This chapter examines parapsychology – the study of anomalous experience. It first distinguishes between telepathy, clairvoyance, ESP, psychokinesis (PK) and psi. It examines experimental evidence for psi, focussing on methodological difficulties in finding evidence for it, as well as at experimenter effects. It looks in particular at experiments in the Ganzfeld state as evidence for psi, and discusses meta-analyses of these experiments. We also look at remote viewing. We then look at spontaneous cases, including poltergeists. The chapter also looks at correlates of psi, in trait and state experiments. The chapter concludes with a survey of survival, particularly at the evidence for reincarnation.

Most complex deformable body problems commonly found in practice can only be solved with numerical methods. The stiffness-based finite element method is today the numerical method of choice for analyzing deformable bodies as well as many other engineering problems. In this chapter we will describe both stiffness-based and force-based finite elements. It will be shown that while the stiffness-based finite element method is based on solving equilibrium equations for the displacements, the force-based method relies on appropriately combining equilibrium and compatibility to solve directly for the forces (or stresses). We will examine both stiffness-based and force-based finite elements for axial load and bending problems. Simple examples will be used that allow us to work through the application of these finite element methods in detail and to compare results with analytical solutions. Finally, we will outline an important alternative to a finite element approach - the boundary element method – for solving stress problems numerically.

This introductory chapter surveys the field of consciousness research. It introduces the question of how we should define consciousness, and how consciousness is related to awareness and self-awareness. It discusses methods used to study consciousness research, including philosophical analysis, experimental investigation, brain imaging and neuroscience, and computer modelling. It asks whether there are different types of consciousness. The chapter also looks at the history of how we have thought about consciousness. It concludes by listing the many problems remaining to be solved in consciousness research, all of which will be addressed in the following text.

This chapter examines the concept of the self. It begins by looking at the work of Hume, and the distinction between ego and bundle theories of the self. We consider the distinction between the knower and the known, and the idea of the homunculus. The chapter examines Damasio’s model of three levels of self, and other ‘types’ of self. It looks at how the self is related to psychological models of control and executive processing. It then looks at our perception of our continuity of existence, and how it can be disrupted by age, sleep and amnesia. The chapter examines the neuroscience of the self, and which neurological structures give rise to our sense of self. We look in detail at split-brain studies and what we can learn from them. It then looks at dissociative states and dissociative identity disorders (multiple personalities). It also looks at the boundaries of the self, and phantom limbs and the rubber hand illusion. The chapter concludes by asking whether the self is just another illusion.

Stresses describe the local distributions of forces within a deformable body and strains describe the local deformations. In this chapter we want to describe the relations between stresses and strains as these are the key relationships that allow us to connect the loads applied to a body to its changes in shape. We will only consider linear elastic materials in this book where the stresses are proportional to the small strains present. Both isotropic and anisotropic linear elastic materials will be discussed. How the elastic constants appearing in the general stress–strain relations for an anisotropic material change with choice of orientation of the coordinate system being used will be given explicitly. The use of strain gages and stress–strain relations to determine the state of stress on the surface of a body will be discussed.

“This final chapter summarises the main findings of the book. It revisits the questions asked in the first chapter and summarises our current best guess as to their answers. It emphasises the difficulty in solving the ‘hard problem’ of consciousness, while exhorting the progress made in recent years, particularly in neuroscience, in addressing the so-called ‘easy’ (which are mostly rather hard) questions. The book concludes with the consideration of the possibility that a new approach to science might be needed in fully appreciating what it means to be conscious.”

This chapter looks at the importance of perception for consciousness – particularly, but not limited to, visual consciousness. We first consider empiricism, and the extent to which perception might be deceptive. We consider the brain-in-a-vat thought experiment. We examine how visual perception is much more than processing visual stimuli: we fill in gaps, we are deceived by illusions, we combine the input from two eyes, and at some point the visual processing system makes decisions that affect awareness. The chapter then looks at disorders of visuo-spatial processing, such as blindsight and neglect. It considers synaesthesia. The chapter then looks at the binding problem – how do we bind features of the world together into objects? – and the role of gamma waves in binding. We conclude by asking whether the world as we think we see it is a grand illusion.

The torsion of a solid or hollow bar with a circular cross-section is one of the important problems considered in elementary strength of material texts. In this chapter we consider the torsion of bars having more general cross-sections, where the axial warping deformations produced requires that one develop a much more complex solution procedure. We will first consider the idealized case of uniform torsion where the bar is completely free to warp. Solutions of uniform torsion problems are obtained using both a warping function and a Prandtl stress function approach. The case of nonuniform torsion, where the rate of twist varies along the length of the bar and the warping of the bar is restrained, is also considered using a warping function approach. Uniform and nonuniform torsion problems for general cross-sections typically require a numerical solution. However, in the case of thin members, one can obtain more direct solutions for both open and closed cross-sections. It will be shown that the sectorial area function plays a major role in the solution of both uniform and nonuniform torsion problems for thin cross-sections.

Metamorphosed lava flows, and their related minor intrusions and volcanogenic sediments, are frequently found interspersed with metamorphosed sedimentary rocks. Larger intrusive bodies are sometimes also metamorphosed, especially where old crystalline crust is caught up in a later orogeny and remobilised (subjected to later metamorphism and/or deformation). This chapter will outline the metamorphic changes that take place in igneous rocks of basic composition, such as basalts and gabbros, to produce metabasites. Metabasites differ from the metapelites described in Chapter 4 in that their mineral assemblages tend to vary progressively, often without distinct zones marked by index minerals. Despite this we shall see that their assemblages continue to vary with metamorphic conditions over a very wide range of pressures and temperatures. In particular, amphiboles are stable in metabasites over a very wide range of conditions, and we shall see how the composition of the amphibole varies considerably with pressure and temperature.