text:
Talk:Language of mathematics

Mathematical symbols
Do you know of any book, in which the meaning all mathematical symbols is explained as well as their grammatical use?

If you know, please, send me an email A.vanderVen@pwo.ru.nl — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.83.33.64 (talk) 15:06, 28 December 2011 (UTC)

Early discussion
Some comments on detail.

- Topos is certainly used in literary theory (it means roughly the 'place' in 'common place' of discussion, 'commonplace book' and so on.

- Sheaf is of course agricultural, too.

Charles Matthews 11:44, 21 Nov 2003 (UTC)

 * Interesting - I had no idea that topos had a non-mathematical meaning (but I have no excuse for sheaf !). Anyway, I've replaced both examples with fractal, which I am sure was specifically coined by Mandelbrot -- Gandalf61 12:08, Nov 21, 2003 (UTC)

Category theory and Chomsky
This seems suspect without support. Original research, Sokal-style hoax? Also has weaselly "perhaps". This needs citation and explanation.A Geek Tragedy 16:21, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

 * Yes, bogus analogy. I've taken it out. Leibniz 19:26, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Patchy article
Actually quite a lot of the article looks like original research. There are some real issues that need adding raised in philosophy of mathematics, about e.g. whether mathematicians can understand each other when talking about transcendental numbers, infinite sets, etc. Ben Finn 17:23, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

Use of an underlying language for vocabulary
The use of an underlying language to provide meaning is not discussed. You mention specific mathematical symbols as a part of the vocabulary of mathematics; you do not mention that those symbols are often embedded in an English (or French, German, Russian &c) sentence. A specific example sitting in front of me is: "Construct a meromorphic function on $\mathbb{C}$ that has a simple pole with residue 1 at each Gaussian integer and no other poles." (This is a question from a complex analysis exam.) This sentence clearly borrows both vocabulary and grammar from English and vocabulary from Mathematics. Is it a sentence in English or a sentence in Mathematics? Joyof (talk) 04:56, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

 * One problem with the article is that its claims are largely not substantiated by citations of reliable sources. Another problem, which may be related, is that the article is awfully vague and fuzzy. For example, let's agree that there is such a things as "the language of mathematics". Does that imply then that there is such a thing as "mathematics as a language"? There is surely such a thing as "the language of law", but "law as a language"?? Our Mathematics article describes maths as both a body of knowledge and an academic discipline, and I think we can extend the meaning to the activity pursued by mathematicians (Mathematics is not a careful march down a well-cleared highway, but a journey into a strange wilderness, where the explorers often get lost. – W. S. Anglin). In none of these meanings is it meaningful to assert that mathematics is a language.
 * It would be much clearer to just discuss "the language of mathematics", meaning the system employed by mathematicians to communicate amongst themselves – a system that has several registers, from the more formal discourse in research articles in academic journals to the exchanges over a scribbled-upon napkin in the university cafeteria. The issue of the underlying language is valid. I've occasionally heard the claim that mathematicians working in the same field can communicate meaningfully on mathematical problems with colleagues with who basically any other topic would run into unsurmountable language barriers, but I'm somewhat sceptical about how far that goes. --Lambiam 13:46, 10 August 2008 (UTC)
 * "I've occasionally heard the claim that mathematicians working in the same field can communicate meaningfully on mathematical problems with colleagues with who basically any other topic would run into unsurmountable language barriers, but I'm somewhat sceptical about how far that goes."
 * This sentence needs a rewrite. Anyone up to the task? MotherFunctor (talk) 18:21, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

 * It seems clear enough to convey Lambian's meaning. And it is usually considered poor Wikiquette to copyedit other editors' posts on talk pages. And, as Lambian's post was written months ago, very few people will be reading it now anyway. Gandalf61 (talk) 09:21, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Informality
Informal expressions between humans are to be expected. However, this text has poor examples:
 * When mathematicians communicate with each other informally, they use phrases that help to convey ideas. Examples of some of the more idiomatic phrases are "kill this term", "vanish this interval" and "grow this variable".

It may be reassuring to some readers to see that mathematicians can handle informality, but the given expressions are not familiar.Rgdboer (talk) 20:10, 1 June 2014 (UTC)

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Try reading Maxwell's equations out loud?
The article states: "try reading Maxwell's equations out loud". WTH? You can definitely read Maxwells equations out loud.

 * $$\nabla \cdot \mathbf{B} = 0$$ It reads: Magnetic monopoles do not exist

Just granpa (talk) 12:11, 24 December 2020 (UTC)

Nouns, verbs, and conjunctions
Let me make this easy for you:
 * numbers are nouns
 * + - * / ^ = are verbs (= means "is")
 * & v are conjunctions

Just granpa (talk) 01:48, 30 December 2020 (UTC)

Neutral point of view
The whole article is non neutral, and this biased presentation starts from the first sentence:. This sentence reduces mathematics to the communication of ideas, while most mathematics texts consists of the presentation of results, which is completely different.

If "the langage of mathematics" exists (I am not sure of that), an acceptable first sentence would be  I am sure that most people who know mathematics would prefer this formulation.

The article is alredy tagged with multiple issues. I will further tag it with npov.

As the whole article is build on this wrong first sentence, there is nothing to be salvaged in it. D.Lazard (talk) 15:14, 21 June 2022 (UTC)
 * I WP:PRODed this articled, and the prod tag was removed by another editor. This removal was a good thing, since there are almost 50 incoming links to this article. Another editor has removed most of the irrelevant content. I rewrote the remainder of the article. Nevertheless the sections and  present non-neutral points of view, and should be discussed further. D.Lazard (talk) 09:34, 25 June 2022 (UTC)
 * Since the article has been rewritten, should the PROD be updated to say it has been kept? I definitely think this is one of the most important possible articles Wikipedia can have, especially for mathematics, and it is seriously underdeveloped (as is the study of the language of mathematics itself). In which case I would obviously argue for a strong keep. KingAntenor (talk) 10:33, 20 August 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Content Area Literacy
— Assignment last updated by Gmtz81902 (talk) 19:56, 30 April 2023 (UTC)

New Comments
Areas of improvement

Organization Wise
 * Change the location of understanding mathematical text. This section appears to explain the background information needed to be able to understand the topic. As result, it should go first and be integrated within the definition paragraph.
 * Change the location of features. This section appears to discuss distinguishable characteristics related to mathematical language. Therefore, it should proceed the understanding mathematical text section due to it being an extension of the topic.

Content Wise
 * Introduce additional perspectives on the topic. Williams is the only individual that is currently mentioned. This formulates a very limited, restricted, and single-minded view.
 * Find a clear focus. The article is currently confusing, hard to read, and contains lots of complex language It would be more helpful if the information was broken down and interpreted further.

Grammer Wise
 * Add citations. There is a high volume of citations missing within the article. This makes it difficult to know where information is coming from. The article still sounded very rooted in the original research's language instead of being rooted in the meaning of the research.

Areas of Strength
 * A definition is provided. Readers can gain an understanding of the topic before diving into the rest of the article.
 * Examples are provided. Readers can learn about what these specific aspects that are associated with the topic look like.
 * Additional reading. Readers have the opportunity to expand their knowledge and or learn more about the topic. Exploration and research are encouraged.

Camiadmire (talk) 21:56, 22 February 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Language of mathematics


text:
Balaenoptera

Balaenoptera is a genus of rorquals containing eight extant species. Balaenoptera comprises all but two of the extant species in its family (the humpback whale and gray whale); the genus is currently polyphyletic, with the two aforementioned species being phylogenetically nested within it.

This genus is known in the fossil records from the Neogene to the Quaternary (13.65 million years ago to the present).

Taxonomy and systematics
The genus Balaenoptera contains the following extant species and subspecies:
 * Common minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata)
 * North Atlantic minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata acutorostrata)
 * North Pacific minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata scammoni)
 * Antarctic minke whale (Balaenoptera bonaerensis)
 * Sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis)
 * Northern sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis borealis)
 * Southern sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis schlegelii)
 * Bryde's whale (Balaenoptera edeni)
 * Offshore Bryde's whale (Balaenoptera brydei or Balaenoptera edeni brydei) (taxonomy disputed)
 * Eden's whale (Balaenoptera edeni edeni)
 * Blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus)
 * Northern blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus musculus)
 * Antarctic blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus intermedia)
 * Northern Indian Ocean blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus indica)
 * Pygmy blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda)
 * Omura's whale (Balaenoptera omurai)
 * Fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus)
 * Pygmy fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus patachonica)
 * North Atlantic fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus physalus)
 * Southern fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus quoyi)
 * North Pacific fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus velifera)
 * Rice's whale (Balaenoptera ricei)

Fossil species
Many fossil Balaenoptera species have been described. Some (namely B. borealina, B. definata, B. emarginata, B. gibbosa, B. rostratella, and B. sibbaldina) are either nondiagnostic, highly fragmentary, or had no holotype specimen named, hence are considered nomina dubia. The valid fossil species of Balaenoptera are:

