Past Scientists Research Articles

Biomorphic Materials: Silicon Carbide Derived from Natural Carbon Precursors

The recent initiative to cater toward an environmentally ef cient lifestyle has put pressure on many industries and practices. However, the success of these green initiatives has not been an easy achievement. During the past decade, scientists and engineers have worked tirelessly to discover a more natural way to process Silicon Carbide (SiC). A new category of materials, called biomorphic materials, has provided insight into how materials can be synthesized from bio-organic materials while retaining similar properties and performance. 1 In comparing SiC with its biomorphic cousin, BioSiC, there are notable similarities and differences in the properties, structure, processing, performance, and environmental concerns between each material discussed in this article.

Scientists' commitment to underperforming research projects: linking past success and the social environment

This article investigates scientists' commitment to underperforming research projects based on the concomitant consideration of their past success and social environments. Based on escalation of commitment and network theory, the model hypothesizes that past success triggers the commitment to underperforming projects but that the strength of this influence varies depending on the characteristics of decision makers' social networks. Results from the analysis of 3,072 scenario assessments nested within 96 scientists show that the positive relationship between past success and continued investment in underperforming projects is more positive when the network is larger, when the ties within the network are stronger, and when feedback from network partners is predominantly positive. Surprisingly and contrary to model predictions, results also show that the relationship between past success and scientists' tendency to commit to underperforming projects becomes stronger with lower communication frequency with network partners. This study extends current research by exploring the boundary conditions of the impact of decision makers' social environment on commitment to failing projects. Further, it adds to literature on the downside of success by emphasizing that decision makers, particularly those in some social environments, are driven to commit additional resources to underperforming – and potentially failing – projects. Decision makers acting in such environments should be aware that they are prone to overinvestment of resources, and the findings of this study can help them increase their awareness. Based on this study's results, decision makers (including scientists) can thus better reflect on and improve their research project evaluations. Finally, the findings of this study open up various opportunities for future research.

Enhancing RPE Cell-Based Therapy Outcomes for AMD: The Role of Bruch's Membrane.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of legal blindness in older people in the developed world. The disease involves damage to the part of the retina responsible for central vision. Degeneration of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells, photoreceptors, and choriocapillaris may contribute to visual loss. Over the past decades, scientists and clinicians have tried to replace lost RPE cells in patients with AMD using cells from different sources. In recent years, advances in generating RPE cells from stem cells have been made and clinical trials are currently evaluating the safety and efficiency of replacing the degenerated RPE cell layer with stem cell-derived RPE cells. However, the therapeutic success of transplantation of stem cell-derived RPE cells may be limited unless the transplanted cells can adhere and survive in the long term in the diseased eye. One hallmark of AMD is the altered extracellular environment of Bruch's membrane to which the grafted cells have to adhere. Here, we discuss recent approaches to overcome the inhibitory environment of the diseased eye and to enhance the survival rate of transplanted RPE cells. Our aim is to highlight novel approaches that may have the potential to improve the efficacy of RPE transplantation for AMD in the future.

Accepting and understanding evolution in Italy: a case study from a selected public attending a Darwin Day celebration

Public acceptance and understanding of evolution is among the most investigated themes within studies of science and society. In the past decades, scientists and educators have explored acceptance and understanding of the Darwinian theories across a variety of publics, in order to identify possible causal explanations and barriers that make evolution so difficult to be grasped. Indeed, there are both socio-cultural and intuitive reasoning factors which have been widely investigated especially in the USA, a country that shows a widespread resistance. More recently data for Europe, Africa and the Middle East have been published, showing significant differences explained mainly by socio-cultural, religious and political factors. In this respect, the Italian society is still under-investigated. This paper presents and discusses the outcomes of a public survey performed during a Darwin Day celebration in Rome (Italy, February 2013). A written questionnaire was submitted to all the participants with the aim of testing attitudes and level of knowledge about evolution among an interested and informed public (N = 124). The results show that acceptance of evolution is not an issue in such a selected sector of the lay public, although difficulties emerge in the comprehension of some basic principles. Overall, younger people perform better than respondents older than 65 years, reflecting how science education in Italy has progressed in the latest decades.

