Present-day Scientists Research Articles

Functional Group-Assisted Fluorescence Sensing Platform for Nanomolar-Level Detection of an Antineoplastic Drug and a Neurotransmitter from Environmental Water and Human Biofluids.

A fast, sensitive, selective, and biocompatible dual sensor of an antineoplastic medication (methotrexate) and a neurotransmitter (adrenaline) is still being searched by present-day scientists. To overcome this issue, we have designed a functionalized, robust, bio-friendly luminescent MOF for the sensitive, selective, and rapid monitoring of methotrexate and adrenaline. This probe is the first ever reported MOF-based fluorescence sensor of methotrexate and second only for adrenaline. This fluorescence probe has a very low limit of detection (LOD) of 0.34 and 11.2 nM for adrenaline and methotrexate, respectively. The sensor can detect both the targeted analytes rapidly within 5 s. It can also detect adrenaline and methotrexate from human blood serum and urine accurately and precisely. This reusable sensor is equally efficient in detecting methotrexate from environmental water specimens. Biocompatible, user-friendly, and inexpensive chitosan@MOF@cotton composites were fabricated for the detection of adrenaline and methotrexate from the nanomolar to the micromolar range by the naked eye under a fluorescence lamp. This probe displayed high reproducibility, precision, and accuracy in sensing methotrexate and adrenaline. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and the inner filter effect (IFE) are the possible mechanisms for adrenaline and methotrexate sensing, respectively. The possible mechanism was supported by using required instrumental techniques and theoretical simulations.

From Plants to Wound Dressing and Transdermal Delivery of Bioactive Compounds.

Transdermal delivery devices and wound dressing materials are constantly improved and upgraded with the aim of enhancing their beneficial effects, biocompatibility, biodegradability, and cost effectiveness. Therefore, researchers in the field have shown an increasing interest in using natural compounds as constituents for such systems. Plants, as an important source of so-called "natural products" with an enormous variety and structural diversity that still exceeds the capacity of present-day sciences to define or even discover them, have been part of medicine since ancient times. However, their benefits are just at the beginning of being fully exploited in modern dermal and transdermal delivery systems. Thus, plant-based primary compounds, with or without biological activity, contained in gums and mucilages, traditionally used as gelling and texturing agents in the food industry, are now being explored as valuable and cost-effective natural components in the biomedical field. Their biodegradability, biocompatibility, and non-toxicity compensate for local availability and compositional variations. Also, secondary metabolites, classified based on their chemical structure, are being intensively investigated for their wide pharmacological and toxicological effects. Their impact on medicine is highlighted in detail through the most recent reported studies. Innovative isolation and purification techniques, new drug delivery devices and systems, and advanced evaluation procedures are presented.

РЕГІОНАЛЬНО-ЕКОНОМІЧНІ ПРОБЛЕМИ РОЗВИТКУ СІЛЬСЬКОГО ГОСПОДАРСТВА І ПРОМИСЛУ ПІВНІЧНО- ЗАХІДНОЇ УКРАЇНИ В ДОСЛІДЖЕННЯХ ДОКТОРА МИРОНА КОРДУБИ

Professor Myron Korduba (1876–1947), an outstanding Ukrainian scientist, is among the most essential contributors to the development of historic, economic, geographical and toponymic sciences. In said areas, he prepared and published over 450 scientific works, and a great portion of these is found as the author’s handwriting is still little known to contemporaries. “Pivnichno-Zakhidna Ukraina” (North-Western Ukraine), Myron Korduba’s monograph, published in Vienna in 1917, was among the author’s most fundamental works. The work focused (over one-third of it) on the exposure of regional-economic problems of agricultural and economical development within these lands that covered the part of Horodnenska Province, the south-western part of Mynsk Province, historical Volyn and Holmshchyna. The work aims at Myron Korduba’s highlighting major regional-economic problems of development of agriculture and economy in North-Western Ukraine on the eve of World War I and still little known to present-day scientists. Doctor Myron Korduba deeply and comprehensively analyzed regional-economic problems of agricultural and economic development in North-Western Ukraine. Territorial differentiation in the structure of land use was disclosed. Regional differences in land distribution between their owners were established. The land value within a group of private owners was estimated. Productivity of plant growing, a principal branch of farming in the region, was thoroughly analyzed as well as perspectives of its development were given an outline. A distressing conclusion was made with respect to the significant backwardness of cattle breeding in North-Western Ukraine on a general European level. The authors had formulated economic development problems of the region. Among others were the following: poor mineral resources; the significant difference in the industrial development of regional provinces and districts; the processing of plant and cattle food, woodcrafts and forest economy comprised 4/5 of overall production under the sectoral structure. The prevalence of small firms in the structure of the regional economy, and low costs of annual per capita production were essential specificities of the regional development. Materials of the article can be used for lecturing either general or specialized courses in economic history and regional economics. Overall assessment of Professor Myron Korduba’s creative heritage.