 * †Balaenoptera bertae is a relatively small species from the Upper Miocene to Upper Pliocene Purisima Formation of California.
 * †Balaenoptera cephalus was originally thought to be a species of Eschrichtius (gray whales) or Cetotherium, but more recent analysis shows it to be a member of Balaenoptera. Fossils of the species were found in the Calvert Formation of Maryland.
 * †Balaenoptera colcloughi is known from four specimens, including four skulls and some postcranial remains, found at the San Diego Formation. It was a close relative of Megaptera novaeangliae (the humpback whale), B. siberi, and B. physalus (the fin whale).
 * †"Balaenoptera" cortesii is a small species based on a juvenile specimen from Montezago; it probably represents a distinct, unnamed genus of balaenopterid.
 * †Balaenoptera davidsonii, like B. cephalus, was originally classified under Eschrichtius, but it has since been moved to Balaenoptera. It was native to the Pliocene San Diego Formation of California. The only known fossil of B. davidsonii is a fragment of the left dentary.
 * †"Balaenoptera" portisi is based on MGPT 13803 from Montafia (originally assigned to B. cortesii by Portis [1885]), and may be the same genus or species as Cetotheriophanes capellinii. The species "B. floridana" is indistinguishable from "B." portisi.
 * †"Balaenoptera" ryani is a valid species but is not in fact a species of Balaenoptera. It probably represents a distinct genus of basal balaenopterid.
 * †Balaenoptera siberi is known from two complete skeletons. Its affinity with the genus Balaenoptera has been questioned.
 * †Balaenoptera sursiplana is a fragmentary species, based on a single fossilized tympanic bone.
 * †Balaenoptera taiwanica is named after Taiwan, where the fossil was found in the Pliocene-aged Cholan Formation. B. taiwanica is also based on a single tympanic bone, which is similar to that of B. physalus, the fin whale.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Balaenoptera


text:
Hugh MacDiarmid

Christopher Murray Grieve (11 August 1892 – 9 September 1978), best known by his pen name Hugh MacDiarmid, was a Scottish poet, journalist, essayist and political figure. He is considered one of the principal forces behind the Scottish Renaissance and has had a lasting impact on Scottish culture and politics. He was a founding member of the National Party of Scotland in 1928 but left in 1933 due to his Marxist–Leninist views. He joined the Communist Party of Great Britain the following year only to be expelled in 1938 for his nationalist sympathies. He would subsequently stand as a parliamentary candidate for both the Scottish National Party (1945) and Communist Party of Great Britain (1964).

Grieve's earliest work, including Annals of the Five Senses, was written in English, but he is best known for his use of "synthetic Scots", a literary version of the Scots language that he himself developed. From the early 1930s onwards MacDiarmid made greater use of English, sometimes a "synthetic English" that was supplemented by scientific and technical vocabularies.

The son of a postman, MacDiarmid was born in the Scottish border town of Langholm, Dumfriesshire. He was educated at Langholm Academy before becoming a teacher for a brief time at Broughton Higher Grade School in Edinburgh. He began his writing career as a journalist in Wales,  contributing to the socialist newspaper The Merthyr Pioneer run by Labour party founder Keir Hardie before joining the Royal Army Medical Corps at the outbreak of the First World War. He served in Salonica, Greece and France before developing cerebral malaria and subsequently returning to Scotland in 1918. MacDiarmid's time in the army was influential in his political and artistic development.

After the war he continued to work as a journalist, living in Montrose where he became editor and reporter of the Montrose Review as well as a justice of the peace and a member of the county council. In 1923 his first book, Annals of the Five Senses, was published at his own expense, followed by Sangschaw in 1925, and Penny Wheep. A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle, published in 1926, is generally regarded as MacDiarmid's most famous and influential work.

Moving to the Shetland island of Whalsay in 1933 with his son Michael and second wife, Valda Trevlyn, MacDiarmid continued to write essays and poetry despite being cut off from mainland cultural developments for much of the 1930s. He died at his cottage Brownsbank, near Biggar, in 1978 at the age of 86.

At different times throughout his life, MacDiarmid was a supporter of Fascism, Stalinism, and Scottish nationalism, views that routinely put him at acrimonious odds with his contemporaries. He was a founding member of the National Party of Scotland, forerunner to the modern Scottish National Party. He stood as a candidate for the Scottish National Party in 1945 and 1950, and for the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1964. In 1949, MacDiarmid's opinions led George Orwell to include his name in a list of "those who should not be trusted" to MI5. Today, MacDiarmid's work is credited with inspiring a new generation of writers. Fellow poet Edwin Morgan said of him: "Eccentric and often maddening genius he may be, but MacDiarmid has produced many works which, in the only test possible, go on haunting the mind and memory and casting Coleridgean seeds of insight and surprise."

Early life
Grieve was born in Langholm in 1892. His father was a postman; his family lived above the town library, giving MacDiarmid access to books from an early age. Grieve attended Langholm Academy and, from 1908, Broughton Junior Student Centre in Edinburgh, where he studied under George Ogilvie who introduced him to the magazine The New Age. He left the school on 27 January 1911, following the theft of some books and postage stamps; his father died eight days later, on 3 February 1911.

Following Grieve's departure from Broughton, Ogilvie arranged for Grieve to be employed as a journalist with the Edinburgh Evening Dispatch. Grieve was to lose this job later in 1911, but on 20 July of that year he had his first article, "The Young Astrology" published in The New Age. In October 1911, Grieve moved to Ebbw Vale in Monmouthshire, Wales where he worked as a newspaper reporter; by 1913 he had returned to Scotland and was working for the Clydebank and Renfrew Press in Clydebank, near Glasgow. It was here that Grieve first encountered the work of John Maclean, Neil Malcolm Maclean, and James Maxton.

First World War
In July 1915 Grieve left the town of Forfar in eastern Scotland and travelled to the Hillsborough barracks in Sheffield. He went on to serve in the Royal Army Medical Corps in Salonica, Greece and France during the First World War. After the war, he married and returned to journalism.

Return to Scotland
MacDiarmid's first book, Annals of the Five Senses, was a mixture of prose and poetry written in English, and was published in 1923 while MacDiarmid was living in Montrose. At about this time MacDiarmid turned to Scots for a series of books, culminating in what is probably his best known work, the book-length A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle. This poem is widely regarded as one of the most important long poems in 20th-century Scottish literature. After that, he published several books containing poems in both English and Scots.

Time in England
From 1929 to 1930 MacDiarmid lived in London, and worked for Compton Mackenzie's magazine, Vox. MacDiarmid lived in Liverpool from 1930 to 1931, before returning to London; he left again in 1932, and lived in the village of Thakeham in West Sussex until he returned to Scotland in 1932.

Whalsay, Shetland
MacDiarmid lived in Sodom on the island of Whalsay, Shetland, from 1933 until 1942. He often asked the local fishermen to take him out in their boats and once asked them to leave him on an uninhabited island for a night and pick him up again in the morning. Local legend has it that he asked about Whalsay words and some of the Whalsay folk made up fantastical words that did not exist. The dialect is strong on the island and any strange words would have probably sounded quite plausible. "The often tormented genius wrote much of his finest poetry (including 'On a Raised Beach') and, via the Whalsay post office, conducted furious correspondence with the leading writers and thinkers of his generation." The croft house that was his Whalsay home was made into a camping böd (traditionally a building used to house fishermen and their gear), the Grieves House böd, run by Shetland Amenity Trust. But it is in a state of disrepair and "closed for maintenance" as of 2022.

Return to the Scottish Mainland
In 1942 MacDiarmid was directed to war work and moved to Glasgow, where he lived until 1949. Between 1949 and 1951 he lived in a cottage on the grounds of Dungavel House, Lanarkshire, before moving to his final home: "Brownsbank", a cottage in Candymill, near Biggar in the Scottish Borders. He died, aged 86, in Edinburgh.

Politics

In 1928, MacDiarmid helped found the National Party of Scotland, but was expelled during the 1930s. MacDiarmid was at times a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, but he was expelled twice. John Baglow reports that "his comrades never really knew what to make of him." Indeed, he was expelled from the Communist Party for being a Scottish Nationalist, and from the National Party of Scotland for being a Communist. As a follower of the Scottish revolutionary socialist John Maclean, he saw no contradiction between international socialism and the nationalist vision of a Scottish workers' republic, but this ensured a fraught relationship with organised political parties.

From 1931, whilst he was in London, until 1943, after he left the Shetland island of Whalsay, MacDiarmid was under surveillance by British counterintelligence operatives. In 1949, George Orwell included MacDiarmid in a list he wrote for the Information Research Department of fellow left-wing writers whom he suspected of sympathies for the Soviet Union or direct links with the NKVD. MacDiarmid stood in the Glasgow Kelvingrove constituency in the 1945 and 1950 general elections. He stood against the Conservative Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home in Kinross and Western Perthshire at the 1964 election, taking only 127 votes.

In 2010 letters were discovered showing that MacDiarmid believed a Nazi invasion of Britain would benefit Scotland. In a letter sent from Whalsay in April 1941, he wrote: "On balance I regard the Axis powers, tho' more violently evil for the time being, less dangerous than our own government in the long run and indistinguishable in purpose." A year earlier, in June 1940, he wrote: "Although the Germans are appalling enough, they cannot win, but the British and French bourgeoisie can and they are a far greater enemy. If the Germans win they could not hold their gain for long, but if the French and British win it will be infinitely more difficult to get rid of them".

Despite Hugh MacDiarmid weaponizing the accusation of Fascism against South African poet Roy Campbell over their differing opinions of the Spanish Civil War and accordingly set off a decades-long and very acrimonious public feud, as Marc Horne has commented in the Daily Telegraph: "MacDiarmid flirted with fascism in his early thirties, when he believed it was a doctrine of the left. In two articles written in 1923, Plea for a Scottish Fascism and Programme for a Scottish Fascism, he appeared to support Mussolini's regime. By the 1930s, however, following Mussolini's lurch to the right, his position had changed and he castigated Neville Chamberlain over his appeasement of Hitler's expansionism." In response, Deirdre Grieve, MacDiarmid's daughter-in-law and literary executor, noted: "I think he entertained almost every ideal it was possible to entertain at one point or another."

Writing

Much of the work that MacDiarmid published in the 1920s was written in what he termed "Synthetic Scots": a version of the Scots language that "synthesised" multiple local dialects, which MacDiarmid constructed from dictionaries and other sources.

