Showing papers in "Interdisciplinary Science Reviews in 2003"

Brain–computer interfaces: a review

Abstract: 'Can the brain understand the brain?Can it understand the mind?'Such questions, here posed by neurophysiologist and 1981 Nobel laureate David Hubel, are under constant debate, but through the investigations of neurobiologists, psychologists, and physiologists, current knowledge and understanding has come a long way since brain exploration began hundreds of years BC. This article looks at how insights from some of the pioneers of neuroscience have begun to be integrated with today's technology, so bringing about the dawn of an era of brain and computer interfacing. One result has been brain–computer interfaces that can liberate the thoughts of those suffering from 'locked in' syndrome, by detection and interpretation of the brain's physiological signals. Also, manipulation of and support for the body's electrical and chemical signalling network has led to a variety of rehabilitation and therapeutic benefits, for example the possibility of giving sight to the blind. Brain–computer interfacing offers...

Changing our environment, changing ourselves: critical realism and transdisciplinary research

Abstract: A number of contemporary issues demand transdisciplinarity, a fusion between insights from different disciplines within some overarching framework. Yet too often in such cases the disciplines continue to talk past each other. This paper focuses on critical realism as a way of coordinating the disciplines. Critical realism provides a view of reality as stratified, with real causal mechanisms operating at the physical, biological, and social levels, and combining with each other to generate the world as experienced. This perspective is applied within a framework which has a long but now somewhat neglected history in social and political thought. As people interact with nature and transform it into the things they need, they finish up transforming their own natures.

Towards industrial strength philosophy: how analytical ontology can help medical informatics

Abstract: Medical research faces a problem of communication. Different communities of medical researchers use different and often incompatible terminologies in expressing the results of their work, and this yields problems of database integration when medical data needs to be entered into computers. Such problems were initially resolved in case by case fashion. Then, however, the idea arose of constructing one single benchmark taxonomy into which all of the various classification systems would need to be translated only once. By serving as a lingua franca for database integration, this taxonomy would ensure that all databases calibrated in its terms would be automatically intercompatible. Interestingly, information scientists called the proposed central classification system an 'ontology', and it was soon realised that work on its construction would have more than a few echoes of the metaphysics of old. The present paper describes an attempt to exploit the resources of philosophy in resolving problems which...

Privacy: what's different now?

Abstract: Modern computing technology makes it possible to record, preserve, collate, reconstruct, and use detailed facts about individuals on a scale and in a style quite different from the past. With this technology, data is voluminous, not sparse; is permanent, not transient; and is detached, not tied to the individual's own observation. How do these developments change the reality, or the perception, of privacy for the individual? How, in particular, do they change the reality or perception of privacy for daily life, not just in legal situations or in relations with authority? This paper examines the properties of current computing technology, illustrating their consequences for personal data, and argues that they have profound implications for personal privacy and autonomy.

Overcoming the scientific generation gap in Africa: an urgent priority

Abstract: Based on recently completed studies, this paper attempts to provide a realistic picture of the scientific profession in Africa today. Activities in science and technology (S&T) have gone through a process of institutionalisation and professionalisation in Africa over the last thirty years, but these efforts have not been sufficient to create a sustainable dynamic of scientific production or of regeneration of national scientific communities. The situation today is critical, with S&T systems and the working environments of scientists deteriorating in many countries. While institutional mechanisms such as centres of excellence and S&T diasporas can, under certain conditions, contribute to the regionalisation and internationalisation of African science, they will never substitute for the weaknesses of national research systems. In the battle for sustainable development in Africa, nothing will replace home grown scientific capacities, and it is high time for the conditions for their renewal to be crea...

