Diverse Research Programs Research Articles

Testing fundamental symmetries using radioactive ion beams at TRIUMF-ISAC

The ISAC Facility at TRIUMF, Canada’s national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics, provides rare isotope beams for a diverse research program. In this paper we summarize some recent experimental developments at TRIUMF pertaining to fundamental symmetry tests. These tests use the atomic nucleus as a probe to search for physics beyond the Standard Model. Some recent results and future plans are discussed.

Actualidad de la polémica Chomsky-Skinner

El objetivo de este trabajo es reevaluar la polémica Chomsky-Skinner, a 50 años de la publicación de Conducta Verbal. Para ello, resumiré algunas de las hipótesis de trabajo propuestas por Skinner (1), luego analizaré las críticas de Chomsky (2), y expondré algunas de las respuestas más recientes al argumento de que la complejidad lenguaje y la pobreza de estímulo implican un conocimiento gramatical innato (3). Se concluye que la actitud de rechazo hacia las tesis de Skinner por parte de muchos estudiosos del lenguaje se originó en buena medida debido a errores en las críticas de Chomsky, que la polémica Chomsky-Skinner no está cerrada, y que las propuestas de Conducta Verbal mantienen su vigencia en diversos programas de investigación.

Diverse economies: performative practices for `other worlds'

How might academic practices contribute to the exciting proliferation of economic experiments occurring worldwide in the current moment? In this paper we describe the work of a nascent research community of economic geographers and other scholars who are making the choice to bring marginalized, hidden and alternative economic activities to light in order to make them more real and more credible as objects of policy and activism. The diverse economies research program is, we argue, a performative ontological project that builds upon and draws forth a different kind of academic practice and subjectivity. Using contemporary examples, we illustrate the thinking practices of ontological reframing, re-reading for difference and cultivating creativity and we sketch out some of the productive lines of inquiry that emerge from an experimental, performative and ethical orientation to the world. The paper is accompanied by an electronic bibliography of diverse economies research with over 200 entries.

Movers and shakers: evolution and development of the mesoderm

Groundbreaking research in a wide variety of organisms has begun to address fundamental questions regarding the evolutionary origin of mesoderm and how patterning of this emergent tissue layer has played a central role in the diversification of metazoan body plans. However, attempts to synthesize this growing body of research have been limited. To address this perceived gap, a symposium entitled "Movers and Shakers: The Evolution and Development of Mesoderm" was held at the 2006 Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology Conference in Orlando, Florida. The papers derived from this symposium cover a broad range of organisms and approaches. It was our intention that integration of the data and methodologies from these diverse research programs would generate new hypotheses and collaborative efforts to decipher fundamental questions of mesoderm development and evolution.

Controlling Hypertension

In the past 2 decades, deaths from stroke have decreased by 59% and deaths from heart attack by 53%. An important component of this dramatic change has been the increased use of antihypertensive drugs. This remarkable success resulted from broad-based and diverse research programs supported by the federal government, pharmaceutical companies, voluntary health agencies, and private foundations. It included basic research, drug development programs, epidemiologic studies, health surveys of US citizens, clinical research, and large-scale drug trials. Four of the categories of antihypertensive drugs in wide use--diuretics, beta-blockers, calcium antagonists, and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors--emerged from widely different areas of investigation. In the beginning, the major breakthroughs that led to the development of these drugs were impossible to forecast, and their ultimate applications were impossible to predict. Although decreases in hypertension-related mortality are impressive, enthusiasm must be tempered because the mechanisms of hypertension are still incompletely understood and prevention is not yet possible. Continued research is needed to extend these advances.