Popular Science Books Research Articles

Diagnosis and treatment of hypertension in the Republic of China

Hypertension and its cardiovascular complications can produce many serious problems for the health of Chinese residents, therefore, affect quality of the population. About a century ago, the research and treatment of hypertension were still in primary stage. Despite the material and cultural resources were extremely limited, modern Chinese medical scientists performed blood pressure surveys of different populations in China. Besides, they carried out researches on epidemiology and mechanisms of hypertension, as well as clinical trials. At the same time, substantive pioneering work was done in medical education and the spread of popular science. A large number of textbooks on physiology or internal medicine were translated, and popular science books such as the Prevention and Treatment of Hypertension were published. These works opened the prelude to the research, prevention and treatment of hypertension in China.

ФІЛОСОФСЬКИ ГЛИБОКА І НАПРУЖЕНА ЖИТТЄВА ПРАВДА Л.Г. ФРІЗМАНА

Книги відомого українського, харківського літературознавця Л.Г. Фрізмана належать світовій культурі та літературі, затребувані в багатьох країнах світу, на багатьох мовах. Мета роботи – показати становлення і розвиток Л.Г. Фрізмана як відомого вченого, дослідника, педагога, літературознавця, який належить не тільки російській, українській, а й світовій культурі. Енциклопедичні знання, найширша ерудиція, велике наукове спілкування сприяли появі блискучих критичних праць Л.Г. Фрізмана. У дослідженнях з історії літератури і літературного побуту минулих епох, що вивчаються в їх нерозривній єдності й неподільності, поступово вимальовувався своєрідна постать Л.Г. Фрізмана – глибокого дослідника і мудрої людини. Головними напрямками наукових інтересів Л.Г. Фрізмана стали історія російської літератури і громадської думки XIX– XX століть, пушкінознавство, що закріпило за ним місце «першого пушкініста України», романтизм, поетика літературних жанрів. Набагато пізніше проявився інтерес Л.Г. Фрізмана до літературознавства в книзі «У колах літературознавців: Мемуарні нариси». Книга Л.Г. Фрізмана «Така доля. Єврейська тема в російській літературі» являє собою еволюцію єврейського питання. Історико-філософський роздум Л.Г. Фрізмана про Н. Коржавіна відображено в останній роботі «Незакінчене означає недомовлене». У роботі ми прийшли висновку, що Л.Г. Фрізман блискуче вникав як в найскладніші наукові тексти, так і в науково-популярні книги. Своєрідність наукової манери Л.Г. Фрізмана і його літературознавчий талант, живе людське тепло одушевляють вимогливу читацьку аудиторію. Його високий професіоналізм літературознавця, його інтелект і самовіддану працю, всупереч перешкодам і бар’єрам життєвих труднощів, збагачують як національну, так і світову наукову скарбницю життєвої правди.

МОДЕЛИРОВАНИЕ АРГУМЕНТАЦИИ В НАУЧНО-ПОПУЛЯРНОМ ДИСКУРСЕ С ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЕМ ОНТОЛОГИЙ

Today, popular science discourse is becoming an integral and essential element of scientific activity, as it acts as a mediator, providing communication between the scientific community and a wide audience. In order for this interaction to be productive, it is necessary that the texts (popular science books and articles) offered to the uninitiated public contain high-quality argumentation. In this regard, the study of the argumentation presented in the popular science literature is an important and urgent problem. This paper presents an approach to modeling the arguments used in popular science literature. Such modeling is performed using the means of the ontology of argumentation, based on the AIF format (Argument Interchange Format). This format is accepted de facto by the international community as a standard notation for describing arguments and argumentative structures. We extended this ontology by the means necessary to model the argumentation used in popular science discourse. In particular, new means allow you to model the target audience and present the content of the statements included in the arguments. In terms of the extended ontology we can describe generally accepted and original argumentation schemes, their significance for various audiences, the structure and components of arguments. Concrete arguments extracted from the texts under study and their components can also be presented in the terms of this ontology. The ontology of argumentation with such properties is described for the first time. This ontology is used as an information model of a software system designed for modeling and analysis of argumentation used in popular science literature.

