The Island On The Edge Of Normal

On the Edge

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ONSIDE NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018 The islands off the coast of Ireland have long been a source of fascination. Seen as repositories of an ancient Irish culture and the epitome of Irish romanticism, they have attracted generations of scholars, artists and filmmakers, from James Joyce to Robert O'Flaherty, looking for a way of life uncontaminated by modernity or materialism. But the reality for islanders has been a lot more complex. They faced poverty, hardship and official hostility, even while being expected to preserve an ancient culture and way of life. Writing in her 1936 autobiography, Peig Sayers, resident of Blaskets island, described it as 'this dreadful rock'. In 1841, there were 211 inhabited islands with a combined population of 38,000; by 2011, only 64 islands were inhabited, with a total population of 8,500. And younger generations continue to leave. By documenting the island experiences and the social, cultural and political reaction to them over the last 100 years, On the Edge examines why this exodus has happened, and the gulf between the rhetoric that elevated island life and the reality of the political hostility towards them.It uncovers, through state and private archives, personal memoirs, newspaper coverage, and the author's personal travels, the realities behind the "dreadful rocks", and the significance of the experiences of, and reactions to, those who were and remain, literally, on the very edge of European civilisation.

Superconductors at the Nanoscale

By covering theory, design, and fabrication of nanostructured superconducting materials, this monograph is an invaluable resource for research and development. Examples are energy saving solutions, healthcare, and communication technologies. Key ingredients are nanopatterned materials which help to improve the superconducting critical parameters and performance of superconducting devices, and lead to novel functionalities. Contents Tutorial on nanostructured superconductors Imaging vortices in superconductors: from the atomic scale to macroscopic distances Probing vortex dynamics on a single vortex level by scanning ac-susceptibility microscopy STM studies of vortex cores in strongly confined nanoscale superconductors Type-1.5 superconductivity Direct visualization of vortex patterns in superconductors with competing vortex-vortex interactions Vortex dynamics in nanofabricated chemical solution deposition high-temperature superconducting films Artificial pinning sites and their applications Vortices at microwave frequencies Physics and operation of superconducting single-photon devices Josephson and charging effect in mesoscopic superconducting devices NanoSQUIDs: Basics & recent advances Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 intrinsic Josephson junction stacks as emitters of terahertz radiation| Interference phenomena in superconductor-ferromagnet hybrids Spin-orbit interactions, spin currents, and magnetization dynamics in superconductor/ferromagnet hybrids Superconductor/ferromagnet hybrids

Research Report