Scientific Controversy Research Articles

Use of Historical Scientific Controversies in the Context of Physics Teaching. A Study of the Scientific Pragmadialectic Argumentation at School

El siguiente documento presenta los resultados obtenidos al incorporar una perspectiva de enseñanza de la física a través del análisis de controversias científicas históricas empleando una ruta de argumentación diseñada en tres niveles de dialogicidad basada en los principios de dialogicidad Bajtianos, así como del enfoque pragmadialéctico de van Eemeren. El objetivo de la investigación fue analizar cómo sucede el fenómeno de argumentación científica escolar empleando esta ruta de enseñanza. Para ello ejecutaron dos ciclos de investigación. Un primer ciclo centrado en el desarrollo de una unidad didáctica compuesta de 18 actividades, las cuales fueron analizadas en siete estudios de caso bajo un enfoque de investigación enmarcado en un paradigma constructivista interpretativo y analítico usando las técnicas de la teoría fundamentada. A partir de este análisis, se propuso una segunda unidad didáctica compuesta de 8 actividades con la cual se llevó a cabo un segundo ciclo de investigación que permitiera refinar la teoría provisional propuesta en el primer ciclo. Los resultados mostraron aspectos relevantes vinculados a una categoría central asociada al fenómeno de argumentación científica escolar pragmadialéctica a través de seis categorías subsidiarias que la definieron y caracterizaron.

Edward Jenner's Discovery of Vaccination: Impact and Legacy.

Edward Jenner's pioneering work in the late 18th century, particularly his development of the smallpox vaccine, marked a transformative moment in medical history. This review meticulously examines Jenner's groundbreaking discovery and its profound impact on modern immunology and public health. By analyzing a comprehensive range of peer-reviewed studies and historical accounts, this review provides an in-depth exploration of Jenner's experimental methodology, the scientific and ethical controversies that surrounded his work, and the subsequent adoption of vaccination practices. Jenner's rigorous approach to scientific inquiry, the broader implications of his work on public health strategies, and its enduring relevance in addressing contemporary health challenges are also highlighted. This comprehensive analysis underscores Jenner's legacy as a cornerstone of modern medicine and public health.

Disputes over the figures of the COVID-19 pandemic: Epistemic diversity, dissemination of science, and political opposition.

The health policies imposed by multiple national governments after the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 were publicly justified by official figures on the deaths that the new virus would have caused and could cause in the future. At the same time, however, groups of people from different countries expressed their scepticism about those figures. Although they were categorised as 'anti-science', 'spreaders of misinformation' or 'conspiracy theorists' in some media, many of those sceptics claimed to be based on scientific evidence. This article qualitatively analyses a sample of the content published by sceptics on their social media between 2020 and 2022. More specifically, it examines the shared documents supposedly coming from the scientific community. We find very diverse content ranging from unsubstantiated assumptions to documents produced by prestigious scientists inviting questions about the fatality rates, the mathematical models anticipating millions of deaths, and the real numbers of people who died from COVID-19. The disputes surrounding the official figures lead us to a reflection about the relationship between, epistemic diversity, the dissemination of science, censorship, and new forms of political opposition. We also touch upon the nature and ethics of scientific controversy in times of a 'war' against 'misinformation'.

What's Wrong with Misinformation?

Strangely, few recent studies of misinformation have given attention to the concept of misinformation itself. An examination of several studies of Covid misinformation shows them to be implicitly based on having unquestioned possession of the truth, so there is no attention to struggles over who decides what counts as misinformation and no mention of the possibility that views labelled misinformation might offer reasonable alternative perspectives. This has limitations, especially if understood in the context of research on public scientific controversies: ethical and political disagreements are obscured, and social analysts become de facto supporters of scientific orthodoxy.