Pensando sobre el concepto de ‘archivo’: reflexiones a propósito de la historiografia de Altamira

The word ‘archive’ has been traditionally used to define both the physical place in which historical texts are kept and studied, and the set of documents that relate to the activity of a person, organization, association, community or nation. In both cases, archives have been considered privileged spaces that provide primary data for writing history. In this paper I discuss this traditional conception and suggest that archives are not only privileged sites providing the sources from which histories are constructed, but they are also historiographical constructions that determine historical interpretations. Taking into account the case of Juan de Vilanova y Piera, one of the first scientists to accept the authenticity of the Altamira paintings, I explore in this paper some of the ways in which the definition of ‘archive’ determines the historical interpretations of past scientists’ work.

PHILANTHROPY AND SOCIAL CONTROL IN THE ANGLO-JEWISH COMMUNITY DURING THE MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY (1850–1880)

During the past decade, historians and social scientists have begun extensively to research the issue of philanthropy and charities in general, and that of Jewish philanthropy in particular. This paper reviews some of the main characteristics of philanthropic activity of the Jewish elite in post-emancipation Europe (1791–1878) and especially in Britain. Elite philanthropy was not the only form of philanthropy in the Jewish community. Middle-class philanthropy was another form, and traditional charitable activities constituted a third form. This paper focuses solely on elite philanthropy in England between c.1850–c.1880. Moses Montefiore and Lionel de Rotshchild were two of the most influential leaders of the Anglo-Jewish philanthropic elite. The paper deals mostly with the activities of these leaders of the Jewish community in mid-nineteenth-century Britain.

Latino Crime and Latinos in the Criminal Justice System: Trends, Policy Implications, and Future Research Initiatives

With exponential growth in the Latino population over the past decade, both social scientists and politicians have directed their attention toward understanding Latino behavior(s) ranging from purchasing power and marketing to voting. Less is known, however, about the extent to which Latino population growth might be associated with patterns of criminal justice or violent criminal outcomes. One objective of this research is to provide a contemporary overview of the Latino experiences with the criminal justice system by highlighting racial/ethnic disparities in incarceration and sentencing. Using racial-/ethnic-specific homicide victimization data provided by the Centers for Disease Control, we also examine the impact of Latino concentration on levels of group-specific homicide, both regionally and nationally. Results from our negative binomial multivariate analyses indicate that the concentration of Latinos tends to be associated with lower levels of homicide victimization, a finding that holds across racial/ethnic groups and geographic specification. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings with an eye toward future research in this area.

Environmental History within a Revitalized Integrative ResearchMethodology for Today and Tomorrow

In the past decades, historians and scientists worldwide have focused intensivelyon researching and recording the micro and macro trends of the environmentalhistory of many places with reference to numerous aspects of nature that involvepeople. Yet no definite methodology, epistemology or even theory has resultedfrom these research contributions, which were and are being conducted withindisciplinary and sometimes interdisciplinary frameworks. The transdisciplinaryresearch approach, at least as practiced by historians, is a ‘newcomer’,although it features familiar criteria. For several reasons, some historiansappear to be neither in favour of, nor familiar with, research co-operationwith other disciplines, private practitioners or informed community members.There are obstacles to using a research methodology that complements the interdisciplinaryor transdisciplinary approach, especially the grey areas of research quality,source validity, methodology and publication value. However, if approachedconstructively and meaningfully, transdisciplinary research may result inwhat we could call higher-order research because it is all-inclusive and canprovide diverse perspectives on any theme, for example, environmental history.This article discusses the possibility of progressing towards ‘transdisciplinary’as part of an integrative multidisciplinary approach in research on environmentalhistory. An integrative multidisciplinary (‘triangular’)research model is proposed, especially for use by historians and others whowant to approach environmental research from disciplinary, interdisciplinaryand transdisciplinary perspectives. It is also hoped that this discussionwill stimulate the debate by historians on research co-operation with thesocial sciences and humanities, as well as collaboration with non-relatedsciences in environmental history.