A Reading-Writing Assignment Based on Popular Literature To Enhance Learning about Microbiology

In order to stimulate engagement in microbiology, a reading-writing assignment based on a narrative popular science book was created for a one-semester introductory microbiology course. In order to encourage critical thinking, students were required to formulate a question related to the book to research and report on. Active learning was supported by guidance and feedback at each stage of the assignment. The assignment components were graded according to a rubric based on the learning outcomes: reading comprehension, question formulation, literature research, synthesis, and written communication. Median scores for the assignment components indicated that students successfully demonstrated the learning outcomes. A question was included on the final examination, asking students to summarize their most important learning from the assignment. Qualitative analysis of the exam answers revealed a wide variety of lessons learned about the practical applications of microbiology. On average, students scored better on the assignment and the assignment-related exam question than on the final exam. There was no significant correlation between a student’s performance on the final exam and their performance on either of the assignment-related assessments, suggesting that the assignment benefited students regardless of their exam-taking capability. According to surveys administered at the end of the introductory microbiology course and again when students were enrolled in a senior microbiology course, a strong majority of students found the reading-writing assignment to be engaging and informative. This assignment may be modified in various ways in order to suit the needs of other courses.

Editorial “Special Issue: Hans Hess: a lifelong passion for fossil echinoderms”

Already back in 2011, an echinoderm special issue was published on the occasion of Hans’ 80th birthday (Meyer, 2011) and this was also the first issue of the Swiss Journal of Palaeontology. Moreover, since its appearance in 2011, Hans had published almost all of his research articles in the Swiss Journal of Palaeontology (Hess 2012, 2014a; b, c, d, 2015; Hess et al. 2016; Hess & Thuy 2018), a total of eight articles in six years, four of which were published in 2014. In the present issue the last article of Hans is published, where he reflects on the emergence and early radiation of cyrtocrinid crinoids, with new species from a Lower to Middle Jurassic ‘‘rock reef’’ of Feuguerolles (France); the article is co-authored by Ben Thuy (Hess & Thuy, 2018). All of Hans’ contributions were of outstanding quality already by the time of submission and generally required minor revisions only. He truly was an exceptional contributor for our journal. To honour Hans Hess and his lifelong passion for fossil echinoderms, shortly after his death, we decided to publish a second Special Issue in the Swiss Journal of Palaeontology. And we got a really excellent feedback from the fossil echinoderm research community. All together, 21 research articles are included in the present issue. This includes not only an obituary by Etter (2018) reviewing Hans’ research career and providing a complete reference list ranging from 1955 to 2018, but also giving interesting insights into other aspects of his rich live. Four of the five extant groups of echinoderms are covered in Hans’ publications. Only holothurians were rarely treated by Hans, although he did include them in his seminal popular science book ‘‘Die fossilen Echinodermen des Schweizer Juras’’ (Hess 1975). Unfortunately, the holothurians are missing in this volume. However, it is planned to fill this gap with an article on holothurians by Mike Reich with a special dedication to Hans in a forthcoming volume of the Swiss Journal of Palaeontology. In this Special Issue, four new taxa are named in honour of Hans Hess: Trombonicrinus (col.) hanshessi gen. et sp. nov. (Donovan et al. 2018), Eocenocrinus hessi gen. et sp. nov. (Merle & Roux, 2018), Hanshessaster gen. nov. including species Actinometra blakei (Messing 2018), and Hansaster (gen. nov.) trimbachensis (Gale 2018). Furthermore, the following new taxa were erected: Propteraster amourensis gen. et sp. nov. (Gale 2018), Thuyaster fontenoillensis gen. et sp. nov. (Gale 2018), Stegophiura miyazakii sp. nov. (Ishida et al. 2018), Luxaster martini gen. et sp. nov. (Mu¨ller et al. 2018), Hypselaster strougoi sp. nov. (Elattaar 2018), and Clypeaster sarawakensis sp. nov. (Mihaljevic´ & Rosenblatt 2018). Nowadays, it is not always easy to find qualified researchers willing to review in a short time period, especially when it comes to more specific research topics as we often deal with in palaeontology. Therefore, we want to particularly acknowledge the reviewers who have substantially contributed to assure the high quality of the herein published articles. They are (in alphabetical order) William I. Ausich, Tomasz Baumiller, Stephen K. Donovan, Tim A.M. Ewin, Andrew Gale, David Gladwell, Hans Hagdorn, Reimund Haude, Fred Hotchkiss, Aaron W. Hunter, John Jagt, Christian Klug, Andreas Kroh, Charles Messing, David Meyer, Georgy Mirantsev, Elise Nardin, James Nebelsick, Tatsuo Oji, Roger W. Portell, Imran Rahman, Elizabeth Rhenberg, Mariusz Salamon, James Saulsbury, George D. Sevastopulo, James R. Thomka, Loi¨c Villier, Johnny Waters, Gary D. Webster and Samuel Zamora. Some of these reviewers have reviewed up to four manuscripts. Finally, we want to thank Hans for his yearlong friendship, the many fruitful discussion and all the knowledge he shared with us over so many years.

