The discussion of any new topic necessarily makes use of knowledge that is to some extent assumed to have been already acquired. One cannot start from the very beginning and teach the whole of physics every time something new is to be introduced – even though the Landau and Lifshitz series of books comes close to pulling it off. More pragmatically, I would like to make sure that we are all on the proverbial same page with some of the basic notions. And where, you may ask, are these basic notions learned? I have in mind what can be called the canon of physics, that is, the books where we, as students, first studied the basic concepts and equations, the books that everyone has read to study, say, classical mechanics, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, thermodynamics and statistical mechanics – as well as the mathematical tools necessary to comprehend the equations and the statistics to make sense of the data analysis. I have them (most of them, at least) in my office, and so do most of the physicists I know. The covers of some of them are shown in Figure 2.1.

While AI is powerful, much of the time, human intuition and behavior is still more valuable for psychological research. This chapter focuses on crowdsourcing – a method for leveraging the intelligence of many people to complete a task. The chapter discusses the use of crowdsourcing and citizen science across several fields, and how to decide when to use crowdsourcing versus AI for analyzing complex psychological data. The chapter also provides practical advice on what platform to choose, and how to avoid low-quality data from bots or cheaters.

The term ‘social work’ was first coined by the American economist Simon Patten in 1900. He envisaged a new profession that would address the social problems of the modern world. These problems are neither timeless nor innate to human nature, but come into being at particular points in history as a result of people’s actions and the way they organise power in society. Looking at these issues historically enables us to see the way social problems (such as extreme inequality and poverty, mass urbanisation, industrial pollution, racism, sexism and different forms of violence) have been constructed and varied over time. More importantly, this lens may provide us with clues as to how people might un-make these problems and do something better. This historical perspective is vital for practice today because it locates critical social work as part of much wider and ongoing struggles for social justice and human rights.

As defined in Chapter 1, geomorphology is the study of landforms – plain and simple. Whether they are formed on bedrock or on loose sediment, by erosion or deposition of sediment, and whatever their age, landforms are the building blocks of Earth’s physical landscapes. In essence, landscapes are organized and interconnected assemblages of landforms. These interconnections may be temporal, genetic, or spatial. With regard to temporal connections, some landforms on a landscape may have all formed at roughly the same time. They may share a similar origin (genetic connections). On many landscapes, however, the landforms may have formed at different times and in different ways.

Who doesn’t love the beach? Beaches and coastlines are beautiful landscapes that provide a wealth of recreational, economic, and environmental benefits. In many locations, coastal areas are highly developed, which can make managing these dynamic landscapes challenging. The study of these landscapes is essential for developing land management practices that balance natural coastal processes with the challenges associated with coastal development.

Coasts are shaped by a variety of processes, such as waves, tides, and water level fluctuations. These processes operate on different timescales, ranging from short-lived storm events to sea level fluctuations that span millennia, and from local to global spatial scales. In some cases, coastal processes interact to enhance risk and vulnerability along the coast. For example, a hurricane that makes landfall at a spring (high) tide can be far more devastating than one that landfalls at a neap (low) tide.

It is time to face the elephant in the room. Beautiful though they are, the gauge bosons of the weak interactions are massless and cannot be the mediators of the weak interactions. They do not reproduce Fermi’s interaction at low energy. They make the weak interactions long range while they are most definitely not.

Whenever we interact with technology, we are constantly providing data about who we are, what we think, and the choices we make. One of the major goals of this chapter is to help the reader think creatively about what data is being recorded that can be used to answer important psychological questions. First, we tell the story of a collaboration between a mobile game and psychology researchers that enabled new insights into visual attention. The chapter then provides analysis of what apps can record from us, and principles of user interface / user experience design that can inform psychological research. The chapter discusses other examples of psychological insight from apps and websites, including those related to romantic relationships, navigation and memory, concept representations, and games. Finally, the chapter provides advice on establishing academic-industry collaborations, as well as some words of caution on over-interpreting cognitive effects found in apps and games.

Soil means different things to different people. To a gardener, it is a medium for plant growth. To a civil engineer, it is a type of foundational material, or perhaps something to backfill around a house or in a septic drain field. To a hydrologist, soil functions as a source of water purification and supply. To some geologists, it is the overburden that buried all the rocks! But to geomorphologists and pedologists (pedology is the study of soils), soil comprises both organic and/or mineral materials, normally at the surface, that have been altered by biological, chemical, and/or physical processes. Another recent definition stresses the importance of biota in soil formation, defining soil as the “biologically excited layer” of Earth’s crust.

This book is about the potential of social work, and in particular the potential of critical social work. It is about what social work is, what social work can be and, from a critical perspective, what social work should be. We use the word ‘potential’ quite deliberately, as it implies that there are elements of uncertainty in endeavouring to make social work critical that are yet to be fully realised and never guaranteed. Yet, in the current context, the values and vision of critical social work are perhaps more relevant and important than ever before.

Although a natural process, human actions and extreme climatic events can accentuate slope instability, leading to disastrous slope failures and loss of life, like the one that occurred in the Brazilian city of Petrópolis on February 17, 2022. Over 200 people died in the mudflows, caused by intense rainfall (258 mm in three hours) and the deforestation of upslope areas. Understanding how and why materials move downslope helps geomorphologists to predict where and when future mass movement events may occur.

Except for perhaps volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, the most impressive (and deadly) geomorphic “events” involve the downslope movement of rock, debris, and sediment – referred to as mass movements because the material moves en masse. In their simplest sense, mass movements represent the downslope transport of rock and soil materials. Examples range from massive, fast-moving landslides and debris flows, to the inexorably slow process of soil creep.

As we think and act, the brain is constantly producing Big Data in the firing of its neurons and in the connections that are strengthened and weakened. This chapter discusses how we can study the brain and the Big Data that it creates. First, we discuss how clever behavioral tasks, looking at development and other species, and natural variation across people are our first tools for understanding the brain. Next, we delve into describing several popular brain imaging methods – direct recording, electroencephalography, magnetoencephalography, magnetic resonance imaging, and a few others. We discuss how to interpret the Big Data shown by brain maps, and some Big Data methods like multiple comparisons correction to consider when viewing this data. Finally, we end the chapter discussing the ethical question of whether such neuroimaging allows mindreading.

This chapter describes the important role of artificial intelligence (AI) in Big Data psychology research. First, we discuss the main goals of AI, and then delve into an example of machine learning and what is happening under the hood. The chapter then describes the Perceptron, a classic simple neural network, and how this has grown into deep learning AI which has become increasingly popular in recent years. Deep learning can be used both for prediction and generation, and has a multitude of applications for psychology and neuroscience. This chapter concludes with the ethical quandaries around fake data generated by AI and biases that exist in how we train systems, as well as some exciting clinical applications of AI relevant to psychology and neuroscience.

Water is central to life. Geomorphologists know that running water also plays a key role in sculpting the land surface. This chapter covers physical hydrology – the science concerned with the occurrence, distribution, and movement of water – and the movement and storage of water-borne sediment within the various Earth systems. In this chapter, we focus on streams and how they transport sediment, from source to sink. The material presented here forms an important background for Chapter 16, which focuses on landforms developed by running water.