-friction socket in implanted hip joints.


title: Materials science

text: The study of metal alloys is a significant part of materials science. Of all the metallic alloys in use today, the alloys of iron (steel, stainless steel, cast iron, tool steel, alloy steels) make up the largest proportion both by quantity and commercial value.


title: Materials science

text: Iron alloyed with various proportions of carbon gives low, mid and high carbon steels. An iron-carbon alloy is only considered steel, if the carbon level is between 0.01% and 2.00%. For the steels, the hardness and tensile strength of the steel is related to the amount of carbon present, with increasing carbon levels also leading to lower ductility and toughness. Heat treatment processes such as quenching and tempering can significantly change these properties, however. Cast Iron is defined as an iron–carbon alloy with more than 2.00%, but less than 6.67% carbon. Stainless steel is defined as a regular steel alloy with greater than 10% by weight alloying content of Chromium. Nickel and Molybdenum are typically also found in stainless steels.


title: Materials science

text: Other significant metallic alloys are those of aluminium, titanium, copper and magnesium. Copper alloys have been known for a long time (since the Bronze Age), while the alloys of the other three metals have been relatively recently developed. Due to the chemical reactivity of these metals, the electrolytic extraction processes required were only developed relatively recently. The alloys of aluminium, titanium and magnesium are also known and valued for their high strength to weight ratios and, in the case of magnesium, their ability to provide electromagnetic shielding. These materials are ideal for situations, where high strength to weight ratios are more important than bulk cost, such as in the aerospace industry and certain automotive engineering applications.


title: Materials science

text: The study of semiconductors is a significant part of materials science. A semiconductor is a material that has a resistivity between a metal and insulator. Its electronic properties can be greatly altered through intentionally introducing impurities or doping. From these semiconductor materials, things such as diodes, transistors, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and analog and digital electric circuits can be built, making them materials of interest in industry. Semiconductor devices have replaced thermionic devices (vacuum tubes) in most applications. Semiconductor devices are manufactured both as single discrete devices and as integrated circuits (ICs), which consist of a number—from a few to millions—of devices manufactured and interconnected on a single semiconductor substrate.


title: Materials science

text: Of all the semiconductors in use today, silicon makes up the largest portion both by quantity and commercial value. Monocrystalline silicon is used to produce wafers used in the semiconductor and electronics industry. Second to silicon, gallium arsenide (GaAs) is the second most popular semiconductor used. Due to its higher electron mobility and saturation velocity compared to silicon, it is a material of choice for high-speed electronics applications. These superior properties are compelling reasons to use GaAs circuitry in mobile phones, satellite communications, microwave point-to-point links and higher frequency radar systems. Other semiconductor materials include germanium, silicon carbide, and gallium nitride and have various applications.


title: Materials science

text: Materials science evolved, starting from the 1950s because it was recognized that to create, discover and design new materials, one had to approach it in a unified manner. Thus, materials science and engineering emerged in many ways: renaming and/or combining existing metallurgy and ceramics engineering departments; splitting from existing solid state physics research (itself growing into condensed matter physics); pulling in relatively new polymer engineering and polymer science; recombining from the previous, as well as chemistry, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, and electrical engineering; and more.


title: Materials science

text: The field of materials science and engineering is important both from a scientific perspective, as well as for applications field. Materials are of the utmost importance for engineers (or other applied fields) because usage of the appropriate materials is crucial when designing systems. As a result, materials science is an increasingly important part of an engineer's education.


title: Materials science

text: Materials physics is the use of physics to describe the physical properties of materials. It is a synthesis of physical sciences such as chemistry, solid mechanics, solid state physics, and materials science. Materials physics is considered a subset of condensed matter physics and applies fundamental condensed matter concepts to complex multiphase media, including materials of technological interest. Current fields that materials physicists work in include electronic, optical, and magnetic materials, novel materials and structures, quantum phenomena in materials, nonequilibrium physics, and soft condensed matter physics. New experimental and computational tools are constantly improving how materials systems are modeled and studied and are also fields when materials physicists work in.


title: Materials science

text: The field is inherently interdisciplinary, and the materials scientists or engineers must be aware and make use of the methods of the physicist, chemist and engineer. Conversely, fields such as life sciences and archaeology can inspire the development of new materials and processes, in bioinspired and paleoinspired approaches. Thus, there remain close relationships with these fields. Conversely, many physicists, chemists and engineers find themselves working in materials science due to the significant overlaps between the fields.