From the 1930s onwards, MacDiarmid turned more and more to English as a means of expression so most of his later poetry was written in that language. His ambition was to live up to Rilke's dictum that 'the poet must know everything' and to write poetry that contained all knowledge. As a result, many of the poems in Stony Limits (1934) and later volumes are a kind of found poetry reusing text from a range of sources. Just as he had used John Jamieson's dialect dictionary for his poems in 'synthetic Scots', so he used Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary for poems such as 'On a Raised Beach'. Other poems, including 'On a Raised Beach' and 'Etika Preobrazhennavo Erosa' used extensive passages of prose. This practice, particularly in the poem 'Perfect', led to accusations of plagiarism from supporters of the Welsh poet Glyn Jones, to which MacDiarmid's response was 'The greater the plagiarism the greater the work of art.' The great achievement of this late poetry is to attempt on an epic scale to capture the idea of a world without God in which all the facts the poetry deals with are scientifically verifiable. In his critical work Lives of the Poets, Michael Schmidt notes that Hugh MacDiarmid 'had redrawn the map of Scottish poetry and affected the whole configuration of English literature'.

MacDiarmid wrote a number of non-fiction prose works, including Scottish Eccentrics and his autobiography Lucky Poet. He also did a number of translations from Scottish Gaelic, including Duncan Ban MacIntyre's Praise of Ben Dorain, which were well received by native speakers, including Sorley MacLean.

Personal life
He had a daughter, Christine, and a son, Walter, by his first wife Peggy Skinner. He had a son, James Michael Trevlyn, known as Michael, by his second wife Valda Trevlyn (1906-1989); Michael was a conscientious objector to post-World War II National Service and became vice chair of the Scottish National Party.

Places of interest
MacDiarmid grew up in the Scottish town of Langholm in Dumfriesshire. The town is home to a monument in his honour made of cast iron which takes the form of a large open book depicting images from his writings.

MacDiarmid lived in Montrose for a time where he worked for the local newspaper the Montrose Review.

MacDiarmid also lived on the isle of Whalsay in Shetland, in Sodom (Sudheim). The house is now one of Shetland's 'Camping Bods', offering basic, bothy-style accommodation to visitors.

Brownsbank Cottage, near Biggar, South Lanarkshire, the home of MacDiarmid and his wife Valda from 1952 until their deaths, has been restored by the Biggar Museum Trust.

Hugh MacDiarmid is commemorated in Makars' Court, outside the Writers' Museum, Lawnmarket, Edinburgh. Selections for Makars' Court are made by the Writers' Museum, the Saltire Society and the Scottish Poetry Library.

Portrait in National Portrait Gallery primary collection and film portrait
Hugh MacDiarmid sat for sculptor Alan Thornhill and a bronze was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery. The terracotta original is held in the collection of the artist. The correspondence file relating to the MacDiarmid bust is held in the archive of the Henry Moore Foundation's Henry Moore Institute in Leeds.

Filmmaker and poet Margaret Tait made a film Hugh MacDiarmid, A Portrait (1964) when the poet was seventy-one which novelist Ali Smith describes as 'a model of versatility, a meld of voice and image each illuminating the other'. The poems heard read by MacDiarmid are 'You Know Not Who I Am', 'Somersault', 'Krang' and some lines from 'The Kind of Poetry I Want'. Writing of MacDiarmid and Tait, academic Sarah Neely notes 'MacDiarmid was also a champion of Tait's work as a film-maker and poet; he published a few of her poems and also organised a screening of her films at the Dunedin Society'.

Poetry

 * Sangschaw (1925)
 * Penny Wheep (1926)
 * A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle (1926)
 * The Lucky Bag (1927)
 * To Circumjack Cencrastus (1930)
 * First Hymn to Lenin and Other Poems (1931)
 * Second Hymn to Lenin (1932)
 * Scots Unbound and Other Poems (1932)
 * Stony Limits and Other Poems (1934)
 * The Birlinn of Clanranald (1935)
 * Second Hymn to Lenin and Other Poems (1935)
 * Speaking for Scotland: Selected Poems of Hugh MacDiarmid (1946)
 * Poems of the East-West Synthesis (1946)
 * A Kist of Whistles (1947)
 * In Memoriam James Joyce (1955)
 * Three Hymns to Lenin (1957)
 * The Battle Continues (1958)
 * The Kind of Poetry I Want (1961)
 * Collected Poems (1962)
 * Poems to Paintings by William Johnstone 1933 (1963)
 * A Lap of Honour (1967)
 * Early Lyrics (1968)
 * A Clyack-Sheaf (1969)
 * More Collected Poems (1970)
 * Selected Poems (1971)
 * The Hugh MacDiarmid Anthology: Poems in Scots and English (1972)
 * Dìreadh (1974)
 * The Complete Poems of Hugh MacDiarmid Volume 1 & 2 (1978)

Letters

 * Bold, Alan. The Letter of Hugh MacDiarmid
 * Kerrigan, Catherine. The Hugh MacDiarmid-George Ogilvie Letters
 * Wilson, Susan R. The Correspondence Between Hugh MacDiarmid and Sorley Maclean

Also see:

 * Manson, John. Dear Grieve: Letters to Hugh MacDiarmid (C. M. Grieve)
 * Junor, Beth. Scarcely Ever Out of My Thoughts: The Letters of Valda Trevlyn Grieve to Christopher Murray Grieve (Hugh MacDiarmid)

Anthologies edited by MacDiarmid

 * The Golden Treasury of Scottish Poetry (1940)

Other

 * Annals of the Five Senses (1923)
 *  A Plea for Scottish Fascism (1923)
 *  A Program for Scottish Fascism (1923)
 * Contemporary Scottish Studies (1926-)
 * Scottish Scene (1934) (collaboration with Lewis Grassic Gibbon)
 * Scottish Eccentrics (1938)
 * The Islands of Scotland (1939)
 * Lucky Poet (1943)
 * The Company I've Kept (1966)
 * The Uncanny Scot (1968)

title: Hugh MacDiarmid


text:
Noria

A noria (ناعورة, nā‘ūra, plural نواعير nawāʿīr, from, nā‘orā, lit. "growler") is a hydropowered scoop wheel used to lift water into a small aqueduct, either for the purpose of irrigation or to supply water to cities and villages.

Etymology
The English word noria is derived via Spanish noria from Arabic nā‘ūra (ناعورة), which comes from the Arabic verb meaning to "groan" or "grunt", in reference to the sound it made when turning.

Noria versus saqiyah
The term noria is commonly used for devices which use the power of moving water to turn the wheel. For devices powered by animals, the usual term is saqiyah or saqiya. Other types of similar devices are grouped under the name of chain pumps. However, the names of traditional water-raising devices used in the Middle East, India, Spain and other areas are often used loosely and overlappingly, or vary depending on region. Al-Jazari's famous book on mechanical devices, for example, groups the water-driven wheel and several other types of water-lifting devices under the general term saqiya. In Spain, by contrast, the term noria is used for both types of wheels, whether powered by animals or water current.

Function
The noria performs the function of moving water from a lower elevation to a higher elevation, using the energy derived from the flow of a river. It consists of a large, narrow undershot water wheel whose rim is made up of a series of containers or compartments which lift water from the river to an aqueduct at the top of the wheel. Its concept is similar to the modern hydraulic ram, which also uses the power of flowing water to pump some of the water out of the river.

Unlike the water wheels found in watermills, a noria does not provide mechanical power to any other process. A few historical norias were hybrids, consisting of waterwheels assisted secondarily by animal power. There is at least one known instance where a noria feeds seawater into a saltern.

History
Paddle-driven water-lifting wheels had appeared in ancient Egypt by the 4th century BC. According to John Peter Oleson, both the compartmented wheel and the hydraulic noria appeared in Egypt by the 4th century BC, with the saqiyah being invented there a century later. This is supported by archeological finds in the Faiyum, where the oldest archeological evidence of a water wheel has been found, in the form of a saqiyah dating back to the 3rd century BC. A papyrus dating to the 2nd century BC also found in the Faiyum mentions a water wheel used for irrigation, a 2nd-century BC fresco found at Alexandria depicts a compartmented saqiyah, and the writings of Callixenus of Rhodes mention the use of a saqiyah in the Ptolemaic Kingdom during the reign of Pharaoh Ptolemy IV Philopator in the late 3rd century BC.

The undershot water wheel and overshot water wheel, both animal- and water-driven, and with either a compartmented body (Latin tympanum) or a compartmented rim, were used by Hellenistic engineers between the 3rd and 2nd century BC. In 1st century BC, Roman architect Vitruvius described the function of the noria. Around 300, the Romans replaced the wooden compartments with separate, attached ceramic pots that were tied to the outside of an open-framed wheel, thereby creating the noria.

During the Islamic Golden Age, norias were adopted from classical antiquity by Muslim engineers, who made improvements to the noria. For example, the flywheel mechanism used to smooth out the delivery of power from a driving device to a driven machine, was invented by ibn Bassal (fl. 1038–1075) of al-Andalus, who pioneered the use of the flywheel in the noria and saqiyah. In 1206, Ismail al-Jazari introduced the use of the carank in the noria and saqiya, and the concept of minimizing intermittency was implied for the purpose of maximising their efficiency.

Muslim engineers used norias to discharge water into aqueducts which carried the water to towns and fields. The norias of Hama, for example, were 20 m in diameter and are still used in modern times (although currently only serving aesthetic purposes). The largest wheel has 120 water collection compartments and could raise more than 95 litres of water per minute. In the 10th century, Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi's Al-Hawi describes a noria in Iraq that could lift as much as 153,000 litres per hour, or 2550 litres per minute. This is comparable to the output of modern norias in East Asia, which can lift up to 288,000 litres per hour, or 4800 litres per minute.

