Scientific Representation Research Articles

Representational Pluralism in Science Education

AbstractThis essay analyses the theme of representational pluralism in science education and a possible interpretation through the inferential-pragmatic conception of scientific representations. A brief description of two principal conceptions of scientific representations (the semantic-structural and the inferential-pragmatic conceptions) and their implications for unicity and plurality are presented to compare how those philosophical approaches can help understand representational plurality in science education. Subsequently, a brief analysis of different topics of science education is made to determine relevant classes of representational plurality in science education: Plurality and coexistence of representations in subjects in a school context; plurality in diverse cultural contexts; plurality by approaches and methods of research; plurality and perspectivism. In the discussion and conclusions, those classes of representational plurality are analysed from the inferential conception of representations, and themes such as proliferation, reduction, normativity, and building in plurality are discussed. The conclusions point to the understanding that representational plurality is not a subject’s deviation from the norm of scientific and school representations; instead, it is inherent to the subjects’ construction of representations, individually and collectively. Certainly, this implies that the separation from the semantic-structural approach of scientific representations must be accomplished by cancelling any similarity condition for representations. Plural representations imply that teaching requires the construction of new scenarios for students to consider the intentionality of representations and interpret them more coherently with the expectations of scientific disciplines in diverse cultural contexts.

Using multiple, dynamically linked representations to develop representational competency and conceptual understanding of the earthquake cycle

Using computational methods to produce and interpret multiple scientific representations is now a common practice in many science disciplines. Research has shown students have difficulty in moving across, connecting, and sensemaking from multiple representations. There is a need to develop task-specific representational competencies for students to reason and conduct scientific investigations using multiple representations. In this study, we focus on three representational competencies: 1) linking between representations, 2) disciplinary sensemaking from multiple representations, and 3) conceptualizing domain-relevant content derived from multiple representations. We developed a block code-based computational modeling environment with three different representations and embedded it within an online activity for students to carry out investigations around the earthquake cycle. The three representations include a procedural representation of block codes, a geometric representation of land deformation build-up, and a graphical representation of deformation build-up over time. We examined the extent of students' representational competencies and which competencies are most correlated with students’ future performance in a computationally supported geoscience investigation. Results indicate that a majority of the 431 students showed at least some form of representational competence. However, a relatively small number of students showed sophisticated levels of linking, sensemaking, and conceptualizing from the representations. Five of seven representational competencies, the most prominent being code sensemaking (η2 = 0.053, p < 0.001), were significantly correlated to student performance on a summative geoscience investigation.

Translation at Work in Climate Change Communication

This article explores the role of translation in climate change communication through an analysis of two typical climate change data visualizations. Drawing on the information theory of translation (ITT), it examines how translation operates not only in the linguistic transfer of climate science knowledge but also in the visual representation of climate data. By comparing the translation strategies employed in the visualizations by NASA and the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL), the study reveals how different agents interpret and represent the climate change phenomenon based on their background knowledge, cognitive functions, and aesthetic preferences. The findings highlight that climate visualizations are not purely scientific representations but are influenced by subjective interpretations and choices made by the translation agents. Recognizing translation as a fundamental component of climate communication enables scientists to critically reflect on their communication choices and experiment with new ways of translating scientific discoveries to the public.

From Nescience to Science: Buddhist Reflections on Human/Nature

A Buddhist system of two truths provides a descriptive framework with criteria for what counts as real in contrast to what does not. This paper looks at the relationship between these two truths in the works of two seventh-century Indian philosophers, Dharmakīrti and Candrakīrti, and draws implications for comparison and contrast with modern scientific understandings of the world. It highlights important features of Dharmakīrti’s epistemology that aim to circumvent cultural conventions in a way that resonates with scientific representations of knowledge. It also contrasts this approach with one inspired by Candrakīrti in order to argue for the place of ethics and persons in a hybrid Buddhist–scientific picture of the world.

Transforming science education with virtual reality: an immersive representations model

ABSTRACT Immersive virtual reality (IVR) offers significant transformative potential for science education by supporting learning experiences that deeply engage students and improve their understanding of scientific concepts. Despite considerable interest, research on the use of IVR in science education is still in its formative stage. Currently, there is a substantial gap in a tool that can help stakeholders evaluate key elements of immersive software for science education contexts. This research addresses this gap by conceptualising and applying a framework designed to assist educators, researchers, and designers in assessing essential components of an immersive science application. The framework highlights three key components: IVR technological affordances, the exploration of science within IVR, and scientific representations. These components are synthesised into the Immersive Representations Model (IRM). Employing screen capture methodology, we evaluated the application and significance of the IRM. This study pioneers a structured approach to evaluating immersive technologies in science education.

