Interplay Of Science Research Articles

Book Review: Galileo, Darwin, and Hawking: The Interplay of Science, Reason, and Religion

Book Review: <b>Galileo, Darwin, and Hawking</b>: The Interplay of Science, Reason, and Religion

Separating the wheat from the chaff: The interplay of science and environmental management decision through a critical examination of the literature

Separating the wheat from the chaff: The interplay of science and environmental management decision through a critical examination of the literature

The Complementarity of Consciousness

The concept of complementarity, originally proposed by Bohr in a microphysical context, and subsequently extended by himself, Heisenberg and Pauli to encompass subjective as well as objective dimensions of human experience, can be further expanded to apply to many common attitudes of human consciousness. At issue is the replacement of strict polar opposition of superficially antithetical consciousness capacities, such as analysis and synthesis, logic and intuition, or doing and being, by more generous conjugation that allows the pairs to operate in constructive triangulation and harmony. In this format, the physical principle of uncertainty also acquires metaphoric relevance in limiting the attainable sharpness of specification of any consciousness complements, and may serve to define their optimum balance in establishing reality. These principles thus lend themselves to representation of wave-like vs. particle-like operations of consciousness; to trade-offs between rigor and ambience in consciousness research; to generic masculine/feminine reinforcement; and to the interplay of science and spirit in any creative enterprise.

Dowe, Phil. Galileo, Darwin and Hawking: The Interplay of Science, Reason and Religion

Dowe, Phil. Galileo, Darwin and Hawking: The Interplay of Science, Reason and Religion

How should the Senator be advised?

A primary job for Congressional staff members is to advise their bosses—senators or representatives—on issues before the U.S. Congress. As AGU's Congressional Fellow and a Senate legislative staff member, I try to provide the best possible advice to my boss, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D‐Calif.). My struggles in this regard have taught me a lot about the thorny issues involved in the interplay of science and policy.One issue on which I was asked to advise the senator is what, if anything, to do after forests are disturbed by fires or other events. Specifically, should the burned and dead wood be logged? Some people believe it is better not to log; forests regenerate naturally and ‘salvage logging’ as it is called, is ecologically harmful. Others believe logging paves the way for faster forest and habitat restoration.

A Process Theory of Enzyme Catalytic Power – the Interplay of Science and Metaphysics

Enzymes are protein catalysts of extraordinary efficiency, capable of bringing about rate enhancements of their biochemical reactions that can approach factors of 1020. Theories of enzyme catalysis, which seek to explain the means by which enzymes effect catalytic transformation of the substrate molecules on which they work, have evolved over the past century from the “lock-and-key” model proposed by Emil Fischer in 1894 to models that explicitly rely on transition state theory to the most recent theories that strive to provide accounts that stress the essential role of protein dynamics. In this paper, I attempt to construct a metaphysical framework within which these new models of enzyme catalysis can be developed. This framework is constructed from key doctrines of process thought, which gives ontologic priority to becoming over being, as well as tenets of a process philosophy of chemistry, which stresses environmentally responsive molecular transformation. Enzyme catalysis can now be seen not as enzyme acting on its substrate, but rather as enzyme and substrate entering into a relation which allows them to traverse the reaction coordinate as an ontologic unity.

Biodiversity: The Interplay of Science, Valuation, and Policy

In recent years, policymakers have recognized the economic values associated with biodiversity; economists have found ways to incorporate values associated with biodiversity into economic thinking; and scientists have documented the variety of services that diverse ecosystems provide. Those present at the 2006 AIBS annual meeting had the opportunity to explore the diverse linkages among these fields.

Literature and Science: The Next Generation

Literature and Science: The Next Generation

The regulation of genetically modified organisms in the European Union: The interplay of science, law and politics

The application in the past decade of modern biotechnology in agricultural production has sparked off in Europe a public debate of unprecedented nature. Almost since the first commercial release in 1994 of a genetically modified tomato in the US market, the opposition to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has spanned across nations, political ideologies, religious beliefs and activist organizations. This debate is still ongoing, with almost all segments of the society actively participating. It raises primarily questions about trust in science, about transparency in risk governance and about consumer choice. In the early 1990s, the Community legislature took the lead world-wide. It adopted a horizontal approach to regulation, harmonizing national provisions concerning GMOs and GM micro-organisms with the objective of ensuring free movement of goods in the internal market whilst aiming for a high level of health and environmental protection. However, the public debate and, in some cases, the civil unrest and even disobedience that followed, particularly during the years 1996–2001, rendered revision of the first Community legal framework necessary. Scientific and international legal developments followed soon and they reinforced the need to update and complete the regulatory framework. To understand, therefore, the background of the Com-

