"The Third International Meeting of Dynamic Astronomy in Latin America, (Tercera Reunion sobre Astronomıa Dinamica en Latino-America) which we named ADeLA-2004, was held on November 22-24, 2004 in Merida. It represents the consolidation and continuity of a series of meetings about Astrometry and related topics. The first meeting took place in 2001 in San Juan (Argentina), followed by the second meeting in 2002 in Araraquara (Brazil). Astrometry, after an original and basic contribution not only to Astronomy as a branch of science but also to the direct development of society, starts declining when in the middle of the twentieth century it gets far from astrophysical research and the human mind finds alternative ways to solve the upcoming development problems. This fact has progressively made the financing models for scientific projects focus on and expandtowards the more "productive" areas of Astronomy, leaving aside Astrometry, which we consider a vital area. Even when preparing themselves academically, the astrometrists with their meticulous work, do not find easily government support and ways to compete. The rapid development of detectors and observation techniques during the last decade has almost completely transformed Astronomy. The data collected from observation are once again the main source for the theoreticaldevelopment of this science. Moreover, observations have often changed many theoretical concepts. Astrometry has not been left behind and the future, almost magical, observations include the space projectssuch as GAIA and SIM. These projects should be seen as the spur for the adaptation of Astrometry to the new era, making this area a basic one in the professional training of any astronomer. The astrometrist is the one whomust enlarge his scope to encompass data interpretation, taking advantage of the meticulous and craftsman-like character that this work has always had in order to access the big data bases that will be generated and arein danger of being considered as sources of statistical information. This concern for the future of Astrometry was discussed in this meeting. ADeLA-2004 had two additional innovations. The first one consisted in including a workshop, or a series of conferences on topics related to Astrometry, addressed to students interested in astronomy. This meeting has offered the opportunity to gather important foreign researchers. The participation of ESO Vitacura (Chile) researchers in ADeLA 2004, as well as the usual ADeLA meeting participants, facilitated a wide and diverseseries of lectures on related topics. These lectures were addressed both in a pedagogical and a professional atmosphere which encouraged Venezuelan undergraduate, and graduate students interested in or majoring in astronomy, to participate in both events. The so-called "Taller de ADeLA-2004" took place after the meeting on November 25 and 26. The workshop improved the relationships between the Venezuelan scientific and student communities."

This book provides a unique view of Astronomy in Culture, Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy involving ancient civilizations in Latin America, emphasizing scientific and cultural knowledge combined with historical, cognitive, archaeological and anthropological aspects. Topics covered in the book include different associations of ancient civilizations with the stars and planets, whether in farming, architecture, social organization, beliefs, myths, religion, metric systems, calendar construction, shrines, and variations in astronomical research methods based on the types of material evidence available. Special attention is paid to the war cycles associated with observed celestial events, day-counting calendars, including movements in the sky and written evidences from codices, and in particular the Andean and Inca traditions of astronomically associated shrines, caves and celestial alignments of monuments and temples.

A complete record of the formal organisational and administrative proceedings of the XXVII General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union.

From afar, Latin America looks like a blurry tableau: devoid of defining lines, particularities and nuances. Little is understood about the idiosyncrasies of Latin-Americans, their cultural identity and social values. Differences between Brazilians and Spanish Americans, or amid the diverse Spanish American countries, are not sufficiently understood. Even less is known about the amplitude of the Iberian heritage of such countries, or about the miscegenation and acculturation processes that took place among their different constitutive races. There is no clarity regarding the Western nature of Latin America or about its cultural affinities with Latin Europe. Nor is there sufficient understanding of the links between the Latin population of the United States and the inhabitants of Latin America.This book aims to fill the gap by focusing on Latin America's history, culture, identity and idiosyncrasies. It serves as a guide to understand regional attitudes, meanings and behavioural differences of the region. It also analyses the present economic situation of the region, while trying to predict the future of the region. Written in a simple and accessible manner, this book will be of interest to readers keen on exploring the region for potential opportunities in trade, investment or any other kind of business and cultural endeavor.

This volume contains the Proceedings of the Fifth Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society (Sociedad Espanola de Astronomfa, SEA). The meeting was held at the Universidad de Castilla La Mancha in Toledo, from September 9 to 13, 2002. The event brought together 219 participants who pre sented their latest results in many different subjects. In comparison with the previous scientific meetings of the Society, the numbers of oral talks and poster contributions (122 and 64, respectively) are rapidly increasing, confirming that the SEA conferences are becoming a point of reference to assess the interests and achievements of astrophysical research in Spain. During the meeting, the SEA made public the granting of the Prize to the Best Spanish Ph. D. Thesis in As tronomy and Astrophysics for the period 2000-2001 ex aequo to Dr. A. Zurita and Dr. E. Villaver. This is the second time that the SEA is awarding this prize, which aim is to encourage young spanish astrophysicists to pursue a high level scientific career. The Society is indebted to the Universidad de Castilla La Mancha, and, in particular, to the San Pedro Martir staff, for its hospitality. It is also indebted to the Local Organizing Committee for its dedication and the good atmosphere that prevailed at any moment, and to the Scientific Organizing Committee for its excel lent work.

This book surveys the models for the origin of life and presents a new model starting with shaped droplets and ending with life as polygonal Archaea; it collects the most published micrographs of Archaea (discovered only in 1977), which support this conclusion, and thus provides the first visual survey of Archaea. Origin of Life via Archaea’s purpose is to add a new hypothesis on what are called “shaped droplets”, as the starting point, for flat, polygonal Archaea, supporting the Vesicles First hypothesis. The book contains over 6000 distinct references and micrographs of 440 extant species of Archaea, 41% of which exhibit polygonal phenotypes. It surveys the intellectual battleground of the many ideas of the origin of life on earth, chemical equilibrium, autocatalysis, and biotic polymers. This book contains 17 chapters, some coauthored, on a wide range of topics on the origin of life, including Archaea’s origin, patterns, and species. It shows how various aspects of the origin of life may have occurred at chemical equilibrium, not requiring an energy source, contrary to the general assumption. For the reader’s value, its compendium of Archaea micrographs might also serve many other interesting questions about Archaea. One chapter presents a theory for the shape of flat, polygonal Archaea in terms of the energetics at the surface, edges and corners of the S-layer. Another shows how membrane peptides may have originated. The book also includes a large table of most extant Archaea, that is searchable in the electronic version. It ends with a chapter on problems needing further research. Audience This book will be used by astrobiologists, origin of life biologists, physicists of small systems, geologists, biochemists, theoretical and vesicle chemists.

Introducing the principles of complexity science, this innovative text illustrates how different kinds of organizational can become more effective, democratic and sustainable by using these powerful ideas.

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