Books in the Springer Study Edition series

The Second Law of Thermodynamics has been called the most important law of nature: It is the law that gives a direction to processes that is not inherent in the laws of motion, that says the state of the universe is driven to thermal equilibrium.

Quantum Optics gives a comprehensive coverage of developments in quantum optics over the past twenty years. These are applied in the later chapters to problems such as squeezed states of light, resonance fluorescence, laser theory, quantum theory of four-wave mixing, quantum non-demolition measurements, Bell's inequalities, and atom optics.

From the reviews: "The book has a broad and general coverage of both the mathematics and the numerical methods well suited for graduate students." Computer programs are also included for many problems together with a separate chapter dealing with the application of computer programs to heat transfer problems.

This reference provides information on the cellular and subcellular targets of neurotoxins and their mode of action on the level of ion-channels, receptors and neurotransmitters. It concentrates on the use of bacterial toxins as a tool in neuroscientific research.

This little book was assembled from the authors' lectures to medical students and was originally published as one volume in the series Human Physiology, edited by O. We have included here only material that we feel is necessary for medical students to know in order to understand kidney function in health and, by later extrapolation, in disease.

The content of this book is based, largely, on the core curriculum in geophys ical fluid dynamics which land my colleagues in the Department of Geophysical Sciences at The University of Chicago have taught for the past decade.