Scientific Artifacts Research Articles

Unearthing the Chicago Piles: A Monte Carlo perspective

The divergence of the Chicago Pile 1 (CP-1) on December 2nd, 1942, marks the birth of the nuclear age. Built under the West Stands of the Stagg Field in Chicago in slightly over two weeks, CP-1 was the first man-made nuclear reactor, conceived as a proof-of-principle physics experiment to demonstrate the feasibility of a self-sustained neutron chain reaction. The fuel consisted in a mixture of uranium oxide and metal uranium, with lumps of several sizes and shapes stacked within bricks of graphite used as moderator to form a cubic lattice. After only three months of operation, CP-1 was dismantled due to safety reasons and rebuilt at the Argonne Site in twenty-one days, under the name of Chicago Pile 2 (CP-2): the new pile had a longer life, contributing vastly to research on material science and nuclear reactor theory, and was finally decommissioned in 1954. Prompted by the eightieth anniversary of the Chicago Pile(s), in this talk we celebrate these astonishing scientific artifacts by building fully detailed three-dimensional digital twins of CP-1 and CP-2 using TRIPOLI-4®, the Monte Carlo code developed at CEA. Technological data for the models have been retrieved from published and unpublished documents of the Manhattan Project. We compare the simulation results to the available experimental measurements, encompassing the reactivity of the piles, the control rod worth, the kinetics parameters and several reactivity coefficients. For each, we examine the associated uncertainties due to missing or incomplete technological data as well as the bias due to nuclear data libraries.

Science and Survival: Exploring the Papers of Georg and Max Bredig

Abstract Following the death of his parents, George Bredig inherited a large steamer trunk inconspicuously tucked away in the basement of his boyhood home in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The trunk was old, and upon opening it, a strong musty smell emerged from within. As he reviewed the contents of the trunk, he discovered an assortment of unpublished letters, original photographs, rare pamphlets and small scientific artifacts. His father Max and grandfather Georg were both gifted physical chemists and it did not take long for George to realize that these papers documented their scientific careers in the years preceding their flight from Nazi Germany.

Papers with code or without code? Impact of GitHub repository usability on the diffusion of machine learning research

Open Science initiatives prompt machine learning (ML) researchers and experts to share source codes - "scientific artifacts" - alongside research papers via public repositories such as GitHub. Here we analyze the extent to which 1) the availability of GitHub repositories influences paper citation and 2) the popularity trend of ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch and TensorFlow) affects article citation rates. To accomplish this, we connect ML research publications indexed by Papers with Code (PwC) to Microsoft Academic Graph (MAG) and collect repository-level metadata using the GitHub API. Applying nearest-neighbor matching and econometric considerations, we estimate that papers enjoy approximately 20% advantages in monthly citation rates after the creation of the first GitHub repositories, accounting for paper-level fixed effects and ages. We also find that the temporal popularity trends for frameworks used in the first associated repositories could influence the monthly citation rate for papers. The results highlight the importance of technological artifacts and infrastructure latent to the diffusion of research.

COVID-Bot, an Intelligent System for COVID-19 Vaccination Screening: Design and Development.

BackgroundCoronavirus continues to spread worldwide, causing various health and economic disruptions. One of the most important approaches to controlling the spread of this disease is to use an artificial intelligence (AI)–based technological intervention, such as a chatbot system. Chatbots can aid in the fight against the spread of COVID-19.ObjectiveThis paper introduces COVID-Bot, an intelligent interactive system that can help screen students and confirm their COVID-19 vaccination status.MethodsThe design and development of COVID-Bot followed the principles of the design science research (DSR) process, which is a research method for creating a new scientific artifact. COVID-Bot was developed and implemented using the SnatchBot chatbot application programming interface (API) and its predefined tools, which are driven by various natural language processing algorithms.ResultsAn evaluation was carried out through a survey that involved 106 university students in determining the functionality, compatibility, reliability, and usability of COVID-Bot. The findings indicated that 92 (86.8%) of the participants agreed that the chatbot functions well, 85 (80.2%) agreed that it fits well with their mobile devices and their lifestyle, 86 (81.1%) agreed that it has the potential to produce accurate and consistent responses, and 85 (80.2%) agreed that it is easy to use. The average obtained α was .87, indicating satisfactory reliability.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that incorporating chatbot technology into the educational system can combat the spread of COVID-19 among university students. The intelligent system does this by interacting with students to determine their vaccination status.