Medieval Roots of the Myth of Jewish Male Menstruation.

The Jews in Western Europe during the middle ages were often perceived as distinct from other people not only in their religion, but also by virtue of peculiar physical characteristics. Male Jews were circumcised, which made them physically distinct in the sexual realm. They were believed to have a flux of blood due to hemorrhoids that was thought to more abound in Jews because they consumed salty foods and gross undigested blood, and were melancholic. By the late medieval and early modern periods, the male menstruation motif had become closely connected to the theory of the four humors and the balance between bodily fluids. Men in general were thought of as emitting extra heat, whereas women were considered to be physically cooler. While most men were generally able to reduce their heat naturally, there was a perception that womanish Jewish males were unable to do so, and thereby required “menstruation” (i.e. a literal discharge of blood) in order to achieve bodily equilibrium. The Jewish male image as having menses due to bleeding hemorrhoids was an anti-Semitic claim that had a religious explanation: Jews menstruated because they had been beaten in their hindquarters for having crucified Jesus Christ. This reflection is one of the first biological-racial motifs that were used by the Christians. Preceding this, anti-Semitic rationalizations were mostly religious. However, once these Christians mixed anti-Semitism with science, by emphasizing the metaphorical moral impurity of Jews, the subsequent belief that Jewish men “menstruated” developed—a belief that would have dire historical consequences for the Jewish communities of Europe until even the mid-twentieth century. This topic has direct applicability to current medical practice. The anti-Semitic perspective of Jewish male menstruation would never have taken hold if the medical community had not ignored the facts, and if the population in general had had a knowledge of the facts. In the same way, it is important for present-day scientists and healthcare professionals to understand thoroughly a topic and not to deliberately ignore the facts, which can affect professional and public thought, thereby leading to incorrect and at times immoral conclusions.

The ‘Art’ of Science and Research: Jabir Ibn Hayyan Laid the Foundation

This article identifies scientists' attributes and their approaches to innovation, sciences, research, and discovery as ascribed by Abu Musa-Jabir Ibn Hayyan al- Azdi - also known as Jabir Ibn Hayyan (or Geber) in the late 7th to early 8th century. Jabir was the first polymath to have set the stage for the Golden Age of Islam that lasted from the 8th to 12th century. In several of his books and research articles, Jabir identified researchers, scientists and scholars as the “artists” and their research methodologies and experimentation as the "art." A mastery or specialization in any given discipline that an "artist' pursues was termed by him as the “Majistery”. The attributes that he proposed several centuries ago have since become the criteria, befitting the “art” of our present-day scientists and scholars. He explicitly detailed the attributes of an “artist” and also those who were recommended not to pursue sciences as a career. He described natural talent, innate propensity, the conquest of knowledge, deeper insights into Mother Nature, ingenuity, critical thinking, foresight, flexibility, adaptability, resiliency, persistence and selflessness as the essential ingredients of scientists and their success. Additionally, he also deemed funding, collaboration, partnership and community support to be pivotal. Rigidity – the "stiff neck," as he described it, and the lack of adaptability to be detriments to the ‘art’ of sciences. This article provides an eye-opening account of the scientific rigor that led to the Golden Age on the one hand, and on the other hand, attempts to reconcile the compatibility of modern sciences with traditional Islamic teachings. It also identifies the critical success factors that led to the rise of sciences in the Islamic world, which have since either been forgotten or ignored. We make recommendations throughout as to what needs to be done to revive the Golden Age of Sciences in the Muslim world.