Reflections on the concept of ‘precursor’: Juan de Vilanova and the discovery of Altamira

Considering the case of Juan de Vilanova y Piera, often celebrated as the first scientist to accept the prehistoric antiquity of palaeolithic paintings, we explore some of the problems related to the concept of ‘precursor’ in the field of the history of science. In the first section, we propose a brief history of this notion focusing on those authors who have reflected critically on the meaning of predecessors. In the second section, the example of Vilanova illustrates the ways in which historians of science have created precursors. From the vantage of modern science, precursors have traditionally been defined as those who first indicated or announced ideas or theories later accepted by the scientific community. As a result, they have been represented as ‘heroes’ struggling hard to defeat the ignorance of their time. As the case of Juan de Vilanova illustrates, this traditional view is unsatisfactory in many ways. For this reason we consider in the third section a number of methodological strategies to promote a more adequate approach to pioneers. In particular, we suggest that the best way to surmount hagiographical approaches to past scientists is to put them in their own intellectual and historical contexts.

The future of everything: the science of prediction

Hurricane Katrina, the internet stock bubble, disease outbreaks are these predictable, preventable events, or are we merely the playthings of chaos? A compelling, irreverent, elegantly written history of our future that addresses the most important issues of our time, Apollo's Arrow examines such questions as: How well can we predict the future? Can past discoveries help us understand tomorrow's weather patterns, or tell us what our financial future will look like? Will scientists ever be able to forecast catastrophes, or will we always be at the mercy of Mother Nature, waiting for the next storm, epidemic, or economic crash to thunder through our lives? David Orrell looks back to show us how past scientists (and some charlatans) predicted the future, and where we are on the path to truly understanding what comes next. He asks how today's scientists can claim to predict future climate events when even three-day forecasts prove a serious challenge. Can we predict and control epidemics? Can we accurately foresee our financial future? Or will we only find out about tomorrow when tomorrow arrives?

An explicit and reflective approach to the use of history to promote understanding of the nature of science

Monk and Osborne (Sci Educ 81:405–424, 1997) provide a rigorous justification for why history and philosophy of science should be incorporated as an integral component of instruction and a model for how history of science should be used to promote learning of and about science. In the following essay we critique how history of science is used on this model, and in particular, their advocacy of a direct comparison of students’ conceptions of scientific phenomena with those of past scientists. We propose instead an alternative approach that promotes a more active engagement by inviting students to engage in the sort of reasoning that led past scientists to reach insights about scientific phenomena. As an example we describe in detail two lesson plans taken from an eight-class unit developed with reference to the history of research on sickle-cell anemia. These lessons demonstrate how an open-ended, problem-solving approach can be used to help students deepen their understanding of science. Throughout the unit students are invited to explicitly and reflectively consider the implications of their reasoning about the disease for their understanding of nature of science issues. The essay draws attention to how this alternative approach actually more closely aligns with the constructivist rationale Monk and Osborne have articulated. It concludes with a brief summary of empirical research demonstrating the efficacy of this approach.

Integrating History of Science in Science Education through Historical Microworlds to Promote Conceptual Change

This paper proposes a new way to integrate history of science in science education to promote conceptual change by introducing the notion of historical microworld, which is a computer-based interactive learning environment respecting historic conceptions. In this definition, “interactive” means that the user can act upon the virtual environment by changing some parameters to see what ensues. “Environment respecting historic conceptions” means that the “world” has been programmed to respect the conceptions of past scientists or philosophers. Three historical microworlds in the field of mechanics are presented in this article: an Aristotelian microworld respecting Aristotle’s conceptions about movement, a Buridanian microworld respecting the theory of impetus and, finally, a Newtonian microworld respecting Galileo’s conceptions and Newton’s laws of movement.

Francis Galton’s theory of inheritance and the problem of unconceived alternatives

Elsewhere I have argued that the most significant threat to scientific realism arises from what I call the problem of unconceived alternatives: the repeated failure of past scientists and scientific communities to even conceive of alternatives to extant scientific theories, even when such alternatives were both (1) well-confirmed by the evidence available at the time and (2) sufficiently scientifically serious as to be actually embraced in the course of further investigation. In this paper I explore Francis Galton’s development and defense of his “stirp” theory of inheritance and conclude that this particular historical example offers impressive support for the challenge posed by the problem of unconceived alternatives while simultaneously showing how we can make that challenge deeper and sharper.

