Epistemology

According to Plato, Knowledge is what is both true and believed, though not all that is both true and believed counts as knowledge.

Epistemology or theory of knowledge is the branch of Western philosophy that studies the nature and scope of knowledge. The term "epistemology" is based on the Greek words "ἐπιστήμη or episteme" (knowledge) and "λόγος or logos" (account/explanation); it is thought to have been coined by the Scottish philosopher James Frederick Ferrier.^{[citation needed]} In Hindu and Buddhist philosophy, the Sanskrit term for the equivalent branch of study is "pramana."^[1][2]

Much of the debate in this field has focused on analyzing the nature of knowledge and how it relates to similar notions such as truth, belief, and justification. It also deals with the means of production of knowledge, as well as skepticism about different knowledge claims. In other words, epistemology primarily addresses the following questions: "What is knowledge?", "How is knowledge acquired?", and "What do people know?".

There are many different topics, stances, and arguments in the field of epistemology. Recent studies have dramatically challenged centuries-old assumptions, and the discipline therefore continues to be vibrant and dynamic.

Mythology

Mythology

Mythology is the fourth solo album by keyboardist Derek Sherinian. Sherinian again draws upon some of the greatest talent from the worlds of rock and jazz. Among the artists co-featured on Mythology are fusion legend Allan Holdsworth, (U.K., Soft Machine, Level 42), Steve Lukather (Toto), Simon Phillips (Toto, Jeff Beck, The Who), Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society), Grammy award winner Steve Stevens (Billy Idol), John Sykes (Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy) and Jerry Goodman (Mahavishnu Orchestra, Dixie Dregs).

Painting

The Mona Lisa is one of the most recognizable artistic paintings in the Western world.

Painting taken literally is the practice of applying colour to a surface (support) such as paper, canvas, wood, glass, or other. However, when used in an artistic sense, the term "painting" means the use of this activity in combination with drawing, composition and other aesthetic considerations in order to manifest the expressive and conceptual intention of the practitioner.

Painting is used as a mode of representing, documenting and expressing all the varied intents and subjects that are as numerous as there are practitioners of the craft. Paintings can be naturalistic and representational (as in a still life or landscape painting), photographic, abstract, be loaded with narrative content, symbolism, emotion or be political in nature. A large portion of the history of painting is dominated by spiritual motifs and ideas; sites of this kind of painting range from artwork depicting mythological figures on pottery to biblical scenes rendered on the interior walls and ceiling of The Sistine Chapel to depictions of the human body itself as a spiritual subject.

Colour and tone are the essence of painting as sound and pitch are of music. Colour is highly subjective, but has observable psychological effects, although these can differ from one culture to the next. Black is associated with mourning in the West, but elsewhere white may be. Some painters, theoreticians, writers and scientists, including Goethe, Kandinsky, Newton, have written their own colour theory. Moreover the use of language is only a generalisation for a colour equivalent. The word "red", for example, can cover a wide range of variations on the pure red of the visible spectrum of light. There is not a formalised register of different colours in the way that there is agreement on different notes in music, such as C or C# in music, although the Pantone system is widely used in the commercial printing and graphic design industry for this purpose.

Modern artists have extended the practice of painting considerably to include, for example, collage which began with Cubism and is not painting in the strict sense. Some modern painters incorporate different materials such as sand, cement, straw or wood for their texture. Examples of this are the works of Jean Dubuffet or Anselm Kiefer. (There is a growing comunity of artists who use computers to litterally paint colour onto a digital canvas using such programs as Photoshop, Painter, and many others. These images can be printed onto traditional canvas if required.)

In 1829, the first photograph was produced. From the mid to late 19th century, photographic processes improved and, as it became more widespread, painting lost much of its historic purpose to provide an accurate record of the observable world. There began a series of art movements into the 20th century where the Renaissance view of the world was steadily eroded, through Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism and Dadaism. Eastern and African painting, however, continued a long history of stylization and did not undergo an equivalent transformation at the same time.

Modern and Contemporary Art has moved away from the historic value of craft and documentation in favour of concept; this has led some to say that painting, as a serious art form, is dead, although this has not deterred the majority of artists from continuing to practise it either as whole or part of their work.

