Key Scientists Research Articles

Clifford Geertz’s Interpretive Approach to Religion

AbstractClifford Geertz is often lauded as the key social scientist in the contemporary shift from an interpretive approach to religion and to culture in general to an explanatory approach. Supposedly, the shift is from concern with the cause of religion to concern with the meaning of religion. This article argues, first, that Geertz associates an interpretive approach with an array of distinct considerations and argues, second, that Geertz actually seeks to combine an interpretive approach with an explanatory one rather than to substitute an interpretive approach for an explanatory one.

Albert Warner Overhauser

Albert Warner Overhauser

On being a (modern) scientist: risks of public engagement in the UK interspecies embryo debate

In 2006, a small group of UK academic scientists made headlines when they proposed the creation of interspecies embryos – mixing human and animal genetic material. A public campaign was fought to mobilize support for the research. Drawing on interviews with the key scientists involved, this paper argues that engaging the public through communicating their ideas via the media can result in tensions between the necessity of, and inherent dangers in, scientists campaigning on controversial issues. Some scientists believed that communicating science had damaged their professional standing in the eyes of their peers, who, in turn, policed the boundaries around what they believed constituted a “good” scientist. Tensions between promoting “science” versus promotion of the “scientist”; engaging the public versus publishing peer-reviewed articles and winning grants; and building expectations versus overhyping the science reveal the difficult choices scientists in the modern world have to make over the potential gains and risks of communicating science. We conclude that although scientists' participation in public debates is often encouraged, the rewards of such engagement remain. Moreover, this participation can detrimentally affect scientists' careers.

Remote-sensing image analysis and geostatistics

The random function theory forms the basis of geostatistics and allows modelling of the uncertainty associated with spatial estimation and simulation. Remote sensing involves gathering information about an object by measuring signals composed of radiation, particles and fields emanating from an object with a sensor that is not in direct contact with it. This article reviews the present state of the art of how geostatistics is used in remote-sensing studies by reviewing the 2000–2010 literature in this field. This article first addresses the issue of stationarity in the context of image analysis and reviews whether this holds as it is a basic assumption of most geostatistical techniques. Ways to relax the assumption are discussed. Following is the use of variograms to quantify image structure and texture, and the use of variograms to address issues of optimal scale of observation. Next, various kriging-based estimation techniques (parametric and non-parametric) and how these can be used to enhance image information, fill missing pixel information and downscale information through super-resolution techniques (e.g. downscaling with preservation of spatial structure at the finer resolution) are discussed. Cokriging techniques are discussed to enable the combination of various variables at different support sizes and to link field and image data. To address issues of uncertainty and to characterize landscape heterogeneity, stochastic simulation techniques are discussed. A bibliometric analysis is presented which places the field of ‘remote sensing and geostatistics’ in a broader geosciences context and explores who are the key scientists and research groups that have contributed to the development of this field. It is concluded that the field of remote sensing and geostatistics has further developed the use of various pre-existing numerical techniques, which has led to new application areas. However, few new geostatistical techniques have been developed for use in remote sensing. In particular, aspects of scale and spatial sampling have been extensively addressed, but issues related to monitoring and space–time analysis have been largely neglected.

Conference Report: High-Resolution Ms in Drug Discovery And Development: Current Applications And Future Perspectives

The evolving use of high-resolution MS (HRMS) across the pharmaceutical industry has seen its integrated application into both quantitative and qualitative assays. Through an American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS)/ American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) workshop, held at AAPS, key scientists from world pharma discussed the feasibility of this new paradigm shift through examples and visions for the future, assessing impact on drug discovery and drug development, as well as educating users new to HRMS in the field. This report details selected talks from the 2-day workshop, with particular emphasis on their impact, as well as personal conclusions around certain topics.