Darwin's Pangenesis and the Problem of Unconceived Alternatives

In earlier work I have argued that the most substantial threat to scientific realism arises from the problem of unconceived alternatives: the repeated failure of past scientists and scientific communities to conceive of alternatives to extant scientific theories, even when such alternatives were both (1) well confirmed by the evidence available at the time and (2) sufficiently scientifically serious as to be later embraced by actual scientific communities. In this paper I explore Charles Darwin's development and defense of his ‘pangenesis’ theory of inheritance and conclude that this particular historical example offers impressive support for the challenge posed to realism by this problem of unconceived alternatives. 1. Introduction2. Darwin and pangenesis: The search for the material basis of generation and heredity3. A crucial unconceived alternative: common-cause mechanisms of inheritance4. Galton and common-cause inheritance5. Conclusion

Percutaneous delivery of carbamazepine and selected N-alkyl and N-hydroxyalkyl analogues

Advantages associated with the transdermal delivery route are well documented, but in the past scientists have concentrated primarily on means of decreasing the barrier function of the skin for improved permeability. Pro-drugs, which possess more favourable physicochemical properties for improved transdermal permeability may have considerable potential. These have been considered in the past but recent information concerning structure activity relationships in dermal penetration has prompted increased interest. During this study, N-methyl ( 2), N-ethyl ( 3) and N-(2-hydroxyethyl) carbamazepine ( 4) analogues were synthesised for transdermal evaluation.

What's really wrong with Laudan's normative naturalism

The article presents a critical discussion of Larry Laudan's naturalistic metamethodological theory known as normative naturalism (NN). I examine the strongest extant objection to NN, and, with reference to ideas in Freedman ( Philosophy of Science , 66 (Proceedings), pp. S526-S537, 1999), show how NN survives it. I then go on to outline two problems that really do compromise NN. The first revolves around Laudan's conception of the relationship between scientific values and the history of science. Laudan argues we can make sense of progress in science without seeing great scientists in the past as having held the cognitive values and methodological rules we hold today as important for science. I argue this is extremely implausible, and moreover that Laudan must see our values today as justified by reference to the values of past scientists if he is to avoid a pernicious form of relativism. The second problem with NN is that its conception of methodological rules--as hypothetical imperatives linking cognitive means to ends--is untenable. Such rules would not be needed in a scientific community; moreover it is doubtful whether they should class as rules at all. I conclude by suggesting that the distinction between cognitive means and ends which undergirds Laudan's view is intuitively not well founded, and in any case does not provide sufficient materials for a viable normative naturalized epistemology.

The Practitioner of Science: Everyone her Own Historian

Carl Becker's classic 1931 address "Everyman his own historian" holds lessons for historians of science today. Like the professional historians he spoke to, we are content to display the Ivory-Tower Syndrome, writing scholarly treatises only for one another, disdaining both the general reader and our natural readership, scientists. Following his rhetoric, I argue that scientists are well aware of their own historicity, and would be interested in lively and balanced histories of science. It is ironic that the very professionalism that ought to equip us to write such histories has imposed on us a powerful taboo that renders us unable to do so. We who count ourselves sophisticated in describing the effects of social forces upon past scientists have been remarkably unconscious of the ways our own practices are being shaped by our need (and perhaps more importantly, the needs of our teachers' teachers) to distinguish ourselves from scientists who write history. Our fear of presentism in general and Whig history in particular is really a taboo, that is, an excessive avoidance enforced by social pressure. It succeeds at making our work distinct from histories written by scientists, but at the awful cost of blotting out the great fact of scientific progress. Scientists may be misguided in expecting us to celebrate great men, but they are right to demand from historians an analysis of the process of testing and improvement that is central to science. If progress in general is a problematic term, we could label the process "emendation."

Missing Data: Dial M for ???

