History Of Science Research Articles

Lessons for the Future of NAMs from History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science.

This paper explores what we can learn from the humanities and social sciences about how standards operate in and around science, in order to understand more about how 'the gold standard' can be shifted away from the use of animals in research and testing, and toward New Approach Methodologies (NAMs). These fields allow us to consider potential futures of NAMs as alternatives, replacements, or complements to animal use in testing and research. As we demonstrate, the questions that we pose and how they are framed are as important as the answers that result. Rather than asking how to 'redefine the gold standard', norms and expectations for NAMs must be actively debated and transparently defined. These considerations would be based, in part, on what has been learned in the past from non-human animal models and systems, but also use the norms within the fields from which the NAMs derive in light of the rich broader contexts within which they are being developed. As we argue, notions such as 'a gold standard' are limited and must be replaced by contextualised standards that depend on the scientific, sociocultural and other factors that contribute to our understanding of a particular method (new or otherwise) as 'good' for a particular purpose.

Products of time: Matchboxes as scientific containers and the social lives of archaeological ephemera

Archaeological work leaves material histories, from archival notes to containers that used to store artifacts. Rarely, however, are these containers preserved or valued as technologies that codified and organized archaeological information. This paper analyzes a collection of matchboxes that were formerly used as artifact containers in a 1940s excavation in Coahuila, Mexico. The matchboxes, never formally accessioned and yet still saved by collections staff, are housed In the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) Museum Support Center. By tracing the labor regimes the matchboxes passed through, the specimens they once contained, and the hands that used them in a multitude of ways, this project uses the matchboxes’ microhistories to reveal how archaeological containers influenced archaeological science. This research argues for a treatment of the matchboxes as artifacts themselves, worthy of formal accession and of value for their role in the history of archaeological science.

Book Review: Women in the history of science: A sourcebook by Wills, H., Harrison, E., Martin, R, & Mackey, F.

Book Review: <i>Women in the history of science: A sourcebook</i> by Wills, H., Harrison, E., Martin, R, &amp; Mackey, F.

Piagetian Theory and the Psychogenetic Development of Humankind Throughout History. Towards a General Theory of the Human Being.

J. Piaget wanted to study children to find a key to understanding history of mind, culture, science, and philosophy. The new theory program, called the structural-genetic theory program, developed by the author of this article, is an off-spring of Piagetian theory and follows Piaget's main idea concerning the study of parallels between ontogenetic and historical developments. It maintains the full identity of the child's psyche and that of the adult archaic human being concerning traits and features of the preoperational stage and partially the concrete operational stage, thereby evidencing the total sally of the formal operational stage in the minds of archaic people. The identity of the stage structures is not partially given but rather entirely and implies even the smallest details. The article exemplifies this identity concerning several central issues, such as logic, physical understanding, categories such as causality and chance, animism, personification of plants and animals, belief in magic, metamorphosis, ghosts, and understanding of dreams and myths. Accordingly, there is no difference between ontogenetic stages and the psychogenetic development of humankind throughout history. Historically, humankind has gone through the same stages as children do. The new theory program presents the fundamental theory of the human being as he or she existed in history and peopled archaic, ancient, and medieval societies. Consequently, the world history of culture, mind, worldview, politics, law, science, philosophy, morals, religion, and arts must be reconstructed in terms of stages, a task already accomplished by the new program, at least to a certain extent.

Bibliometrics beyond citations: introducing mention extraction and analysis

Standard citation-based bibliometric tools have severe limitations when they are applied to periods in the history of science and the humanities before the advent of now-current citation practices. This paper presents an alternative method involving the extracting and analysis of mentions to map and analyze links between scholars and texts in periods that fall outside the scope of citation-based studies. Focusing on one specific discipline in one particular period and language area—Anglophone philosophy between 1890 and 1979—we describe a procedure to create a mention index by identifying, extracting, and disambiguating mentions in academic publications. Our mention index includes 1,095,765 mention links, extracted from 22,977 articles published in 12 journals. We successfully link 93% of these mentions to specific philosophers, with an estimated precision of 82% to 91%. Moreover, we integrate the mention index into a database named EDHIPHY, which includes data and metadata from multiple sources and enables multidimensional mention analyses. In the final part of the paper, we present four case studies conducted by domain experts, demonstrating the use and the potential of both EDHIPHY and mention analyses more generally.

