Range of new journals from Springer.

Springer Science + Business (New York) has begun the publication of four new journals in the first quarter of 2009, including "Cognitive Computation," "Memetic Computing," "Silicon" and "Water Quality, Exposure and Health." All four will be published quarterly.

"Water Quality, Exposure and Health" is a new interdisciplinary title focused on global health consequences of exposure to water pollution in natural and engineered environments. The journal is designed to provide a platform for the exchange of information on research for the solution of health effects of exposure to water pollution.

Research topics include local, regional and global water pollution, exposure and health problems, health risk analysis of water pollution, methods of quantification and analysis of risk under uncertainty, aquatic biogeochemical processes in antural and engineered systems and health effects, analysis of pollution, exposure and health data.

"Memetic Computing," launched with a March issue, is a new journal that features research articles in hybrid metaheuristics for optimization, control and design in continuous and discrete optimization domains. It carries information on the emergence of cultural artifacts such as game, trade and negotiation strategies and, more generally, rules of behavior as they apply to robotic, multi-agent and artificial life systems.

It is also a vehicle for the latest results in natural computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, operational research and natural sciences, genetic programming, neural networks, landscape analysis, artificial immune systems, and experimental computing.

Also launched with a March issue, "Cognitive Computation" is a new title that publishes articles describing original basic and applied work involving biologically-inspired computational accounts of all aspects of natural and artificial cognitive systems. It includes coverage of topics such as perception, action, attention, learning and memory, decision making, language processing, communication, reasoning, problem solving and cognition.

Finally, "Silicon" was launched in January for professionals working in materials chemistry, materials engineering, materials biology, materials physics, organic and inorganic chemistry, nanoscience, environmental science, and modeling and theory. Content covers such topics as semiconductors, polymers, ceramics, glass, coatings, resins, composite materials, electronics, optoelectronics and thin films.