title: Materials science

text: The main branches of materials science stem from the four main classes of materials: ceramics, metals, polymers and composites.


title: Andrew Whitworth

text: Andrew James Whitworth (born December 12, 1981) is a former American football tackle who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons. He played college football at LSU, where he twice received first-team All-SEC honors, and was selected by the Cincinnati Bengals in the second round of the 2006 NFL Draft. During his 11 seasons with the Bengals, Whitworth was named to three Pro Bowls and one first-team All-Pro. Whitworth spent his last five seasons with the Los Angeles Rams, where he extended his Pro Bowl selections to four and his first-team All-Pro honors to two. He was also a member of the team that won a Super Bowl title in Super Bowl LVI, his final NFL game. Noted for the longevity of his career, he retired as the oldest tackle in NFL history and was the oldest offensive lineman to win a Super Bowl.


title: Andrew Whitworth

text: A native of Monroe, Louisiana, Whitworth attended West Monroe High School in West Monroe, Louisiana, where he played high school football for the Rebels under coach Don Shows and graduated in 2001. He was a part of three Louisiana Class 5A State Championship teams in 1997, 1998, and 2000 when the school was listed by the National High School Football Tony Poll as national champions for the last two. He was also part of four straight district championship teams in one of the toughest districts in the state. Whitworth was rated by CNNSI.com as the sixth-best offensive line prospect in the nation. He was a tennis champion in Louisiana, and was also an excellent golfer. He participated in the first-ever U.S. Army All-American Bowl game on December 30, 2000, along with other future LSU players Marcus Spears, Marquise Hill, and Ben Wilkerson.


title: Andrew Whitworth

text: Whitworth attended LSU from 2001 to 2005. Whitworth did not play in the 2001 season as he was redshirted. In 2002, he started as a redshirt freshman every game, and was recognized as a first-team Freshman All-American by "The Sporting News" and Football Writers Association. As a sophomore in 2003, he started in all fourteen games. The team went 13–1 en route to a BCS national title with a Sugar Bowl defeat of Oklahoma. He led the team with 1,008 snaps and credited with 105 key blocks, including 82 knockdowns. In 2004, Whitworth led the team with 799 snaps from scrimmage as the Tigers went 9–3 with a Citrus Bowl berth against Iowa. His play was key for an offense that scored 39 TDs and averaged 395.6 yards per game. He was credited with 96 key blocks, including 66 knockdowns, and played every offensive snap during a four-game stretch against Georgia, Florida, Troy, and Vanderbilt. Helping LSU to an 11–2 record, he played left tackle in 2005. That season was capped by a 40–3 Peach Bowl win over Miami (Fla.). He played every offensive snap in nine of the thirteen contests, for an offense that averaged 374.1 yards per game. By not allowing a sack all season, he finished his career with 22 straight games of no sacks allowed. He was credited with 104 key blocks/knockdowns. Whitworth played in the East–West Shrine Game on January 21, 2006 in San Antonio, Texas.


title: Andrew Whitworth

text: His 52 career starts from 2002–2005 rank second in NCAA Division I history behind Derrick Strait of Oklahoma (53 starts, 2000–2003). He earned All-Southeastern Conference first-team honors in each of his last two seasons, including a consensus nod as a senior.


title: Andrew Whitworth

text: Whitworth was selected by the Cincinnati Bengals in the second round (55th overall) in the 2006 NFL Draft. He made his NFL debut on special teams on September 10 against Kansas City. He started at left guard in the following week against the Cleveland Browns, as part of a line shuffle where left guard Eric Steinbach replaced injured Levi Jones at left tackle. Whitworth helped the Bengals pile up 481 yards against Browns, including 145 rushing yards by Rudi Johnson. He was in the starting lineup for Carson Palmer. He also had a key block on Rudi Johnson's seven-yard touchdown run in first quarter.


title: Andrew Whitworth

text: On July 25, 2008, Whitworth agreed in principle to a four-year extension worth a reported $30 million that would keep him in Cincinnati through 2013. He was ejected from a preseason game against the Jacksonville Jaguars after getting into a fight with Jaguars defensive end John Henderson.