Yeah, I’ve been immunized: Objectivity, ignorance, and privilege in media coverage of Aaron Rodgers’ COVID-19 vaccine refusal

During a team press conference in August 2021, then-Green Bay Packers Quarterback Aaron Rodgers claimed he had been ‘immunized,’ which implied he had taken a COVID-19 vaccine. He later admitted he was not vaccinated and sparked a debate in the news and popular media. This study builds on the epistemology of ignorance, science controversy, sports mythmaking, and fake news to explore news coverage of professional athletes, the COVID-19 pandemic, and vaccination. Thematic discourse analysis helped position the narratives built around Aaron Rodgers’ statements, attitudes, and behaviors on the continuum between vaccine hesitancy and discursive manipulation. The findings reveal evolving perspectives of social issues related to managing social responsibility of professional athletes and call for sharper interrogations of the dynamics of power, privilege, and agency among key opinion leaders at the intersection of sports, journalism, and society.

The educational potential of a literary quotation: linguistic, aesthetic and methodological aspects

Introduction. Despite significant differences in the traditions and practices of literary reading at school in different countries, the question of the role of reading in the process of developing reading strategies, intercultural competence and personal development of students remains relevant in pedagogical research. The influence of reading on the emotional and psychological state of a person, “bibliotherapy of the soul” have been actively studied not only in philosophy and hermeneutics of the twentieth century, but continues to be a subject of controversy in modern science. The study attempts to identify the features of perception, understanding and interpretation of a literary quotation as a significant element of a work of art. Purpose of the study: to identify the educational potential of literary quotation and to actualize the problem of creating methodological conditions for its implementation in the system of school literary education. Materials and methods. Research methods: pedagogical observation; introspection, contextual analysis of explanatory dictionaries; a survey of schoolchildren and students, as well as identifying expert opinion on assessing the significance of a quote for the Russian language. 199 students of the Herzen Russian State Pedagogical University. Took part in a pilot survey aimed at understanding and interpreting a literary quotation. A.I. Herzen, of which 28 are studying at the Faculty of Economics, 86 at the Faculty of Biology, 85 at the Faculty of Philology. For the survey, we chose a quote from the work of A.S. Pushkin “Mozart and Salieri” (cycle “Little Tragedies”) “And genius and villainy are two incompatible things. Isn’t it true?” Results. The survey showed that the most serious problem is ignorance of the precedent phenomenon – quotes from a classical text: 85.7% of students of the Faculty of Economics and 66.3% of students of the Faculty of Biology did not indicate the author and source of the quotation. 99% of students of the Faculty of Philology recognized the quote. It was also difficult for respondents to understand the meaning of the quote and its connection with life. None of the survey participants, in their reflections in tasks 2 and 5, cited as an argument the difference between the concepts of “evil” and “evil action”, or paid attention to the word “incompatible” and the special linguistic construction of the phrase. In third place in terms of difficulty in completing the task is understanding intertextual connections in the text, including quotes in someone else’s speech. Analysis of the survey results helped to identify problem areas in the perception and interpretation of quotes and types of tasks that could later become part of the system of working with quotes in literature lessons at school. Conclusion. A literary quotation has great methodological potential for developing the reader’s interpretive activity. The conducted research revealed that a literary quotation can become an effective tool for educating the reader as a person. The prospect of our research is the creation of a system of exercises and tasks for working with quotes in literature lessons.

Human radiation for medicine, spiritism and hypnosis in Argentina: scientific controversies around vital radiations (1880-1930).

In the mid-nineteenth century, magnetic theories penetrated other recognized medical practices in Argentina in order to rationalize their procedures, in a culture that accepted and validated magnetism as a positive science. At the start of the twentieth century, mesmerists created a society, published books and journals, and carried out a large welfare programme; there were public lectures, and magnetic treatment for spiritualists and the general public, emphasizing the therapeutic properties of mesmerism. Magnetologists/mesmerists measured vital radiation and built devices using sensitive objects as 'physical' evidence of it. There was an interest in acquiring and using artefacts to measure human radiation useful in medicine. Magnetic practices survived until the end of the 1920s, when they lost importance.