Modern Manufacturing of Powder-Metallurgical Products with High Density and Performance by Press–Sinter Technology

The professional life of Yakov Evseevich Geguzin has always been associated with powder metallurgy, which began to develop actively as an industry and as a scientific area in the 1940s. Being among the founders of the science of sintering, Yakov Evseevich always showed interest in its practical applications, contributing to their development. He gave advice to specialists in factories and institutes, taught future production workers in lecture rooms and laboratories, and described all these interesting processes with elegance, simplicity, and rigor in popular science books and scientific monographs. I was fortunate to be a student of Yakov Evseevich and to work later for many years in powder metallurgy. When I received some new results, I always asked myself what would Yakov Evseevich have said about this, how would he evaluate this or that result, what calculation would he make or what simple assessment would he give to explain a particular phenomenon, with what process from a completely different field would he compare it. I am pleased to have the opportunity to present a brief overview of the successes of powder metallurgy in recent decades in the journal in which I had the honor, in co-authorship with Ya.E. Geguzin, to publish my first scientific article.

Sexology, Popular Science and Queer History in Anders als die Andern (Different from the Others).

Sexology, Popular Science and Queer History in Anders als die Andern (Different from the Others).

One Hundred Thousand Whys: A Classic in Chinese Book History

One Hundred Thousand Whys is a widely known popular science book in China, which has been developing people’s systematic understanding of basic sciences for generations. This encyclopedic book covers a wide range of topics, inspiring people’s observations and pondering about the world by asking nonspecialist questions. Different questions are raised and followed by answers that satisfy readers’ scientific curiosity; cultivate the scientific literacy of generations of children, and even of adults; and make up for the shortcomings of scientific education in China’s schools. In the past half-century, it has become a legend and classic in Chinese publishing history.

Popular with whom? Usage demographics of popular science nonfiction at an academic library

There is a large body of nonfiction written for a general audience which is infrequently promoted in popular reading collections at academic libraries. The aim of this research is to look at the usage of nonfiction science literature at a large university library in comparison to the science collection as a whole. This information can help librarians to not only determine how best to prioritize the collection of nonfiction science literature, but it can also be used to provide insight into how popular nonfiction science books can be most effectively promoted to library patrons.

Audacious Psyche: Visualizing Evolution in John Pringle Nichol’s Romantic Universe

John Pringle Nichol (1804–1859), a Scottish Romantic astronomer, educator, and social reformer, used visual representations to develop and communicate key elements of his theory of evolution as a universal principle. Examining four of the diverse representations that appeared in Nichol’s popular science books between 1846 and 1850 reveals the rich possibilities of evolutionary imagery prior to the emergence of more dominant forms of representation in the wake of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859). The abstract and schematic nature of many of Nichol’s visual representations—which included line diagrams and imaginative, mythic imagery (the latter developed in collaboration with the Scottish Romantic artist David Scott)—made them apt vessels for his Romantic evolutionary concepts, because a single image could simultaneously represent features of evolution across multiple domains, reflecting the Romantic concept of the unity of nature and the myriad analogies between its constituent parts. All of the images embodied narrative in one form or another and required use of the imagination in the act of interpretation. Many of the images facilitated the viewer’s ability to conceptualize unobservable or only partially observable features of evolutionary change. Even as these visual representations acted as tools of perspective, insight, and clarity, they also helped to generate new ambiguities, such as a fundamental tension between teleology and contingency.

