Leung Ping-kwan is one of Hong Kong's most acclaimed poets. His poems display a unique blend of the literary and the down-to-earth, the modern and the traditional, the serious and the humorous, the local and the universal. He wrote, 'I want to write a kind of modern poetry that does not have to turn away from the world we live in, that rethinks the relationship between language and objects...' This collection has been carefully curated, and is arranged under ten thematic sections: Lotus Leaves, Hong Kong, Macao, Foodscape, After the Book of Songs, Strange Tales: After Pu Songling, Clothink, Museum Pieces, Places and Friends, Bitter-Melon and Others. These translated poems, and the delight they bring, are a celebration of the continuing legacy of a remarkable Hong Kong poet.

The Japanese poet-recluse Ryokan (1758–1831) is one of the most beloved figures of Asian literature, renowned for his beautiful verse, exquisite calligraphy, and eccentric character. Deceptively simple, Ryokan's poems transcend artifice, presenting spontaneous expressions of pure Zen spirit. Like his contemporary Thoreau, Ryokan celebrates nature and the natural life, but his poems touch the whole range of human experience: joy and sadness, pleasure and pain, enlightenment and illusion, love and loneliness. This collection of translations reflects the full spectrum of Ryokan's spiritual and poetic vision, including Japanese haiku, longer folk songs, and Chinese-style verse. Fifteen ink paintings by Koshi no Sengai (1895–1958) complement these translations and beautifully depict the spirit of this famous poet.

This book covers such plants with edible modified storage subterranean stems (corms, rhizomes, stem tubers) and unmodified subterranean stem stolons, above ground swollen stems and hypocotyls, storage roots (tap root, lateral roots, root tubers), and bulbs, that are eaten as conventional or functional food as vegetables and spices, as herbal teas, and may provide a source of food additive or neutraceuticals. This volume covers selected plant species with edible modified stems, roots and bulbs in the families Iridaceae, Lamiaceae, Marantaceae, Nelumbonaceae, Nyctaginaceae, Nymphaeaceae, Orchidaceae, Oxalidaceae, Piperaceae, Poaceae, Rubiaceae and Simaroubaceae. The edible species dealt with in this work include wild and underutilized crops and also common and widely grown ornamentals.To help in identification of the plant and edible parts coloured illustrations are included. As in the preceding ten volumes, topics covered include: taxonomy (botanical name and synonyms); common English and vernacular names; origin and distribution; agro-ecological requirements; edible plant parts and uses; plant botany; nutritive, medicinal and pharmacological properties with up-to-date research findings; traditional medicinal uses; other non-edible uses; and selected/cited references for further reading. This volume has separate indices for scientific and common names; and separate scientific and medical glossaries.

Bioinspired Design of Materials Surfaces reviews novel methods and technologies used to design surfaces and materials for smart material and device applications. The author discusses how materials wettability can be impacted by the fabrication of micro- and nanostructures, anisotropic structures, gradient structures, and heterogeneous patterned structures on the surfaces of materials. The design of these structures was inspired by nature, including lotus, cactus, beetle back and butterfly wings, spider silk, and shells. The author reviews the various wettability functions that can result from these designs, such as self-cleaning, directional adhesion, droplet driving, anti-adhesion, non-wetting, liquid repellent properties, liquid separation, liquid splitting, and more. This book presents a key reference on how to fabricate bioinspired structures on materials for desired functions of materials wettability. It also discusses challenges, opportunities and many potential applications, such as oil-water separation devices, water harvesting devices and photonic device applications. - Introduces the fundamentals of both bioinspired materials design and the theory behind dynamic materials wettability - Reviews the latest methods and technologies used to create functional surfaces and structured materials that impact and potentially control wettability - Provides a snapshot of potential device applications, such as oil-water separation, water harvesting, fluid transport, photonic applications, and much more

A captivating history of one of the world's most iconic and mysterious flowers Bewitched by a lotus which flowered from three-thousandyear- old seeds in his English garden, Mark Griffiths set out to track the origins and significance of this sublime plant in this beautifully-illustrated book. The Lotus Quest takes Griffiths from the headquarters of the Linnaean Society in London to a mountain top in northern Japan. As he travels in search of this ancient flower, Griffiths looks at the lotus's significance in ancient Egypt and India, the plant's medicinal uses and the inspiration it has provided to Western artists. As he tracks the plant, its story unveils a stunning vision of Japan's feudal era with visits to shrines, ruins, gardens and wild landscapes as well as meetings with priests and archaeologists, philosophers and anthropologists, gardeners and botanists, poets and artists. He even dines on the lotus in a Tokyo cafe. By the end of Griffiths' journey, when he reaches the hauntingly beautiful Japanese temple of Chuson-ji, readers will finally understand why the lotus has obsessed people throughout the ages.