Is Model-Based Science a Kind of Historical Science?

Abstract Philosophers have yet to provide a systematic analysis of the relationship between historical science and model-based science. In this paper I argue that prototypical model-based sciences exhibit features understood to be central to historical science. Philosophers of science have argued that historical scientists are distinctly concerned with inference to the best explanation, that explanations in historical science tend to increase in complexity over time, and that the explanations take the form of narratives. Using general circulation models in climate science as a reference, I illustrate how simulation models in model-based science share these features exhibited by historical science. That model based sciences share these features raises important philosophical questions about how we should understand prototypical types of scientific enquiry, including the relationship between experimental science, historical science, and model-based science. I conclude by exploring several options for how to accommodate the noted similarities within a more general taxonomy of the sciences.

Using Paleoclimate Analogues to Inform Climate Projections

Abstract Philosophers of science have paid close attention to climate simulations as means of projecting the severity and effects of climate change, but have neglected the full diversity of methods in climate science. This paper shows the philosophical richness of another method in climate science: the practice of using paleoclimate analogues to inform our climate projections. First, I argue that the use of paleoclimate analogues can offer important insights to philosophers of the historical sciences. Rather than using the present as a guide to the past, as is common in the historical sciences, paleoclimate analogues involve using the past as a guide to the future. I thereby distinguish different methods in the historical sciences and argue that these distinctions bear on debates over whether the historical sciences can produce generalizations or predictions. Second, I suggest that paleoclimate analogues might actually be considered a type of climate model, and, as such, their use expands on common characterizations of models to include those that are full-scale, naturally occurring, and non-manipulable.

The history of crop science and the future of food

The history of crop science and the future of food

Arthropods to Eutherians: A Historical and Contemporary Comparison of Sparse Prenatal Microbial Communities Among Animalia Species.

Since the advent of next-generation sequencing, investigators worldwide have sought to discern whether a functional and biologically or clinically relevant prenatal microbiome exists. One line of research has led to the hypothesis that microbial DNA detected in utero/in ovo or prior to birth/hatching is a result of contamination and does not belong to viable and functional microbes. Many of these preliminary evaluations have been conducted in humans, mice, and nonhuman primates due to sample and specimen availability. However, a comprehensive review of the literature across animal species suggests organisms that maintain an obligate relationship with microbes may act as better models for interrogating the selective pressures placed on vertical microbial transfer over traditional laboratory species. To date, studies in humans and viviparous laboratory species have failed to illustrate the clear presence and transfer of functional microbes in utero. Until a ground truth regarding the status and relevance of prenatal microbes can be ascertained, it is salient to conduct parallel investigations into the prevalence of a functional prenatal microbiome across the developmental lifespan of multiple organisms in the kingdom Animalia. This comprehensive understanding is necessary not only to determine the role of vertically transmitted microbes and their products in early human health but also to understand their full One Health impact. This review is among the first to compile such comprehensive primary conclusions from the original investigator's conclusions, and hence collectively illustrates that prenatal microbial transfer is supported by experimental evidence arising from over a long and rigorous scientific history encompassing a breadth of species from kingdom Animalia.

Türkiye in the Kazakh socio-political thought of the early twentieth century

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to investigate Turkish issues in the Kazakh socio-political thought of the early twentieth century. To conduct this study, a set of scientific methods was used, such as general scientific methods of information analysis and synthesis, methods of system analysis and content analysis; specialised methods of historical science – source methods (classification of sources, analysis and comparison, synthesis of information received), historical-system method, comparative-historical method, problematic-chronological method. The main method of the study is the historical-system method, using which a structural and functional analysis of the problem was carried out. The results of this study disclose the specific features of the socio-political life of Kazakhs at the beginning of the twentieth century, provides data on their party movements and the publishing house of national mass media, substantiates the role of Türkiye in the context of Pan-Turkism aspirations of individual political movements and personalities. The materials of this study are of practical value for an in-depth study of the history of Kazakhstan in the twentieth century, history of Pan-Turkism movements, and further research of such scientific issues as the role of intellectuals, public associations, and national Kazakh printed publications in the acquisition of statehood of Kazakhstan.