Права корінних народів України як центральний елемент їх правового статусу

The proposed article examines specific aspects of regulating the legal status of indigenous peoples of Ukraine and their rights as an element of its regulation. It was established that the rights of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine must be considered in the context of their legal status. It was determined that the legal status of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine is based on several international legal acts and the provisions of current national legislation. Given the existing classifications of legal status, the legal status of Indigenous peoples can be considered a special legal status due to its belonging to a particular group of people. The article examines the existing scientific controversy regarding the definition of the concept of “Indigenous peoples,” the basis of which is proposed to be defined based on its legal definition in the Law of Ukraine “On Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine.” The main characteristics of the indigenous people, distinguished by modern scientists in the field of law, are summarized. Broad and narrow approaches to understanding the indigenous people are determined depending on the number of such signs. It was established that the current Law of Ukraine, “On Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine,” demonstrates a three-level approach to the legal regulation of the rights of Indigenous peoples, consolidating them, in fact, into three groups: those that determine legal personality, fundamental rights, and others. However, the current legislation needs to allow to clearly define the legal markers of such a gradation and a clear understanding of the separation of fundamental rights and the rights provided for by individual articles of the profile law. The legal uncertainty of the mechanism of guarantees for the protection of the legal status of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine and its protection is established, as well as the need for further scientific research to improve the understanding of existing guarantees at the theoretical and legal level and their development at the regulatory level. Keywords: indigenous people, legal status, rights, guarantees, responsibility.

Acute appendicitis in adults: only clinical and laboratory diagnostics, only imaging, or both?

The presented article is devoted to the discussion of the necessity and expediency of using medical visualization diagnostics — radiological imaging — of acute appendicitis as an independent or complex approach in combination with clinical and laboratory data. Until now, the clinical diagnosis of each individual case of acute appendicitis is complicated, and its formulation requires combining clinical, laboratory and imaging data, since it includes a wide range of differential diagnoses depending on age and gender. The literature provides data that the frequency of negative appendectomies based on the results of a clinical examination can be up to 28.2%. Radiological imaging is used as an adjunct to clinical diagnostics using ultrasound examination, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, but the role of the latter is limited by the duration of the study, increased cost, unavailability around the clock, as well as the presence of absolute contraindications. Sonography and computed tomography in diagnostics have a number of advantages and disadvantages, and the question of choosing a specific method still causes scientific controversy. We also provide illustrative clinical examples demonstrating echographic and computed tomographic imaging manifestations of acute appendicitis, as well as discuss visualization signs. For a patient with suspected acute appendicitis, in order to increase the accuracy of diagnosis, reduce complications or the need of undergoing unnecessary diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, a multidisciplinary and multimodal approach is necessary, taking into account age, gender and constitution, however, the question of choosing the optimal method of medical imaging in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis between ultrasound and computed tomography remains debatable.

Anomalous anti-Kasha excited-state luminescence from symmetry-breaking heterogeneous carbon bisnanohoops

It is a long-standing scientific controversy to achieve anti-Kasha-type multiple emissions by tuning the structures at a molecular level. Although it is known that some conjugated structures have excitation-dependent multiple emissions, no all-benzenoid molecules have yet been reported, the emissions of which originate from different excited states. Herein, we report the design of two symmetry-breaking heterogeneous carbon bisnanohoops that in solution become multiple fluorescent emitters with unusual anti-Kasha characteristics. This phenomenon can be spectroscopically and theoretically explained and will find applications in a wide range of sensing and imaging technologies.

Lyme borreliosis and medical wandering: what do patients think about multidisciplinary management? A qualitative study in the context of scientific and social controversy

IntroductionTo answer to patients’ medical wandering, often due to “unexplained symptoms” of “unexplained diseases” and to misinformation, multidisciplinary care centers for suspected Lyme borreliosis (LB), such as the 5 Tick-Borne Diseases (TBDs) Reference Centers (TBD-RC), were created a few years ago in France, the Netherlands and Denmark. Our study consisted of a comprehensive analysis of the satisfaction of the patients managed at a TBD-RC for suspected LB in the context of scientific and social controversy.MethodsWe included all adults who were admitted to one of the TBD-RC from 2017 to 2020. A telephone satisfaction survey was conducted 12 months after their first consultation. It consisted of 5 domains, including 2 free-text items: “What points did you enjoy?” and “What would you like us to change or to improve?”. In the current study, the 2 free-items were analyzed with a qualitative method called reflexive thematic analysis within a semantic and latent approach.ResultsThe answer rate was 61.3% (349/569) and 97 distinctive codes from the 2-free-text items were identified and classified into five themes: (1) multidisciplinarity makes it possible to set up quality time dedicated to patients; (2) multidisciplinarity enables seamless carepaths despite the public hospital crisis compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic; (3) multidisciplinarity is defined as trust in the team’s competences; (4) an ambivalent opinion and uncertainty are barriers to acceptance of the diagnosis, reflecting the strong influence of the controversy around LB; and (5) a lack of adapted communication about TBDs, their management, and ongoing research is present.ConclusionThe multidisciplinary management for suspected LB seemed an answer to medical wandering for the majority of patients and helped avoid misinformation, enabling better patient-centered shared information and satisfaction, despite the context of controversy.

