The primary aim of this essay is to analyse, contextualise and problematise the scientific and technological goals of android science. The starting point of this investigation is the history of automata and man?s attempts to recreate himself by technological means. Drawing on the no-tion of boundary work this essay also analyses the efforts of the proponents of android science to establish and demarcate a new interdisciplinary field. A secondary aim of the essay is to evaluate the scientific support for the uncanny valley hypothesis and to investigate how this hypothesis contributes to android science.

In a column experiment the effect of three different biochars on nitrous gas emissions, nitrogenretention and water filled pore space (WFPS) were studied in a Swedish sandy soil, classified as aCryopsamment. Ammonium retention was positively correlated, while KCl-extractable ammoniumwas negatively correlated, with the specific area of the biochars. The question was raised whether thenegative correlation between extractable ammonium and biochar specific area reflects the amount ofammonium present in the soil or its extractability from the biochar, and whether methods forextracting soil mineral nitrogen, like KCl-extractions, have to be modified for application on biocharamended soils. There was a tendency of increased nitrate retention and KCl-extractable nitrate withbiochar and KCl-extractable nitrate was positively correlated with the specific area of the biochar. pHwas higher for all biochars compared with control, although the differences were not significant, andWFPS was lowered by biochar addition, significantly in one case.

This study investigated potato growing in beds as an alternative to conventional ridges.It was based on results from field trials on bed-grown potatoes carried out by Halland Rural Economy and Agricultural Society in 2007, studies of literature and interviews with farmers with experience of bed growing of potatoes. Due to their shallow root system, potatoes are one of the most drought-sensitive crops. Potatoes are often grown on sandy soils with poor water-holding capacity. Factors such as total yield, tuber size distribution and quality defects are negatively affected when water becomes insufficient. Wide beds have a more flat top which leads to more uniform water infiltration. Further on, beds have lower soil surface area due to its shape, and therefore, retain water more efficient. In the field trials, which were carried out at the Stjärnarp Estate near Halmstad, potatoes were grown in beds alongside a conventional ridge-grown crop.

This thesis aims to present the essential background on how to perform climate changeimpact assessments, and to present the results from a climate impact assessment on waterbalance and nitrate leaching for an arable Swedish soil. The soil is a sandy soil in southwesternSweden, grown with spring cereals. This study is meant to be a benchmark example,and cannot be seen as a regional or national assessment for Sweden, rather as an approachto present and analyze the most important parts of these kinds of assessments.A dynamical simulation model (COUP, Jansson and Karlberg, 2004) was used for thisstudy. The model was parameterized and calibrated against data from an experimental site,located in Mellby in Hallands county, south western Sweden. Measurements were carriedout between 1st of April 1988 and 1st of April 1991.

This thesis aims to present the essential background on how to perform climate changeimpact assessments, and to present the results from a climate impact assessment on waterbalance and nitrate leaching for an arable Swedish soil. The soil is a sandy soil in southwesternSweden, grown with spring cereals. This study is meant to be a benchmark example,and cannot be seen as a regional or national assessment for Sweden, rather as an approachto present and analyze the most important parts of these kinds of assessments.A dynamical simulation model (COUP, Jansson and Karlberg, 2004) was used for thisstudy. The model was parameterized and calibrated against data from an experimental site,located in Mellby in Hallands county, south western Sweden. Measurements were carriedout between 1st of April 1988 and 1st of April 1991.

The short term effect of phosphorus in sewage sludge was investigated to establish howmuch of this a farmer can grant him- or herself, if using sewage sludge as a phosphorusfertilizer. Possible differences in plant availability between sludge phosphorus precipitatedby iron, aluminum or calcium integrations were studied in a sandy soil at two pH levels.The sludges were analyzed using pot and incubation trials. As the intention was to investigategrowth limitation due to phosphorus deficiency, a soil with low phosphorus supplywas chosen as well as a low phosphorus application rate. Sludge corresponding to 12kg phosphorus per hectare was applied. Treatments fertilized by sludge were compared totreatments where 0, 6 and 12 kg phosphorus per hectare from mineral fertilizer was applied.Every treatment was replicated six times.

Following the accident at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl in 1986, great volumes of137Cs were distributed over large parts of the former Soviet Union and Europe. Over Scotland,radiocaesium was deposited as wet deposition. Due to the relatively long physical half-life of30 years, there are still measurable activity concentrations in the natural environment. Thisstudy was made on two organic soils, Knockandy Hill and Rora Moss, situated in the easternpart of the central highlands of Scotland. At these two sites, studies on migration and transferbetween soil and plants were conducted.

