Main description:

This book deals with randomly moving objects and their spreading. The objects considered are particles like atoms and molecules, but also living beings such as humans, animals, plants, bacteria and even abstract entities like ideas, rumors, information, innovations and linguistic features. The book explores and communicates the laws behind these movements and reports about astonishing similarities and very specific features typical of the given object under considerations. Leading scientists in disciplines as diverse as archeology, epidemics, linguistics and sociology, in collaboration with their colleagues from engineering, natural sciences and mathematics, introduce the phenomena of spreading as relevant for their fields. An introductory chapter on "Spreading Fundamentals" provides a common basis for all these considerations, with a minimum of mathematics, selected and presented for enjoying rather than frustrating the reader.

Contents:

Confirmed Invited Speakers and Tentative Titles of Talks and Book ContributionsBook Editors and Introduction "Spreading Fundamentals", Armin Bunde (Giessen), Jurgen Caro (Hannover), Jorg Karger (Leipzig), Gero Vogl (Wien) Dirk Brockmann (Berlin) Epidemics Spreading Frank Cichos (Leipzig) Hot Brownian Motion: Experiment Marc-Olivier Coppens (London) Nature-Inspired Transport Optimization Joaquim Fort (Girona) The Neolithic Transition: Diffusion of People or Diffusion of Culture? Albrecht Fritzsche (Erlangen) Spreading Innovations Russel Gray (Auckland) Expansion of Language Families Detlef Gronenborn (Mainz) G and Carsten Lemmen (Geesthacht) The Expansion of Farming as Seen from Archaeology and Related Disciplines S Shlomo Havlin (Ramat Gan) Spreading of Failures in the Internet and in Power Grids Anne Kandler (London) Analysing Language Shift: The Example of Scottish Gaelic Rainer Klages (London) Search for Food of Birds, Fish and Insects Rajamani Krishna (Amsterdam) Uphill Diffusion Klaus Kroy (Leipzig) Hot Brownian Motion: Theory Ingolf Kuhn ;(Halle) rsal in Plants and Animals: Biological Processes Michael Leitner (Munich) Dispersal in Plants and Animals: Modelling Philipp Maass (Osnabruck) Diffusive Transport in Non-Equilibrium Steady State Hernan Makse (New York) A New Class of Superspreader: From Twitter, Cities and the Brain Christoph Neinhuis (Dresden) Transport Systems in Living Organisms Charles Nicholson (New York) Brain Structure Revealed by Diffusive Spread of Molecules William S. Price (Sydney) NMR Versatility < Martin Schnittler/b> (Greifswp>ald) Spore Dispersal in Lower Organisms: From Model Assumptions to Reality Manfred Wendisch (Leipzig) Diffusion Processes in Atmospheric Physics Soren Wichmann (Leiden) Language Migration: Empirical Data and Modelling