Evaluation of the adjuvant effect of imiquimod and CpG ODN 1826 in chimeric DNA vaccine against Japanese encephalitis

Vaccines represent a significant milestone in the history of human medical science and serve as the primary means for controlling infectious diseases. In recent years, the geographical distribution of Japanese encephalitis viruses (JEV) of various genotypes has become increasingly complex, which provides a rationale for the development of safer and more effective vaccines. The advent of subunit and nucleic acid vaccines, especially propelled by advancements in genetic engineering since the 1980s, has accelerated the application of novel adjuvants. These novel vaccine adjuvants have diversified into toll-like receptor (TLR) agonists, complex adjuvants, nanoparticles and so on. However, the efficacy of adjuvant combinations can vary depending on the host system, disease model, or vaccine formulation, sometimes resulting in competitive or counteractive effects. In our previous study, we constructed a pJME-LC3 chimeric DNA vaccine aimed at inducing an immune response through autophagy induction. Building on this, we investigated the impact of the TLR7/8 agonist imiquimod (IMQ) and the TLR9 agonist CpG ODN 1826 as adjuvants on the immunogenicity of the Japanese encephalitis chimeric DNA vaccine. Our findings indicate that the combination of the pJME-LC3 vaccine with IMQ and CpG ODN 1826 adjuvants enhanced the innate immune response, promoting the maturation and activation of antigen-presenting cells in the early immune response. Furthermore, it played a regulatory and optimizing role in subsequent antigen-specific immune responses, resulting in effective cellular and humoral immunity and providing prolonged immune protection. The synergistic effect of IMQ and CpG ODN 1826 as adjuvants offers a novel approach for the development of Japanese encephalitis nucleic acid vaccines.

2nd International Conference of the Russian National Committee on the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences

2nd International Conference of the Russian National Committee on the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences

The Embryological Interpretation of Gen 2:7 and its Use in Dyophysite Christology

Abstract This article traces the rise of the embryological interpretation of Gen 2:7 and how it came to provide arguments for dyophysite Christology. By the late 4th century, many Christian writers saw in the formation of Adam a depiction of the formation and ensoulment of a human embryo. Moreover, authors around the 5th century connected the embryological reading of Adam’s formation with the life of Christ in the womb. But in the 6th and 7th centuries, this interpretation of Gen 2:7 became controversial. Debates about Christ raised the stakes of disagreement over the time of human ensoulment, and embryological readings of Adam’s creation were caught up in these debates. In this context, East Syrian Babai the Great (551–628) deployed the embryological reading of Gen 2:7 against Christological rivals in defense of his theory of Christ’s delayed ensoulment in the womb. In doing so, he offers a biological account of Christ’s pre-ensouled life as a plant and zoophyte. But the connection between an embryological reading of Gen 2:7 and dyophysite Christology also prompted opponents to turn to exegetical strategies that excluded any analogy with delayed ensoulment. This article thus presents an example of how theological controversy and the history of science affected biblical exegesis.

Origins

Abstract Scientific origins are information sources that transmit encoded information signals to receivers. Originary sciences identify information preserving receivers and decode the signals to infer their origins. Paradigmatic cases of scientific origination such as the Big Bang, the origins of species, horizontal gene transfer, the origin of the Polynesian potato, and ideational origins in the history of ideas are analyzed to discover what is common to them ontologically and epistemically. Some causes are not origins. Origination supervenes on causation, but has different properties. The unique properties of origins that causes do not share shield theories of origination from the kind of counterexamples and counterintuitive results that challenge comparable theories of causation. The epistemology of origination may serve as a basis for founding a novel epistemic and methodological division of the sciences into originary historical sciences and causal theoretical sciences.