In the late 13th century the Marinid sultan Abu Yaqub Yusuf built an enormous noria, sometimes referred to as the "Grand Noria", in order to provide water for the vast Mosara Garden he created in Fez, Morocco. Its construction began in 1286 and was finished the next year. The noria, designed by an Andalusian engineer named Ibn al-Hajj, measured 26 metres in diameter and 2 metres wide. The wheel was made of wood but covered in copper, fitted into a stone structure adjoined to a nearby city gate. After the decline of the Marinids both the gardens and the noria fell into neglect; the wheel of the noria reportedly disappeared in 1888, leaving only remains of the stone base.

Numerous norias were also built in Al-Andalus, during the Islamic period of the Iberian Peninsula (8th-15th centuries), and continued to be built by Christian Spanish engineers afterwards. The most famous are the Albolafia in Cordoba (of uncertain date, partly reconstructed today), along the Guadalquivir River, and a former noria in Toledo, along the Tagus River. According to al-Idrisi, the Toledo noria was especially large and could raise water from the river to an aqueduct over 40 meters above it, which then supplied water to the city. Norias and similar devices were also used on vast scale in some parts of Spain for agricultural purposes. The rice plantations of Valencia were said to have 8000 norias, while Mallorca had over 4000 animal-driven saqiyas which were in use up until the beginning of the 20th century. The Alcantarilla Noria near Murcia, a noria built in the 15th century under Spanish Christian rule, is one of the better-known examples to have survived to the present-day.

title: Noria


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Inia

Inia is a genus of river dolphins from South America containing one to four species.

Taxonomy
The genus was described by Alcide d'Orbigny in 1834 when Delphinus geoffrensis, described by Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville in 1817, was recognized to be a unique taxon. D'Orbigny also described Inia boliviensis as type species of the genus. A 1998 classification listed a single species, Inia geoffrensis, in the genus Inia, with three recognized subspecies. Most of the scientific community accepted this single species classification, as does the IUCN. As of 2016 the Committee on Taxonomy of the Society for Marine Mammalogy considers the genus Inia to contain one species with only two subspecies: the Bolivian (I. g. boliviensis) and the Amazon (I. g. geoffrensis) subspecies. In 2014, the population in the Araguaia-Tocantins basin was proposed to define an additional species, Inia araguaiaensis, but this remains debated. The American Society of Mammalogists recognizes the highest number of species at four, although this is only tentative, pending further studies which could either confirm or deny the classification.

American Society of Mammalogists Classification

Genus Inia

 * Species Inia araguaiaensis – Araguaian river dolphin
 * Species Inia boliviensis – Bolivian river dolphin
 * Species Inia geoffrensis – Amazon river dolphin
 * Species Inia humboldtiana – Orinoco river dolphin

IUCN Classification

Genus Inia Society For Marine Mammalogy Classification
 * Species Inia geoffrensis – Amazon river dolphin
 * Amazon Subspecies I. g. geoffrensis
 * Bolivian Subspecies I. g. boliviensis
 * Orinoco Subspecies I. g. humboldtiana

 * Genus Inia
 * Species Inia geoffrensis – Amazon river dolphin
 * Amazon Subspecies I. g. geoffrensis
 * Bolivian Subspecies I. g. boliviensis

title: Inia


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Roigheim

Roigheim is a small municipality in Southwest Germany, in Heilbronn County, situated along the Seckach river. With approximately 1,400 inhabitants, Roigheim is the smallest independent community in the German state (Bundesland) Baden-Württemberg. It is also the home of Pucaro Elektro-Isolierstoffe GmbH.

History
Archeologists have found remains that date back to the Stone Age. The first proof of a settlement comes from the Roman Empire at around 150 AD. The first time Roigheim was mentioned in a chronicle was in 1110 as Rohinkheim. In 1287 the small village became part of the area of the duke of Hohenlohe and only in 1504 it was bequeathed to Württemberg. It changed hands again in 1521 when it was given to the bishop of Würzburg. On 10 May 1719 there was a devastating fire in which 115 houses burned down. During most of its early history, the majority of the population was working the many farms. The moderate climate allowed the farming on the surrounding hillsides. In the 19th century a paper mill and a gypsum factory were built. The former continues to exist today as a factory for manufacturing insulation material for power plants with the name of Pucaro. Roigheim survived World War I relatively unharmed. World War II, however, brought the village closer to the front. In 1945 there were 356 refugees placed in Roigheim and about 50 foreign prisoners working in the gypsum factory. From Tuesday 3 April 1945 Roigheim was occupied by the Americans and the village became part of the American occupation zone. On 6 May 1946 there was the first election after the war but the people of Roigheim, still deeply rooted in traditional ideas, were not yet true democrats. The mayor, Christian Hübler, who was elected was only a pawn to be replaced by the former mayor, Eugen Reichert. Reichert had not been allowed to run for office in 1946 due to U.S. policy but after the three years had passed, in 1948, Hübler stepped down and was replaced by Reichert.

Origin of the name
There are two versions for the origin of the name Roigheim. One story says that Roigheim comes from the Alemannic warrior Roho who is supposed to have settled what he then named Rohingen before 500. When the Franconians conquered the villages they renamed it Rohinkheim. The second story claims that the founder of Roigheim was called Rohink. As he was a Franconian, he named the village Rohinkheim, heim being the customary ending for Franconian villages.

Facts and figures
Roigheim's area consists of 46% farm land, 32% wood, 4% waste land and water, 8% settled terrain, and 10% pastures (1980). In 1992 there were 72% Protestant-Lutheran, 18% Catholics, and 10% rest. This is a great contrast to 1907 when 98% were Protestant-Lutheran and 2% Catholic. The population has also experienced great change. In 1939 only 935 people were living in Roigheim. After that date the population increased rapidly to 1,620 in 1960 when it peaked. In 1992 the population had receded slightly to 1,498. In 1993, 6% of the population were citizens of other countries than Germany.

title: Roigheim


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Orcinus

Orcinus is a genus of Delphinidae, the family of carnivorous marine mammals known as dolphins. It includes the largest delphinid species, Orcinus orca, known as the orca or killer whale. Two extinct species are recognised, Orcinus paleorca and O. citoniensis, describing fossilised remains of the genus. The other extinct species O. meyeri is disputed.

Taxonomy
The genus Orcinus was published by Leopold Fitzinger in 1860, its type species is the orca named by Linnaeus in 1758 as Delphinus orca. Taxonomic arrangements of delphinids published by workers before and after Fitzinger, such as John Edward Gray as Orca in 1846 and Orca (Gladiator) in 1870, are recognised as synonyms of Orcinus. The descriptions of species as Orcinus glacialis Berzin and Vladimirov, 1983 and Orcinus nanus Mikhalev and Ivashin, 1981 are considered synonyms of Orcinus orca, the existing species of orca.

Orcinus means "of the kingdom of the dead", or "belonging to Orcus". This comes from Latin orca used by Ancient Romans for these animals, possibly borrowing Ancient Greek ὄρυξ (óryx) which referred (among other things) to a whale species, perhaps a narwhal. As part of the family Delphinidae, the species is more closely related to other oceanic dolphins than to other whales.

The published names for the genus and their relationship to other delphinids combined epithets such as orca, grampus, gladiator and orcinus throughout the nineteenth century. The instability of this uncertain synonymy was complicated by the repetition of mistakes, a lack of specimens and contradictory descriptions, especially by J. E. Gray. The beaching of whales in Eastern Australia (a female and male Grampus griseus) prompted a taxonomic revision in 1933, the authors Tom Iredale and Ellis Troughton proposed that the extensive use of "Grampus" be conserved as the generic name of orca (Orcinus orca) and that a new genus named Grampidelphis be established for Rissos dolphin (Grampus); the general stability of current species names emerged after the publication of the Philip Hershkovitz's Catalog of Living Whales (US National Museum, 1966).

The type of the genus is Delphinus orca, published by Linnaeus in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae. The type locality was named as "Oceano Europaeo".

Description
A genus of carnivorous marine mammals, cetaceans of the delphinid family, with teeth in the upper and lower jaws. They possess a large brain which is informed by sophisticated auditory and echolocation techniques. The existing population, known as orca or killer whale, are a well known apex predator readily distinguished by their great size, 7 to 10 metres long, and mostly black and white coloring. These are highly intelligent and gregarious animals, able to communicate, educate, and cooperate in hunting the largest marine animals. The ecotypes within this species complex may coexist in a region, with resident and transient pods being sympatric, but these are known to be genetically isolated. Distinctions within the living Orcinus population are often observed in unique social behaviours, their cultures, which provided a significant evolutionary advantage in moving from a diet of cephlapods and fish to other mammals.

The fossil remains of Orcinus species are frequently teeth, deposited during the Pliocene, especially in Italy. Orcinus citoniensis is known by a well preserved skull and jaw. This specimen was an animal smaller than the orca, around 4 metres in length, and possessed a greater number of proportionally smaller teeth.

The diet of modern orca is wide-ranging, although some ecotypes may be specialist fishers in a local range. Most delphinids feed on cephlapods, squid and octopuses, and earlier Orcinus species are thought to have also exploited this resource. The great size of orcas may have been the result of feeding 'up the foodchain', but the ability to prey on other mammals and the largest whales is proposed instead to be the result of exaptation. The social structure of orcas involves strategems that allow a pod to overcome animals greater in size than the individuals, whereas other great marine predators, such as Otodus megalodon, likely exceeded the size of their targets.

