Extraordinary Action Research Articles

Primordial Lithium: Keck Observations in M92 Turnoff Stars

We present new Keck I/HIRES observations at R = 45,000 (=3 pixels) of seven stars near the turnoff of the old, metal-poor globular cluster M92. In three of these stars, we have signal-to-noise ratios (S/Ns) of 40 pixel-1, and in the other four, the S/N is near 20. The Li abundance in star 18 is high compared with the halo field-star plateau and is similar to that in the remarkable Li-rich halo field star BD +23°3912. In addition to the high Li abundance in star 18, there is a dispersion in Li abundance in our seven stars covering the full range of a factor of 3. We have attempted to determine whether the excess Li in star 18 is due to less than average Li depletion in this star from an even higher initial abundance, as predicted by the Yale rotational models, or whether it is due to the extraordinary action of Li production mechanisms in the material that formed this star. We have found no convincing evidence that favors Li production: (1) Stars 18, 21, and 46 have identical Ba abundances, which argues against Li production carrying an s-process signature. (2) These three stars have indistinguishable Ca, Cr, Fe, and Ti, which argues against supernova Li production. (3) We discuss ν-process production of Li and find no convincing observational evidence for this from the strengths of the Mg, Ca, and Fe lines. (4) The similarity in age of these cluster stars argues against cosmic-ray Li production that requires age differences of gigayears. The most likely explanation for the Li dispersion is differential Li depletion from a (possibly significantly) higher primordial Li abundance due to differences in the initial angular momentum in each star followed by spin-down; the most rapid rotators destroy the most Li, whereas the initially slower rotators preserve more Li.

Constraints on the origin of the remarkable lithium abundance of the halo star BD+23 3912

The Li abundance of the halo star BD+23 3912 ([ Fe H ]= −1.5) lies a factor of 2 – 3 above the Spite Plateau. This remarkable difference could reflect either less-than-average stellar Li depletion from a higher primordial Li abundance (as predicted by the Yale rotational stellar evolutionary models) having interesting implications for Big Bang nucleosynthesis, or the extraordinary action of Galactic Li production mechanisms. It is also possible that both mechanisms have acted. We use our high resolution, high S N Keck HIRES spectrum of BD+23 3912 to determine the n-capture abundances and 6Li 7Li ratio in this star. These values serve as signatures for two possible Li production scenarios: the 7Be transport mechanism in AGB stars and cosmic ray interactions with the ISM. The unremarkable abundances of Y, Zr, Ba, La, Nd, and Sm that we derive agrue against a significant contribution to this star's excess Li from AGB production mechanisms carrying an s-process signature. Our conservative upper limit of 6Li 7Li ≤0.15 , compared to 0.25 – 0.50 expected from cosmic ray production, argues against cosmic ray + ISM interactions as the source for the excess Li, unless Li depletion from an even higher abundance has occurred with preferential 6Li depletion. Highly speculative RGB production scenarios also seem unlikely given the normal Na and Al abundances we find and the normal C and O abundances determined by others. While the high Li abundance in BD+23 3912 is consistent with that expected from Yale rotational models having a lower-than-average initial angular momentum, future observations of ν-process elements (particularly 11B) produced in supernovae should provide additional constraints on any enrichment scenarios seeking to explain the large Li abundance of this interesting star.

Bad “Bad Baby” Bills

In the twenty-year-long debate over medical malpractice reform, obstetrics is unique. No other area of specialty medical practice has managed to argue successfully that its malpractice victims should be singled out and barred from obtaining relief through the tort system. Yet, following a well-organized lobbying effort by OB/GYNs, the state legislatures in Virginia and Florida have enacted so-called “bad baby bills” that create workers-compensation-type programs for victims of birth-related injuries. Such statutes provide the exclusive remedy for this and only this class of plaintiffs. Other states are considering following suit: bills have been introduced in North Carolina, Illinois and New York.What justifies this extraordinary legislative action? Proponents of the reforms admit that the effect of these statutes is to reduce the malpractice burden on OB/GYNs. But they are careful to portray patients rather than physicians as the primary beneficiaries of their efforts.