Administrative-territorial transformations in the Kursk region in the mid 1940s – early 1960s: main practices and results

Relevance. Issues of intraregional administrative and territorial transformations, including in the Kursk region, currently remain practically unstudied. This is due, on the one hand, to the specifics of the source base of the problem, which is a set of official legal documents, statistics and regulations, and, on the other hand, to insufficient interest on the part of researchers. Meanwhile, studying the specifics of the implementation of various administrative-territorial transformations in the post-war period using the example of a specific region has serious scientific significance: it allows us to detail the features of the socio-economic development of territories, demographic and migration aspects, etc., which creates the opportunity to take a slightly different look at history of the Kursk region.The purpose. Reveal the features of the dynamics of the administrative-territorial structure of the Kursk region in the mid-1940s – early 1960s.Objectives: based on the study of a complex of historical sources, show the prerequisites, logic and course of intraregional administrative and territorial transformations of the Kursk region in the period indicated above.Methodology. When writing the work, the authors relied on the fundamental methods of historical science (the principles of historicism and objectivity), as well as on a number of specific historical and general scientific methods (analytical, comparative historical, genetic, etc.).Results. Currently, in local historiography there are no scientific works on the history of the administrative-territorial structure of the Kursk region. The reference publications available to historians are replete with inaccuracies and errors. This work partly identifies these errors, and also shows the mechanisms for changing the administrative-territorial structure of the Kursk region in the mid-1940s – early 1960s.Conclusion. The administrative and territorial transformations that took place in the Kursk region in the mid1940s – early 1960s had a predominantly socio-economic basis. The rapid development of individual territories required changes in the network of village councils, districts, the creation of new regions, as well as the abolition of ineffective administrative-territorial units. The party and state leadership of the region and the country in most cases responded quite quickly to these needs, however, as practice has shown, not all of them were consolidated in practice.

Lessons for an invisible future from an invisible past: Risk and resilience in deep time

The interrelated concepts of risk and resilience are inherently future-focused. Two main dimensions of risk are the probability that a harmful event will happen in the future and the probability that such an event will cause a varying degree of loss. Resilience likewise refers to the organization of a biological, societal, or technological system such that it can withstand deleterious consequences of future risks. Although both risk and resilience pertain to the future, they are assessed by looking to the past – the past occurrence of harmful events, the losses incurred in these events, and the success or failure of systems to mitigate loss when these events occur. Most common risk and resilience measures rely on records extending a few decades into the past at most. However, much longer-term dynamics of risk and resilience are of equal if not greater importance for the sustainability of coupled socioecological systems which dominate our planet. Historical sciences, including archeology, are critical to assessing risk and resilience in deep time to plan for a sustainable future. The challenge is that both past and future are invisible; we can directly observe neither. We present examples from recent archeological research that provide insights into prehistoric risk and resilience to illustrate how archeology can meet this challenge through large-scale meta-analyses, data science, and modeling.

The Püsterich of Sondershausen: An Explosive Bronze Object between Art, Science and Questions of Human Nature in the 13th Century

Preserved in the Castle Museum at Sondershausen in central Germany is a bronze taking the form of a rotund, kneeling man. The object, nearly 22.5 inches tall and cast in a single piece, is known today as the ‘Püsterich’. Since its archaeological discovery in the 1540s, it has proven to be a subject of intellectual debate: numerous authors have sought to understand either its iconography or, on the basis of its hollow shape and the two openings in its head, its function. The resulting studies have been surprisingly varied in their claims. With a method of approach rooted in ‘object studies’, this article explores both of the aforementioned aspects as well as form-function relations. Starting with a basic art-historical analysis of the bronze—thus far lacking in the scholarship—the article recognizes the work as having been produced in Hildesheim between c. 1220 and 1250, a context in which it can be related closely to the philosophical concerns of the prominent theologian Albertus Magnus. In its function as a ‘sufflator’ (hearth-blower) and its depiction of a ‘pygmeus’, the ‘Püsterich’, along with seven other related figures, can be understood as a ‘Wissensobjekt’, an object or bearer of knowledge. With and through them, viewers/users negotiated complex problems about the nature of living beings; specifically, the bronze thematized the question of what distinguished human beings from animals: in Albertus’s thought, the mastering of science and art. This new understanding of the ‘Püsterich’ allows us to recognize its special position at the origins of ‘philosophical anthropology’ and the history of science.