Representations of 5G in the Chinese and British press: a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis

This study employs a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis to demystify the dominant patterns of representations around 5G in the Chinese and British press. Keyword analyses identify four thematic categories around the representation of 5G: the nature of 5G, social actors in 5G discourse, actions around 5G and timing in 5G discourse. Findings suggest that the Chinese press tends to use positive evaluative expressions to depict 5G as a trustworthy and beneficial issue and stress China’s strong support for 5G development. In contrast, the British press prefers to frame 5G as a product of geopolitical rivalry and an issue with scientific uncertainties and controversies by repeatedly employing negative language patterns related to 5G risks and conspiracy theories. Besides, a subtle but varying “self versus other” schema is constructed by the two presses. The Chinese press is inclined to use positive predication strategies to construct a positive self-representation, whereas the British press tends to adopt negative predication strategies to portray China as an outgroup and meanwhile use scapegoating strategies to profile Britain as a positive self by using recurrent patterns denoting the pressure exerted on Britain by the United States. Such differences could result from their journalistic ideologies and values and the contrasting socio-political contexts where the two presses are situated.

Rise in arsenic pollution and oral cancer: A call for action

Over 140 million individuals across 70 countries have been exposed to arsenic with the levels surpassing World Health Organization guidelines. Epidemiological evidence strongly supports a causal relationship between oral cancer and arsenic, necessitating stringent regulatory policies and public health initiatives. This commentary delves into the carcinogenic qualities of arsenic, specifying its interference with vital biological functions and its role in promoting cancer development and progression. Regional disparities in oral cancer incidence are linked to varying levels of arsenic exposure, predominantly in areas with contaminated water sources. The challenges in prevention and advocates efficient screening, awareness campaigns, and long-term arsenic remediation are the need of the hour. Despite scientific controversies surrounding the linkage of arsenic with oral cancer, the overwhelming evidence demands coordinated action to combat arsenic contamination and its severe oral health consequences. We also discussed the therapeutic potential of arsenic in oral cancer. Future research is proposed to investigate the molecular role of arsenic in gutkha and tobacco users, considering its contribution to oral cancer heterogeneity.

Feeling the heat: undergraduate science students’ emotional management during classroom debates

ABSTRACT Addressing a need to prepare the next generation of scientists to effectively engage in adversarial science communication, the present study examines a group of undergraduate science students from a Canadian university who, after receiving expert instruction, participated in classroom debates about science controversies recently politicized in the Canadian social media (e.g. the flat Earth, genetically-modified foods, and human overpopulation). Our research questions were: (1) What emotions were experienced and how were these managed by students while participating in classroom debates? (2) How did students’ emotional management influence their debate performance? A video-based micro-ethnography revealed that more than half of the students (16/28) experienced feelings of stress and nervousness when engaging debaters with opposing/disagreeing views. Although some were able to manage these emotions, others were unable to feel relaxed, which negatively influenced their debate performance. These latter students’ initial confidence and preparation were undermined by their felt anxiety, leading to rhetorically weak and error-filled performances that went against their expectations. Highlighting the complexity of pedagogically promoting student development of communicative competence in adversarial social contexts, our findings reveal a need for science communication instructors to find ways to effectively prepare science students to manage their own emotions.