Telecommunication

Copy of the original phone of Graham Bell at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris

Telecommunication is the transmission of signals over a distance for the purpose of communication. In modern times, this process almost always involves the sending of electromagnetic waves by electronic transmitters but in earlier years it may have involved the use of smoke signals, drums or semaphore. Today, telecommunication is widespread and devices that assist the process such as the television, radio and telephone are common in many parts of the world. There is also a vast array of networks that connect these devices, including computer networks, public telephone networks, radio networks and television networks. Computer communication across the Internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging, is just one of many examples of telecommunication.

Telecommunication systems are generally designed by telecommunication engineers. Major contributors to the field of telecommunications include Alexander Bell who invented the telephone (as we know it), John Logie Baird who invented the mechanical television and Guglielmo Marconi who first demonstrated transatlantic radio communication. In recent times, optical fibre has radically improved the bandwidth available for intercontinental communication, helping to facilitate a faster and richer Internet experience. And, digital television has eliminated effects such as snowy pictures and ghosting. Telecommunication remains an important part of the world economy and the telecommunication industry's revenue has been placed at just under 3% of the gross world product.

Poetry

Poetry has a long history. Early attempts to define it, such as Aristotle's Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy.^[1] Later attempts focused on features such as repetition and rhyme, and emphasised the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from prose.^[2] From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more loosely defined as a fundamental creative act using language.^[3]

Poetry often uses particular forms and conventions to expand the literal meaning of the words, or to invoke emotional or sensual responses. Devices such as assonance, alliteration and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. Poetry's use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony and other stylistic elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations. Similarly, metaphor and simile create a resonance between otherwise disparate images—a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may exist, between individual verses, in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm.

Some forms of poetry are specific to particular cultures and genres, responding to the characteristics of the language in which the poet writes. While readers accustomed to identifying poetry with Shakespeare, Dante and Goethe may think of poetry as being written in rhyming lines and regular meter, there are other traditions, such as those of Du Fu and Beowulf, which use other approaches to achieve rhythm and euphony. In today's globalized world, poets often borrow styles, techniques and forms from different cultures and languages.

Literature

Old book bindings at the Merton College library.

Literature is literally "acquaintance with letters" as in the first sense given in the Oxford English Dictionary (from the Latin littera meaning "an individual written character (letter)"). The term has generally come to identify a collection of texts or work of art, which in Western culture are mainly prose, both fiction and non-fiction, drama and poetry. In much, if not all of the world, texts can be oral as well, and include such genres as epic, legend, myth, ballad, other forms of oral poetry, and the folktale.

Cryptograph

The German Lorenz cipher machine, used in World War II for encryption of very high-level general staff messages

Cryptography (or cryptology; derived from Greek κρυπτός kryptós "hidden," and the verb γράφω gráfo "write"). In modern times, it has become a branch of information theory, as the mathematical study of information and especially its transmission from place to place. The noted cryptographer Ron Rivest has observed that "cryptography is about communication in the presence of adversaries." It is a central contributor to several fields: information security and related issues, particularly, authentication, and access control. One of cryptography's primary purposes is hiding the meaning of messages, not usually the existence of such messages. In modern times, cryptography also contributes to computer science. Cryptography is central to the techniques used in computer and network security for such things as access control and information confidentiality. Cryptography is also used in many applications encountered in everyday life; the security of ATM cards, computer passwords, and electronic commerce all depend on cryptography.

History of mathematic

The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing

The word "mathematics" comes from the Greek μάθημα (máthema) which means "science, knowledge, or learning"; μαθηματικός (mathematikós) means "fond of learning". Today, the term refers to a specific body of knowledge -- the deductive study of quantity, structure, space and change.

While almost all cultures use basic mathematics (counting and measuring), new mathematical developments have been reported in relatively few cultures and ages. Before the modern age and the worldwide spread of knowledge, written examples of new mathematical developments come to light only in a few locales. The most ancient mathematical texts available are from ancient Egypt in the Middle Kingdom period circa 1300-1200 BC (Berlin 6619), Mesopotamia circa 1800 BC (Plimpton 322), and ancient India circa 800-500 BC (Sulba Sutras). All of these texts concern the so-called Pythagorean theorem, which seems to be the most ancient and widespread mathematical developments after basic arithmetic and geometry. The first true evidence of mathematical activity in China can be found in numeration symbols on oracle bones, dated to about 1300 BC [1] [2], while the Han Dynasty in ancient China contributed the Sea Island Manual and The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art from the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AD. Ancient Greece and the Hellenistic cultures of Egypt, Mesopotamia and the city of Syracuse increased mathematical knowledge. Jaina mathematicians contributed from the 4th century BC to the 2nd century AD, while Hindu mathematicians from the 5th century and Islamic mathematicians from the 9th century made major contributions to mathematics.

