A Golden Weed

A Golden Weed
Author: Drew A. Swanson
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 359
Release: 2014-08-12
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 030020681X

Drew A. Swanson has written an “environmental” history about a crop of great historical and economic significance: American tobacco. A preferred agricultural product for much of the South, the tobacco plant would ultimately degrade the land that nurtured it, but as the author provocatively argues, the choice of crop initially made perfect agrarian as well as financial sense for southern planters. Swanson, who brings to his narrative the experience of having grown up on a working Virginia tobacco farm, explores how one attempt at agricultural permanence went seriously awry. He weaves together social, agricultural, and cultural history of the Piedmont region and illustrates how ideas about race and landscape management became entangled under slavery and afterward. Challenging long-held perceptions, this innovative study examines not only the material relationships that connected crop, land, and people but also the justifications that encouraged tobacco farming in the region.

Aquananotechnology

Aquananotechnology
Author: David E. Reisner
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 1370
Release: 2014-09-24
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0415621291

The world’s fresh water supplies are dwindling rapidly—even wastewater is now considered an asset. By 2025, most of the world's population will be facing serious water stresses and shortages. Aquananotechnology: Global Prospects breaks new ground with its informative and innovative introduction of the application of nanotechnology to the remediation of contaminated water for drinking and industrial use. It provides a comprehensive overview, from a global perspective, of the latest research and developments in the use of nanotechnology for water purification and desalination methods. The book also covers approaches to remediation such as high surface area nanoscale media for adsorption of toxic species, UV treatment of pathogens, and regeneration of saturated media with applications in municipal water supplies, produced water from fracking, ballast water, and more. It also discusses membranes, desalination, sensing, engineered polymers, magnetic nanomaterials, electrospun nanofibers, photocatalysis, endocrine disruptors, and Al13 clusters. It explores physics-based phenomena such as subcritical water and cavitation-induced sonoluminescence, and fog harvesting. With contributions from experts in developed and developing countries, including those with severe contamination, such as China, India, and Pakistan, the book’s content spans a wide range of the subject areas that fall under the aquananotechnology banner, either squarely or tangentially. The book strongly emphasizes sorption media, with broad application to a myriad of contaminants—both geogenic and anthropogenic—keeping in mind that it is not enough for water to be potable, it must also be palatable.