Science and research in Iran:a scientometric study

Abstract: Indicators of science and technology (S&T) activity often disadvantage developing countries, due, in part, to incomplete compilation of statistics or to the examination of indicators in isolation. Among the major indicators of S&T activity are research and development (R&D) expenditures and their relationship to gross domestic product, numbers of personnel involved in S&T research, scientific publication output and rankings by scientific discipline, and numbers of patents registered in the international patent systems. A 'composite index of S&T capacity' developed by researchers at the Rand Corporation is described and applied comparatively. We have compiled data on Iranian S&T activity under the following headings: R&D expenditure, population and educational profile, academic personnel, R&D personnel. A scientometric analysis of Iranian S&T publications using the Science Citation Index is presented, and possible shortcomings of this approach discussed. All findings are reported, analysed, and dis...

The importance of exercising in space.

Abstract: As a direct consequence of exposure to microgravity, astronauts experience a set of physiological changes which can have serious medical implications when they return to earth. Most immediate and significant are the headward shift of body fluids and the removal of gravitational loading from bone and muscles, which lead to progressive changes in the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems. Cardiovascular adaptations result in an increased incidence of orthostatic intolerance (fainting) following flight, decreased cardiac output, and reduced capacity for exercise. Changes in the musculoskeletal system contribute significantly to impaired function experienced in the post-flight period. The underlying factor producing these changes is the absence of gravity, and countermeasures are therefore designed primarily to simulate earthlike movements, stresses, and system interactions. Exercise is one approach that has had wide operational use and acceptance in both the US and Russian space programmes, and it has enabled humans to stay relatively healthy in space for well over a year. Although it remains the most effective countermeasure currently available, significant physiological degradation still occurs. The development of other countermeasures will be necessary for missions of longer duration, for example for human exploration of Mars.

Evaluating China's research performance: how do SCI and Chinese indexes compare?

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to compare the value of SCI (the Science Citation Index) and two domestic Chinese databases of scientific papers and citations, Chinese Scientific and Technical Papers and Citations (CSTPC) and the Chinese Science Citation Database (CSCD), as measures of China's research output and performance. The two main results of the study are (i) that the number of papers indexed in SCI is more sensitive as an indicator of research activity than numbers of citations or papers indexed in CSCD or CSTPC, and (ii) that the number of papers indexed in SCI is also a much more volatile indicator than measures derived from the Chinese databases. Related to these findings is the fact that there is now fierce competition among different regions of China for the top research rankings as defined by papers indexed in SCI.

Peg legs andbionic limbs: the development of lower extremity prosthetics

Abstract: At the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney, a new world record for the hundred metre sprint for below knee amputees was set at 11·09 seconds (the current recordfor able bodied athletes is 9·78 seconds)...

Engineering art: the science of concert hall acoustics

Abstract: Modern concert hall design uses science and engineering to make an acoustic which embellishes and enhances the artistry of the musicians. The modern discipline of concert hall acoustics is a little over a hundred years old, and over the last century much has been learnt about how to ensure the audience receives high quality sound. During this period, knowledge from a large number of disciplines has been exploited. It is the intention of this paper to illustrate how disciplines as diverse as X-ray crystallography, psychology, and mobile telephony have influenced acoustic design. The paper will concentrate on the design of acoustic diffusers for concert halls, as this is a topic currently attracting considerable interest within the acoustics industry and academia.

The importance of ICTs for developing countries

Abstract: (2003). The importance of ICTs for developing countries. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews: Vol. 28, Non-Western science, pp. 10-14.

Is economic liberalisation stimulating innovation in India

Abstract: Before the start of liberalisation in 1991, the Indian economy was an inward looking system under government control. Following the drive to liberalisation it has changed in many ways. For a start, the national system of innovation has been affected by exposure to market forces. Global firms have founded R&D centres in India and large private firms have increased spending on R&D. Patentable innovations have also shown a sharp rise since the opening up of the economy. As a percentage of GNP, however, R&D expenditure is still much lower than that observed in countries such as China, Taiwan, and Brazil. The Indian share of world trade is very low, and so there is a need for further expansion of R&D initiatives. The recently announced revisions to science and technology policy begin to address some of these concerns.