Prehistoric ‘Taskscapes’: Representing Gender, Age and the Geography of Work

It is highly conceivable that prehistoric peoples richly narrated and celebrated their lives and relationship with their environment, but, with no written records available and limited artefacts, recent generations have created their own narratives of the lives of these peoples. This article examines visual representations of prehistoric (‘Stone Age’) societies in popular science published in Britain from 1960s to the present. Stereotyping of gender and division of labour, including its spatiality, is an obvious example of the projection of modern societies’ views onto the past and this is evident in the material examined in this study. Specific images often become ‘viral’ as uncritically repeated ‘schema’ (units of cultural transmission) that reinforce stereotypes; for example, the ‘cave woman’ as ‘drudge’, trapped in the domestic sphere. Such stereotypes remain prevalent in popular science books aimed at children as well as adults.

Editorial introductions

Editorial introductions

“All that Matter … in One Big Bang …”, &Other Cosmological Singularities

The first part of this paper contains a brief description of the beginnings of modern cosmology, which, the author will argue, was most likely born in the year 1912. Some of the pieces of evidence presented here have emerged from recent research in the history of science and are not usually shared with the general audiences in popular science books. In particular, the issue of the correct formulation of the original Big Bang concept, according to the precise words of Fred Hoyle, is discussed. Too often, this point is very deficiently explained (when not just misleadingly) in most of the available generalist literature. Other frequent uses of the same words, Big Bang, as to name the initial singularity of the cosmos, and also whole cosmological models, are then addressed, as evolutions of its original meaning. Quantum and inflationary additions to the celebrated singularity theorems by Penrose, Geroch, Hawking and others led to subsequent results by Borde, Guth and Vilenkin. Additionally, corresponding corrections to the Einstein field equations have originated, in particular, R 2 , f ( R ) , and scalar-tensor gravities, giving rise to a plethora of new singularities. For completeness, an updated table with a classification of the same is given.

Ten simple rules for writing a popular science book

Ten simple rules for writing a popular science book

Book review about Christopher G. Brinton, Mung Chiang (2016): The Power of Networks: Six Principles That Connect Our Lives

Author(s): Boldvai-Pethes, Laura | Abstract: Networks are everywhere, they are the essentials of our lives. The main questions are, how they work and why it is necessary to understand them. These are the initial remarks in Christopher G. Brinton and Mung Chiang’s brand new book. Christopher G. Brinton is the Head of Advanced Research at Zoomi Inc., where he works on big-data analytics, social learning networks, and personalized learning. He holds a PhD in electrical engineering from Princeton University. Mung Chiang is the Arthur LeGrand Doty Professor of Princeton, where he also serves as chairman of the Princeton Entrepreneurship Council and director of the Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education. In their new book they try to show the most important six principles that connect people’s lives. The main purpose of this book, beside entertainment and being a popular science book, is to be a basis for a network introductory course in college or high school.

Climate Change and the Art of Anticipatory Memory

This essay explores a narrative device familiar from sci-fi and dystopian fiction that is commonly used in literary and cultural responses to climate change, and which is particularly suggestive for thinking through the implications of the Anthropocene for memory and the field of memory studies. Works as generically diverse as Franny Armstrong’s film The Age of Stupid (2009), Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway’s fictional future history The Collapse of Western Civilization: A View from the Future (2014), George Turner’s novel The Sea and Summer (1987), and Jan Zalasiewicz’s popular science book The Earth after Us (2008) all feature a historian, archivist, or geologist who looks back on our present moment from a distant vantage point in a dystopian, (almost) post-human future irrevocably marked by climate change. These works can thus be seen to respond to the challenge of the Anthropocene—an era that requires the future anterior tense for its very conceptualization— to consider human and inhuman scales in relation to one another. The preoccupation with anticipated memory and preliminary or proleptic mourning evident in fictional future histories of climate change, which subvert the customary parameters of memory in terms of both scale and directionality, resonates with recent calls for memory studies to become more future-oriented instead of merely backward-looking. Scholars typically seek to make memory studies relevant to the present and the future by forging more robust links between memory and transitional justice or human rights discourses. Climate fiction of the future-history variety—which mourns future losses proleptically in order for these losses not to come to pass in the first place—presents another promising avenue for further research in the same spirit.