Embracing the hidden potential: The contribution of majority world research to developmental science.

Research on adolescence from the Majority World possesses major hidden potential in contributing to global adolescent research and developmental science more broadly. In this commentary, the authors (1) describe the background and the process through which this special issue came into fruition, (2) introduce the emic approaches to study the influences of macro-contextual variations on developmental science and provide several pertinent examples on the contributions of Majority World research, (3) elaborate on challenges and barriers that Majority World scholars often face in conducting and disseminating their research, and (4) a few actionable steps and recommendations in promoting the representation and inclusion of Majority World research into global developmental science. Only when our field fully integrates findings from all regions of the world will we be able to develop a fundamental scientific representation and understanding of what it means to be an adolescent, how adolescents develop over time, and what tasks or phenomena in adolescent development are truly universal or specific to particular groups, regions, or areas.

The body of prison power

This visual essay revisits the infamous medical science experiments conducted on prisoners at Philadelphia’s Holmesburg Prison, 1952–1974. It reads ‘a body’ into the prison’s now dilapidated architecture, where the geographies and logics of imprisonment and medical science once intersected. Appropriating visual conventions of scientific representation to image the internal spaces of the former prison, the photographs and 3D prints composing this essay seek to raise and wrestle with questions about memory-making, archiving, and the creation of material culture in the context of captivity. This is not simply to document a vanishing site in order to recuperate a lost story, but to reflexively stage or enact an engagement with inescapable loss and to contemplate the stakes of that loss in our understanding of knowledge, power, and freedom.

The theatrics of Arabic script: word and/as image in the diagrams of the Kitāb al-diryāq (BnF arabe 2964)

This article focuses upon the arrangement of written words in geometric shapes or patterns—specifically in Arabic script. It takes the case of the Kitāb al-diryāq (Book of Antidotes, 595 AH/1199 CE, BnF arabe 2964), an illuminated and illustrated manuscript that features a series of geometric compositions created using Arabic script. The script is employed in conjunction with or independent of geometric lines and curves, with its ligatures compressed and elongated, and words repeated, ornamented, or oriented multidirectionally to augment the geometric shape. The aesthetic manipulation of the script in this manner severely compromises the legibility of the words—the pages invite a viewing of the script rather than a reading of the text. By closely examining a set of four such compositions—articulated as diagrams—the article demonstrates the semantic value of the visual script patterns when read in concert with the verbal content. Furthermore, by focusing on the extralinguistic components of the diagrams, I argue that the arrangement of text in geometric patterns is a vital medium of transmitting knowledge—the form not only shapes the reception of verbal messages but also augments an aesthetic image; operates as a cognitive device; and transforms the text into a scientific representation. The diagrams visually and semantically shape knowledge.

Una mitologia alpina

This text superimposes a seemingly random geometry over certain locations in the Alpine massifs, one that is certainly reductive and debatable, yet still connected to an evident modern unease. Over a period of a few decades, from the end of the 19th century to the early decades of the 20th century, some Alpine locations have been home to significant events and figures in the arts and culture, defining a concentrated itinerary in a relatively limited area. The figures introduced here carry ideas and embody forces far from the commonplaces that accompany our perception of the mountains and the more widespread image assigned to them. In this sense, it is also possible to approach the theme from Alpine iconography, whether it be the work of great artists, attempts at scientific representation or the simplest popular depictions. The protagonists of these itineraries are, indeed, directly linked to different ways of representing the mountain.

Hidden Figures: an interdisciplinary resource to understand the relationship between Mathematics, history, and society

This study analyzed the impact of the interdisciplinary pedagogical activity carried out in the Integrated Project of Educational Practice I discipline on the understanding of Mathematics Education undergraduate students at Instituto Federal de Mato Grosso (IFMT), campus Confresa, about the relationship between historical aspects of the constitution of Mathematics, social contexts in the constitution of humanity, and the representation of scientists in cinema, using the film Hidden Figures as a didactic resource. The results indicated that the activity contributed to a greater awareness among students about the importance of addressing issues of diversity, inclusion, and representation in their future teaching practices. Despite some limitations, the study pointed to the potential of interdisciplinary pedagogical activities to enrich the training of future teachers and promote a more inclusive and contextualized Mathematics Education.