One striking feature about the history of ancient and medieval mathematics is that bursts of mathematical development tended to be followed by centuries of stagnation. Beginning in Renaissance Italy in the 16th century, new mathematical developments, interacting with new scientific discoveries, were made at an ever increasing pace, and this continues to the present day.

Magnetoencephalography

MEG machine at Massachusetts General Hospital

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) is an imaging technique used to measure the magnetic fields produced by electrical activity in the brain via extremely sensitive devices such as SQUIDs. These measurements are commonly used in both research and clinical settings. There are many uses for the MEG, including assisting surgeons in localizing a pathology, assisting researchers in determining the function of various parts of the brain, neurofeedback, and others.

Neuroscience

Drawing of the cells in the chicken cerebellum by S. Ramón y Cajal

Neuroscience is a scientific discipline that studies the structure, function, development, genetics, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, and pathology of the nervous system. Traditionally it is seen as a branch of biological sciences. However, recently there has been of convergence of interest from many allied disciplines, including psychology, computer science, statistics, physics, and medicine. The scope of neuroscience has now broadened to include any systematic scientific experimental and theoretical investigation of the central and peripheral nervous system of biological organisms. The methodologies employed by neuroscientists have been enormously expanded, from biochemical and genetic analysis of dynamics of individual nerve cells and their molecular constituents to imaging representations of perceptual and motor tasks in the brain.

Neuroscience is at the frontier of investigation of the brain and mind. The study of the brain is becoming the cornerstone in understanding how we perceive and interact with the external world and, in particular, how human experience and human biology influence each other.

Photogram

A colour photogram of lemons and tomato stems. The background texture is enlarged paper grain.

A photogram is a photographic image made (without a camera) by placing objects directly onto the surface of a photo-sensitive material such as photographic paper and then exposing it to light. The result is a silhouetted image varying in darkness based on the transparency of the objects used, with areas of the paper that have not received any light appearing light and those that have appearing dark, according to the laws of photosensitivity. The image obtained is hence a negative and the effect is often quite similar to an X-Ray. This method of imaging is perhaps most prominently attributed to Man Ray and his exploration of rayographs. Others who have experimented with the technique include László Moholy-Nagy, Christian Schad (who called them "Schadographs"), Imogen Cunningham and even Pablo Picasso.

Photography

Photography is the process of making pictures by means of the action of light. Light patterns reflected or emitted from objects are recorded onto a sensitive medium or storage chip through a timed exposure. The process is done through mechanical, chemical or digital devices known as cameras.

Lens and mounting of a large-format camera

The word comes from the Greek words φως phos ("light"), and γραφις graphis ("stylus", "paintbrush") or γραφη graphê, together meaning "drawing with light" or "representation by means of lines" or "drawing." Traditionally the product of photography has been called a photograph. The term photo is an abbreviation; many people also call them pictures. In digital photography, the term image has begun to replace photograph. (The term image is traditional in geometric optics.)

Zoology

Zoology

Zoology is the biological discipline which involves the study of non human animals.

The word zoology comes from Greek Ζωο, zoo ("animal"), and λογος, -logy ("the study of").

The pronunciation of "zoology" is [zoh-ol-uh-jee], however it is common to hear this word mispronounced as [zu-ol-uh-jee], due to the familiarity of the word "zoo" which is an abbreviation of "zoological garden."

Microbiology

An agar plate streaked with microorganisms

Microbiology is the study of microorganisms, which are unicellular or cell-cluster microscopic organisms. This includes eukaryotes (with a nucleus) such as fungi and protists, and prokaryotes (without a nucleus) such as bacteria and certain algaes (though viruses are not strictly classed as living organisms ^[1]).