Promoting environmental sustainability via an expert elicitation process

Environmental sustainability (ES) planning was applied to the 981-mile, commercially navigable Ohio River. Navigation improvement needs were identified within the broad study along with actions to restore aquatic and riparian ecological resources to a higher state of sustainability. The actions were identified via an Expert Elicitation Process (EEP) involving aquatic and riparian/terrestrial experts knowledgeable of Ohio River resources. The received information was synthesized into goals for the selected resources (Valued Ecosystem Components — or VECs), actions or measures to attain the goals, and monitoring to evaluate conditions. Finally, 26 types of ES actions were identified and classified into three ES alternatives. These alternatives were then evaluated relative to key decision criteria, and such evaluations, based on pertinent decision criteria, were also conducted for four navigation improvement alternatives. Finally, the best combination of ES and navigation alternatives was identified. The key lessons derived from this use of EEP were that: (1) EEP can support the preliminary identification of ES measures; however, more detailed study of specific designs and cost evaluations will be necessary; (2) the method promotes collaboration between key scientists and policymakers from governmental agencies and private sectors, and such collaboration will ultimately provide the foundation for implementation of sustainability actions; and (3) an effective EEP does not occur by accident, it requires careful planning, implementation, and documentation.

A Perspective on Biophysical Chemistry

Physicalchemiststendtohaveaflairformathematics,oratleast they experience a feeling of satisfaction when they’re able to describe their results in a mathematical form. Confronted with the complexity of biological systems, though, many physical chemistswouldrunahundredmiles.Thosewhoareeither brave enough or foolish enough to tackle biological systems head-on are the biophysical chemists. The rewards in doing so can, however, be substantial. One of the founders of ion pump research, Robert L. Post [1,2] (after whom the enzymatic cycle of the Na þ ,K þ -ATPase is named), once said to the author at an ion pump meeting that the best scientific problems to tackle were ones which no-one else would touch with a 10 foot barge pole but in hindsight everyone wished they had. The number of physical chemists involved in biological research is relatively few in comparison to other areas of chemistry. The situation does vary, however, from one country to another. The potential of physical chemistry to solve biologicalquestionsseemstohavebeenrecognisedrelativelyearlyin the German-speaking world. This is most likely due to a small number of key scientists who influenced the research directions of a large number of followers. One was Manfred Eigen, [3]

Treatment of asymptomatic carriers with artemether-lumefantrine: an opportunity to reduce the burden of malaria?

BackgroundIncreased investment and commitment to malaria prevention and treatment strategies across Africa has produced impressive reductions in the incidence of this disease. Nevertheless, it is clear that further interventions will be necessary to meet the international target of a reversal in the incidence of malaria by 2015. This article discusses the prospective role of an innovative malaria control strategy - the community-based treatment of asymptomatic carriers of Plasmodium falciparum, with artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT). The potential of this intervention was considered by key scientists in the field at an Advisory Board meeting held in Basel, in April 2009. This article summarizes the discussions that took place among the participants.Presentation of the hypothesisAsymptomatic carriers do not seek treatment for their infection and, therefore, constitute a reservoir of parasites and thus a real public-health risk. The systematic identification and treatment of individuals with asymptomatic P. falciparum as part of a surveillance intervention strategy should reduce the parasite reservoir, and if this pool is greatly reduced, it will impact disease transmission.Testing the hypothesisThis article considers the populations that could benefit from such a strategy and examines the ethical issues associated with the treatment of apparently healthy individuals, who represent a neglected public health risk. The potential for the treatment of asymptomatic carriers to impair the development of protective immunity, resulting in a 'rebound' and age escalation of malaria incidence, is also discussed.For policymakers to consider the treatment of asymptomatic carriers with ACT as a new tool in their malaria control programmes, it will be important to demonstrate that such a strategy can produce significant benefits, without having a negative impact on the efficacy of ACT and the health of the target population.Implications of the hypothesisThe treatment of asymptomatic carriers with ACT is an innovative and essential tool for breaking the cycle of infection in some transmission settings. Safe and effective medicines can save the lives of children, but the reprieve is only temporary so long as the mosquitoes can become re-infected from the asymptomatic carriers. With improvements in rapid diagnostic tests that allow easier identification of asymptomatic carriers, the elimination of the pool of parasites is within reach.