A toothless future? What anthropological studies may tell us about generations to come

Since teeth are the most preserved skeletal remains found in fossils, they can provide an excellent historical record about the adaptive changes that have taken place in the orthognathic complex of modern-day Homo sapiens, as well as the ways by which these evolutionary modifications have affected overall health and lifestyle through time. The study of ancestral dietary progression from trees to grasses and plains as projected through carbon dating has made possible much of today's enlightenment as to the adaptive physiologic nature that has taken place within the species. This understanding, in tandem with the observed morphological changes which have occurred in the anatomy of the teeth and the bony contours and muscle attachments of the skull and jaws in which they are housed, has elucidated present-day scientists as to the means by which the human orthognathic complex was developed, and the ways by which this likely affected overall health and lifestyle over the past millennia. Extrapolation from our current understanding of phylogenetic cause and effect as gleaned from studies of fossilized teeth and jaws to date may enable us to propose potential future anthropological dynamics and adaptations as man becomes ever more modern.

On new closed form solutions: The (2+1)-dimensional Bogoyavlenskii system

This paper studies the new closed form solutions to (2+1)-dimensional Bogoyavlenskii system that describes interaction of a Riemann wave propagation. The extended Fan sub-equation technique is used to investigate some new traveling wave solutions to the higher-dimensional coupled model. The obtained closed form solutions are named as shock, kink, shock and periodic soliton solutions. Clearly, the outcomes of the study confirm the strength of the current approach. Moreover, the obtained results are helpful for the understanding of non-linear wave propagation and are of great interest to present-day scientists and can be employed to deal with more complex models arising in diverse disciplines of contemporary science.

Humanity as Matter: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Vivacious Materialism in “The Birth-mark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter”

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark” (1843) and “Rappaccini’s Daughter” (1844) have often been interpreted as a critique of science both inside and outside the literary scholarship. Men of science in these two short stories, Aylmer and Rappaccini, aspire to create a perfect form of humanity by attempting to transform their beloved ones into an impeccably beautiful woman with no blemishes, or into a girl capable of defeating everything with her invincible poisonous power, respectively. Critics have emphasized that, as such, they emerge as morally dubious figures representing the desire for mastery and limitless improvement of the human body lurking in nineteenth-century American science or science in general.1 Similarly, bioethicists have tended to see in these two characters science’s hubristic perfectionism, drawing an analogy between them and present-day scientists seeking to ameliorate human life through control and manipulation.2 However, I consider that Hawthorne does not criticize science itself. As will be evinced later, in these stories Hawthorne radically questions the traditional scientific-cum-theological understanding of life, whereby humanity is very different from other organisms due to its unique possession of a soul—that is, immaterial high intelligence. Nevertheless, this attitude does not lead him to oppose the scientific thinking itself. Far from it, in denying the old dogma he embraces the same view of life as is proposed by the newly emerging school of science in the nineteenth century, wherein humans are undeniably material entities like all other living things. In this essay, I will clarify how Hawthorne foregrounds an image of humanity as matter in “The Birth-mark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” and how such a picture resonates strongly with the materialistic theories of life. These theories became widespread in the Western intellectual world starting in the 1810s, largely through the scholarly activities of the English surgeon William Lawrence and scientist Charles Darwin. Having thus shown that Hawthorne shares the materialistic idea of life with the new sciences in the nineteenth century, I will also demonstrate that the materialism seen both in Hawthorne and his scientist peers does not reduce life to mere dead matter but presents it as a physical phenomenon charged with vital energy. This thinking, far from being a reductive or sheer materialism, goes beyond the traditional dualism of animated life and mechanically functioning matter and can be termed “vivacious materialism.”