Distribution
A worldwide distribution in a wide range of habitats, deep oceans, continental shelves, arctic seas and coastal regions of every continent, including Antarctica. The modern orca is considered, after humans and their domestic animals, to be the most widely distributed mammal on the planet. Orcinus orca is able to forage at a range of coastal locations, in shallow waters, onto beaches and ice sheets, and into estuaries and rivers. They are not a common animal, but population density increases in favourable habitats of temperate and colder waters with residents and transients.

Fossil evidence of Orcinus species occur in a temporal range of 3.6 million years ago until the present day. The most ancient species Orcinus meyeri refers to fossils of a partial jaw and teeth located at the early Miocene horizon of a site near Stockach in Germany.

Classification
The classification of Orcinus within subfamilies of delphinids may be summarised as:
 * Delphinidae
 * Delphininae
 * Lissodelphininae
 * Globicephalinae
 * Orcininae
 * Orcinus
 * Orcinus citoniensis Capellini, 1883.
 * Orcinus meyeri J. F. Brandt, 1873.
 * Orcinus orca = Delphinus orca Linnaeus, 1758. The existing population, a complex predicted to include cryptic species and subspecies
 * Orcinus paleorca H. Matsumoto, 1937.
 * Subfamily incertae sedis (Lagenorhynchus albirostris, Lagenorhynchus acutus)

The extant population is considered as a single species, although previously recognised diversity of orca populations suggests a number of cryptic species and subspecies may be recognised. Other members of Orcininae were moved to Globicephalinae, and the relation of Orcinus with other dolphins is unknown.

title: Orcinus


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Talk:Social network analysis

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 16 September 2019 and 18 December 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Jbarnesatm.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 09:39, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Weighted networks
I just added a page for weighted networks, any idea on how to link to this page, which I believe form part of social network analysis?

"Networks in Political Science" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect Networks in Political Science and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Steel1943 (talk) 22:39, 12 December 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Social network analysis


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Creative problem-solving

Creative problem-solving (CPS) is the mental process of searching for an original and previously unknown solution to a problem. To qualify, the solution must be novel and reached independently. The creative problem-solving process was originally developed by Alex Osborn and Sid Parnes. Creative problem solving (CPS) is a way of using creativity to develop new ideas and solutions to problems. The process is based on separating divergent and convergent thinking styles, so that one can focus their mind on creating at the first stage, and then evaluating at the second stage.

Creative solution types
The process of creative problem-solving usually begins with defining the problem. This may lead to finding a simple non-creative solution, a textbook solution, or discovering prior solutions developed by other individuals. If the discovered solution is sufficient, the process may then be abandoned.

A creative solution will often have distinct characteristics that include using only existing components, or the problematic factor, as the basis for the solution. However, a change of perspective may in many cases be helpful. A solution may also be considered creative if readily available components can be used to solve the problem within a short time limit.

If a creative solution has a broad application, such that the usage goes beyond the original intent, it may be referred to as an innovative solution, or an innovation (some innovations may also be considered an invention).

Techniques and tools
Many techniques and tools employed for creating effective solutions to a problem are described in creativity techniques and problem-solving articles.

Creative problem-solving technique categories

 * Mental state shift and cognitive re-framing: Changing one's focus away from active problem-solving and towards a creative solution set.
 * Multiple idea facilitation: Increasing the quantity of fresh ideas based on the belief that a greater number of ideas will raise the chances that one of these is valuable. This may include randomly selecting an idea (such as choosing a word from a list) and thinking about its similarities to the situation. In turn, this random act may inspire a related idea that would lead to a solution.
 * Inducing a change of perspective: Efficiently entering a fresh perspective may result in a solution that thereby becomes obvious. This is especially useful for solving particularly challenging problems. Many techniques to this end involve identifying independent dimensions that differentiate closely associated concepts. Differentiating concepts help overcome a tendency to use oversimplified associative thinking, in which two related concepts are so closely associated that their differences are overlooked.

Idea generation techniques
Creativity processes use these influencing factors as they support the search for ideas, problem solving and evaluation, and selection of ideas via rules, a group of people, and a creative process.
 * Brainstorming: Brainstorming is an idea generation method invented by Alex Osborn and further developed by Charles Hutchison Clark. Brainstorming aims to encourage the generation of new and unusual ideas in a group of people. Alex Osborn based his development of brainstorming on the Indian technique Prai-Barshana, which has been around for about 400 years. He named brainstorming after the idea of this method, namely "using the brain to storm a problem."
 * Creative Thinking: Coming up with ideas, especially innovative ideas, needs creativity and can be supported by certain creativity techniques. The creativity process is usually applied through a person, product, process, and place. Thus, creativity means that a creative person develops great ideas and novel products through a creative process in a creative environment.
 * Design thinking: Design thinking is an approach to problem-solving and ideation process that works through four key elements.

 * 1) The user as the starting point
 * 2) Interdisciplinary team
 * 3) Iterative process
 * 4) Creative environment.  In the design thinking process, the 'customer's needs are first determined through an iterative process and a question is defined, then creative solutions and ideas are generated through brainstorming and visualized via prototypes for user feedback.
 * Complex Opportunity Recognition Techniques: Opportunity Recognition describes the identification of opportunities to generate growth for companies. The different idea generation techniques of opportunity recognition are based either on the market, the company, or the company's environment. In order for this approach to be suitable for young companies, it must fulfill the following attributes:

 * 1) Not too resource-intensive
 * 2) Suitable for workshops
 * 3) High growth potential
 * 4) Don't require existing structures or certain age of the company

Related articles

 * Creativity
 * Collective problem solving
 * Frugal innovation
 * Invention
 * Lateral thinking
 * Problem structuring methods
 * Systems thinking
 * TRIZ

Related lists

 * List of thought processes
 * List of cognitive biases
 * List of creative thought processes
 * List of decision-making processes
 * List of emotional intelligence topics
 * List of emerging technologies
 * List of counseling topics

title: Creative problem-solving


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User talk:SirJective

Please add new sections at the bottom for new topics and inform me about new topics on my german talk page, since I am not logging into the english Wikipedia regularly. When you start a new topic on my talk page, I'll answer only here, unless you ask me to answer somewhere else.

When I start a new topic on your talk page, you needn't answer here (since then I'll have an eye on it for some days). Should you answer some days later, please leave a link to your talk page on my german talk page.

parenthesis/-ses
You wrote on my talk page: I see, you corrected the spelling in my new list. Thank you for that. Am I right that "parenthesis" is singular and "parentheses" is plural? So the title Parenthesis is acceptable, isn't it? --SirJective 13:49, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * It's slightly more complicated than that. The singular word "parenthesis" can refer to a single round bracket of either orientation or to a phrase contained within parentheses (the latter word indeed being the plural of "parenthesis"). I'm afraid I might have got a little muddled up on your page: I probably should have changed all of them or none to stay consistent. I'll have a little think about it, and maybe try fixing it up; or maybe you might want to do it yourself? --Phil | Talk 14:04, Oct 6, 2004 (UTC)

 * Oh, I didn't know that. I only referred to the "round brackets", not to the text within them, but of course the topic of the list are the articles having a trailing parenthesis (there are lots of articles having a starting or middle parenthesis). So "parenthesis" seems to be a correct title for the list.
 * I think you have more intuition about the use of these variants, so I'd thank you for fixing it. Maybe a link to a WP page explaining the preferred use of a parenthesis in article titles (some naming convention) could be useful. --SirJective 14:27, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Howstuffworks
Thanks for performing my query. :) [[User:MacGyverMagic|Mgm|(talk)]] 21:15, Nov 8, 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:SirJective


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Uranium hexafluoride

Uranium hexafluoride, sometimes called hex, is an inorganic compound with the formula UF6. Uranium hexafluoride is a volatile and toxic white solid that reacts with water, releasing corrosive hydrofluoric acid. The compound reacts mildly with aluminium, forming a thin surface layer of AlF3 that resists any further reaction from the compound. UF6 is used in the process of enriching uranium, which produces fuel for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons.

Preparation
Milled uranium ore—U3O8 or "yellowcake"—is dissolved in nitric acid, yielding a solution of uranyl nitrate UO2(NO3)2. Pure uranyl nitrate is obtained by solvent extraction, then treated with ammonia to produce ammonium diuranate ("ADU", [NH4]2U2O7). Reduction with hydrogen gives UO2, which is converted with hydrofluoric acid (HF) to uranium tetrafluoride, UF4. Oxidation with fluorine yields UF6.

The Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility uses a different process.

During nuclear reprocessing, uranium is reacted with chlorine trifluoride to give UF6:
 * U + 2 ClF3 → UF6 + Cl2

Physical properties
At atmospheric pressure, UF6 sublimes at 56.5 °C.

The solid-state structure was determined by neutron diffraction at 77 K and 293 K.

Chemical properties
It has been shown that uranium hexafluoride is an oxidant and a Lewis acid that is able to bind to fluoride; for instance, the reaction of copper(II) fluoride with uranium hexafluoride in acetonitrile is reported to form copper(II) heptafluorouranate(VI), Cu(2+)[UF7−]2.

Polymeric uranium(VI) fluorides containing organic cations have been isolated and characterized by X-ray diffraction.

Application in the fuel cycle
As one of the most volatile compounds of uranium, uranium hexafluoride is relatively convenient to process and is used in both of the main uranium enrichment methods, namely gaseous diffusion and the gas centrifuge method. Since the triple point of UF6; 64 °C(147 °F; 337 K) and 152 kPa (22 psi; 1.5 atm); is close to ambient conditions, phase transitions can be achieved with little thermodynamic work.

Fluorine has only a single naturally occurring stable isotope, so isotopologues of UF6 differ in their molecular weight based solely on the uranium isotope present. This difference is the basis for the physical separation of isotopes in enrichment.