Discussion on a new opened course combining complexity science and medicine in medical colleges

Complexity science is a new type of scientific research method, and the combination of complexity science, life science, and medicine is still in the initial stage of exploration, and domestic medi-cal colleges do not offer correlative course currently. In order to broaden students' vision, transform their traditional thinking model, and prepare the future of multidisciplinary cooperation, medical colleges should open complexity science and medicine correlative course for senior undergraduate and graduate students. Course content should start by the famous fable infect, followed by the introduction of chaos and fractal, self-organization and complex system theory concept, theoretical framework, and their application in the medical field The teaching material should refer to some popular science books, such as Mystery of the butterfly effect. The teaching method should draw lessons from metaphor. Key words: Complexity science; Medical colleges; Course objective; Course content; Teach-ing method

Toward a history of explanation in science communication: the case of Madame Wu experiment on parity violation

By focusing on a specific episode of 20th Century physics — the discovery of parity violation in 1957 — the paper presents a study of the types of explanations of the crucial experiment as they are found in different editorial categories: a peer-review journal, a popular science book, an encyclopedia and a newspaper articles. The study provides a fine-grained description of the mechanism of the explanation as elaborated in non-specialist accounts of the experiment and identifies original, key-explanatory elements which characterize them. In so doing, the paper presents a reflection on the processes of transformation and adaptation implied by the circulation of knowledge — which features as a productive process in its own right — and shows which further insights a focus on explanation can offer to the current historical researches on science communication.

Książka popularnonaukowa dla dzieci i młodzieży w oczach krytyków — rekonesans badawczy

POPULAR SCIENCE BOOK FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS IN THE EYES OF CRITICS — A RESEARCH RECONNAISSANCEThe aim of the article is to determine the position of popular science books for children and young people in Polish literary criticism and book studies, and to specify the terminology used by scholars. Opinions about such books have been formulated by theorists and practitioners of children’s books since the 19th century, with the criteria of their assessment changing in accordance with the current literary fashions and trends in pedagogy. Critics’ interest in such works was strong until the end of the 19th century, when books for children were expected mainly to serve utilitarian purposes. The phenomenon intensified especially in the era of positivism; among the most enthusiastic advocates of popular science books were Adolf Dygasiński and the co-editor of Bluszcz Maria Ilnicka. The stature of popular science books is also evidenced by the fact that their titles often appeared in recommended bibliographies at the time. A later change in the perception of the tasks of literature for the youngest readers diminished the critics’ interest in such works. In addition, there was a growing rift between literary criticism and pedagogical-library criticism. In communist Poland the perception of popular science books was also affected by the promotion of works not suited to the expectations and needs of the readers. Today, the stature of popular science books rises with their market success and innovative projects in the area. That is why there are numerous reviews of such works in professional journals Guliwer, Nowe Książki, Świat Książki Dziecięcej etc. and websites Mądre książki, 10 książek: na start do nauki etc. as well as studies devoted to the history and evolution in the content and editorial form of such publications, and their usefulness in the teaching and self-education of young readers.

Książki z serii „Biblioteka Młodych Miczurinowców” jako przykład łączenia popularyzacji wiedzy i ideologizacji młodego pokolenia w latach 50. XX wieku

BOOKS FROM THE “BIBLIOTEKA MŁODYCH MICZURINOWCÓW” SERIES AS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW POPULARISATION OF KNOWLEDGE WAS COMBINED WITH IDEOLOGISATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE 1950SIn the article the author discusses the Biblioteka Młodych Miczurinowców Young Michurinist Library — a series of popular science books about nature for children and young people published in post-war Poland in 1953–1956. She explores the specificity of the books from the series, which — in addition to information about plants, animals and their amateur husbandry — also provided their readers with elements of the communist ideology. They were to disseminate the idea of Michurinism launched by the famous Soviet biologist and experimenter Ivan Michurin. School gardens and farms were used to teach pupils how to cultivate crops and use generally available plants to the maximum, and how to enrich their diet with farm animals that were easy to manage. The simple, largely fictionalised stories about nature, featuring a basic end matter, were to help teachers develop children’s and young people’s socialist worldview, and teach the contents recommended by the ministry.