Why scientists succeed yet their organizations splinter: Historical and social network analyses of policy advocacy in conservation

What does a science of environmental conservation look like? Though we often see it as a contemporary problem, engineering the interface of science and decision-making bodies has been a question since the founding of ecology. This study traces the creation of new conservation initiatives via the repeated splintering of the Ecological Society of America since the early 1900s and compares these against the results of a network analysis of contemporary scientists and their affiliations. Notwithstanding the new terminology of science-policy interfaces, brokers, and gaps, these questions often hinge on the same dilemmas as they did at the beginning of 20th century. The history of these groups shows how divisive distinctions between ecology and conservation, pure and applied research, science and politics, and facts versus values can quickly become integrated into the structure of organizations—even those that are created specifically to bridge gaps in what today would be called the science-policy interface. Meanwhile, a social network analysis of present-day scientists suggests that individual researchers are finding ways to informally “jump” across science-policy gaps at a sub-organizational level. Remarkably, these science-policy conflicts can pose major problems for organizations, even when the actual activities of members traverse these boundaries on an individual basis. When designing science policy interfaces, formal bridging mechanisms between organizations remain important but these should also support the ongoing, if under-the-radar, ways that individuals negotiate gaps between conservation research and policy advocacy.

WITHDRAWN: Why scientists succeed yet their organizations splinter: Historical and social network analyses of policy advocacy in conservation

Abstract What does a science of environmental conservation look like? Though we often see it as a contemporary problem, engineering the interface of science and decision-making bodies has been a question since the founding of ecology. This study traces the creation of new conservation initiatives via the repeated splintering of the Ecological Society of America since the early 1900s and compares these against the results of a network analysis of contemporary scientists and their affiliations. Notwithstanding the new terminology of science-policy interfaces, brokers, and gaps, these questions often hinge on the same dilemmas as they did at the beginning of 20th century. The history of these groups shows how divisive distinctions between ecology and conservation, pure and applied research, science and politics, and facts versus values can quickly become integrated into the structure of organizations—even those that are created specifically to bridge gaps in what today would be called the science-policy interface. Meanwhile, a social network analysis of present-day scientists suggests that individual researchers are finding ways to informally “jump” across science-policy gaps at a sub-organizational level. Remarkably, these science-policy conflicts can pose major problems for organizations, even when the actual activities of members traverse these boundaries on an individual basis. When designing science policy interfaces, formal bridging mechanisms between organizations remain important but these should also support the ongoing, if under-the-radar, ways that individuals negotiate gaps between conservation research and policy advocacy.

Why science needs philosophy

> A knowledge of the historic and philosophical background gives that kind of independence from prejudices of his generation from which most scientists are suffering. This independence created by philosophical insight is—in my opinion—the mark of distinction between a mere artisan or specialist and a real seeker after truth. > > Albert Einstein, Letter to Robert Thornton, 1944 Despite the tight historical links between science and philosophy, present-day scientists often perceive philosophy as completely different from, and even antagonistic to, science. We argue here that, to the contrary, philosophy can have an important and productive impact on science. Despite the tight historical links between science and philosophy, hearkening back to Plato, Aristotle, and others (here evoked with Raphael’s famous School of Athens), present-day scientists often perceive philosophy as completely different from, and even antagonistic to, science. To the contrary, we believe philosophy can have an important and productive impact on science. Image credit: Shutterstock.com/Isogood_patrick. We illustrate our point with three examples taken from various fields of the contemporary life sciences. Each bears on cutting-edge scientific research, and each has been explicitly acknowledged by practicing researchers as a useful contribution to science. These and other examples show that philosophy’s contribution can take at least four forms: the clarification of scientific concepts, the critical assessment of scientific assumptions or methods, the formulation of new concepts and theories, and the fostering of dialogue between different sciences, as well as between science and society. ### Conceptual Clarification and Stem Cells. First, philosophy offers conceptual clarification. Conceptual clarifications not only improve the precision and utility of scientific terms but also lead to novel experimental investigations because the choice of a given conceptual framework strongly constrains how experiments are conceived. The definition of stem cells is a prime example. Philosophy has a long tradition of investigating properties, and the tools in use in this tradition … [↵][1]2To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: thomas.pradeu{at}u-bordeaux.fr. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1

КОМПОНЕНТНИЙ СКЛАД ГОТОВНОСТІ МАЙБУТНІХ БОРТПРОВІДНИКІВ ДО ПРОФЕСІЙНОЇ ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ

The author analyzes the research works by Ukrainian and foreign scientists in order to specify the content and essence of the notion “ the future specialists’ readiness to professional activities” and gives the definition of the concept “the future flight attendants’ readiness to professional activities”. The author finds out that the future specialists’ readiness to professional activities is considered as an integrative quality, harmonic unity of convictions, points of view, motives etc.; the complex unity which consists of some interconnected components etc. The author explains that in different research works the structure of the future specialists’ readiness to professional activities consists of different components depending on the understanding given to the abovementioned concept by present-day scientists. In the article the future flight attendants’ readiness to professional activities is regarded as a definite condition being in which the future attendants comprehend their own abilities, able to apply acquired knowledge and skills necessary to perform the professional duties successfully, able to take responsibility for actions in difficult situations, organize own actions correctly and foresee positive and negative consequences considering the made decisions. In the article the structure of the future flight attendants’ readiness to professional activities is discussed. Taking into account the points of view of Ukrainian and foreign scientists on the structure of readiness to professional activities, the author thinks that the future flight attendants’ readiness to professional activities consists of five interrelated components: value-based and target-oriented, cognitive and content-related, procedural and activity-based, estimative and resultative, reflexive.

In Defense of the Notion of Truthlikeness

The notion of truthlikeness (verisimilitude, approximate truth), coined by Karl Popper, has very much fallen into oblivion, but the paper defends it. It can be regarded in two different ways. Either as a notion that is meaningful only if some formal measure of degree of truthlikeness can be constructed; or as a merely non-formal comparative notion that nonetheless has important functions to fulfill. It is the latter notion that is defended; it is claimed that such a notion is needed for both a reasonable backward-looking and a reasonable forward-looking view of science. On the one hand, it is needed in order to make sense of the history of science as containing a development; on the other, it is needed in order to understand present-day sciences as containing knowledge-seeking activities. The defense of truthlikeness requires also a defense of two other notions: quasi-comparisons and regulative ideas, which is supplied in this paper as well.

Marking the Centennial of the Discovery of Alpha Silver Iodide

In 2014, present-day scientists had the opportunity of marking the centennial of a discovery that triggered the development of a new field of research, which is now called Solid State Ionics.In their 1914 paper, Carl Tubandt and Erich Lorenz reported on the extraordinary properties of the alpha phase of silver iodide. Although α-AgI was a crystalline material, it resembled a molten salt with regard to the liquid-like value and weak temperature dependence of its ionic conductivity. With their transference measurements, Tubandt and Lorenz proved that the electric current in α-AgI was completely carried by the silver ions, while the iodide ions formed a rigid lattice. Up to the present day, α-AgI has been considered the fast ion conductor par excellence.In the mid-1930s, L.W. Strock was the first to use x-ray diffraction to investigate the crystal structure of α-AgI. The anion sublattice was found to be body centered cubic, but the arrangement of the silver ions remained a puzzling question. On the one hand, Strock could assign a large number of possible crystallographic sites to them. On the other hand, the state of the silver ions appeared to be rather ‘quasi-molten’ or ‘liquid-like’. This structural puzzle was resolved in 1977, when Cava, Reidinger and Wuensch used the results of a single-crystal neutron-diffraction experiment to construct contour plots for the probability density of the silver ions in α-AgI, which turned out to have broad maxima at the tetrahedral voids of the anion structure, with saddle points between them.A number of novel experimental approaches toward a better understanding of the ion dynamics in α-AgI were suggested by Wilhelm Jost in the 1960s and 1970s. These included high-accuracy specific heat measurements, measurements of the ionic conductivity in the microwave and far-infrared frequency regimes, and quasielastic neutron scattering. The results of the ensuing experiments, involving the present author, did not always provide immediate answers to the long-standing open questions, but rather created new puzzles instead. In this Chapter, an overview is given of the essential steps that were taken in experiment and modeling, eventually leading to the emergence of a self-consistent picture of the structure and dynamics of the mobile silver ions in α-AgI. Notably, that picture included both solid-like and liquid-like aspects. Strictly speaking, however, either category, ‘solid’ and ‘liquid’, had to be considered inappropriate for characterizing the actual state of the silver-ion sublattice.Recently, the transition to a more solid-like behavior of the mobile silver ions was observed in low-temperature α-AgI, which could be stabilized by confinement in glass, as first shown by Tatsumisago et al. Far below the regular phase transition temperature, 147 °C, measurements were performed of the frequency-dependent conductivity of α-AgI, yielding relevant information on the silver-ion dynamics. A conjecture put forward by Jost in 1937 could thus be corroborated by the present author and his coworkers. Below 147 °C, the ‘liquid-like’ activation energy for ionic transport was found to be replaced by a larger, more ‘solid-like’ value, although the anion structure and, therefore, the barriers for elementary displacements of the cations remained essentially unchanged. The underlying mechanism is sketched at the end of the Chapter.