The question mark is common notation for the missing data that occur in most applied statistical analyses. Over the past century, statisticians and other scientists not only have invented numerous methods for handling missing/incomplete data, but also have invented many forms of missing data, including data augmentation, hidden states, latent variables, potential outcome, and auxiliary variables. Purposely constructing unobserved/unobservable variables offers an extraordinarily flexible and powerful framework for both scientific modeling and computation and is one of the central statistical contributions to natural, engineering, and social sciences. In parallel, much research has been devoted to better understanding and modeling of real-life missing-data mechanisms; that is, the unintended data selection process that prevents us from observing our intended data. This article is a very brief and personal tour of these developments, and thus necessarily has much missing history and citations. The tour consists of a number of M's, starting with a historic story of the mysterious method of McKendrick for analyzing an epidemic study and its link to the EM algorithm, the most popular and powerful method of the twentieth century for fitting models involving missing data and latent variables. The remaining M's touch on theoretical, methodological, and practical aspects of missingdata problems, highlighted with some common applications in social, computational, biological, medical, and physical sciences.

Science and Secrecy

T here is an old and by now familiar edginess between two important threads in American culture. We depend increasingly on science and technology, activities heavily based upon the free flow of information. At the same time, our national security interests often require efforts to conceal information—and so, increasingly, do the interests of commercial research sponsors. Not surprisingly, the science values sometimes collide with the security values. This summer the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR)—rules barring the export of weapons and related data, now managed by the U.S. State Department—suddenly (and, to those affected, inexplicably) were being applied to basic research projects involving satellites. Graduate students and fellows from certain other countries were denied access to the work, and their scientific supervisors were understandably unhappy. This situation has reminded some of us of the early 1980s, when a similar misapplication of these regulations was finally ended by decisions in the Department of Defense and a later report from the National Academy of Sciences. The result was an Executive Order signed in 1985 by President Reagan that essentially limited ITAR to military hardware and related data. The present reincarnation suggests that secrecy impulses are hard to suppress. It is difficult for some, both inside and outside the security community, to understand why science and secrecy find it so hard to get along. The reason is simple: Scientific culture is by nature oriented toward disclosure. Because the research venture grows by accumulation of information, it depends on the free availability of previous work through publication. Security requirements, on the other hand, often dictate concealment. Scientists tend to be exquisitely careful about data but more casual about office order or precise dates, whereas security processes emphasize compartmentalization and strict adherence to procedure. When the two cultures mix, the contrasts between them are dramatically enhanced, sometimes creating conflict. For example, Congress has been holding hearings on the loss and recovery of computer hard drives in Los Alamos. As a result, Secretary of Energy Richardson proposes to remove the University of California from security responsibility at Los Alamos and the other national laboratories. Indeed, within the past year scientists serving in two quite different “secure” institutions have been charged with removing classified data to their home computers In the early 1980s, when I was President of Stanford, I was asked by Richard Perle, then Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration, why we declined secret government research contracts. I replied, apparently unpersuasively, that we could not live with a situation in which work by faculty and by graduate students could not be open to examination and evaluation by others. Now the universities face similar challenges from a very different source. Commercial interest in basic scientific work, especially in biomedicine, has exploded, and many companies are doing, in campuslike settings, research that was once done only in universities. Their connection with academic scientists is strong; many were founded by faculty members, and others involve professors heavily as consultants. This phenomenon is not entirely new. After all, trade secrecy is not exactly a stranger to academic settings, and proprietary constraints have been applied by industry in the past. But the present environment has spawned more insistent arguments for secrecy. Intellectual property protection may require delays in publication, and the for-profit sector has more reasons for proposing to restrict the distribution of data, experimental materials, and results. The cross-links between academic and for-profit sectors have become so much stronger that they raise new questions—not only for faculty members but for their institutions as well. Should universities tolerate restraints on the sharing of materials, data, and proprietary techniques? What limits should they place on the pursuit of patents and licensing revenues? Should they countenance delays or other restrictions on the publication or presentation of new findings? Universities and their faculties have to recognize that they confront two different sponsors—government and industry-with different but often equally insistent demands for secrecy. Those demands require consistent responses, recalling a wise observation first made by Admiral Bobby Inman: Society will judge harshly those who are willing to keep for profit the same kinds of secrets they are reluctant to keep for patriotism.

Why work together?

Why work together?