Subject Ought Research Articles

Ethical Considerations in Human Movement Research

In the past decade, ethical issues in research involving human subjects have exploded into the public consciousness. In reviewing past human subject abuse, it is evident that, in human experimentation, legislation has not been sufficient to curb excesses. Selected journal reviews indicate that informed consent is often not reported for studies where such consent is deemed appropriate. This does not necessarily mean that consent was not obtained, or that subjects were abused or exploited. It does, however, introduce the possibility that many researchers either are not cognizant of, or merely pay lip service to, the principles that form a code of ethics. Ethics in research involving human subjects is not a settled issue. Researchers ought to be aware that the principles they accept may be less conclusive, and the guidelines they apply may be less protective, than such principles and guidelines appear to be. Testing human subjects is not a right, but a privilege, and the rights of the subject ought to outwei...

Teaching the Holocaust: Some Reflections on a Problematic Area

This article is concerned with two aspects of the debate over teaching the Holocaust in schools. The first is whether the subject ought to form part of the curriculum; the second is whether it can be taught effectively. In respect of the former, it is argued that the Holocaust ought not only to be studied in schools but should be introduced to children of primary school age. Problems involved in teaching it at this level are explored via semi‐structured interviews with children aged between eight and eleven. The data suggest that whilst many ten and eleven year olds can acquire a relatively mature concept of a Jew, misconceptions about Jewish culture within this age group are widespread. The data further suggest that most eight and nine year olds do not possess (and thus need to be taught) a concept of a Jew that is sufficiently complex to enable them to grasp the meaning of the Holocaust.

Statisticians—Production and Consumption

Statisticians—Production and Consumption

Notes on magneto-optics

The present work was originally undertaken as a sequel to a recent paper in which I discussed certain questions connected with the refractive index, but its scope has widened out considerably. The presence of a static magnetic field in no way effects the central difficulty of the earlier work, and it seemed therefore worth while to make the small extension which would include such fields. But a study of the literature of magneto-optics suggested that the whole subject ought to be presented in a more systematic way than has hitherto been usual, and so the first part of the paper develops a formal method suitable for the discussion of magneto-optics, no matter what the underlying atomic theory may be. There follows a discussion of the magneto-optics effects of material of any atomic character, which is worked out with the same quasi-classical model as was used in I. The formulae are then applied to an examination of the Kerr magneto-optics effect, and the experimental results are tested. The experimental measures are very variable and discrepant, and the test cannot be regarded as satisfactory; but it does seem rather probable that it is fulfilled, so that the Kerr effect may be treated as if due to the disturbance of the ordinary optical effects by a strong intrinsic magnetic field, though this proves to be quite different from the Weiss field. The model used are mainly classical. It is not, of course, claimed that they are as close to actuality as would be models making explicit use of the quantum theory; nevertheless, there are pronounced advantages in the present method. In the ordinary treatment in the quantum theory of the refraction of light, the argument leads, after the Raman scattering has been removed from consideration, to formulae involving “virtual electrons’ which obey the laws of classical electromagnetics. Things are a little different , for magnetic gyration, and the changes will be briefly described; but these differences are not the main interest of the subject. The main difficulty is the same for the quantum as for the classical theory. This is the question of the Lorentz correction, which arises whenever what is essentially a problem of many electrons is simplified into a problem of a single electron. In metals the effect can hardly be called a correction, as it entirely alters the numerical magnitudes. Some writers have maintained that the correction should not be applied in metals; but in a recent paper Kronig and Groenewold, using the methods of quantum theory, show that some correction of the kind is demanded, and though they have not evaluated it, their work does not exclude the possibility that the result of the classical model is correct. The problem must certainly be solved properly before we can feel any confidence in theories of metallic optics. In the meantime there is still perhaps room, here as in many other branches of atomic theory, for work that simplifies the problem by the use of classical models.