‘Real National Work’: The Politics of Nazi Race Science in Upper Silesia, 1934–1942

Abstract This article analyses the political and scientific controversy surrounding a race science project undertaken by the anthropologist Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt under National Socialism. Beginning in 1934, Eickstedt and his team of assistants conducted a series of racial studies on the population of Upper Silesia, a contested borderland in East Prussia. Motivated by a nationalist desire to counter the work of Polish anthropologists in the region, Eickstedt argued that the population of Upper Silesia belonged predominantly to the so-called ‘Nordic race’ and that the territory was thus fundamentally German. Nazi officials, however, viewed the Silesian studies with alarm, since the results also appeared to show that people in the area were a racial mixture and that the ‘Nordic race’ made up less than 40 per cent of the population in some locales. They worried that Eickstedt’s studies could undermine Germany’s territorial claims in the region and threaten national unity. The ensuing controversy presents a case in which the anthropological concept of ‘race’, rather than serving its usual role in Nazi thinking as the biological underpinning of the Volk (or people), threatened to undermine its coherence. The reaction to Eickstedt’s Silesian studies demonstrates a lack of consensus on race within the Nazi system, suggesting that understandings of race in Nazi Germany were neither as coherent nor as uniform as the paradigm of the ‘racial state’ has assumed.

All Pandemics are Local: The Importance of a Culture-Centered Approach to Risk and Crisis Communication for Laboratory Research on Zoonotic Diseases.

Continuing laboratory research into zoonotic diseases is necessary for public health preparedness. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has elevated existing concerns about the risks BSL-4 research facilities can pose to the surrounding community. This study places such concerns in the context of previous research regarding the construction of biosafety labs, as well as policy discussions related to other scientific controversies like gain of function research. Building on this prior knowledge as well as established theories in the field of communication, we propose using a Culture-Centered Approach paired with a Communication Complex approach to facilitate more meaningful and effective communication between researchers and community members, particularly those who tend to be marginalized in such conversations. The commentary concludes by outlining a risk assessment process using the CCA-Communication Complex Approach.

Diptych A. S. Byatt “Angels and Insects” as a sample of Postmodern Victorianа

Attention in this research is focused on the A. S. Byatt’s diptych “Angels and Insects”. The article analyses the specifics of the Victorian code functioning in the diptych, which forms the basis of the original Victoriana of a modern British novelist. “Angels and Insects” is chosen as a special and demonstrative example of the reception and interpretation of the Victorian era’s cultural, historical and artistic heritage by modern British writers, and “Angels and Insects” demonstrates a productive dialogue with Victorianism and, at the same time, conceptual shifts in its understanding and highlighting of the problems of Victorian life that were on the margins of Victorian narratives. Since the Victorian code defines the diptych’s architectonics, then the purpose of the article is a study of the Victorian code features and peculiarities of its representation in the diptych “Angels and Insects” by A. S. Byatt. In the article we used such methods as hystorical-literary and historical-cultural, as well as elements of gender analysis method. A. S. Byatt reproduces the Victorian era with the help of stylization and pastiche. The atmosphere of Victorianism is created through the depiction of a vivid panorama of the Victorian: key Victorian ideological and philosophical trends and antinomies, scientific and religious controversies, Victorian values, a special Victorian lifestyle, estates and interiors, traditions and customs, the distribution of male and female roles in society and the family, the circle of everyday interests and leisure. At the same time, Victorianism is reinterpreted as postmodern vision and with the help of a postmodern writing strategy. A. S. Byatt draws attention to what was hushed up and marginalized in Victorian times, raising the topics of incestuous and homosexual relationships, creating different types of Victorian women, including images of the new Victorian woman (Matty Crompton, Emily Tennison): intelligent, talented, and independent. A. S. Byatt updates the classic realistic Victorian novel’s tradition (dating events and specific names of action’s places, realistic details of the material world, portraits and landscapes), but does so in a language accessible to the modern reader. The identification of the Victorian code key components in the diptych constitutes the originality of the study. The analysis of the Victorian code in “Angels and Insects” makes possible to state that there is a “Victorian text” in its both novellas. All of the above gives reason to conclude that “Angels and Insects” can be considered an original artistic encyclopedia of Victorianism.