All the other uranium fluorides are nonvolatile solids that are coordination polymers.

The conversion factor for the ^{238}U isotopologue of UF6 ("hex") to "U mass" is 0.676.

Gaseous diffusion requires about 60 times as much energy as the gas centrifuge process: gaseous diffusion-produced nuclear fuel produces 25 times more energy than is used in the diffusion process, while centrifuge-produced fuel produces 1,500 times more energy than is used in the centrifuge process.

In addition to its use in enrichment, uranium hexafluoride has been used in an advanced reprocessing method (fluoride volatility), which was developed in the Czech Republic. In this process, spent nuclear fuel is treated with fluorine gas to transform the oxides or elemental metals into a mixture of fluorides. This mixture is then distilled to separate the different classes of material. Some fission products form nonvolatile fluorides which remain as solids and can then either be prepared for storage as nuclear waste or further processed either by solvation-based methods or electrochemically.

Uranium enrichment produces large quantities of depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6 or D-UF6) as a waste product. The long-term storage of D-UF6 presents environmental, health, and safety risks because of its chemical instability. When UF6 is exposed to moist air, it reacts with the water in the air to produce UO2F2 (uranyl fluoride) and HF (hydrogen fluoride) both of which are highly corrosive and toxic. In 2005, 686,500 tonnes of D-UF6 was housed in 57,122 storage cylinders located near Portsmouth, Ohio; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and Paducah, Kentucky. Storage cylinders must be regularly inspected for signs of corrosion and leaks. The estimated lifetime of the steel cylinders is measured in decades.

Accidents and disposal
There have been several accidents involving uranium hexafluoride in the US, including a cylinder-filling accident and material release at the Sequoyah Fuels Corporation in 1986 where an estimated 29 500 pounds of gaseous UF6 escaped. The U.S. government has been converting DUF6 to solid uranium oxides for disposal. Such disposal of the entire DUF6 stockpile could cost anywhere from $15 million to $450 million.

title: Uranium hexafluoride


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Ulam

Ulam may refer to:

 * ULAM, the ICAO airport code for Naryan-Mar Airport, Russia
 * Ulam (surname)
 * Ulam (salad), a type of Malay salad
 * Ulam, a Filipino term loosely translated to viand or side dish; see Tapa (Filipino cuisine)
 * Ulam, the language spoken by prehistoric humans in the movie Quest for Fire
 * Ulam, the name of the porch of Solomon's Temple held up by the pillars

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Anthropocene

The Anthropocene was the name for a proposed geological epoch, dating from the commencement of significant human impact on Earth up to the present day. This impact affects Earth's geology, landscape, limnology, ecosystems and climate. The effects of human activities on Earth can be seen for example in biodiversity loss and climate change. Various start dates for the Anthropocene have been proposed, ranging from the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution (12,000–15,000 years ago), to as recently as the 1960s as a starting date. The biologist Eugene F. Stoermer is credited with first coining and using the term anthropocene informally in the 1980s; Paul J. Crutzen re-invented and popularized the term. However, in 2024 the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) and the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) rejected the Anthropocene Epoch proposal for inclusion in the Geologic Time Scale.

The Anthropocene Working Group of the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS) of the ICS voted in April 2016 to proceed towards a formal golden spike (GSSP) proposal to define the Anthropocene epoch in the geologic time scale. The group presented the proposal to the International Geological Congress in August 2016.

In May 2019, the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) voted in favour of submitting a formal proposal to the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) by 2021. The proposal located potential stratigraphic markers to the mid-20th century. This time period coincides with the start of the Great Acceleration, a post-World War II time period during which global population growth, pollution and exploitation of natural resources have all increased at a dramatic rate. The Atomic Age also started around the mid-20th century, when the risks of nuclear wars, nuclear terrorism and nuclear accidents increased.

Twelve candidate sites were selected for the GSSP; the sediments of Crawford Lake, Canada were finally proposed, in July 2023, to mark the lower boundary of the Anthropocene, starting with the Crawfordian stage/age in 1950.

In March 2024, after 15 years of deliberation, the Anthropocene Epoch proposal of the AWG was voted down by a wide margin by the SQS, owing largely to its shallow sedimentary record and extremely recent proposed start date. The ICS and the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) later formally confirmed, by a near unanimous vote, the rejection of the AWG's Anthropocene Epoch proposal for inclusion in the Geologic Time Scale. The IUGS statement on the rejection concluded: "Despite its rejection as a formal unit of the Geologic Time Scale, Anthropocene will nevertheless continue to be used not only by Earth and environmental scientists, but also by social scientists, politicians and economists, as well as by the public at large. It will remain an invaluable descriptor of human impact on the Earth system."

Development of the concept
An early concept for the Anthropocene was the Noosphere by Vladimir Vernadsky, who in 1938 wrote of "scientific thought as a geological force". Scientists in the Soviet Union appear to have used the term Anthropocene as early as the 1960s to refer to the Quaternary, the most recent geological period.

Ecologist Eugene F. Stoermer subsequently used Anthropocene with a different sense in the 1980s and the term was widely popularised in 2000 by atmospheric chemist Paul J. Crutzen, who regards the influence of human behavior on Earth's atmosphere in recent centuries as so significant as to constitute a new geological epoch.

The term Anthropocene is informally used in scientific contexts. The Geological Society of America entitled its 2011 annual meeting: Archean to Anthropocene: The past is the key to the future. The new epoch has no agreed start-date, but one proposal, based on atmospheric evidence, is to fix the start with the Industrial Revolution c. 1780, with the invention of the steam engine. Other scientists link the new term to earlier events, such as the rise of agriculture and the Neolithic Revolution (around 12,000 years BP).

Evidence of relative human impact – such as the growing human influence on land use, ecosystems, biodiversity, and species extinction – is substantial; scientists think that human impact has significantly changed (or halted) the growth of biodiversity. Those arguing for earlier dates posit that the proposed Anthropocene may have begun as early as 14,000–15,000 years BP, based on geologic evidence; this has led other scientists to suggest that "the onset of the Anthropocene should be extended back many thousand years"; this would make the Anthropocene essentially synonymous with the current term, Holocene.

Anthropocene Working Group
In 2008, the Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological Society of London considered a proposal to make the Anthropocene a formal unit of geological epoch divisions. A majority of the commission decided the proposal had merit and should be examined further. Independent working groups of scientists from various geological societies have begun to determine whether the Anthropocene will be formally accepted into the Geological Time Scale.

In January 2015, 26 of the 38 members of the International Anthropocene Working Group published a paper suggesting the Trinity test on 16 July 1945 as the starting point of the proposed new epoch. However, a significant minority supports one of several alternative dates. A March 2015 report suggested either 1610 or 1964 as the beginning of the Anthropocene. Other scholars point to the diachronous character of the physical strata of the Anthropocene, arguing that onset and impact are spread out over time, not reducible to a single instant or date of start.

A January 2016 report on the climatic, biological, and geochemical signatures of human activity in sediments and ice cores suggested the era since the mid-20th century should be recognised as a geological epoch distinct from the Holocene.

The Anthropocene Working Group met in Oslo in April 2016 to consolidate evidence supporting the argument for the Anthropocene as a true geologic epoch. Evidence was evaluated and the group voted to recommend Anthropocene as the new geological epoch in August 2016. Should the International Commission on Stratigraphy approve the recommendation, the proposal to adopt the term will have to be ratified by the IUGS before its formal adoption as part of the geologic time scale.

In April 2019, the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) announced that they would vote on a formal proposal to the International Commission on Stratigraphy, to continue the process started at the 2016 meeting. In May 2019, 29 members of the 34 person AWG panel voted in favour of an official proposal to be made by 2021. The AWG also voted with 29 votes in favour of a starting date in the mid 20th century. Ten candidate sites for a Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point have been identified, one of which will be chosen to be included in the final proposal. Possible markers include microplastics, heavy metals, or radioactive nuclei left by tests from thermonuclear weapons.

In November 2021, an alternative proposal that the Anthropocene is a geological event, not an epoch, was published and later expanded in 2022. This challenged the assumption underlying the case for the Anthropocene epoch - the idea that it is possible to accurately assign a precise date of start to highly diachronous processes of human-influenced Earth system change. The argument indicated that finding a single GSSP would be impractical, given human-induced changes in the Earth system occurred at different periods, in different places, and spread under different rates. Under this model, the Anthropocene would have many events marking human-induced impacts on the planet, including the mass extinction of large vertebrates, the development of early farming, land clearance in the Americas, global-scale industrial transformation during the Industrial Revolution, and the start of the Atomic Age. The authors are members of the AWG who had voted against the official proposal of a starting date in the mid-20th century, and sought to reconcile some of the previous models (including Ruddiman and Maslin proposals). They cited Crutzen's original concept, arguing that the Anthropocene is much better and more usefully conceived of as an unfolding geological event, like other major transformations in Earth's history such as the Great Oxidation Event.

In July 2023, the AWG chose Crawford Lake in Ontario, Canada as a site representing the beginning of the proposed new epoch. The sediment in that lake shows a spike in levels of plutonium from hydrogen bomb tests, a key marker the group chose to place the start of the Anthropocene in the 1950s, along with other elevated markers including carbon particles and nitrates from the burning of fossil fuels and widespread application of chemical fertilizers respectively. Had it been approved, the official declaration of the new Anthropocene epoch would have taken place in August 2024, and its first age may have been named Crawfordian after the lake.