Under de senaste 300 åren har jordbrukslandskapet i Sverige genomgått stora förändringar. I början av 1900-talet introducerades konstgödslet och efter andra världskriget ökade gödslingen dramatiskt i syfte att maximera produktionen. Detta har lett till att överskottet av kväve har spolats ut i vattendragen. I detta arbete har stor vikt lagts vid att skapa en egen kvävemodell i syfte att simulera kväveläckaget från jordbruksmarken i Tolångaåns dräneringsområde..

The aim of this study was to investigate how preschool teachers think about preschoolscience, what they consider science to be and how they deal with specific curricular objectivesrelated to science.Science is a part of our everyday life, it is a prerequisite for understanding everydayphenomena and how the world is working. Nevertheless it is often dropped in favour of othersubjects in Swedish preschools.The eight preschool teachers participating in this study are all working in the samemunicipality in the western part of Sweden with children aged 1- 5 years. The method used inthis study was interviews. The interviews were recorded to facilitate the transcriptions.The results show that preschool teachers find that science is an important subject that shouldbe introduced to the children early on in life. They also show that preschool teachers considerscience to have a preventive effect on the learning to the children, and it is needed for them tounderstand everyday processes and phenomena.

Sewer trenches usually contain material with a higher hydraulic conductivity then the adjacent soil. Thus they can serve as paths of preferential flow in a polluted area. Wastewater from factories can also leak from wastewater pipes and pollute the soil in the sewer trenches.The purpose of this project was to investigate pollutions in sewer trenches and in sewer pipes in the industrial area of Köpmanholmen, 20 km south of Örnsköldsvik in the north of Sweden. To make an estimation concerning the potential of transport of pollutions in sewer trenches, hydrological calculations were performed.Leakage to any greater extent did not seem to be a problem in the area. This is the case both for the concrete and the wooden pipes that have served as factory wastewater pipes.

The depth-to-water-index (DTW-index) is derived from digital elevation models (DEM) to map soil wetness, in terms of distance from soil surface to the ground water table. The aim of this GIS based study was to investigate the existence of a relationship between DTW-index and forest site productivity (SP). The belief of such an assumed relationship was based on knowledge that the ground water level is related to site properties that can either promote or impede tree growth. Data primarily comprised rasters of the Krycklan catchment in northern Sweden and depicted DTW-index and a laser scanned vegetation height. The 100th height percentile of each pixel in the vegetation raster was assumed to mirror the top-height, letting it act as a relative measure of SP within a delineated area of equal stand age.

I det här arbetet undersöks fältdiagnostiska metoder och användbarheten av dess resultat i planeringsstadiet av en ny trädgårdsblåbärsodling. Syftet är att fastställa vilken information som kan erhållas från en jordanalys, penetrometerundersökning och en jordmånsbeskrivning samt vilka rekommendationer från dessa undersökningar som vidare kan härledas till planeringen av en ny trädgårdsblåbärsodling. Som exempel och fallstudie används en bit åkermark i Ockelbo där provmätningarna ägde rum.Resultatet visar att fältundersökningar i kombination med en jordanalys gjord på laboratorium är ett bra verktyg för att utreda en jords grundläggande förutsättningar. Jordanalysen visar hur näringsinnehållet ser ut i jorden samt vilka eventuella näringsbrister eller näringsöverskott som finns. Penetrometerundersökningen informerar om eventuella markpackningar, som utgör eventuella hinder för t.ex.

Texture is an important soil property and accurate particle size analysis of soil texture is therefore crucial. There are a number of well-established and newly developed methods available for determining soil texture. In order to compare the results of these methods, the differences between them must be determined. The difficulties, problems and differences regarding texture class determination were examined through a study performed on forest soil samples. The study compared different methods (pipette, hydrometer and field methods) and two types of dispersing agents (sodium pyrophosphate and sodium hexametaphosphate (calgon)) commonly used for particle size analysis.

AbstractPurpose/Aim: The aim of this essay is to paint a picture of science news reporting in the Swedish Public Service science programme, vetenskaps-radion. Key issues to be adressed are: What areas in science are prioritised? How much of the total broadcast time are devoted to each area? Are there any differences in reporting between weeks? How well does the swedish science radio match common interets? Are the news in the form of short ?soundbites? or are they more lengthy in-depth?Material/Method: Quantitative analysis of radio programmes. The variables used are based on the different major areas in natural sciences.Main results: This study shows that most broadcast time is devoted to news regarding biology and medicine and that the news rather are in the form of short snippets of news than more lengty in-depth stories. This is put in light of how journalistes tend to present news and that the subjects involved has to relate to peoples everyday lives.

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