The educational value, both past and present, of an ancient scientific collection: the collection of anatomical preparations illustrating the various phases of bone development, from the second month of intrauterine life to adulthood

Italy’s museums possess an enormous patrimony of historical scientific artefacts. This raises important questions regarding the conservation and safeguard of such materials and prompts reflection as to the utility of current modalities of popularising science. The collections housed in scientific museums were created in order to promote scientific education by making science more accessible and more comprehensible. The authors ask whether this heritage can still be used for educational purposes today, and examine a collection of preparations on the ossification of human bones in the Anatomical Museum of the University of Siena. They conclude that such materials can still be of educational value if they are made part of exhibitions that meet the needs of the public and of students in training. Indeed, it is essential to bear witness to the long pathway of the development of scientific knowledge and, in particular, to the value of the research on which this knowledge is based. Through the implementation of ad hoc exhibitions, this precious historical scientific patrimony can continue to play an important role in presenting medical/healthcare issues of topical interest without losing sight of the relevance of past experience to basic teaching.

Argumentative practices and patterns in debating climate change on Twitter

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate practices of argumentation on Twitter discussions about climate change.Design/methodology/approachConversational threads were collected from the Twitter API. Fundamental concepts from argumentation theory and linking practices were operationalised through a coding schema for content analysis. Tweets were analysed in the context of the discussions and coded according to their argumentative approach, interaction type and argumentation stage. Linked and embedded sources were analysed in order to find how they were used in arguments, the plausibility and soundness of the message, the consistency and trustworthiness of the linked source and its adequacy with the target audience.FindingsAmong the interactions between arguers, this study found five typical practices and several patterns involving the dynamics of the conversations, the strategy of the argumentation and the linking practices. Although the rhetorical approach was prominent, the agreement was rarely achieved. The arguers used a variety of sources to justify or support their positions, often embedding non-textual content. These linking practices, together with the strategy adopted and the topics discussed, suggest the involvement of a multiple audience engaged in discussing ad lib scientific artefacts, topics and outputs.Originality/valueWhile Twitter has been the focus for many research papers, the conversational threads have been given little attention so far. With the Twitter API making conversations more accessible for research, this paper does not only give insight into multiple audience group argumentation dynamics but also provides a method to study the conversations from an argumentation theory perspective.

Mapping Skies and Continents: The Production of Two Portuguese Scientific Atlases in the Era of Napoleonic Expansion (1799-1813)

To what extend the circulation of scientific knowledge was shaped by the European imperial geopolitics in the late-eighteenth century? Recruited to fulfill tasks increasingly considered essential to the very workings of imperial administrations, scientific practitioners of the time paradoxically seem to make use precisely of this encroachment in state apparatuses to secure some degree of autonomy for their nascent field. Thus, every material form of circulation of scientific information must be ultimately understood as an act of political consequences. Here we present these ideas through the analysis of two concrete scientific artifacts, which can exemplify the circulation of scientific information inside and across empires: two atlases, one terrestrial and one celestial (the latter being a version of Flamsteed’s famous atlas of 1729, by way of intermediate French editions), produced in Portugal at the turn of the nineteenth century. Discarding the simple assumption that such cartographic artifacts might have a “utilitarian” use to Portuguese imperial administration, we aim to insist on their political and communicative nature, grounded on their modes of participation in trans-imperial pathways of circulation of knowledge, people, practices, and models of scientific authority (entangling Britain, France, and the Americas in multiple time scales). We also highlight how the atlases contribute to the affirmation of new patriotic science in Portugal, and explore the markedly didactic vocation of both objects, which also stress the question of the recruitment and reproduction of a new kind of imperial elite.

