Development Of Natural Sciences Research Articles

Istoricheskii ocherk razvitiya tochnykh nauk v Rossii v prodolzhenie 200 let

Istoricheskii ocherk razvitiya tochnykh nauk v Rossii v prodolzhenie 200 let

Voraussetzungen für die Isotopen-Forschung: Grundlegende Entdeckungen in der Physik vor hundert Jahren

Abstract Reviewed is the transition period in the history of physics between 1895 and 1905, a decade which began 100 years ago and which is characterized by high scientific activity and creativity with significant results for the further development of natural science. A great number of outstanding scientists, especially physicists, worked in this period. Their important discoveries manifest the beginning of the history of isotopic research.

THE EFFECT OF VITAMIN-C INFUSION TREATMENT ON IMMUNE DISORDERS - AN INVITATION TO A TRIAL IN AIDS PATIENTS

We tested the therapeutic effect of vitamin C infusion treatment in patients with autoimmune disease or allergy, and found the trial to be a big success. The above clinical studies served to prove the validity of our speculation that vitamin C with its strong affinity for endocrine cells may enhance the function of the endocrines, and that the endocrines thus activated will in turn exert a beneficial influence on either autoimmune disease or allergy - a disease entity that is known to be responsive to glucocorticoid treatment. Experimental studies that have been conducted in parallel with our clinical studies were in agreement with our interpretation about the mechanism of vitamin C action - a finding which appears to be promising for a trial in AIDS patients. We next investigated the prospect of vitamin C infusion therapy in AIDS patients in the light of the historical development of natural science including microbiology, epidemiology and population ecology. Accumulated data were in support of the notion that AIDS is more akin to autoimmune disease than to venereal disease. Usefulness and limitation of vitamin C infusion treatment in the general crisis of the 20th Century world are discussed in relation to the population problem.

The philosophy of nature and the grotto in the Renaissance garden

During the Renaissance, the garden moves away from an involvement with weighty ethico-religious metaphors in order to discover new spheres of subject matter. After the earthly paradise, the locus amoenus, the viridarium of the Virgin Mary, and the garden of Christ's agony, the time had come for a different way of formulating the symbolic properties of the garden. This change involved the two basic problems of the garden: space and subject matter. The garden came to be considered as a model of a specific space: a city, a region, the world, the Cosmos. Additionally, the very rapid developments in natural sciences, in the philosophy of nature and in methods of investigating natural processes led to the exhaustion of existing concepts of the laws of nature, and thence to the elaboration of allegorical schemas inspired by such methods of working with and upon nature as the arts of gardening and agriculture.

A Discussion of the Anti-Buddhism Struggle in China Before the Mid-Tang Dynasty and the Path of Buddhism's Development in China

From the time of the Eastern Han dynasty [A.D. 23-220] onward, Buddhism gradually became a very important ideological tool for the feudal landlord class in China in their establishing their rule over the country. Although Buddhism had its roots in India and was transmitted to China in the form of seeds of ideas, it found even more fertile soil in China and grew into a tall and leafy tree with a stout trunk, casting its protective shadow over the entire Chinese system of feudalism. In the age of feudalism in China, the political power of Buddhism was constantly in competition with that of the Daoist religion in areas populated by the Han people, and there was quite an ebb and flow. However, it is fair to say that in terms of ideological and cultural influence Buddhism enjoyed a great advantage. Naturally, the other imported religions and/or regional religions, which were by and large even weaker than the Daoist religion, were even less of a match for Buddhism. Nevertheless, in terms of China's historical conditions, owing to intermittent class conflict — primarily the revolutionary peasant wars, to a powerful despotic system of concentration of political power and to the conflict of practical interests between secular landlords and monastic landlords — monastic orders who controlled land on the basis of the monastery economy, and also owing to the traditionally powerful influence of Confucianist orthodoxy (there was in Confucianist teaching also a smattering of tendencies toward humanist and even materialist thought, as well as the development of natural science) — all these factors combined to wage war against religion and theology. As a result, the development of Buddhism was greatly hindered, and, unlike the religions of Europe and other Asian countries, it was unable to place religious authority over and above secular political authority or to achieve an absolute monopoly over the realm of ideology and culture. In China, no matter how brightly the star of Buddhism shone and how great and compelling its power and prestige came to be, it still nonetheless always huddled up at the feet of the feudalistic monarchy and was never able to take the place of the orthodoxy of Confucianism. Still, it was indispensable as a supplementary tool of government.

The Nature of the Early Royal Society: Part I

The foundation of the Royal Society marks an important step in the institutionalization of seventeenth-century British natural philosophy. The society's existence and activities provided a focus for the exchange of opinions, while its meetings and publications became forums for scientific debate. Some writers, however, have claimed much more than this for the society and have seen its establishment as marking a real watershed between, on the one hand, intellectually ‘conservative elements’ and, on the other, a set of ‘definite philosophical principles … inspiring … progressive minds’. Others have gone still further and argued not only that the society's activities ‘enormously’ accelerated ‘the development of natural sciences’, but that these activities were the result of the ‘working out of a conscious, deliberately-conceived ideal’. But views which see a single, logically consistent conception of the nature of the scientific enterprise informing the work and outlook of the Royal Society and its members involve a serious oversimplification of the complexity of natural philosophy in the late seventeenth century. Despite some important work published in recent years, we are still far from achieving a satisfactory understanding of the complicated web of traditions, sources, and intellectual systems that provided both an inspirational dynamic for the work of natural philosophers such as those in the Royal Society and patterns of expression through which their preoccupations could be articulated. Thus the many studies which have been devoted to establishing connexions between the scientific movement and patterns of religious or political belief have been flawed from the start by unreal assumptions about the degree of intellectual coherence presented by the natural philosophy of the time. And until we can present a more three-dimensional picture of what the 'scientific movement’ was in fact all about, and until wider agreement has been reached as to satisfactory definitions of various types of socio-theological attitude and behaviour, such studies are no more than attempts to tie together two unknowns by means of a rope of sand.