Rejection in 2024 vote by IUGS
In March 2024, the New York Times reported on the results of an internal vote held by the IUGS: After nearly 15 years of debate, the proposal to ratify the Anthropocene had been defeated by a 12-to-4 margin, with 2 abstentions. These results were not out of a dismissal of human impact on the planet, but rather an inability to constrain the Anthropocene in a geological context. This is because the widely-adopted 1950 start date was found to be prone to recency bias. It also overshadowed earlier examples of human impacts, many of which happened in different parts of the world at different times. Although the proposal could be raised again, this would require the entire process of debate to start from the beginning. The results of the vote were officially confirmed by the IUGS and upheld as definitive later that month.

Industrial Revolution
Crutzen proposed the Industrial Revolution as the start of Anthropocene. Lovelock proposes that the Anthropocene began with the first application of the Newcomen atmospheric engine in 1712. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change takes the pre-industrial era (chosen as the year 1750) as the baseline related to changes in long-lived, well mixed greenhouse gases. Although it is apparent that the Industrial Revolution ushered in an unprecedented global human impact on the planet, much of Earth's landscape already had been profoundly modified by human activities. The human impact on Earth has grown progressively, with few substantial slowdowns. A 2024 scientific perspective paper authored by a group of scientists led by William J. Ripple proposed the start of the Anthropocene around 1850, stating it is a "compelling choice . . . from a population, fossil fuel, greenhouse gasses, temperature, and land use perspective."

Mid 20th century (Great Acceleration)
In May 2019 the twenty-nine members of the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) proposed a start date for the Epoch in the mid-20th century, as that period saw "a rapidly rising human population accelerated the pace of industrial production, the use of agricultural chemicals and other human activities. At the same time, the first atomic-bomb blasts littered the globe with radioactive debris that became embedded in sediments and glacial ice, becoming part of the geologic record." The official start-dates, according to the panel, would coincide with either the radionuclides released into the atmosphere from bomb detonations in 1945, or with the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963.

First atomic bomb (1945)
The peak in radionuclides fallout consequential to atomic bomb testing during the 1950s is another possible date for the beginning of the Anthropocene (the detonation of the first atomic bomb in 1945 or the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963).

Etymology
The name Anthropocene is a combination of anthropo- from the Ancient Greek ἄνθρωπος meaning 'human' and -cene from καινός  meaning 'new' or 'recent'.

As early as 1873, the Italian geologist Antonio Stoppani acknowledged the increasing power and effect of humanity on the Earth's systems and referred to an 'anthropozoic era'.

Biodiversity loss
The human impact on biodiversity forms one of the primary attributes of the Anthropocene. Humankind has entered what is sometimes called the Earth's sixth major extinction. Most experts agree that human activities have accelerated the rate of species extinction. The exact rate remains controversial – perhaps 100 to 1000 times the normal background rate of extinction.

Anthropogenic extinctions started as humans migrated out of Africa over 60,000 years ago. Increases in global rates of extinction have been elevated above background rates since at least 1500, and appear to have accelerated in the 19th century and further since. Rapid economic growth is considered a primary driver of the contemporary displacement and eradication of other species.

According to the 2021 Economics of Biodiversity review, written by Partha Dasgupta and published by the UK government, "biodiversity is declining faster than at any time in human history." A 2022 scientific review published in Biological Reviews confirms that an anthropogenic sixth mass extinction event is currently underway. A 2022 study published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, which surveyed more than 3,000 experts, states that the extinction crisis could be worse than previously thought, and estimates that roughly 30% of species "have been globally threatened or driven extinct since the year 1500." According to a 2023 study published in Biological Reviews some 48% of 70,000 monitored species are experiencing population declines from human activity, whereas only 3% have increasing populations.

Biogeography and nocturnality
Studies of urban evolution give an indication of how species may respond to stressors such as temperature change and toxicity. Species display varying abilities to respond to altered environments through both phenotypic plasticity and genetic evolution. Researchers have documented the movement of many species into regions formerly too cold for them, often at rates faster than initially expected.

Permanent changes in the distribution of organisms from human influence will become identifiable in the geologic record. This has occurred in part as a result of changing climate, but also in response to farming and fishing, and to the accidental introduction of non-native species to new areas through global travel. The ecosystem of the entire Black Sea may have changed during the last 2000 years as a result of nutrient and silica input from eroding deforested lands along the Danube River.

Researchers have found that the growth of the human population and expansion of human activity has resulted in many species of animals that are normally active during the day, such as elephants, tigers and boars, becoming nocturnal to avoid contact with humans, who are largely diurnal.

Climate change
One geological symptom resulting from human activity is increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide content. This signal in the Earth's climate system is especially significant because it is occurring much faster, and to a greater extent, than previously. Most of this increase is due to the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas.

Geomorphology
Changes in drainage patterns traceable to human activity will persist over geologic time in large parts of the continents where the geologic regime is erosional. This involves, for example, the paths of roads and highways defined by their grading and drainage control. Direct changes to the form of the Earth's surface by human activities (quarrying and landscaping, for example) also record human impacts.

It has been suggested that the deposition of calthemite formations exemplify a natural process which has not previously occurred prior to the human modification of the Earth's surface, and which therefore represents a unique process of the Anthropocene. Calthemite is a secondary deposit, derived from concrete, lime, mortar or other calcareous material outside the cave environment. Calthemites grow on or under man-made structures (including mines and tunnels) and mimic the shapes and forms of cave speleothems, such as stalactites, stalagmites, flowstone etc.

Sedimentological record
Human activities like deforestation and road construction are believed to have elevated average total sediment fluxes across the Earth's surface. However, construction of dams on many rivers around the world means the rates of sediment deposition in any given place do not always appear to increase in the Anthropocene. For instance, many river deltas around the world are actually currently starved of sediment by such dams, and are subsiding and failing to keep up with sea level rise, rather than growing.

Fossil record
Increases in erosion due to farming and other operations will be reflected by changes in sediment composition and increases in deposition rates elsewhere. In land areas with a depositional regime, engineered structures will tend to be buried and preserved, along with litter and debris. Litter and debris thrown from boats or carried by rivers and creeks will accumulate in the marine environment, particularly in coastal areas, but also in mid-ocean garbage patches. Such human-created artifacts preserved in stratigraphy are known as "technofossils". Changes in biodiversity will also be reflected in the fossil record, as will species introductions. An example cited is the domestic chicken, originally the red junglefowl Gallus gallus, native to south-east Asia but has since become the world's most common bird through human breeding and consumption, with over 60 billion consumed annually and whose bones would become fossilised in landfill sites. Hence, landfills are important resources to find "technofossils".

Trace elements
In terms of trace elements, there are distinct signatures left by modern societies. For example, in the Upper Fremont Glacier in Wyoming, there is a layer of chlorine present in ice cores from 1960's atomic weapon testing programs, as well as a layer of mercury associated with coal plants in the 1980s.

From the late 1940s, nuclear tests have led to local nuclear fallout and severe contamination of test sites both on land and in the surrounding marine environment. Some of the radionuclides that were released during the tests are $137$Cs, $90$Sr, $239$Pu, $240$Pu, $241$Am, and $131$I. These have been found to have had significant impact on the environment and on human beings. In particular, $137$Cs and $90$Sr have been found to have been released into the marine environment and led to bioaccumulation over a period through food chain cycles. The carbon isotope $14$C, commonly released during nuclear tests, has also been found to be integrated into the atmospheric CO$2$, and infiltrating the biosphere, through ocean-atmosphere gas exchange. Increase in thyroid cancer rates around the world is also surmised to be correlated with increasing proportions of the $131$I radionuclide.

The highest global concentration of radionuclides was estimated to have been in 1965, one of the dates which has been proposed as a possible benchmark for the start of the formally defined Anthropocene.

Human burning of fossil fuels has also left distinctly elevated concentrations of black carbon, inorganic ash, and spherical carbonaceous particles in recent sediments across the world. Concentrations of these components increases markedly and almost simultaneously around the world beginning around 1950.

Anthropocene markers
A marker that accounts for a substantial global impact of humans on the total environment, comparable in scale to those associated with significant perturbations of the geological past, is needed in place of minor changes in atmosphere composition.

A useful candidate for holding markers in the geologic time record is the pedosphere. Soils retain information about their climatic and geochemical history with features lasting for centuries or millennia. Human activity is now firmly established as the sixth factor of soil formation. Humanity affects pedogenesis directly by, for example, land levelling, trenching and embankment building, landscape-scale control of fire by early humans, organic matter enrichment from additions of manure or other waste, organic matter impoverishment due to continued cultivation and compaction from overgrazing. Human activity also affects pedogenesis indirectly by drift of eroded materials or pollutants. Anthropogenic soils are those markedly affected by human activities, such as repeated ploughing, the addition of fertilisers, contamination, sealing, or enrichment with artefacts (in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources they are classified as Anthrosols and Technosols). An example from archaeology would be dark earth phenomena when long-term human habitation enriches the soil with black carbon.

Anthropogenic soils are recalcitrant repositories of artefacts and properties that testify to the dominance of the human impact, and hence appear to be reliable markers for the Anthropocene. Some anthropogenic soils may be viewed as the 'golden spikes' of geologists (Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point), which are locations where there are strata successions with clear evidences of a worldwide event, including the appearance of distinctive fossils. Drilling for fossil fuels has also created holes and tubes which are expected to be detectable for millions of years. The astrobiologist David Grinspoon has proposed that the site of the Apollo 11 Lunar landing, with the disturbances and artifacts that are so uniquely characteristic of our species' technological activity and which will survive over geological time spans could be considered as the 'golden spike' of the Anthropocene.