The Pulse in the Machine: Automating Tibetan Diagnostic Palpation in Postsocialist Russia

AbstractThis article analyzes efforts by Soviet and present-day scientists in Russia to “rationalize” and ultimately automate the diagnostic techniques of Tibetan medicine. It tracks the institutional and conceptual histories of designing a pulse diagnostic system, a project that began in the Soviet Union in the early 1980s. It has recently been re-enlivened in Buryatia, an ethnic minority region in Southeastern Siberia, in efforts to mobilize indigenous medical practices in response to local and national public health concerns. I focus on the translational ideologies that informed efforts to develop the pulsometer as a medical imaging technology, and analyze obstacles to these efforts found at the core of the device. Scientists working on the pulsometer have systematically tried to discern whether their measurements indicate sustained bodily pathologies, or instead reflect only technological white noise, and they still recruit and rely on the embodied expertise of practitioners of Tibetan medicine to validate their findings. In so doing they reaffirm claims that Tibetan medicine in Buryatia is inextricable from the forms of knowledge and practice that their projects work to standardize. I show how the apparent failures at perfect mechanization have made the pulsometer a surprisingly productive site for creating new kinds of expert communities and forms of knowledge making.

What history tells us XXVI. From Mechnikov to proteotoxicity: Ageing as the result of an intoxication

One of the potential interests of historical studies is to outline the similarities between recent models, theories and interpretations, and those of the past. The purpose is not to deny recent models their value, but to help present-day scientists to see the difficulties, and possibly the limits, of the models and theories they propose. One interesting example of a theory that has been favoured, criticized and recently resurrected in a new form is the vision of ageing as the consequence of a process of intoxication, of a poisoning of the organism. Many different successive models have been proposed to explain the origin of ageing. Most of these models conceive it as the result of a decrease in the capacity of organisms to face the challenges coming from the environment: decrease in the immune response of the organism towards infectious agents, in the power of cells to divide and for the stem cells to regenerate damaged tissues, in the action of hormones (such as the sexual hormones) – an effect initially described by Brown-Sequard, and in the possibility for the organism to repair damage to DNA and proteins. But some models of ageing have, in contrast, looked for the cause of ageing in the accumulation of toxic substances. Something is present in the aged organism that was absent in youth, and this ‘something’ poisons the body. Such a model of ageing is not new. It was proposed by the physician and alchemist Paracelsus in the Renaissance (Koyre 1997). Its first truly scientific expression was provided by Ilya Mechnikov at the beginning of the 20th century (Lellouch 1993). Today, the idea that protein aggregates accumulate in the ageing body and that they poison the cells and organisms in which they are present is finding more and more support among biologists.

What is Socially Relevant Science?