Windows on the Womb and Guiding Trains of Light: Figuring the Real in Plate XXVI of William Hunter's Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus

AbstractEschewing the symbolic in favour of commitment to the unmediated replication of exactly that which is actually observed, Hunter's attitude to the images in his Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus embraces a juridical ideal of scientific representation: images should tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Contemporary scholars have questioned this appeal to objectivity, maintaining representation always exists inside culture and arguing gender frequently inflects purportedly neutral scientific vision. I extend that debate via a reading of Plate XXVI, which is frequently misunderstood as representing something completely different to what it actually depicts. Its sequence of images, I argue, chart a narrative of enlightenment wherein folk mythologies of the uterus are subdued by the controlling scientific gaze. I also suggest a previously unrecognised correspondence between Plate XXVI and one of the plaster casts of the dissected bodies preserved in the University of Glasgow's Anatomy Museum.

“The Old Belarusian People’s Theatre”. A newsreel of a scientific fact

The article considers the artistic and informative approaches to the creation of the scientific film “Old Belarusian Folk Theatre”. The film was produced in Belevichi village of Slutsk district in April 1962 on the initiative of a group of scientists from the Institute of Art Studies, Ethnography and Folklore of BSSR Academy of Sciences and the Belarusian State Theatre and Art Institute V. I. Nefed, K. N. Sannikov, G. I. Baryshev and S. M. Misko. Considerable attention is paid to the study of the circumstances of making, scientific and creative motivation of the film’s authors, as well as to the issues of further use, scientific representation of this science-intensive film-documentary.The article actualizes the problem of using tools of newsreel fixation for science, particularly for preservation, research and popularization of Belarusian traditional culture, when a documentary camera-observer is able to connect the view of a scientist and qualified researcher with the view of a spectator.

The Language of Infographics: Toward Understanding Conceptual Metaphor Use in Scientific Storytelling.

We apply an approach from cognitive linguistics by mapping Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) to the visualization domain to address patterns of visual conceptual metaphors that are often used in science infographics. Metaphors play an essential part in visual communication and are frequently employed to explain complex concepts. However, their use is often based on intuition, rather than following a formal process. At present, we lack tools and language for understanding and describing metaphor use in visualization to the extent where taxonomy and grammar could guide the creation of visual components, e.g., infographics. Our classification of the visual conceptual mappings within scientific representations is based on the breakdown of visual components in existing scientific infographics. We demonstrate the development of this mapping through a detailed analysis of data collected from four domains (biomedicine, climate, space, and anthropology) that represent a diverse range of visual conceptual metaphors used in the visual communication of science. This work allows us to identify patterns of visual conceptual metaphor use within the domains, resolve ambiguities about why specific conceptual metaphors are used, and develop a better overall understanding of visual metaphor use in scientific infographics. Our analysis shows that ontological and orientational conceptual metaphors are the most widely applied to translate complex scientific concepts. To support our findings we developed a visual exploratory tool based on the collected database that places the individual infographics on a spatio-temporal scale and illustrates the breakdown of visual conceptual metaphors.

Plurality and identity: on the educational relations between chemistry and physics

We present an approach to the question of the educational relations between chemistry and physics based on the one hand, on an inferentialist account of scientific representation (Suárez M., (2024), Inference and Representation. A Study in Modelling Science, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press). On the other, we have drawn on the notion of science identities, as is currently used in science education. We argue that the representational practices of chemistry are the key competencies for the development of a chemistry identity. We extrapolate this conclusion to physics. The problem of representational plurality, that is, that some objects can be represented divergently in these sciences is thus linked to that of identity plurality, to the question of whether it is possible for a person to simultaneously hold a chemistry and a physics identity. We study the educational implications of this situation within the framework of Lev Vygotsky's sociocultural pedagogy to conclude that the difficulties inherent to representational plurality in chemistry and physics are sociological: university degrees are built around a single, well-defined, identity, thus tending to exclude any form of plurality that compromises this uniformity. As an application of these conclusions, we have studied the question of the introduction of the quantum description of molecules in chemistry education at an undergraduate level. We conclude that this introduction should not be based on the molecular orbitals approach but, instead, on the valence bond method.