Scientific heritage of Academician Anatolii Olexandrovich Babych

Purpose. Presentation of the life experience, research, scientific-organizational, pedagogical and public activity of the outstanding scientist in the field of agronomy, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, Professor, Laureate of the State Prize of Ukraine in the field of science and technology, Academician of NAAS Anatoliy Oleksandrovych Babych. Methods. The study is based on the principles of historical knowledge: objectivity, system, sequence, complexity, multifactoriality. General scientific (analysis, synthesis, classification) and special methods (problem-chronological, historical, descriptive) were used. Results. On the basis of personal, professional, bibliographic perception of the figure of A.O. Babych and analysis of the literary sources, the way of life, formation of the scientist's personality, his scientific school, the most important scientific works, state awards and his contribution to the development of agricultural agronomic science in Ukraine, in particular to the formation of the Institute of Feed and Agriculture Podillya of NAAS of Ukraine as a scientific and methodological center, are displayed. Conclusions. Due to his tireless work and organizational skills, Academician A.O. Babych founded a scientific school for selection and technological support and development of agricultural science, created more than 100 varieties of soybeans, legumes and fodder crops, which today are in great demand in production, and developed adaptive varietal technologies for their cultivation. The main provisions of the scientific heritage of of А.О. Babych still remain relevant. They found their development in the works of his followers and successors Maintaining the authority and academic heritage of Anatoly Alexandrovich Babych will further contribute to the development of national science.

Problems in Coordinating the Scientific and Technical Research of Comecon Countries

The rapid economic development of the Comecon countries requires the full utilization of the achievements of modern science and technology and more rapid progress in these areas, which is the main factor in raising social labor productivity and is a major prerequisite for building the material and technical base of socialism and communism. This adds to the importance of cooperation among the Comecon states in science and technology. The countries of the socialist community have great possibilities for uniting their efforts in this field, as their social system permits an organic combination of the development of national science and technology with the scientific progress of the socialist countries as a whole. In order to exploit these possibilities, however, it is necessary constantly to perfect the international planning and coordination of research and to combine adequately the scientific-technical activity of each country with the joint efforts of all Comecon countries.

Problems in Coordinating the Scientific and Technical Research of Comecon Countries

The rapid economic development of the Comecon countries requires the full utilization of the achievements of modern science and technology and more rapid progress in these areas, which is the main factor in raising social labor productivity and is a major prerequisite for building the material and technical base of socialism and communism. This adds to the importance of cooperation among the Comecon states in science and technology. The countries of the socialist community have great possibilities for uniting their efforts in this field, as their social system permits an organic combination of the development of national science and technology with the scientific progress of the socialist countries as a whole. In order to exploit these possibilities, however, it is necessary constantly to perfect the international planning and coordination of research and to combine adequately the scientific-technical activity of each country with the joint efforts of all Comecon countries.

Germany and Science: Yesterday and To-day

A CORRESPONDENT has pointed out that the speech at the Heidelberg jubilee by Reichsminister Rust, which was referred to in NATURE of January 16, p. 98, stands in poor contrast to an equally proud speech of Helmholtz delivered in 1869 (Les Mondes, 21, 552). Speaking at Innsbruck at a gathering of German scientific workers and medical men, he claimed that Germany held the first place in the development of natural sciences because the German savants, unlike their French and English colleagues, could proclaim truth as they found it, without regard to the opinion of the world, to social and religious prejudices. Our correspondent remarks that there was more of Athens than of Sparta in such men.

The Congress of Bohemian Physicians and Naturalists

THE first Congress of Bohemian Naturalists and Physicians met at Prague on May 14 last. More than 400 members met under the presidency of M. Krejcí, M. Eiselt, M. Koristka, and M. Studnicka. The first general meeting was opened by M. Krejcí, Professor of Geology, who delivered an inaugural address “On the share of the Bohemian Nation in the Development of Natural Science.” He showed that not only Bohemian workers in science were in the field up to the seventeenth century, but that when the Bohemian nation, after two centuries of political and national slavery, awoke to life again, it very soon took its part in the progress of natural science. The names of Purkyne, Rokytanský, Skoda, Bohdalek, Pitha, Blazina, Safarík, Celakovský, Fric, Krejcí, Helmhacker, and of many others, are known even beyond the boundaries of Bohemia. Many obstacles were placed in the way of these promoters of science; they were not assisted by Government, and even the ancient university of Prague was, and indeed is, almost exclusively German. But in spite of all difficulties scientific progress went on steadily, and at present the number of workers in science is very fair. Knowing the cosmopolitan character of science, the Bohemian nation values equally the progress made in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Russia; it wishes only that its own share—if proportionately small—may be recognised by others. The great languages of the world are like the sea, which carries the ships and steamers of all nations; but the languages and literature, of small nationalities—of the Danes, Swedes, Dutch, and Bohemians—resemble so many rivers irrigating and fertilising the continents by which the sea is surrounded.