An October 2020 study coordinated by University of Colorado at Boulder found that distinct physical, chemical and biological changes to Earth's rock layers began around the year 1950. The research revealed that since about 1950, humans have doubled the amount of fixed nitrogen on the planet through industrial production for agriculture, created a hole in the ozone layer through the industrial scale release of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), released enough greenhouse gasses from fossil fuels to cause planetary level climate change, created tens of thousands of synthetic mineral-like compounds that do not naturally occur on Earth, and caused almost one-fifth of river sediment worldwide to no longer reach the ocean due to dams, reservoirs and diversions. Humans have produced so many millions of tons of plastic each year since the early 1950s that microplastics are "forming a near-ubiquitous and unambiguous marker of Anthropocene". The study highlights a strong correlation between global human population size and growth, global productivity and global energy use and that the "extraordinary outburst of consumption and productivity demonstrates how the Earth System has departed from its Holocene state since c. 1950 CE, forcing abrupt physical, chemical and biological changes to the Earth's stratigraphic record that can be used to justify the proposal for naming a new epoch—the Anthropocene."

A December 2020 study published in Nature found that the total anthropogenic mass, or human-made materials, outweighs all the biomass on earth, and highlighted that "this quantification of the human enterprise gives a mass-based quantitative and symbolic characterization of the human-induced epoch of the Anthropocene."

Debates

Although the validity of Anthropocene as a scientific term remains disputed, its underlying premise, i.e., that humans have become a geological force, or rather, the dominant force shaping the Earth's climate, has found traction among academics and the public. In an opinion piece for Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Rodolfo Dirzo, Gerardo Ceballos, and Paul R. Ehrlich write that the term is "increasingly penetrating the lexicon of not only the academic socio-sphere, but also society more generally", and is now included as an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary. The University of Cambridge, as another example, offers a degree in Anthropocene Studies. In the public sphere, the term Anthropocene has become increasingly ubiquitous in activist, pundit, and political discourses. Some who are critical of the term Anthropocene nevertheless concede that "For all its problems, [it] carries power." The popularity and currency of the word has led scholars to label the term a "charismatic meta-category" or "charismatic mega-concept." The term, regardless, has been subject to a variety of criticisms from social scientists, philosophers, Indigenous scholars, and others.

The anthropologist John Hartigan has argued that due to its status as a charismatic meta-category, the term Anthropocene marginalizes competing, but less visible, concepts such as that of "multispecies." The more salient charge is that the ready acceptance of Anthropocene is due to its conceptual proximity to the status quo – that is, to notions of human individuality and centrality.

Other scholars appreciate the way in which the term Anthropocene recognizes humanity as a geological force, but take issue with the indiscriminate way in which it does. Not all humans are equally responsible for the climate crisis. To that end, scholars such as the feminist theorist Donna Haraway and sociologist Jason Moore, have suggested naming the Epoch instead as the Capitalocene. Such implies capitalism as the fundamental reason for the ecological crisis, rather than just humans in general. However, according to philosopher Steven Best, humans have created "hierarchical and growth-addicted societies" and have demonstrated "ecocidal proclivities" long before the emergence of capitalism. Hartigan, Bould, and Haraway all critique what Anthropocene does as a term; however, Hartigan and Bould differ from Haraway in that they criticize the utility or validity of a geological framing of the climate crisis, whereas Haraway embraces it.

In addition to "Capitalocene," other terms have also been proposed by scholars to trace the roots of the Epoch to causes other than the human species broadly. Janae Davis, for example, has suggested the "Plantationocene" as a more appropriate term to call attention to the role that plantation agriculture has played in the formation of the Epoch, alongside Kathryn Yusoff's argument that racism as a whole is foundational to the Epoch. The Plantationocene concept traces "the ways that plantation logics organize modern economies, environments, bodies, and social relations." In a similar vein, Indigenous studies scholars such as Métis geographer Zoe Todd have argued that the Epoch must be dated back to the colonization of the Americas, as this "names the problem of colonialism as responsible for contemporary environmental crisis." Potawatomi philosopher Kyle Powys Whyte has further argued that the Anthropocene has been apparent to Indigenous peoples in the Americas since the inception of colonialism because of "colonialism's role in environmental change."

Other critiques of Anthropocene have focused on the genealogy of the concept. Todd also provides a phenomenological account, which draws on the work of the philosopher Sara Ahmed, writing: "When discourses and responses to the Anthropocene are being generated within institutions and disciplines which are embedded in broader systems that act as de facto 'white public space,' the academy and its power dynamics must be challenged." Other aspects which constitute current understandings of the concept of the Anthropocene such as the ontological split between nature and society, the assumption of the centrality and individuality of the human, and the framing of environmental discourse in largely scientific terms have been criticized by scholars as concepts rooted in colonialism and which reinforce systems of postcolonial domination. To that end, Todd makes the case that the concept of Anthropocene must be indigenized and decolonized if it is to become a vehicle of justice as opposed to white thought and domination.

The scholar Daniel Wildcat, a Yuchi member of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma, for example, has emphasized spiritual connection to the land as a crucial tenet for any ecological movement. Similarly, in her study of the Ladakhi people in northern India, the anthropologist Karine Gagné, detailed their understanding of the relation between nonhuman and human agency as one that is deeply intimate and mutual. For the Ladakhi, the nonhuman alters the epistemic, ethical, and affective development of humans – it provides a way of "being in the world." The Ladakhi, who live in the Himalayas, for example, have seen the retreat of the glaciers not just as a physical loss, but also as the loss of entities which generate knowledge, compel ethical reflections, and foster intimacy. Other scholars have similarly emphasized the need to return to notions of relatedness and interdependence with nature. The writer Jenny Odell has written about what Robin Wall Kimmerer calls "species loneliness," the loneliness which occurs from the separation of the human and the nonhuman, and the anthropologist Radhika Govindrajan has theorized on the ethics of care, or relatedness, which govern relations between humans and animals. Scholars are divided on whether to do away with the term Anthropocene or co-opt it.

"Early anthropocene" model
William Ruddiman has argued that the Anthropocene began approximately 8,000 years ago with the development of farming and sedentary cultures. At that point, humans were dispersed across all continents except Antarctica, and the Neolithic Revolution was ongoing. During this period, humans developed agriculture and animal husbandry to supplement or replace hunter-gatherer subsistence. Such innovations were followed by a wave of extinctions, beginning with large mammals and terrestrial birds. This wave was driven by both the direct activity of humans (e.g. hunting) and the indirect consequences of land-use change for agriculture. Landscape-scale burning by prehistoric hunter-gathers may have been an additional early source of anthropogenic atmospheric carbon. Ruddiman also claims that the greenhouse gas emissions in-part responsible for the Anthropocene began 8,000 years ago when ancient farmers cleared forests to grow crops.

Ruddiman's work has been challenged with data from an earlier interglaciation ("Stage 11", approximately 400,000 years ago) which suggests that 16,000 more years must elapse before the current Holocene interglaciation comes to an end, and thus the early anthropogenic hypothesis is invalid. Also, the argument that "something" is needed to explain the differences in the Holocene is challenged by more recent research showing that all interglacials are different.

Homogenocene
Homogenocene (from old Greek: homo-, same; geno-, kind; kainos-, new;) is a more specific term used to define our current epoch, in which biodiversity is diminishing and biogeography and ecosystems around the globe seem more and more similar to one another mainly due to invasive species that have been introduced around the globe either on purpose (crops, livestock) or inadvertently. This is due to the newfound globalism that humans participate in, as species traveling across the world to another region was not as easily possible in any point of time in history as it is today.

The term Homogenocene was first used by Michael Samways in his editorial article in the Journal of Insect Conservation from 1999 titled "Translocating fauna to foreign lands: Here comes the Homogenocene."

The term was used again by John L. Curnutt in the year 2000 in Ecology, in a short list titled "A Guide to the Homogenocene", which reviewed Alien species in North America and Hawaii: impacts on natural ecosystems by George Cox. Charles C. Mann, in his acclaimed book 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, gives a bird's-eye view of the mechanisms and ongoing implications of the homogenocene.

Humanities
The concept of the Anthropocene has also been approached via humanities such as philosophy, literature and art. In the scholarly world, it has been the subject of increasing attention through special journals, conferences, and disciplinary reports. The Anthropocene, its attendant timescale, and ecological implications prompt questions about death and the end of civilisation, memory and archives, the scope and methods of humanistic inquiry, and emotional responses to the "end of nature". Some scholars have posited that the realities of the Anthropocene, including "human-induced biodiversity loss, exponential increases in per-capita resource consumption, and global climate change," have made the goal of environmental sustainability largely unattainable and obsolete.

Historians have actively engaged the Anthropocene. In 2000, the same year that Paul Crutzen coined the term, world historian John McNeill published Something New Under the Sun, tracing the rise of human societies' unprecedented impact on the planet in the twentieth century. In 2001, historian of science Naomi Oreskes revealed the systematic efforts to undermine trust in climate change science and went on to detail the corporate interests delaying action on the environmental challenge. Both McNeill and Oreskes became members of the Anthropocene Working Group because of their work correlating human activities and planetary transformation.

Popular culture

 * In 2019, the English musician Nick Mulvey released a music video on YouTube named "In the Anthropocene". In cooperation with Sharp's Brewery, the song was recorded on 105 vinyl records made of washed-up plastic from the Cornish coast.
 * The Anthropocene Reviewed is a podcast and book by author John Green, where he "reviews different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale".
 * Photographer Edward Burtynsky created "The Anthropocene Project" with Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier, which is a collection of photographs, exhibitions, a film, and a book. His photographs focus on landscape photography that captures the effects human beings have had on the earth.
 * In 2015, the American death metal band Cattle Decapitation released its seventh studio album titled The Anthropocene Extinction.
 * In 2020, Canadian musician Grimes released her fifth studio album titled Miss Anthropocene. The name is also a pun on the feminine title "Miss" and the words "misanthrope" and "Anthropocene."

title: Anthropocene