Interest in the effect on society of scientific discoveries can be traced back to the beginnings of the modern sciences. It is plain to see that for reasons of legitimizing science alone, this question was not only of interest to the early scientists. Affirmative answers to the question of the practical virtues of science helped the first generation of scientists—and of course present-day scientists as well—achieve social recognition and, not least, the resources required by a high-quality scientific practice, characterized by division of labour and, thus, increasingly expensive. There have continually been voices, on the other hand, that censure the humanities and social sciences in particular, not only due to their lack of usefulness, but rather also because they are held to be a danger to society. In this connection, one need only recall, for instance, the worldwide fear of the ideas of Marxism; the frequently criticized influence of the Frankfurt School on the politics of the 1970s in West Germany; or the influence, lamented in many quarters, of neo-liberal economic models on the economic system of developing societies in particular. Reservations and fears about the social consequences of new findings and technologies in the natural sciences are not making themselves heard for the first time nowadays. This is also true of the promises being made; to the effect that humanity will come to enjoy enormous progress by means of science and technology. Convincing arguments can be made, however, that the public discussion of the sciences’ social role has reached a new, modern phase. The first controlled laboratory experiment in genetic engineering took place in 1972; the first human being conceived outside a woman’s body was born in 1978; and just very recently, in April 2008, the first human–animal hybrid embryo—a being immediately dubbed a “chimera” by the media—was produced by scientists in a laboratory at Newcastle University in England, However, the current controversial discussion of embryonic stem cells, neurogenetics, xenotransplantations, reproductive cloning, and the convergence of nanotechnologies, information technologies, biotechnologies and cognitive sciences also makes clear that the question of the social prerequisites and consequences of (natural-) scientific knowledge, expanding unchecked under new types of preconditions, urgently needs to be placed on the agenda of day-to-day social and political activity. And, not infrequently, this discussion culminates in the call for oversight and conscious guidance of knowledge. The question is no longer that we do not know enough, but rather that we know too much, and we then have to wonder whether we indeed want to turn all of our discoveries into practical applications. A half-century ago, in one of the classic dichotomies of writing about science, Charles P. Snow ([1959] 1964) likewise gives the carriers of literary, or traditional, knowledge extremely poor marks for being the epitome of modern luddites. For Snow, however, this is not primarily a matter of trivializing traditional literary knowledge, which he of course then goes on to do; rather, he sees his thesis as an urgent call to action for society finally to place naturalscientific and technical knowledge, and thereby its scientists—those who, as C.P. Snow sees it, have the future in their bones—at its centre. In the mid-seventies, in a radical reversal of C. P. Snow’s thesis of the dilemma of the two scientific cultures as a variant of the widespread and often resentful contrast between knowledge and ignorance, Erich Fromm provides Soc (2009) 46:262–266 DOI 10.1007/s12115-009-9196-7

On the main trends in present-day earth sciences

Recently, we summarized the development of earth sciences in the 20th century and considered their prospects for the 21st century. The first decade of the new century is coming to its end, and the outlines of these prospects are becoming increasingly clear; they are highlighted by the author of this article.

Maurice Wilkins (1916–2004)

Maurice Wilkins (1916–2004)

Goethe's Way of Science: A Phenomenology of Nature

Seamon, David, and Arthur Zajonc, eds. Goethe's Way of Science: A Phenomenology of Nature. Albany: State U of New York P, 1998. xii + 324 pp. $24.95 paperback. Seamon and Zajonc aim at presenting an in-depth picture of the conceptual and applied state of today and attempt to classic philosophical treatments of Goethe's work with more recent examples of how his ideas continue to influence and related areas like the phenomenology of nature and the philosophy of science (xii). Following two introductory sections, they organize the twelve essays that comprise the volume into three parts: Goethean Science: Philosophical Foundations, Doing Science, and Future of Science. Seamon, an architect trained in geography and environment behavior, states that only the articulation of phenomenology in the twentieth century provided a conceptual language adequate to Goethe's approach to and then links Goethe's thought to the existential current within this branch of philosophy. Looking at Goethe and the of his own time, the physicist Zajonc distinguishes his subject both from the Enlightenment of a d'Alembert and the natural philosophy of Schelling and traces Goethe's development as a scientist. Frederick Amrine opens part one of the volume by arguing that Goethe not only anticipated many of the most important tenets of contemporary philosophy of but also offers a solution to its central dilemmas. He asserts, for example, that Goethe knew there can be no neutral observational language and that true scientific progress issues from the development of new, controlled ways of seeing. The physicist Walter Heitler sees Goethe's major achievement in his demonstration that rigorous is possible within the realms of pure form and the qualitative, namely, through intuitive perception. Similarly, the physician and physiologist Herbert Hensel stresses Goethe's cognitive stance toward sensory experience, which strikes a balance between selfless contemplation and active structuring of experimental conditions. Following a review of phenomenology, the philosopher Ronald H. Brady rereads Goethe's botany with an eye toward his logic of becoming (107) and the call that its union of experience and theory makes for a humanist-scientific formation of culture. In one respect the contributions in part two are the most interesting of the entire volume, for they reveal a number of present-day (life) scientists doing precisely sciencesomething that, in view of Goethe's uneasy relationship to mainstream science, is not at all self-evident. …