title: Andrew Whitworth

text: In 2009, head coach Marvin Lewis decided to move Whitworth from guard to left tackle and saw immediate impact. He started all sixteen games of the season, allowing just five sacks and helping running back Cedric Benson have a breakout year rushing for 1,251 yards. On December 12, 2010 Whitworth caught a one-yard touchdown pass from Carson Palmer against the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was the first of his career, and he was the first Bengals offensive lineman to catch a touchdown pass since 1995.


title: Andrew Whitworth

text: He was ejected from a game against the Oakland Raiders after throwing a punch during a skirmish late in the game. He was subsequently fined $26,260 for the incident.


title: Andrew Whitworth

text: In January 2013, for the first time in his career, Whitworth was named a left tackle on the AFC Pro Bowl team.


title: Andrew Whitworth

text: During the 2014 season, Whitworth allowed zero sacks and only one hit on quarterback Andy Dalton. Due to his success, many pundits and experts have claimed that Whitworth was snubbed out of a second Pro Bowl berth, however, he was named second-team AP NFL All-Pro. He was voted as the 67th best player by his peers in the 2016 list.


title: Andrew Whitworth

text: On March 9, 2017, Whitworth signed a three-year contract with the Los Angeles Rams. In his first season with the Rams, Whitworth made it to his fourth Pro Bowl. He was ranked 87th by his peers on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2018.


title: Andrew Whitworth

text: In 2018, Whitworth helped the Rams reach Super Bowl LIII after they defeated the Dallas Cowboys in the Divisional Round and New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship Game. The Rams lost to the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl.


title: Andrew Whitworth

text: In the eighth week of the 2019 season, the Rams defeated the Bengals 24–10, giving Whitworth a victory over his former team. With that victory, Whitworth became only the 12th starter in league history to earn victories against all 32 NFL teams.


title: Andrew Whitworth

text: On April 1, 2020, Whitworth signed a three-year contract with the Rams. On November 16, Whitworth was placed on injured reserve, as he was carted off the field after suffering a torn MCL and damaged PCL in a 23–16 home win over the Seattle Seahawks in Week 10. He was placed on injured reserve the next day. He was activated on January 7, 2021, before the team's playoff game.


title: Andrew Whitworth

text: Whitworth was named the 2021 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year at the 11th Annual NFL Honors. Whitworth won his first Super Bowl in what would ultimately be his final game, after the Rams defeated his former team, the Cincinnati Bengals, 23–20 in Super Bowl LVI.


title: Andrew Whitworth

text: Whitworth and his wife, Melissa, have four children: twins Sarah and Drew, Michael, and Katherine. Melissa was the 2003 Miss Louisiana, an award-winning Louisiana reporter, and won Cincinnati's version of "Dancing With the Stars".


title: Andrew Whitworth

text: Whitworth is active in the community through his BigWhit 77 Foundation. He hosts a fund-raising golf tournament in Louisiana and serves as a motivational speaker to youth groups in both Greater Cincinnati and in Louisiana.


title: Andrew Whitworth

text: In March 2020, Whitworth donated $250,000 to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank during the 2020–21 COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Monism

text: Monism attributes oneness or singleness (Greek: μόνος) to a concept e.g., existence. Various kinds of monism can be distinguished:


title: Monism

text: Although the term "monism" is derived from Western philosophy to typify positions in the mind–body problem, it has also been used to typify religious traditions. In modern Hinduism, the term "absolute monism" is used for Advaita Vedanta.


title: Monism

text: The term "monism" was introduced in the 18th century by Christian von Wolff in his work "Logic" (1728), to designate types of philosophical thought in which the attempt was made to eliminate the dichotomy of body and mind and explain all phenomena by one unifying principle, or as manifestations of a single substance.


title: Monism

text: The mind–body problem in philosophy examines the relationship between mind and matter, and in particular the relationship between consciousness and the brain. The problem was addressed by René Descartes in the 17th century, resulting in Cartesian dualism, and by pre-Aristotelian philosophers, in Avicennian philosophy, and in earlier Asian and more specifically Indian traditions.


title: Monism

text: It was later also applied to the theory of absolute identity set forth by Hegel and Schelling. Thereafter the term was more broadly used, for any theory postulating a unifying principle. The opponent thesis of dualism also was broadened, to include pluralism. According to Urmson, as a result of this extended use, the term is "systematically ambiguous".


title: Monism

text: According to Jonathan Schaffer, monism lost popularity due to the emergence of analytic philosophy in the early twentieth century, which revolted against the neo-Hegelians. Rudolf Carnap and A. J. Ayer, who were strong proponents of positivism, "ridiculed the whole question as incoherent mysticism".