Assessing Animal Welfare at the Farm and Group Level: The Interplay of Science and Values

AbstractIn the social debate about animal welfare we can identify three different views about how animals should be raised and how their welfare should be judged: (1) the view that animals should be raised under conditions that promote good biological functioning in the sense of health, growth and reproduction, (2) the view that animals should be raised in ways that minimise suffering and promote contentment, and (3) the view that animals should be allowed to lead relatively natural lives. When attempting to assess animal welfare, different scientists select different criteria, reflecting one or more of these value-dependent views. Even when ostensibly covering all three views, scientists may differ in what they treat as inherently important versus only instrumentally important, and their selection of variables may be further influenced by a desire to use measures that are scientifically respected and can be scored objectively. Value assumptions may also enter animal welfare assessment at the farm and group level (1) when empirical data provide insufficient guidance on important issues, (2) when we need to weigh conflicting interests of different animals, and (3) when we need to weigh conflicting evidence from different variables. Although value assumptions cannot be eliminated from animal welfare assessment, they can be made more explicit as the first step in creating animal welfare assessment tools. Different value assumptions could lead to different welfare assessment tools, each claiming validity within a given set of assumptions.

Interplay of Science and Stakeholder Values in Neuse River Total Maximum Daily Load Process

Successful engagement of stakeholders and scientists is essential when regulatory agencies want public input to environmental policy decisions that are technically complex. Standards of good practice for public involvement in regulatory decision making derived from the literature were used to evaluate stakeholder interactions with water quality models and modelers in the Neuse River total maximum daily load (TMDL) process. Some aspects of this interaction went well: stakeholders were involved early in the development of at least some of the models; presentations from modelers enhanced stakeholders’ scientific knowledge; and the regulatory agencies accepted stakeholder input as having a strong advisory role in their decisions. Some elements did not go so well: delays in delivery of modeling results prevented their full consideration by stakeholders; and incompatible timeframes for data collection, modeling, and regulatory decision making diminished confidence in the integrated modeling and monitoring framework that had been developed for the Neuse. Most importantly, the TMDL regulatory process was defined much too narrowly to encompass the stakeholders’ wide-ranging concerns for equity, cost effectiveness, and deliberate adjudication of the tradeoffs between costs and benefits of water quality regulation. Water quality monitoring and modeling emphasizing concentrations of chlorophyll did not begin to address the social, economic, and cultural concerns of the stakeholders. The most serious shortcomings of the Neuse TMDL process thus rest not with the scientists or the stakeholders, but with the too narrow structure of the regulatory process itself.

Science, Politics, and Religion: Humboldtian Thinking and the Transformations of Civil Society in Germany, 1830-1870

Between 1830 and 1870 the infrastructure of civil society in Germany expanded significantly. In spite of the failure of the 1848 revolution, the culture of the Bürgertum, the middle classes, began to flourish through associations, educational efforts, and diverse media and institutions of public life. The study of natural history and the new natural sciences became an integral part of this seminal process. This essay examines the development of civil society through the interplay of science, religion, and politics, which is paradigmatically embodied in the biography of Emil Adolf Rossmässler. As a science teacher, free-religious activist, and democratic politician, Rossmässler became one of Germany's preeminent advocates of science as a civil practice, though one who acted outside university science and the mainstream of academia. Rossmässler and many of his peers understood the study of nature as a democratic exercise and sought to integrate the natural sciences into the German concept of education (Bildung). Instead of associating themselves with the philosophical materialism of the time, however, they drew heavily on the thinking of Alexander von Humboldt and prolonged a reconciliatory understanding of nature into the public sphere. A look at their efforts reveals the richness and diversity of a civil culture of nature studies outside the realm of state-supported science and university research.