Although much is now known in the field of microbiology, advances are being made regularly. The most common estimates suggest that we have studied only about 1% of all of the microbes in any given environment. Thus, despite the fact that over three hundred years have passed since the discovery of microbes, the field of microbiology is clearly in its infancy relative to other biological disciplines such as zoology, botany or even entomology

Botany

Pinguicula grandiflora

Botany is the scientific study of plantlife. As a branch of biology, it is also sometimes referred to as plant science(s) or plant biology. Botany covers a wide range of scientific disciplines that study the structure, growth, reproduction, metabolism, development and diseases of plants.

Anthropology

Anthropology (from the Greek word ἄνθρωπος, "human" or "person") consists of the study of humanity (see genus Homo). It is holistic in two senses: it is concerned with all humans at all times and with all dimensions of humanity. In principle, it is concerned with all institutions of all societies. Anthropology is distinguished from other social-science disciplines by its emphasis on cultural relativity, in-depth examination of context, and cross-cultural comparisons. Some anthropologists have utilized anthropological knowledge to frame cultural critiques. This has been particularly prominent in America, from the popular attacks on Victorianism of Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict through contemporary attacks on post-colonialism under the heading of postmodernism. Anthropology is methodologically diverse using both qualitative methods and quantitative methods. Ethnographies--intensive case studies based on field research-- have historically had a central place in the literature of the discipline.

Initiation rite of the Yao people of Malawi

Electrical engineering

Electrical Engineers design power systems…

… and complex electronic circuits.

Electrical engineering (sometimes referred to as electrical and electronic engineering) is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century with the commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical power supply. The field now covers a range of sub-disciplines including those that deal with power, optoelectronics, digital electronics, analog electronics, artificial intelligence, control systems, electronics, signal processing and telecommunications.

The term electrical engineering may or may not encompass electronic engineering. Where a distinction is made, electrical engineering is considered to deal with the problems associated with large-scale electrical systems such as power transmission and motor control, whereas electronic engineering deals with the study of small-scale electronic systems including computers and integrated circuits.^[1] Another way of looking at the distinction is that electrical engineers are usually concerned with using electricity to transmit energy, while electronics engineers are concerned with using electricity to transmit information.

Mechanical engineering

Mechanical engineers design and build engines and power plants...

...structures and vehicles of all sizes...

...and moving mechanisms, machines, and robots.

Mechanical engineering is a professional engineering discipline that involves the application of principles of physics for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It requires a solid understanding of key concepts including mechanics, kinematics, thermodynamics and energy. Practitioners of mechanical engineering, known as mechanical engineers, use these principles and others in the design and analysis of automobiles, aircraft, heating & cooling systems, buildings and bridges, industrial equipment and machinery, and more.

Civil engineering

The Falkirk Wheel in Scotland.

In modern usage, civil engineering is a broad field of engineering that deals with the planning, construction, and maintenance of fixed structures, or public works, as they are related to earth, water, or civilization and their processes. Most civil engineering today deals with power plants, bridges, roads, railways, structures, water supply, irrigation, environment, sewer, flood control, transportation and traffic. In essence, civil engineering may be regarded as the profession that makes the world a more agreeable place in which to live.

Engineering has developed from observations of the ways natural and constructed systems react and from the development of empirical equations that provide bases for design. Civil engineering is the broadest of the engineering fields, partly because it is the oldest of all engineering fields. In fact, engineering was once divided into only two fields - military and civil. Civil engineering is still an umbrella term, comprised of many related specialities.

Hydrology

Water covers 70% of the Earth's surface.

Hydrology (from Greek: Yδρoλoγια, Yδωρ+Λoγos, Hydrologia, the "study of water") is the study of the movement, distribution, and quality of water throughout the Earth, and thus addresses both the hydrologic cycle and water resources. A practitioner of hydrology is a hydrologist, working within the fields of either earth or environmental science, physical geography or civil and environmental engineering.

Domains of hydrology include hydrometeorology, surface hydrology, hydrogeology, drainage basin management and water quality, where water plays the central role. Oceanography and meteorology are not included because water is only one of many important aspects.

Hydrological research is useful in that it allows us to better understand the world in which we live, and also provides insight for environmental engineering, policy and planning.