A science–policy interface in the global south: the politics of carbon sinks and science in Brazil

The IPCC and other global environmental assessment processes stress the need for national scientific participation to ensure decision makers’ trust in the associated scientific conclusions and political agendas. The underpinning assumption is that the relationship between scientists and decision makers at the national level is characterized by trust and interpretive synergy. Drawing on ethnographic research in Brazil, this article challenges that assumption through a case study of the policy uptake of divergent scientific interpretations as to whether or not the Amazon is a net carbon sink. It shows that the carbon sink issue became a site for struggles between important Brazilian scientists and decision-makers with central authority over the definition of the country’s official position in international climate negotiations. In a geopolitically charged scientific controversy involving scientific evidence bearing on the Kyoto Protocol, Brazilian decision makers studied revealed critical distance from national scientists advancing evidence that the Amazon is a net carbon sink. As such, the decision-makers’ interpretations were at odds also with dominant framings in the Brazilian media and closer to those of American scientists involved in carbon cycle research in the Amazon. Seeking to explain this disconnect, the paper discusses the divergent policy preferences of key scientists and decision-makers involved, and the correlations of these preferences with interpretations of the available scientific evidence. It identifies the continued impact of a national political tradition of limited participation in decision making and suggests that this tradition—while increasingly challenged by countervailing democratizing trends—is reinforced by key Brazilian decision makers’ constructions of science as a medium through which rich countries maintain political advantage. Reflecting this, key Brazilian decision-makers justified rejecting national scientists’ interpretations of the Amazon as a significant overall carbon sink by suggesting that the scientists’ scientific training and associated foreign interactions bias them in favor of foreign interests, compromising their ability to accurately identify national interests. The paper situates its analysis in terms of theories of the science–policy interface and argues for greater attention to the role of culturally and politically laden understandings of science and the role of science in policy and geopolitics.

Introduction: European Integrated Project on Aerosol Cloud Climate and Air Quality interactions (EUCAARI) – integrating aerosol research from nano to global scales

Abstract. The European Aerosol Cloud Climate and Air Quality Interactions project EUCAARI is an EU Research Framework 6 integrated project focusing on understanding the interactions of climate and air pollution. EUCAARI works in an integrative and multidisciplinary way from nano- to global scale. EUCAARI brings together several leading European research groups, state-of-the-art infrastructure and some key scientists from third countries to investigate the role of aerosol on climate and air quality. Altogether 48 partners from 25 countries are participating in EUCAARI. During the first 16 months EUCAARI has built operational systems, e.g. established pan-European measurement network for Lagrangian studies and four stations in developing countries. Also an improved understanding of nanoscale processes (like nucleation) has been implemented in global models. Here we present the research methods, organisation, operations and first results of EUCAARI.

A History of the Fractography of Brittle Materials

The evolution of the science of fractography of brittle materials initially was driven by failure analysis problems. Early analyses focused on general patterns of fracture and how they correlated to the loading conditions. Many early documents are simply descriptive, but the curiosity of some key scientists and engineers was aroused. Scientific or engineering explanations for the observed patterns gradually were developed. Advances in microscopy and flaw based theories of strength and fracture mechanics led to dramatic advances in the state of the art of fractographic analysis of brittle materials. Introduction: This author was drawn backwards in time as he researched the current state of the art of fractographic analysis of brittle materials for his fractography guide book.[ ] Others have written about how the fractographic analysis of metals evolved (e.g., [ , , , ]), but there is no analogue for ceramics and glasses. The key scientists, engineers, and analysts who contributed to our field are shown in Fig. 1. Other work done by industry workers who were unable or loathe to publish is now lost, inaccessible, forgotten, or even discarded. It is the goal of this paper to review the key publications and mark the noteworthy advances in the field. Some deem fractography as the study of fracture surfaces, but this author takes a broader view. Fractography is the means and methods for characterizing fractured specimens or components and, for example, a simple examination of the fragments and how they fit together to study the overall breakage pattern is a genuine fractographic analysis.