Semina ignis : The Interplay of Science and Myth in the Song of Silenus

Semina Ignis:The Interplay of Science and Myth in the Song of Silenus Michael Paschalis 1. Introduction hinc lapides Pyrrhae iactos, Saturnia regna,Caucasiasque refert uolucris furtumque Promethei (Virg. Ecl. 6.41-42) The list of myths in Virgil's Eclogues 6.41-42 has intrigued critics since the time of Servius. The problem most commonly pointed out is its lack of chronological and logical order vis-à-vis the mainstream mythological tradition. Virgil does not mention the first creation of man but passes directly to his regeneration from Pyrrha's stones. This is the story of the repopulation of the earth after the Flood and hence ought to have preceded Saturn's reign, which presumably represents man's initial happy state. In addition, Prometheus' punishment comes before his theft of fire; this could indeed be interpreted as a hysteron proteron, but there remains the difficulty that Prometheus is Deucalion's father and Pyrrha's uncle1 and his furtum ought to have preceded Pyrrha's creation of mankind. The majority of critics believe that there is indeed a lack of chronological order and that it is deliberate. I will give a few examples. Zeph Stewart claims that the chronological problem is explicable in terms of Virgil's intention to give random examples of one branch of didactic poetry associated with the name of Hesiod, that is, genealogical and mythological tales of the origin and early history of mankind.2 According to Eleanor Leach the displacement of chronology aims at puzzling readers and causing them to seek an explanation. She furthermore makes the [End Page 201] important observation that these myths "may even seem contradictory for they are not all commonly found in the same accounts" and proceeds to explain that "they provide three distinct ideas of the nature of mankind."3 Charles Segal thinks that behind the deliberate chronological disorder, there is a theme which is central for the song of Silenus, namely "the flawed character of human existence and man's removal from any absolute purity of life or spirit."4 Other critics, however, see no chronological problem in the order of myths. Boyle and Clausen, for instance, note a progression from the creation of mankind (the myth of Pyrrha) to the golden age (Saturn's reign) and from there to the age of technology (Prometheus' theft of fire), which they interpret either as mankind's fall from a happy state or as morally indifferent.5 Patricia Johnston has argued that the relation of men generated from stones to the Saturnia regna conforms to a consistent chronological pattern in Virgil's works and to an overall conception of the Golden Age, which in her view "appears to require that it be preceded by a race of mortals hardened either by primitive existence or by military activities."6 In what follows I intend to suggest a somewhat different approach to the passage in question. The interpretation I propose is based on arguments derived from the close relation of these myths to the preceding "scientific" section. The two sections share thematic and semantic features which, as I show in part 4 of this essay, are also prominent in other parts of Eclogue 6. In an article published in 1923 Günther Jachmann7 made two points which are important for any discussion of Virgil's cosmogony and the section on Pyrrha and Prometheus: 1. Jachmann objected to Servius' observation that line 41 begins a new section ("relictis prudentibus rebus de mundi origine, subito ad fabulas transitum fecit"), which the majority of Virgilian scholars have adopted without giving it much thought. He pointed out that the initial cosmogony forms a thematic whole with the section treating the origin (Pyrrha) and early history of man (Saturn's reign and the theft of fire by Prometheus). Jachmann noted in this respect that a similar pattern is visible in Orpheus' song in Apollonius (Arg. 1.496-511.), one of the models of Virgil's cosmogony. The difference is that Orpheus' cosmogony [End Page 202] is followed by a theogony and focuses on the gods (503-11), while Silenus' cosmogony is followed by an anthropogony and focuses on man, approximately as Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.76-150...

Not Either/Or: Research in Pasteur's Quadrant

Not Either/Or: Research in Pasteur's Quadrant

Exploring student teachers' perceptions of the Science–Mathematics relationship using electronic conferencing

Against a background of continuing concern regarding primary and secondary pupils' levels of mathematical skills and a history of problems in science teaching due to the mathematical demands made by teachers and courses, the authors brought together mathematics and science trainee teachers to examine the associated issues. The Open University's postgraduate pre-service teacher training course has many innovative features. For example, the students on this course, which leads to the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) communicate with each other, their course tutors and university staff by means of electronic conferencing. This was the medium chosen by the writers to engage their Open University science and mathematics student teachers in collaboratively exploring the interplay of science and mathematics. This article presents: (1) the methodological and operational considerations of using electronic conferencing as a means of bringing together student teachers from different curriculum domains: the findings from exploring the students’ experiences of the interplay of science and mathematics in their own secondary and tertiary education and their school placements; (2) the students' perceptions of (i) science acting as a resource for use in mathematics teaching, (ii) the teaching of science as a place where the applications of mathematical knowledge occurs, and (iii) a thematic approach to teaching and learning; and (3) the development of the students’ understanding of the relationship between the mathematical demands of National Curriculum science and National Curriculum mathematics.