The Indian half of Needham’s question: some thoughts on axioms, models,algorithms, and computational positivism

Abstract: Much debate has taken place on Joseph Needham's question regarding 'the failure of China and India to give rise to distinctively modern science while being ahead of Europe for fourteen previous centuries'. It is argued in this paper that while there is probably some truth in many of the sociocultural explanations that have been offered for the failure in India, they are in the final analysis not entirely convincing. The proposal in this paper is in two parts. The first is that the scientific revolution, which was part of a European miracle, was triggered in part by the advent of a variety of technologies from China and the new numeral system and other mathematical inventions from India - both via creative West Asian intermediaries. India had experienced a mathematical (more specifically algoristic or computational) revolution heralded by Ārya-bhata in the fifth century CE. The new computational power unleashed by this revolution combined with the classical Greek penchant for axiomatised modelmakin...

Virtual objects: the endof the real?

Abstract: The central article of faith in museum life is the belief in the primacy of original objects. Traditional museums are part of an object centred culture. Physical artefacts, their acquisition, meanings, and care, dominate the psyche of the museum profession. Original artefacts are sanctified and prized above object surrogates – replicas, graphic depictions, holograms – for reasons that are not always easy to articulate. Yet there is a new genre of object in the museological landscape – the virtual object. By this I mean an electronic representation of a thing whether real or imagined. The creation and manipulation of computer based virtual objects is compellingly attractive to museum directors, exhibition designers, and educationalists. Virtual objects prompt a reexamination of the status and role of the original artefact, and agitate our assumptions about the status of the original. This article explores some of the respects in which the virtual object may be seen to challenge the primacy of the o...

The uses andabuses of science fiction

Abstract: Science fiction is one of the most successful and perhaps most influential contemporary literary genres, and surely also one of the most significant cultural factors shaping ourimages of science, technology, and - last but not least - the future. As an integral part of postmodernculture, science fiction has penetrated all fields of the media landscape: fiction, comic books, movies, even plays and musicals. Science fiction themes and images surface sometimes quite unexpectedly in everyday life, in TV commercials and video clips, not to speak of computer games. Internet enthusiasts use science fiction jargon and imagery to depict their visions of cyberspace. A generation ago, the race to the moon was at least partly inspired by the dreams of early science fiction writers and readers. For the public, technology is science fiction come true. For many scientists and engineers too, science fiction provides the imagery of their visions.

Spirituality in science education: studying the environment

Abstract: The value of including a kindof spirituality in science education, and especially in environmental education, is taken as a given. The work on which the argument is based starts from the young child's use of the senses which are so acute at primary school age, but also stimulates the asking of 'big questions' which seem spiritual in a sense that is examined here. A fragmented historical exploration shows pre-enlightenment educators encouraging the use of the senses, whereas Descartes, Hume, and Locke all argued against it. Later Husserl and Merleau-Ponty took a phenomenological stance which sometimes saw wonder, based on perception, as seriously opposed to scientific curiosity or explanation. The paper ends with an attempt to reconcile the phenomenological with the scientific, suggesting a perception of play which includes curiosity, andof theenvironment basedon the sensory. A brief look at thedevelopment of environmental attitudes over the last century shows an increasing use of the affective alo...

Natural writing: the case of Serres

Abstract: The immense powers to intervene in the very constitution of 'life itself' that have been developed by the modern life sciences pose serious questions for the basis of politics, and for common reason. In this context the life sciences may formally be seen as the principle source of instruction for rationality. The work of Michel Serres – philosopher and historian of science – provides a very different account of wisdom. Serres redistributes reason by exploring complex connections between the natural and social sciences and the humanities. His early analysis of the links or 'translations' between the art of Turner and the thermodynamic principles of Carnot reveals the existence of highly mediated relationships between different forms of knowledge. Although in recent years Serres has offered a revised reading of the case of Turner, exploring such links makes visible the fundamental interdependence of human affairs with a 'socialised' natural world in which 'it no longer depends on us that everything ...