Gene Regulation in Evolution: A History

An otherwise interesting and informative News Focus story by E. Pennisi, “Deciphering the genetics of evolution” (8 August, p. [760][1]), was marred by a flawed recounting of the key scientists responsible for advancing the importance of gene regulation in evolutionary change. In particular, the statement “Early suggestions that gene regulation could be important to evolution came in the 1970s. …” is incorrect. As early as the 1940s, developmental geneticists such as C. H. Waddington and Richard Goldschmidt began to explore the possible involvement of gene regulation in evolution ([1][2]). Then, in 1969, Roy J. Britten and Eric H. Davidson published a detailed and highly influential paper in Science ([2][3]), “Gene regulation for higher cells: A theory,” which clearly and explicitly argued for the importance of gene regulation in evolution. For example, on p. 356 of this paper, Britten and Davidson concluded, “At higher grades of organization, evolution might indeed be considered principally in terms of changes in the [gene] regulatory systems.” Britten and Davidson's theory of gene regulation was inspired in large part by Britten's groundbreaking work in the 1960s on DNA reassociation kinetics, which led him to discover that repetitive sequences are ubiquitous in eukaryotic genomes. Some of these repetitive sequences were later shown to influence gene regulation, and they often consist of transposons and transposon remnants that are able to cause changes in gene regulation. Because of these developments, some feel that Britten should have shared the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Barbara McClintock for the discovery of mobile genetic elements. 1. 1.[↵][4] 1. D. J. Depew, 2. B. H. Weber , Darwinism Evolving: Systems Dynamics and the Genealogy of Natural Selection (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1995), p. 414, 416. 2. 2.[↵][5] 1. R. J. Britten, 2. E. H. Davidson , Science 165, 349 (1969). [OpenUrl][6][FREE Full Text][7] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.321.5890.760 [2]: #ref-1 [3]: #ref-2 [4]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1. in text [5]: #xref-ref-2-1 View reference 2. in text [6]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DScience%26rft.stitle%253DScience%26rft.issn%253D0036-8075%26rft.aulast%253DBritten%26rft.auinit1%253DR.%2BJ.%26rft.volume%253D165%26rft.issue%253D3891%26rft.spage%253D349%26rft.epage%253D357%26rft.atitle%253DGene%2BRegulation%2Bfor%2BHigher%2BCells%253A%2BA%2BTheory%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1126%252Fscience.165.3891.349%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F5789433%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [7]: /lookup/ijlink/YTozOntzOjQ6InBhdGgiO3M6MTQ6Ii9sb29rdXAvaWpsaW5rIjtzOjU6InF1ZXJ5IjthOjQ6e3M6ODoibGlua1R5cGUiO3M6MzoiUERGIjtzOjExOiJqb3VybmFsQ29kZSI7czozOiJzY2kiO3M6NToicmVzaWQiO3M6MTI6IjE2NS8zODkxLzM0OSI7czo0OiJhdG9tIjtzOjIzOiIvc2NpLzMyMi81OTA4LzE2MzMuYXRvbSI7fXM6ODoiZnJhZ21lbnQiO3M6MDoiIjt9

TRICHINELLOSIS STILL CONCERNS EUROPE

Trichinellosis is a concern for public health aut horities in Europe and efforts have been made to promote and fund European networks Key scientists in this field have been identified and meet or communicate regularly to improve the management and prevention of this potentially lethal disease. Key preventive measures include training the technician s in charge of meat control and educating the consu mers to cook potentially infected meat thoroughly. Trichinellosis is a zoonotic disease caused by the ingestion of raw meat containing larvae of the nematode Trichinella . Four species of Trichinella are found in Europe : Trichinella spiralis (cosmopolitan), T. britovi (in wildlife from mountainous areas), T. nativa (in wildlife from colder and northern regions) and T. pseudospiralis (a cosmopolitan nonencapsulating species). Human trichinellosis causes high fever, facial oedema, myositis and eosinophilia. It can be a seri ous disease, particularly in elderly patients in wh om neurological or cardiovascular complications can le ad to death.