Science, Politics, and the Evolution of Law and Neoclassical Economics

James Hackney's article provocatively points our attention to very important and underexplored issues concerning the interplay of science and politics in the dramatic evolution of law and neoclassical economics since the Second World War. At the heart of his article is his rejection of any reductionist interpretation of the leading developments in this area. Modern law and neoclassical economics, he argues, cannot be accurately viewed either as merely a faithful, nonpoliticized application of modern social science or, alternatively, as simply a convenient vehicle for the promotion of particular contentious political beliefs. Hackney insists that law and neoclassical economics, both in general and in the specific doctrinal area he emphasizes, is about both science and politics. His article seeks to demonstrate this duality and, more broadly, to clarify the general nature and evolution of modern law and economics. Hackney highlights key general characteristics of twentieth-century intellectual thought and examines the influence of those characteristics, as well as the interplay between science and politics, in a series of landmark works on law and economics that have great relevance to recent debates over appropriate products liability standards.

Tracks to innovation — interplay between science and technology

The use of particle tracks—the main themes and many of the specific examples—were initiated in an industrial environment at the General Electric Research Laboratory. Science in industrial environments in neglected in the United States today, yet the area of nuclear tracks gives a good many examples of practical applications of science—applications that would have been unlikely to have emerged promptly from science done outside of industry (where the obligation to seek practical outcomes in absent). This paper will briefly review how track uses developed. The discussion will cover discrete fields of use, both scientific and applied, with emphasis on the interplay of science and technology. Three of the subjects are hole engineering—from filters to counters, radon—a hazard and a help, and tracks of time—oil and geochronology.

Science and industry in HPCN

The interplay of science and industry in the development and exploitation of a mutually beneficial HPCN policy is a non-issue. Everyone, I believe, is willing to subscribe to this view. Just a tad harder is to outline in detail the precise lines along which such a partnership should evolve and what the advantages are for both partners. CRS4 is a research institute based in Cagliari (Sardegna) with a vocation for mathematical modeling and numerical simulation. Research at CRS4 means applied research in close contact with industry. It would seem that we are occupying a privileged position to entertain thoughts and develop theories and models on the interplay of science and industry in HPCN. Nonetheless our experience is too time-limited to allow me to make any general conclusion on the subject. In my paper I will first speculate on what kind of development we will see in the coming years in the field of High Performance Computing and Networks. I will describe the interaction between CRS4 and industry, and extrapolate from this some of the needs of industry from HPCN. I will close by describing our view of the interaction between a HPCN and CRS4.

(29. Symposium der Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftsgeschichte an der RWTH Aachen, 28. bis 30. Mai 1992). Bemerkungen zur Fragestellung und zu den Ergebnissen der Tagung

AbstractThe subject of the 29th conference of the Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftsgeschichte was the “Problem of Interaction of Science and Technology”. At issue at the conference was the difficult relationship between the theoretical concepts and the data of science and the practical devices and processes of technology. Although the interplay of science and technology is a well established field of research in the History of Science and Technology, there are still no solutions to the problem, especially with regard to the continuous discussions in the realm of science policy and technology policy. So the conference aimed both at a contribution to the historiographic problems of the science‐technology relationship and at a historical foundation for the discussion in technology policy.

Practicing natural resource management with a policy orientation

All natural resource managers want to contribute to successful conservation programs. Having and applying an explicit policy orientation is indispensable. The policy sciences are described and a case is made that, if natural resource managers utilize this set of conceptual and applied tools in their natural resource work, their effectiveness could be enhanced. The policy sciences offer a contextual, problem-oriented, and multimethod approach to meeting complex problems. Two kinds of knowledge are needed to solve problems—substantive knowledge about the resource and process knowledge about the decision and policy processes used to derive courses of management action. The interplay of science, analysis, and politics are examined. The wildlife management community is used to illustrate many points, including the important role implementation plays in the overall policy process.