Overcompliance and reluctance to make decisions: Exploring warning systems in support of public managers

Post-scandal effects in public management point to the occurrence of overcompliance in the work of public managers, leading to reluctance and paralysis in decision-making. This article discusses the proposition of an artifact in the form of a warning system to aid the analysis process and issuing of opinions (APIO) by public managers, providing more information and, consequently, less risk and fear. The Design Science Research method was used to exapt a scientific artifact to the context of public management. The textual structure of 178 opinions issued by public agencies was analyzed, as was the perception of 17 public managers of the characteristics of the APIO. Exaptating the artifact from a technological perspective is simple and feasible, as it involves processes with strong functional similarities. The greatest challenges to operationalize the artifact broadly and without restrictions, as occurs in scientific academia, are associated with informational behaviors.

Historical collections of vascular plants in the Korean Peninsula by three major collectors in the early 20th century: U. J. Faurie, E. J. Taquet and E. H. Wilson.

BackgroundThe digitisation of historical collections aims to increase global access to scientific artifacts, especially those from currently inaccessible areas. Historical collections from North Korea deposited at foreign herbaria play a fundamental role in biodiversity transformation patterns. However, the biodiversity pattern distribution in this region remains poorly understood given the severe gaps in available geographic species distribution records. Access to a dominant proportion of primary biodiversity data remains difficult for the broader scientific and environmental community. The digitisation of foreign collectors’ botanical collections of around 60,000 specimens from the Korean Peninsula before World War II is ongoing. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap by developing the first comprehensive, open-access database of biodiversity records for the Korean Peninsula. This paper provides a quantitative and general description of the specimens that Urbain Jean Faurie, Emile Joseph Taquet and Ernest Henry Wilson have collected and are kept in several herbaria.New informationAn open-access database of biodiversity records provides a simple guide to georeferencing historical collections. The first set describes E. H. Wilson’s collection of woody plants collected in the Korean Peninsula and preserved at the Harvard University Herbaria (A). This set includes 1,087 records collected from 1917 to 1918. The other collections contain specimens collected by E. J. Taquet (4,727 specimens from Quelpaert (Jeju), 1907–1914) and U. J. Faurie (3,659 specimens from North Korea and Quelpaert, 1901, 1906 and 1907). For each specimen, we recorded the species name, locality indication, collection date, collector, ecology and revision label. This set contains more than 9,400 specimens, with 22% of vascular plants from North Korea and 66% from Quelpaert (Jeju) Island. In these collections, we included some images that correspond to the specimens in this dataset.

Certain Loves for Opera

The attraction of objects has motivated a swerve within the humanities—a move away from texts and exegesis, linguistics, and semiotics; a move toward the body, the senses, materiality, and physiology. A musical instrument, a scientific artifact, a collection of sounds, an antique postcard: yes, all these objects are expressive and sometimes aesthetically pleasing, and in being so they can be understood to embody an epistemology, with theories and realms of knowledge written into their every contour. Or they can be understood as traces of global exchange and displacement. But what if the object is not very good, not loveable at all? Crumbling, toxic paper or banal images, with no exit from a strange historical or cultural space, perhaps an uncomfortable space to which you feel averse (or at least, feel you should disdain, as beneath contempt)? Or what if the object is misdirecting? What if it is ephemeral, like sound, something that cannot be held? These questions are woven in this essay into a reflection on the forms taken by certain loves for opera, a reflection centered on some nineteenth-century material objects that relate to act 4 of Giacomo Meyerbeer’s opera Les Huguenots (1836).

International scientific associations of the History of Science and Technology: formation and development (part II)