Turning Crisis into Opportunity: Enhancing student‐teachers’ understanding of nature of science and scientific inquiry through a case study of the scientific research in severe acute respiratory syndrome

Interviews with key scientists involved in research on severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), together with analysis of media reports and documentaries produced during and after the SARS epidemic, revealed many interesting aspects of nature of science (NOS) and authentic scientific inquiry. This novel insight into practice in the rapidly growing field of molecular biology was used in the development of instructional materials for use in the pre‐service and in‐service teacher education programme at The University of Hong Kong. The elements of NOS and scientific inquiry identified in the scientific research on SARS were explicitly emphasized in our instructional materials. The contemporary real‐life context of SARS was found to be effective in promoting student‐teachers’ understanding of NOS and scientific inquiry, particularly in terms of: the realization of inseparable links between science and the social, cultural, and political environment; deeper understanding of how science and technology impact on each other; and a richer appreciation of the processes of authentic scientific inquiry and the humanistic character of scientists. The effectiveness is attributed to immediacy, relevance, and familiarity, making the abstract tangible, personal experience of science history, and the powerful affective impact of the interviews with scientists.

A conversation between Charles Spearman, Godfrey Thomson, and Edward L. Thorndike: The International Examinations Inquiry Meetings 1931-1938.

Even within appreciation of the fundamentally social nature of scientific activity (K. Danziger, 1990, p. 3), it is unusual to read what key scientists actually said to each other, directly or in audience. Here the authors describe, structure, illustrate, and interpret the verbatim statements made by, and a detailed conversation that took place between, Charles Spearman, Godfrey Thomson, and Edward Thorndike within the Carnegie-funded International Examinations Inquiry meetings in 1931, 1935, and 1938. Unusually, there were transcriptions of all comments at these meetings, even of the smallest verbal utterance. The transcriptions offer a novel look at these researchers' theoretical and practical approaches to intelligence testing and its place in education. Aspects of Thomson's and Spearman's personalities are in evidence too, from this unique source. One particular conversation among the three leads to an important new insight about intelligence and intelligence testing. These conversations provide new and complementary information on a trio of leading intelligence researchers whose individual contributions and interactions with each other were seminal in the scientific study of human cognitive abilities.

Predicting Future Human and Environmental Health Challenges: The Health and Environmental Sciences Institute's Scientific Mapping Exercise

To predict important strategic issues in product safety during the next 10 years, the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI) of the International Life Sciences Institute initiated a mapping exercise to evaluate which issues are likely to be of societal, scientific, and regulatory importance to regulatory authorities, the HESI membership, and the scientific community at large. Scientists representing government, academia, and industry participated in the exercise. Societal issues identified include sensitive populations, alternative therapies, public education on the precautionary principle, obesity, and aging world populations. Scientific issues identified include cancer testing, children's health, mixtures and co-exposures, sensitive populations, idiosyncratic reactions, “omics” or bioinformatics, and environmental toxicology. Regulatory issues identified include national and regional legislation on chemical safety, exposure inputs, new technologies, transitioning new science into regulations and guidelines, conservative default factors, data quality, and sensitive populations. Because some issues were identified as important in all three areas (e.g. sensitive populations), a comprehensive approach to assessment and management is needed to ensure consideration of societal, scientific, and regulatory implications. The resulting HESI Combined Challenges Map is not intended to offer a universal description of challenges in safety assessment, nor is it intended to address, advocate, or manage the prioritized issues. Rather, the map focuses on and predicts issues likely to be central to the strategic agendas of individual companies and regulatory authorities in the developed world. Many of these issues will become increasingly important in the future in rapidly developing economies, such as India and China. The scientific mapping exercise has particular value to the toxicology community because it represents the contributions of key scientists from around the world from government, academia, and industry.