As long as humans have existed on the planet, they have looked at the world around them and wondered about much of what they saw. This book covers 21 different phenomena that have been observed in nature and puzzled about for decades.Only recently, with the development of the microscopes and other tools that allow us to study, evaluate, and test these observed phenomena at the molecular and atomic scale, have researchers been able to understand the science behind these observations. From the strength of a marine sponge found at the depths of the oceans, to the insect-hydroplaning surface of the edge of a plant, to the intricacies of the eyes of a moth, nanotechnology has allowed science to define and understand these amazing capabilities. In many cases, this new understanding has been applied to products and applications that benefit humans and the environment. For each of the five ecosystems— the ocean, insects, flora, fauna, and humans—the observations, study and understanding, and applications will be covered. The relationship between the more easily observed macro level and understanding what is found at the nanoscale will also be discussed.

This book explores a collection of natural surfaces, their scientific characteristics and their unique engineering potential – demonstrating that engineering applications can be found in unexpected places. The surfaces covered range from botanical ones, like rice and lotus leaves, to insect surfaces, like butterfly and dragonfly wings. The variety of surfaces and numerous engineering potentials described show how biomimicry can be utilized to solve countless real‐world problems.

Nature gives us ample opportunity to understand and observe her secrets, and scientists and inventors can and do study the characteristics of things in nature to come up with amazing and astonishing technologies and products invented as a result. This new volume provides a sampling of technological issues that have been tackled with the help of biologically inspired engineering, by such things in nature as bionic plants, the lotus leaf, insects and beetles, geckos, bats, spiders, and butterflies. It considers bio-inspired technologies that have been applied in water purification, for business lessons, in healthcare and medicine, and more. This unique volume is an inspiring resource for professionals, researchers, scholars, engineers, and businessmen and businesswomen interested in the latest developments by studying the wonders of natural science.

Offers meditation techniques and intriguing thought and perception exercises for shedding negative thoughts and experiences, anger, worry and feelings of low self-worth, so that, no matter how bad of a day one has had, he or she can still be at peace. Original.

For centuries herbs and spices have been an integral part of many of the world’s great cuisines. But spices have a history of doing much more than adding life to bland foods. They have been the inspiration for, among other things, trade, exploration, and poetry. Priests employed them in worship, incantations, and rituals, and shamans used them as charms to ward off evil spirits. Nations fought over access to and monopoly of certain spices, like cinnamon and nutmeg, when they were rare commodities. Not only were many men’s fortunes made in the pursuit of spices, spices at many periods throughout history literally served as currency. In Culinary Herbs and Spices of the World, Ben-Erik van Wyk offers the first fully illustrated, scientific guide to nearly all commercial herbs and spices in existence. Van Wyk covers more than 150 species—from black pepper and blackcurrant to white mustard and white ginger—detailing the propagation, cultivation, and culinary uses of each. Introductory chapters capture the essence of culinary traditions, traditional herb and spice mixtures, preservation, presentation, and the chemistry of flavors, and individual entries include the chemical compounds and structures responsible for each spice or herb’s characteristic flavor. Many of the herbs and spices van Wyk covers are familiar fixtures in our own spice racks, but a few—especially those from Africa and China—will be introduced for the first time to American audiences. Van Wyk also offers a global view of the most famous use or signature dish for each herb or spice, satisfying the gourmand’s curiosity for more information about new dishes from little-known culinary traditions. People all over the world are becoming more sophisticated and demanding about what they eat and how it is prepared. Culinary Herbs and Spices of the World will appeal to those inquisitive foodies in addition to gardeners and botanists.