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), Joerg 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 Langu

age 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

Plan

ts 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

Mart

in Schnittler

/b> (Greifsw

p>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