Questions and Answers from Freelance Pros

How do continuing medical education/continuing education (CME/CE) medical writers balance the need for accurate scientific representation with the pressure to create content that aligns with pharmaceutical industry interests? When working on manuscripts involving multiple authors, how can medical writers help manage authorship disputes and ensure fair credit allocation following ethical guidelines? How can medical communicators navigate cultural and linguistic differences in a global health care context, ensuring their work is accurate and culturally sensitive? In this issue, our Freelance Focus contributors are: Brian Bass Cathryn D. Evans Alex Howson

Grounding scientific representation

Grounding scientific representation

Leaving no one behind: unveiling gaps in inclusive architecture at the UIA World Congress of architects 2023

PurposeThis article aims to provide an insightful analysis of the UIA World Congress of Architects held in Copenhagen in 2023. The Congress adopted the aspirational motto “Leave no one behind,” prompting debates on how to realize this vision. Six major congress tracks centered on architecture's function in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Each track focused on a particular design challenge: climate adaptation, circular design strategies, community resilience, public health, inclusive built environments and challenging power structures. There were 250 scholarly papers and pre-and-post-events for further debate on the tracks.Design/methodology/approachThis paper provides an insightful overview of the major panels, analyzes the events' content and analyzes the efficiency of the final ten principles underlining the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, community participation and new design approaches in achieving the SDGs.FindingsOrganizing an inclusive global event is a multifaceted challenge, demanding a careful representation of diverse participants. The selection of an appropriate venue, effective exhibition curation and thoughtful scientific representation play pivotal roles. The exhibition successfully engaged a broad spectrum of attendees. While the structure of six distinct tracks focusing on climate adaptation, resource reevaluation, resilient communities, public health, inclusivity and partnership for change was commendable, an excess of parallel sessions impeded the potential for robust discussions. A more cohesive approach with integrated sessions and flexible timeframes could foster meaningful exchanges, aligning with the essence of the motto “Leave no one behind.” It is suggested to prioritize in-depth engagement over breadth, enabling profound dialogues among stakeholders in shaping the agenda for future congresses.Originality/valueThis paper offers originality through its analysis of the UIA 2023 Congress's major events spotlighting architecture's significance within the UN SDGs. Enriched by the author's active engagement and reflective insights from the event, this paper adds value to the academic dialogue surrounding architecture and sustainable development. Additionally, the insights garnered from this analysis can inform the planning of future congresses and the refinement of guiding principles.

Model Organisms as Scientific Representations

Model Organisms as Scientific Representations

Study of Settlement Patterns in Farming–Pastoral Zones in Eastern Inner Mongolia Using Planar Quantization and Cluster Analysis

Settlements are comprehensive carriers of the material form expression and social appearance of human activities under specific geographical environmental choices. The analysis and preservation of their forms are important principles and strategies for rural settlement planning and construction. In this study, 28 settlements in the farming–pastoral zones in eastern Inner Mongolia were selected as the research objects. By combining fractal geometry and computer programming, the relationship between the boundary form, spatial structure, and architectural order of the settlements was quantitatively expressed, and quantitative indicators that better summarize the form of the settlements in the farming–pastoral zones in eastern Inner Mongolia were extracted. Then, factor analysis and cluster analysis were conducted using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software (SPSS26.0) to obtain the characteristic types of settlement forms. Finally, the classification results were combined with social and humanistic factors and the geographical environment to test the rationality of the results. The results show that (1) five form indicators effectively describe the settlement forms in the research area, among which the shape index, dimension of the public space, and architectural density play a crucial role in the spatial structure factors. (2) In this study, we mainly used a data collection and processing–principal component extraction and systematic clustering-type division method to complete scientific research on settlement form classification. (3) By combining the clustering results with the spatial form features and analysis mainly based on spatial structure factors, the settlement forms in the farming–pastoral zones in eastern Inner Mongolia are described as three typical types: multidirectional expanding settlement, settlement patterns extending at both ends, and centripetal development settlement. Furthermore, the characteristics of the human–land relationship implicit in each type of settlement form are explained, achieving a scientific representation and classification of the settlement forms. The research results provide useful quantitative guidance for rural revitalization, settlement form optimization, and preservation in the farming–pastoral zones in eastern Inner Mongolia

By what measure? A signpost theory of the truth of doctrine

Abstract This article proposes a novel theory of the truth of doctrine. A signpost theory of the truth of doctrine is informed by practice-based philosophy of science. I argue that a theory of the truth of doctrine needs to explain the construction, use, and judgement of doctrine. So, I raise questions about the truth of doctrine in reference to the relation between a theory of the truth of doctrine and the role of doctrine in the religious practice of believers. I argue that a signpost theory of the truth of doctrine learns from an empirical understanding of measurement and modelling in scientific practice. The examples of entropy and time provide insights into the construction, use, and judgement of measurements and modelling in scientific practice. An empirical understanding of measurement in scientific practice provides resources for linking representations with reality without ignoring the contextual construction, use, and judgement of representations. I conclude with a brief articulation of how a signpost theory of the truth of doctrine learns from an empirical understanding of measurements and models in scientific practice by highlighting the similarities and differences between the construction, use, and judgement of doctrine and of scientific representations.