School Laboratory Plans

As one who has had the privilege of seeing Mr. Dymond's excellent arrangement and outlay of money in his laboratory at Chelmsford, may I make a comment on his letter in your issue of July 13? I think the conditions of work in an average school laboratory show some points of difference from those in Mr. Dymond's laboratory. Of course qualitative analysis is now confined to quite senior boys, who can be persuaded not to treat the subject as if they were working from a cookery book; but though owning no allegiance to the Science and Art Department, I believe that drawers and lockers are valuable, not only in relieving the general stock of the laboratory (very heavy for descriptive and quantitative work) of some smaller apparatus in constant use, but also in conferring a feeling of ownership, which induces some care and respect in a boy for his belongings. With snap-locks answering to one master key, and the lockers of each class bearing a label of a distinctive colour, they may be at once opened by the assistant before a class, so that there need be no keys to lose and no depredations on neighbouring lockers. Mr. Dymond's objection to that most durable of woods—teak—or why it alone should be left in a dirty state, I do not understand. Admitting that in all but very elementary work some tuition in the way of lectures is necessary, a laboratory will generally possess a lecture room; and where this is a separate room, I grudge the space usually given to a demonstrator's table in the laboratory, because no large section of a practical class is ever doing the same experiment at the same time. Physics, again, is often involved in this question of arrangement in a school, since the two subjects may, I think, with little detriment and great economy often have a common lecture room. Considering the prodigal waste of space often seen in laboratories, and the number now being built by public bodies, some further views on this subject ought to be of value.

Gérard's “Électricité”

THE author of this book says in his preface that when he took charge of the classes in electric technology at Liége he felt the want of a text-book which would give a clear and definite account of electrical phenomena without requiring more extensive mathematical knowledge than his pupils might be expected to possess. We think that in this respect the experience of most teachers of electricity will coincide with that of M. Gérard. There are very few text-books on electricity in which the happy mean between utter vagueness and methods requiring the use of high mathematical knowledge has been hit; this, however, has been done so successfully in the book before us, that we think the difficulty to which we have just alluded will be almost removed. In this book we have the main outlines of electricity explained in language at once intelligible and precise, and without introducing more mathematics than every student of the subject ought to be competent to follow. In a subject like electricity, where forces have to be compared, the geometrical properties of bodies of various shapes utilized, &c., it is evident that if any numerical results at all are to be attained, some mathematics must be introduced; the question as to how much mathematical knowledge should be expected of students who, as a working hypothesis, may be assumed not to have any special aptitude for that study is one on which opinions will differ. For our part, we think that, even regarding it solely from the point of view of the engineer or physicist, such students ought to be advised to acquire an elementary knowledge of the differential and integral calculus; the possession of this knowledge will make many parts of the subject easy which without it would be difficult, and the time spent in acquiring the mathematics will be much more than saved in the time spent over the physics. In the book before us the mathematics are as plain and straightforward as possible. At the same time, M. Gérard, very wisely we think, does not scruple to use the elements of the differential and integral calculus. Leçons sur l'Électricité professées à l'Institut Électrotechnique Montefiore annexé à l'Université de Liége. Par Eric Gérard, Directeur de cet Institut. (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1890.)

THE SOARING OF BIRDS

THE recent correspondence in NATURE upon this subject ought not to close without some reference to a possible explanation of soariiig which does not appear to have been yet suggested.

XII.—On the Law of Frequency of Error

It has always appeared to me that the difficulties which present themselves in investigations concerning the Frequency of Error, and the deduction of the most probable result from a large number of observations by the Method of Least Squares (which is an immediate consequence of the ordinary “Law of Error”), are difficulties of reasoning, or logic, rather than of analysis. Hence I conceive that the elaborate analytical investigations of Laplace, Poisson, and others, do not in anywise present the question in its intrinsic simplicity. They seem to me to be necessitated by the unnatural point of view from which their authors have contemplated the question. It is, undoubtedly, a difficult one; but this is a strong reason for abstaining from the use of unnecessarily elaborate analysis, which, however beautiful in itself, does harm when it masks the real nature of the difficulty it is employed to overcome. I believe that, so far at least as mathematics is concerned, the subject ought to be found extremely simple, if we only approach it in a natural manner.