title: Monism

text: The mind–body problem has reemerged in social psychology and related fields, with the interest in mind–body interaction and the rejection of Cartesian mind–body dualism in the "identity thesis", a modern form of monism. Monism is also still relevant to the philosophy of mind, where various positions are defended.


title: Monism

text: Certain positions do not fit easily into the above categories, such as functionalism, anomalous monism, and reflexive monism. Moreover, they do not define the meaning of "real".


title: Monism

text: While the lack of information makes it difficult in some cases to be sure of the details, the following pre-Socratic philosophers thought in monistic terms:


title: Monism

text: Pantheism is the belief that everything composes an all-encompassing, immanent God, or that the universe (or nature) is identical with divinity. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal or anthropomorphic god, but believe that interpretations of the term differ.


title: Monism

text: Pantheism was popularized in the modern era as both a theology and philosophy based on the work of the 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza, whose "Ethics" was an answer to Descartes' famous dualist theory that the body and spirit are separate. Spinoza held that the two are the same, and this monism is a fundamental quality of his philosophy. He was described as a "God-intoxicated man," and used the word God to describe the unity of all substance. Although the term pantheism was not coined until after his death, Spinoza is regarded as its most celebrated advocate.


title: Monism

text: Pantheism is closely related to monism, as pantheists too believe all of reality is one substance, called Universe, God or Nature. Panentheism, a slightly different concept (explained below), however is dualistic. Some of the most famous pantheists are the Stoics, Giordano Bruno and Spinoza.


title: Monism

text: Panentheism (from Greek (pân) "all"; (en) "in"; and (theós) "God"; "all-in-God") is a belief system that posits that the divine (be it a monotheistic God, polytheistic gods, or an eternal cosmic animating force) interpenetrates every part of nature, but is not one with nature. Panentheism differentiates itself from pantheism, which holds that the divine is synonymous with the universe.


title: Monism

text: In panentheism, there are two types of substance, "pan" the universe and God. The universe and the divine are not ontologically equivalent. God is viewed as the eternal animating force within the universe. In some forms of panentheism, the cosmos exists within God, who in turn "transcends", "pervades" or is "in" the cosmos.


title: Monism

text: While pantheism asserts that 'All is God', panentheism claims that God animates all of the universe, and also transcends the universe. In addition, some forms indicate that the universe is contained within God, like in the Judaic concept of Tzimtzum. Much Hindu thought is highly characterized by panentheism and pantheism.


title: Monism

text: Paul Tillich has argued for such a concept within Christian theology, as has liberal biblical scholar Marcus Borg and mystical theologian Matthew Fox, an Episcopal priest.


title: Monism

text: Pandeism or pan-deism (from and meaning "god" in the sense of deism), is a term describing beliefs coherently incorporating or mixing logically reconcilable elements of pantheism (that "God", or a metaphysically equivalent creator deity, is identical to Nature) and classical deism (that the creator-god who designed the universe no longer exists in a status where it can be reached, and can instead be confirmed only by reason). It is therefore most particularly the belief that the creator of the universe actually became the universe, and so ceased to exist as a separate entity.


title: Monism

text: Through this synergy pandeism claims to answer primary objections to deism (why would God create and then not interact with the universe?) and to pantheism (how did the universe originate and what is its purpose?).


title: Monism

text: The central problem in Asian (religious) philosophy is not the body-mind problem, but the search for an unchanging Real or Absolute beyond the world of appearances and changing phenomena, and the search for liberation from dukkha and the liberation from the cycle of rebirth. In Hinduism, substance-ontology prevails, seeing Brahman as the unchanging real beyond the world of appearances. In Buddhism, process ontology is prevalent, seeing reality as empty of an unchanging essence.


title: Monism

text: Characteristic for various Asian religions is the discernment of levels of truth, an emphasis on intuitive-experiential understanding of the Absolute such as jnana, bodhi and kensho, and an emphasis on the integration of these levels of truth and its understanding.


title: Monism

text: Vedanta is the inquiry into and systematisation of the Vedas and Upanishads, to harmonise the various and contrasting ideas that can be found in those texts. Within Vedanta, different schools exist:


title: Monism

text: Monism is most clearly identified in Advaita Vedanta, though Renard points out that this may be a western interpretation, bypassing the intuitive understanding of a nondual reality.