Reply to Dr. A. H. El-Shaarawi. Inferring Causality is Sometimes Necessary for Extraordinary Regulatory Action—Though Not Sufficient

Reply to Dr. A. H. El-Shaarawi. Inferring Causality is Sometimes Necessary for Extraordinary Regulatory Action—Though Not Sufficient

Max Weber: Legitimation, Method, and the Politics of Theory

AX WEBER IS widely regarded as one of the founders of twentieth-century social science and probably its greatest practitioner. Modern and ancient theorists commonly believed that founding-or giving a form or constitution to collective life-was reckoned to be the most notable action of which political man is capable. It is superior to other types of political acts because it aims to shape the lives of citizens by designing the structure or dwelling which they and their posterity will inhabit. In describing this extraordinary action, political theorists often had recourse to architectural metaphors: the founder lays foundations. No such images were invoked to explain the routine acts that occur in the daily life of a polity. Ordinary action is commonly described as doing, effecting, or bringing something about. If political actors are to bring something about, they presuppose conditions that make possible the action in questicn and the means for doing it. They also presuppose a context that permits the action to be understood and interpreted. The founder is quintessentially an author of political presuppositions. By analogy, to found a form of social science entails an act of demarcation that indicates the subject-matter peculiar to the science, the kind of activities that are appropriate (e.g., empirical inquiry), and the norms that are to be invoked injudging the value of the results produced by the activities. These demarcations beconme presuppositions of subsequent practice. Weber was engaged in founding when he wrote the following:

Typology in the Sistine Ceiling: A Critical Statement

In an essay on “Sante Pagnini and Michelangelo A Study in the Succession of Savonarola,”1 I observed some years ago that the Genealogy of Christ, the representation of which in the Sistine Ceiling poses an iconographical problem of difficulty, forms the subject of a large group of Renaissance sermons, tracts, and anthologies. Among these I mentioned the sermons collected in the Renaissance Homeliarius (1506), the commentary of St. Antonine of Florence in his Summa (1480), the debate on the Genealogy between Annius of Viterbo (1498) and Samuel of Cassino (1502),2 and the summation of these tendencies in the Isagoge (1536) of Sante Pagnini, Savonarola's pupil.3 I notice that in Mr. Hartt's article on the Sistine Ceiling,4 in which this subject is discussed at length (pp. 201–213), no mention is made anywhere of the existence of these Renaissance sermons and tracts, and that the Isagoge of Sante Pagnini is dismissed without even a record of its title.5 From Mr. Hartt's own arguments it is evident that these sources were not consulted by him, which may be owing to the fact that accessible libraries are not always equipped for the study of Renaissance theology. Yet this hardly suffices to excuse the extraordinary action of avoiding any reference to the existence of so large a body of relevant Renaissance literature, or of substituting for it quotations from Hrabanus Maurus who wrote in the ninth century. Among the many mediaeval commentaries of Matthew 1, which offer a mystical interpretation of the names in the Genealogy, the text of Hrabanus is not outstanding either for the singularity or the wealth or the influence of its propositions,6 and it does not fit Michelangelo's pictures.

Electrogenic Properties of Acetylcholine

FOLLOWING the classical work of Dale on acetylcholine, numerous investigators have demonstrated the important part played by this quaternary amine in the nervous system1. A neglected property of acetylcholine is its extraordinary electrogenic action at the phase boundary between oils and aqueous solutions2. This negative phase boundary potential provides a possible explanation of the electrical component of the nerve impulse in cholinergic nerves3. It seems reasonable to suppose that the action potential4 might arise from the contact of acetylcholine with the lipoid layer of the nerve fibre according to the theory of phase-boundary potentials5. Moreover, it has been shown that acetylcholine produces a negative electrical potential on living frog skin6.