"When Darwin returned to Britain from the Beagle voyage in 1836, the most talked-about scientific books were the Bridgewater Treatises. This series of eight books was funded by a bequest of the last Earl of Bridgewater, and they were authored by leading men of science, appointed by the President of the Royal Society, and intended to explore "the power, wisdom, and goodness of God, as manifested in the creation." Securing public attention beyond all expectations, the series gave Darwin's generation a range of approaches to one of the great questions of the age: how to incorporate the newly emerging disciplinary sciences into Britain's overwhelmingly Christian culture. Drawing on a wealth of archival and published sources, including many unexplored by historians, Jonathan R. Topham examines how and to what extent the series contributed to a sense of congruence between Christianity and the sciences in the generation before the infamous Victorian "conflict between science and religion." He does so by drawing on the distinctive insights of book history, using close attention to the production, circulation, and use of the books to open up new perspectives not only on aspects of early Victorian science but also on the whole subject of science and religion. Its innovative focus on practices of authorship, publishing, and reading helps us to understand the everyday considerations and activities through which the religious culture of early Victorian science was fashioned. And in doing so, Reading the Book of Nature powerfully reimagines the world in which a young Charles Darwin learned how to think about the implications of his theory"--

EVALITA 2023 is an initiative of AILC (Associazione Italiana di Linguistica Computazionale) and it is endorsed by the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AIxIA) and the Italian Association for Speech Sciences (AISV). As in the previous editions, EVALITA 2023 is organized along a set of selected tasks, which provide participants with opportunities to discuss and explore both emerging and traditional areas of Natural Language Processing and Speech for Italian. The participation is encouraged for teams working both in academic institutions and industrial organizations.

Bede and the Cosmos examines Bede’s cosmology—his understanding of the universe and its laws. It explores his ideas regarding both the structure and mechanics of the created world and the relationship of that world to its Creator. Beginning with On the Nature of Things and moving on to survey his writings in other genres, it demonstrates the key role that natural philosophy played in shaping Bede’s worldview, and explores the ramifications that this had on his cultural, theological and historical thought. From questions about angelic bodies and the destruction of the world at judgement day, to subtle arguments about free will and the meaning of history, Bede’s fascinating and unique engagement with the natural world is explored in this comprehensive study.

We present in this volume the collection of finally accepted papers of the eighth edition of the “IWANN” conference (“International Work-Conference on Artificial Neural Networks”). This biennial meeting focuses on the foundations, theory, models and applications of systems inspired by nature (neural networks, fuzzy logic and evolutionary systems). Since the first edition of IWANN in Granada (LNCS 540, 1991), the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) community, and the domain itself, have matured and evolved. Under the ANN banner we find a very heterogeneous scenario with a main interest and objective: to better understand nature and beings for the correct elaboration of theories, models and new algorithms. For scientists, engineers and professionals working in the area, this is a very good way to get solid and competitive applications. We are facing a real revolution with the emergence of embedded intelligence in many artificial systems (systems covering diverse fields: industry, domotics, leisure, healthcare, ... ). So we are convinced that an enormous amount of work must be, and should be, still done. Many pieces of the puzzle must be built and placed into their proper positions, offering us new and solid theories and models (necessary tools) for the application and praxis of these current paradigms. The above-mentioned concepts were the main reason for the subtitle of the IWANN 2005 edition: “Computational Intelligence and Bioinspired Systems.” The call for papers was launched several months ago, addressing the following topics: 1. Mathematical and theoretical methods in computational intelligence.