Experimentation or exploitation? The investigations of David Ferrier, Dr Benjulia, and Dr Seward

Abstract: This article places the work of David Ferrier in the context of the vivisection movement and the agitation of its opponents. Between 1873 and 1874, Ferrier used the facilities of the laboratory attached to the Wakefield Lunatic Asylum to experiment first on animals and then, post-mortem, on patients who had died while in the asylum. These experiments and others on monkeys aroused considerable controversy at the time, and led to Ferrier's being prosecuted by antivivisectionists. His work made an important contribution to the understanding of the brain and of neurological disturbance, but raises important questions as to whether the cruelty of experimentation can be justified in the interests of ultimate good. Heart and Science (1883), where there is a specific reference to Ferrier in the preface, is Wilkie Collins's fictional protest against vivisection, and the second part of this article analyses the ways in which the concerns of the antivivisectionists are explored in the novel, particularly thr...

IPRs, biodiversity, and the theft of indigenous knowledge

Abstract: Recent years have seen an increasing appreciation of the role and importance of indigenous knowledge (‘IK’). The knowledge of farmers and indigenous peoples in using and conserving biological resources is now recognised as a treasure that currently contributes enormous value to traditional and modern medicine and to agricultural productivity, and is critical for the future development or perhaps even the survival of humankind.

Danger: Derrida at work

Abstract: The term 'safety critical' applies to a wide range of technologies, from car braking systems, through trains and their signalling systems, to advanced air and space technology, both civil and military. It is a rather sophisticated euphemism for 'dangerous';and like the word 'safe', it suggests the existence of some spectral but inherent property beneficial to human health that could be lost under certain conditions, but does not have to be. How far can the discourse about safety be trusted?And why are debates about risk sometimes so heated?In this paper it is proposed that literary theory, particularly work on 'deconstruction' by philosopher Jacques Derrida, can shed some light on these questions. Unsurprisingly, deconstruction cannot say much to safety engineers about the technicalities of system building. But then again questions about whether and why we continue to build and rely upon safety critical technologies are not simply technical; the language used in them is almost always politically c...

From Copenhagen to infinity and beyond:science meets literature on stage

Abstract: Works like Copenhagen and After Darwin have shownthat 'science plays' can be an especially successful and powerful meeting point of literature and science. Here, we continue the exploration of science and theatre offered in last year's special issue of ISR on science and theatre, by looking at science plays from both a literary and a theatrical perspective. What is it that makes them work as theatre?In many science plays, form and content merge to convey the ideas in a highly theatrical way that reflects the scientific substance and themes. As analysis of specific textual examples shows, this interdependence of formal and thematic properties has become one of the hallmarks of the contemporary genre of science plays, along with their often provocative and innovative challenges to stage realism.

Margaret Cavendish as natural philosopher: gender andearly modern science

Abstract: Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623-73), was a prolific writer with a strong interest in science. Her work, long ignored, has recently been garnering serious critical attention. This article considers her Observations on Experimental Philosophy as more than just a critique of the Royal Society's mechanistic science. Whilst she was certainly responding to other scientific texts she read, Cavendish also practised her own version of natural philosophy, one that relied on observation to support her objections to Robert Hooke and other Royal Society scientists. Hers was a scientific practice that relied on passive observation rather than invasive experiment. As an early modern woman interested innatural philosophy, she demonstrates concernfor herreaders' abilities to comprehend difficult texts, and she models herself as a reader of scientific texts and a practitioner of science herself.

Representations of science in the nineteenth century periodical press

Abstract: Public interest in science is often thought to have been much greater in the nineteenth century than at the present time. However, little attention has been paid to the media used to disseminate science to different audiences in nineteenth century Britain. In particular, the vast bulk of general periodicals which fill our library shelves continues to be largely impenetrable. Yet readers encountered a great quantity and an extensive variety of scientific, technical, and medical information in the pages of such general periodicals as Punch, the Boy's Own Paper, and Dickens's Household Words. This article describes the work of the 'Science in the nineteenth-century periodical' (SciPer) project at the universities of Leeds and Sheffield, which seeks to identify and analyse the representation of science in the non-specialist periodical press. The project has prepared an electronic index of the science content of a range of periodicals, chosen to reflect the increasing range of reading audiences addres...