The activity of international organizations on the history of science and technology is a remarkable phenomenon in the world scientific and sociocultural sphere. Such centers influence and contribute to the scientific communication of scientists from different countries and the comprehensive development of numerous aspects of the history of science and technology, carry out scientific congresses. That is why the analysis of the acquired experience and the obtained results of these groups are important.
 The history of the formation and development, task, structure, background and directions of the activities of some international organizations in the field of science and technology, including The History of Science Society (HSS), The European Society forthe History of Science (ESHS), The Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), The Newcomen Society, The Scientific Instrument Society (SIS) have been shown.
 The History of Science Society (HSS) is the professional society for the academic study of the history of science. It is the world’s largest society dedicated to understanding science, technology, medicine and their interactions with society within their historical context. HSS was founded in 1924 by G. Sarton and L. Henderson. The aim of European Society for the History of Science (ESHS), founded in 2003, is to promote the history of science, technology and medicine throughout Europe. The Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) is an international interdisciplinary organization concerned with the history of technological devices and processes and with technology in history — that is, the relationship of technology to politics, economics, science, arts and the organization of production, The Newcomen Society is an international society that studies and promotes the history of engineering and technology from ancient times to the present day. It disseminates historical information by publications, meetings, correspondence and internet forums. The Scientific Instrument Society (SIS) was formed in April 1983 to bring together people with a special interest in scientific instruments, ranging from precious antiques to electronic devices only recently out of production. The Society aimed to contribute to historical knowledge and understanding through the collection, conservation and study of scientific artefacts.
 Ecept for the organizations considered, there are many other scientific unions and societies in the field of history and phylosophy of science and engineering, whose activities require further study and synthesis.

Simulation research and design: a dual-level framework for multi-project research programs

Collaborations between researchers and practitioners have recently become increasingly popular in education, and educational design research (EDR) may benefit greatly from investigating such partnerships. One important domain in which EDR on collaborations between researchers and practitioners can be applied is research on simulation-based learning. However, frameworks describing both research and design processes in research programs on simulation-based learning are currently lacking. The framework proposed in this paper addresses this research gap. It is derived from theory and delineates levels, phases, activities, roles, and products of research programs to develop simulations as complex scientific artifacts for research purposes. This dual-level framework applies to research programs with a research committee and multiple subordinate research projects. The proposed framework is illustrated by examples from the actual research and design process of an interdisciplinary research program investigating the facilitation of diagnostic competences through instructional support in simulations. On a theoretical level, the framework contributes primarily to the literature of EDR by offering a unique dual-level perspective. Moreover, on a practical level, the framework may help by providing recommendations to guide the research and design process in research programs.

MAPS, COLONIAL VISION, RACE AND SCIENTIFIC LEGITIMACY OF BRITISH RULE IN MALAYA, 1860-1924

The maps drawn by the British colonial administrators in Malaya places pre-colonial understanding of territories into colonial boundaries; boundaries that were, on many aspects, defined by the economic, political and social interests of the colonial entity. Underlying this colonial cartographic vision of Malaya is an implicit rationale built under the banner of science. Mapping was understood by the British as a scientific pursuit, and maps as scientific artifacts. The maps of Malaya were construed through British scientific rationale, and in turn, this allowed the British to not only politically impose their vision of Malaya onto its inhabitants, but additionally, through the production of scientifically ideal (here read as ‘reasonable’, ‘empirical’ and ‘rational’) methods and artifacts had made colonial boundaries as legitimate, neutral and acceptable divisions. Therefore, other elements that has been directly or indirectly affected by British maps, such as racial distribution and notions of economic development can be argued as equally legitimate and neutral as well. While maps inform us of the socio-political order of British Malaya, it can also provide a new terrain for analysis—the relationship between science, colonialism and the objectification of colonial territories and peoples. This paper focuses on this line of analysis by looking at the visual imagination of Malaya through maps created by the British, particularly on the population, i.e., racial categorization and distribution, and how colonial ideals and imagination found indisputable grounds through science.

Assigning credit to scientific datasets using article citation networks

A citation is a well-established mechanism for connecting scientific artifacts. Citation networks are used by citation analysis for a variety of reasons, prominently to give credit to scientists’ work. However, because of current citation practices, scientists tend to cite only publications, leaving out other types of artifacts such as datasets. Datasets then do not get appropriate credit even though they are increasingly reused and experimented with. We develop a network flow measure, called DataRank , aimed at solving this gap. DataRank assigns a relative value to each node in the network based on how citations flow through the graph, differentiating publication and dataset flow rates. We evaluate the quality of DataRank by estimating its accuracy at predicting the usage of real datasets: web visits to GenBank and downloads of Figshare datasets. We show that DataRank is better at predicting this usage compared to alternatives while offering additional interpretable outcomes. We discuss improvements to citation behavior and algorithms to properly track and assign credit to datasets.