Institute of the National Heritage: A Retrospective of the Idea, Image and Economic Constitutionalization

The institution of the national heritage takes an important place in the Soviet constitutional construction, in the history of legal science and in the practical construction of the planned economy — the most efficient economy in the world. Its introduction was dictated by the revolutionary conditions of 1917, passed all legislative levels of consolidation, served as the material for the work of the Gosplan of the USSR — the state body responsible for planning the development of the national economy of the USSR and monitoring planned implementation. It also was the foundation for the work of large‑scale state enterprises that create high income for the development of high rates of industrial economy and increase the standard of living of the population. The historical and legal research of the Institute of National Heritage, the experience of the development of a planned economy, should be conducted in the national interests of the Russian Federation. The institution of the national heritage, its constitutional consolidation and implementation have become a basic part of the socially oriented economic organization of the Russian statehood. The socially oriented economic organization of the State, in turn, is the target task of economic constitutionalization. 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the first Union Constitution of the USSR in 1924. It should be assumed that not only a historian or a lawyer, but also any person who is not professionally involved in the evolution of statehood, knows that the new constitution arises as a result of political, social, and economic transformations. There is a reason to recall the Soviet state‑building, its main motivational forces. There are epoch‑making constitutions adopted as a result of revolutions — in the Russian past, these were the Constitution of the RSFSR of 1918 and the Constitution of the Russian Federation of 1993. The Constitution of the USSR of 1924 would not have seen the light if there had not been the Constitution of the RSFSR of 1918, which, in turn, the world would not have seen without the revolutionary events of 1917. The Constitutions of 1936 and 1977 were in progress. What is the legal idea that permeates the entire Soviet history? Let’s try to answer the question.

Uncertain Knowledge: The Medicalisation of Intersex People and the Production of Ignorance

Ignorance is produced through mechanisms related to power relations and socio-cultural context. This article examines whether the theoretical conceptualisation of agnotology may be useful when exploring intersex and the way it has been erased socially and physically. Specifically, based on the work of a PhD in Sociology and History of Science, it proposes categorising three types of mechanisms of ignorance production—cultural, epistemological and physical—with the aim of providing a greater understanding of how medicine, science and technology participate in a continuous process of erasing intersex bodies and lived experiences. Using medical literature, interviews and observations, the article focuses on a specific area of biomedical knowledge and intervention: the prenatal ‘treatment’ of Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) with dexamethasone or ‘prenatal DEX’. It shows how this procedure was pioneered by French doctors and how it continues to be practised in France despite numerous uncertainties and controversies inside and outside of the medical sphere.

Migrant Techniques and Subversive Milieus

How do we conceive diversification in the milieu of technics? Though associated-milieu is a useful concept, the Indian terrain of techniques impels one to underscore the notion as a milieu of subversion. The paper begins with a reading of the seminal work done by Debiprasad Chattopadhaya analyzing the impediments in writing a history of ancient Indian science and technology. Whether his effort resuscitating a history of materialism succeeds in interpolating a history of techniques in India is a critique this paper explores, taking cues from Yuk Hui’s incisive reading of the perceived absence of traditions of technical thinking in China, or broadly Asia. Present paper builds on Hui’s concept of “cosmotechnics” alongside the notion of “associated milieus” of counter-cultural techniques of Yoga and Tantra. In the second half, the paper brings into view how these Indian thought and practice traditions of Tantra and Yoga as techniques of the cosmic self and the body are woven into counter-cultures eliciting a critical framework for thinking these associated-milieus as exiled and migrated milieus.