The project of the “turn” of Siberian rivers: The dynamics of presentation in the texts of the Soviet media

The authors of the article analyze the materials of one of the most famous public polemics of the Soviet period. The purpose is to identify factors affecting the specifics of the presentation of a scientific idea in the media; mechanisms for the formation of broadcast meanings depending on the status and communicative attitudes of participants in scientific polemics, a description of the object and markers of objections of various types and forms. The empirical basis of the research is publications in the media of the 1950–1980s. The empirical base was created in accordance with the principle of representative sampling. The methodological foundations of the analytical approach were developed by our predecessors when formatting the cognitive approach to the study of the communicative interaction of speech subjects. When creating the analytical algorithm, modern methods of intentional-stylistic analysis of the media text were used. The main conclusion: the communicative trajectory of the promotion of a scientific idea depends not only on the addressee factor, the information channel, but also on the features of the global communicative situation, the status characteristics of the subject of speech, his communicative attitudes. At different stages of scientific controversy in the public communicative space, the volume of scientific knowledge presented in the process of its popularization changes. The results of scientific research, the results of the work of specialized expert commissions, historical analogies, precedent information about similar projects are introduced into public communication. The administrative capabilities of the subject of speech provoke the use of tricks instead of verbalized versions of the objection, changing the object of criticism. The motivational part of the communicative trajectory is represented not only by calls to suspend the project embodying the scientific idea under discussion, but, crucially, by alternative ideas that stimulate scientific search in a certain area. The potential of the media material selected for analysis provides untapped opportunities to study the process of socialization of scientific knowledge, the deployment of public polemics as a means of neutralizing anti-scientific administrative decisions.

Parent‐child contact problems: Family violence and parental alienating behaviors either/or, neither/nor, both/and, one in the same?

AbstractThis article argues that in order to intervene effectively and ethically with children who are manifesting Parent–child contact problems (PCCPs) after parental separation, we begin by being mindful of what is normal about divorce transitions and use developmentally appropriate and culturally sensitive analysis to rule out children's common transitory reactions. It is then important to concurrently assess for both family violence (FV) and severe parental alienating behavior (PAB) on the part of both parents, which can co‐occur in some cases. The article asserts that it is also important to consider common problematic parenting responses that may potentiate the PCCP but not necessarily rise to the level of abuse. FV is defined as a child's direct experience of physical, sexual, or psychological maltreatment and indirect exposure to sibling abuse and/or to intimate partner violence (IPV). PAB is defined as an ongoing pattern of unwarranted negative messages on the part of one parent that conveys that the child's other parent is disinterested, irrelevant, dangerous, and not to be trusted. Any one or all of these factors may contribute to a child's strident negativity and sustained rejection of one parent, these being defining features of a PCCP. This article proposes ethical principles and priorities for decision‐making in these cases, considering the growing social science controversy about assessment and intervention for PCCPs. It concludes with an analysis of recent, contrasting policy approaches to PCCPs (e.g., Kayden's Law and the Joint Statement of the AFCC and NCJFCJ) and their potential impact on family justice system professionals and the families they serve.

Altmetrics for the identification of scientific controversies: The case of NeuroGenderings and neurosexism

This work presents a methodological proposal for the analysis of social controversies related to scientific literature. This methodology consists of three clearly differentiated parts. First, we identify the cognitive structure of a set of scientific works. To do this, a historiogram is created through the analysis of references cited by seminal works. This allows us to expand the set of works to work with, subsequently conducting a co-word analysis to identify the cognitive structure of the scientific field to be explored. Secondly, we obtain social mentions of this scientific literature using so-called altmetrics. This allows us to extract mentions made to each scientific document from non-academic environments. Finally, we apply sentiment analysis techniques to these mentions to identify focal points of negative sentiment. We test this methodology on the case study of NeuroGenderings, a movement in the field of neuroscience that denounces the lack of scientific evidence in works that claim the existence of brain differences driven by the biological sex of the subjects. Our results confirm the viability of these types of approaches that enable the identification of research areas with greater controversy. Although our study is limited to the analysis of controversies in news, blogs, Facebook, Wikipedia, and Reddit, the methodology can be applied to other domains and social platforms.