Evaluation of Bioelectromethanogenesis Part I: Energy Calculations

AbstractBioelectromethanogenesis, a technology to convert electrical energy into CH4, is on the transition from lab‐scale to industrial application. But the question arises if it is really a sustainable technology or just another scientific artifact. Especially the energy efficiency is a crucial aspect to allow conclusions about the applicability. In this paper, the basics of energy calculations are applied to literature data to model the energy efficiency. Different scenarios were calculated, showing that further research has to be conducted to turn bioelectromethanogenesis into a feasible technology.

The Westerner: Matteo Ricci’s World Map and the Quandaries of European Identity in the Late Ming Dynasty

Beginning with the late Ming dynasty, Europeans in China assumed the name of “people from the Great Western Ocean” (Daxiyang ren 大西洋人), often shortened to “Ocean people” (yang ren 洋人) or “Western people” (xi ren 西人). What is the origin of this name? This paper seeks to answer this question by suggesting a new interpretation of the cartography of Matteo Ricci. Much of the scholarly debate about the Ricci world map revolves around the notion that it was a scientific artifact meant to present an accurate image of the world to a willfully ignorant, but otherwise impressive civilization. This paper argues instead that the purpose of Ricci’s cartographic project was to sustain a new identity, that of the Westerner and of the “Great West,” notions created in translation by borrowing and modifying Ming China’s geopolitical vocabulary.

The Imagined Empire: Balloon Enlightenments in Revolutionary Europe by Mi Gyung Kim

Reviewed by: The Imagined Empire: Balloon Enlightenments in Revolutionary Europe by Mi Gyung Kim Patrick Luiz Sullivan De Oliveira (bio) The Imagined Empire: Balloon Enlightenments in Revolutionary Europe. By Mi Gyung Kim. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017. Pp. 456. Hardcover $54.95. The Imagined Empire is a welcome addition to histories of early ballooning that have flourished in the past decade. Drawing from a rich theoretical toolbox, Kim ambitiously "aims at an archaeology of mass silence, a genealogy of the mass public, and a material geography of European Enlightenment to uncover how the flying machine—both imagined and real—stirred utopian visions and patriotic sentiments in revolutionary Europe" (p. 8). In doing so, she presents a survey of early European ascents, a dense analysis of the indeterminacy of scientific artifacts, and something that could cheekily be called the aerostatic origins of the French Revolution. After hearing someone mock the balloon, Benjamin Franklin purportedly quipped: "What is the use of a newborn baby?" Kim's answer to this apocryphal bon mot is that the balloon "weakened the king-machine by opening a liminal zone in which the existing technologies of scientific demonstration, social control, and political machination could no longer contain the audience or the meaning of a mass spectacle" (p. 11). In short, the balloon's advent in 1783 fundamentally shaped the public sphere. The ancien régime was defined by its "king-machine," which molded public culture by controlling the sinews of symbolic capital. The balloon, however, was a "people-machine" that blurred the hierarchies undergirding absolutism. At stake was control over spectacle—the fullest expression of early modern authority. To make her case, Kim sets the balloon against the elitist royal theater, which had lost its capacity to convincingly represent the nation by the 1770s. The analysis unfolds through three parts encompassing ten chapters. Part one is a balloon-centered genealogy of the public sphere. Kim explains the circuitous route the Montgolfier brothers (paper manufacturers outside the realm of official science) took to stabilize the artifact and secure [End Page 628] their status as inventors—something that became more urgent with the appearance of the hydrogen balloon and its champions, led by Jacques Charles. Those in power produced a "public transcript" that minimized the dispute between "Montgolfists" and "Charlists" (each backed by different factions of the royal family), but the dispute signaled the triumph of public opinion over absolutist polity. The idolization of intrepid aeronauts compounded this process, threatening the Old Regime's hierarchical order. Part two shifts to the audiences of balloon spectacles (Parisian crowds surpassed 100,000). Kim unearths "hidden transcripts" that countered the "public transcript," arguing that balloon satires expressed republican virtues and proto-revolutionary fantasies. Pairing the balloon with mesmerism, another natural fluids-based scientific spectacle, she explains how authorities sought to control both fads, since they "multipl[ied] contact zones between the fashionable society and the populace" (p. 149). Meanwhile, provincial elites tried—and often failed—to overcome roadblocks to stage their own spectacles. Riots after failed ascents revealed the fissures in the hegemonic "public transcript," a realization that marked the beginning of the balloon's decline. Part three explores responses to ballooning across Europe. First, we visit London. According to Kim, the city's tepid reaction to the spectacular technology "reveals the importance of gentlemanly scientific culture in moderating royal power, Francophile aristocratic taste, and vulgar enthusiasm" (p. 211). The last chapters focus on Jean-Pierre Blanchard, first to fly across the Channel. His itinerant ballooning enterprise revealed the boundaries of Europe's cultural geographies. Francophile aristocracies brought ballooning to central European states, which in turn prompted patriotic resistances that foreshadowed responses to the Napoleonic Wars. The Imagined Empire covers some familiar territory addressed by works like Marie Thébaud-Sorger's L'Aérostation au temps des Lumières (2009). However, Kim's imaginative framing and meticulous readings underscore the indeterminacy of artifacts—even national symbols. The sections on France are the strongest, since that is where the evidence is richest, but forays into other regions illuminate how an artifact's meanings change as it is translated into different contexts. Kim's effort at integrating the tensions engendered by ballooning...