The 2007 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for Surface Chemistry: Understanding Nanoscale Phenomena at Surfaces

The 2007 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Gerhard Ertl for his seminal work in the area of surface science, particularly at the gas-solid interface. Although Ertl began his career at a time when the term "nanotechnology" was not yet known, his contributions to the field have paved the way for many future scientists in this area and led to a deeper understanding of catalysis and other surface-specific processes at the nanoscale. Here, we summarize the scientific developments that guided early progress in surface science, and we explore the major advancements in Ertl's career, including his work on adsorption and oxidation of small molecules on metal surfaces. Significant contributions of other key scientists to this rich area are also presented.

Turning Crisis into Opportunity: Nature of Science and Scientific Inquiry as Illustrated in the Scientific Research on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.

Interviews with key scientists who had conducted research on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), together with analysis of media reports, documentaries and other literature published during and after the SARS epidemic, revealed many interesting aspects of the nature of science (NOS) and scientific inquiry in contemporary scientific research in the rapidly growing field of molecular biology. The story of SARS illustrates vividly some NOS features advocated in the school science curriculum, including the tentative nature of scientific knowledge, theory-laden observation and interpretation, multiplicity of approaches adopted in scientific inquiry, the inter-relationship between science and technology, and the nexus of science, politics, social and cultural practices. The story also provided some insights into a number of NOS features less emphasised in the school curriculum—for example, the need to combine and coordinate expertise in a number of scientific fields, the intense competition between research groups (suspended during the SARS crisis), the significance of affective issues relating to intellectual honesty and the courage to challenge authority, the pressure of funding issues on the conduct of research and the ‘peace of mind’ of researchers, These less emphasised elements provided empirical evidence that NOS knowledge, like scientific knowledge itself, changes over time. They reflected the need for teachers and curriculum planners to revisit and reconsider whether the features of NOS currently included in the school science curriculum are fully reflective of the practice of science in the 21st century. In this paper, we also report on how we made use of extracts from the news reports and documentaries on SARS, together with episodes from the scientists’ interviews, to develop a multimedia instructional package for explicitly teaching the prominent features of NOS and scientific inquiry identified in the SARS research.

Reflections on the clonal-selection theory

How do we account for the immune system's ability to produce antibodies in response to new antigens? It has been 50 years since F. Macfarlane Burnet published his answer to this question: the clonal-selection theory of antibody diversity. The idea that specificity for diverse antigens exists before these antigens are encountered was a radical notion at the time, but one that became widely accepted. In this article, Nature Reviews Immunology asks six key scientists for their thoughts and opinions on the clonal-selection theory, from its first proposal to their views of it today.

History of the Discovery of the Thymosins

From a historical perspective, the studies that led to the isolation and characterization of the thymosins began in earnest in the early 1960s in the laboratory of Abraham White at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. In a 1966 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S., we first named these thymic-derived factors "Thymosins." By 1972, the thymosin team had moved to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston (UTMB) where an extremely talented group of young scientists and students succeeded over the next 6 years in preparing and testing a highly active partially purified calf thymus preparation, termed thymosin fraction-5 (TF5), which was amenable for scale-up and suitable for clinical use. In 1974, we received the first IND for a thymic hormone preparation from the FDA to begin a phase-I study with TF5 in children with primary immunodeficiency diseases at the University of California Medical Center in San Francisco. The immunorestorative and potentially life-saving properties of TF5 in clinical medicine were first documented in a landmark paper in 1975 by Drs. Arthur Ammann and Diane Wara in the New England Journal of Medicine. TF5 consists of a family of at least 40 mostly small acidic polypeptides, with molecular weights ranging from 1000 to 15,000 Da. This article will identify the key scientists and the milestones involved in the initial studies with TF5 that have led to the chemical characterization of the thymosins and to translational studies from the lab bench to the clinic.