Why Frankenstein is a Stigma Among Scientists.

As one of the best known science narratives about the consequences of creating life, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818) is an enduring tale that people know and understand with an almost instinctive familiarity. It has become a myth reflecting people's ambivalent feelings about emerging science: they are curious about science, but they are also afraid of what science can do to them. In this essay, we argue that the Frankenstein myth has evolved into a stigma attached to scientists that focalizes the public's as well as the scientific community's negative reactions towards certain sciences and scientific practices. This stigma produces ambivalent reactions towards scientific artifacts and it leads to negative connotations because it implies that some sciences are dangerous and harmful. We argue that understanding the Frankenstein stigma can empower scientists by helping them revisit their own biases as well as responding effectively to people's expectations for, and attitudes towards, scientists and scientific artifacts. Debunking the Frankenstein stigma could also allow scientists to reshape their professional identities so they can better show the public what ethical and moral values guide their research enterprises.

Human Evolution and Celebrity Fossils

Seven Skeletons . By Lydia Pyne. 2016. Viking, An imprint of Penguin Random House. (ISBN: 978-0-525-42985-2). 283pp. Hardcover $28.00. What is it about some fossils that enable them to take on a life beyond the bones? Why is it that some not only withstand scientific scrutiny but become a part of us on a level that transcends their value as scientific artifacts of our human heritage? Lydia Pyne explains this phenomenon of fossil celebrity in Seven Skeletons , examining the story of human evolution through fossils that have established a solid hold on our hearts and minds as well as human history. From page one, Pyne provides a lens that explores the historical beginnings of the modern human evolution narrative while also capturing the birth of the field of paleoanthropology—both of which have grown …

A supervised approach to quantifying sentence similarity: with application to evidence based medicine.

Following the Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) practice, practitioners make use of the existing evidence to make therapeutic decisions. This evidence, in the form of scientific statements, is usually found in scholarly publications such as randomised control trials and systematic reviews. However, finding such information in the overwhelming amount of published material is particularly challenging. Approaches have been proposed to automatically extract scientific artefacts in EBM using standardised schemas. Our work takes this stream a step forward and looks into consolidating extracted artefacts—i.e., quantifying their degree of similarity based on the assumption that they carry the same rhetorical role. By semantically connecting key statements in the literature of EBM, practitioners are not only able to find available evidence more easily, but also can track the effects of different treatments/outcomes in a number of related studies. We devise a regression model based on a varied set of features and evaluate it both on a general English corpus (the SICK corpus), as well as on an EBM corpus (the NICTA-PIBOSO corpus). Experimental results show that our approach performs on par with the state of the art on the general English and achieves encouraging results on the biomedical text when compared against human judgement.