Science, meaning, and metaphysics: a tribute to Wolfhart Pannenberg

Abstract: When Pannenberg published Theology and the Philosophy of Science in German in 1973, there was no Ž eld of study called ‘religion and science’. It is hard to remember that fact today, when religion–science discussion has become the academic specialisation, the daily bread and butter, for hundreds of scholars around the world. I well remember looking for a mentor in 1979 who specialised in questions of rationality and religious belief and who could guide my doctoral work on ‘explanation from physics to theology’. The writings of T. F . Torrance in Scotland on theology and science were certainly well known, and yet I had become deeply convinced that his Barthian approach was not the correct route to take. Although there were a few scholars working in the Ž eld, there were precious few who could guide an inquiry of this kind. The answer was unanimous among those whom I sought out for counsel: only Wolfhart Pannenberg could really mentor the thesis in question.

A scientific response to small asteroid and comet impacts

Abstract: Presents a scientific response to small asteroid and comet impacts. Effects of impact events; Problems and opportunities in disaster response; Information on the scientific impact response team.

Weapons of mass destruction

Abstract: Weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) have rarely been out of the headlines since the run up to the latest war in Iraq. Indeed the manufacture of WMDs by Iraq, and the danger they were supposed to represent, was used in large part to justify military action. It is true that President Bush placed almost equal stress on the need to bring about regime change in that unhappy country, but Prime Minister Blair placed nearly all his emphasis on Saddam’s alleged WMD programme. Accordingly, the inability of the invading forces to Ž nd WMDs has turned into more of an embarrassment to Blair than to Bush.

Inquiry and performance: analogies andidentities between the arts and the sciences

Abstract: The concept of performance can be used to explain and elaborate key aspects of various issues often neglected within traditional philosophy of science, including among others artistry, technique, and affective power. The word 'performance' has a spectrumof meanings, but one important sense in which it is applied, especially in the dramatic arts, is to the conception, production, and witnessing of material events the experience of which gives us something more than what we had before. When viewed in this way, the structure of performance is not a metaphor extended merely suggestively from the theatre arts into experimental science; it is the same in both. In both contexts, the representation (theory, language, script) used to programme the performance does not completely determine the outcome (product, work), but only assists in the encounter with the new. The world is wilder and richer than we can represent; what appears in performance can exceed the programme used to put it together, can even sur...

The authority of science and the postmodern reformation

Abstract: Popular reactions against science are as old as science itself. The challenge from postmodernity, however, is more fundamental, because it challenges not only what science does, but what science is. The epistemological authority of science is now challenged in much the same way as the spiritual authority of the Catholic Church was challenged by the Reformation. The experience of disruption and instability, the pluralism, relativism, and loss of absolutes of the earlier period are not unlike what we find in our own postmodern condition. Luther's priesthood of all believers has become a priesthood of all knowers in our postmodern reformation. More particularly, we can see how the advent of printing, the humanist cultivation of individuality, and the Copernican mapping of the heavens all have their (post)modern counterparts, in the development of the internet, the cult of narcissism, and the mapping of the human genome.

Justus von Liebig, FRS: creator of the world's first scientific research laboratory

Abstract: The date 26 May 1824, when Justus von Liebig was made an 'extraordinary professor' of chemistry at the University of Giessen, is for me as momentous an occasion in the history of science as 16 July 1662, when the Charter of Incorporation of the Royal Society passed the Great Seal, making it the official date of that body's foundation. This year marks the two hundredth anniversary of Liebig's birth, and here I describe his long and interdisciplinary scientific career, and in particular his creation of the world's first scientific research and teaching laboratory at Giessen. This essay is in part a review of William H. Brock's biography, Justus von Liebig: The Chemical Gatekeeper.

An analysis of the present system of scientific publishing: what's wrong and where to go from here

Abstract: The internet has produced an unprecedented opportunity to provide free and unhindered access to the wealth of scientific information, the volume of which continues to grow at a furious pace. The current balkanised system of individual journals limits possibilities for powerful search tools and for an integrated repository of the whole body of scientific literature. This paper reviews the current publishing environment, commenting on its strong and weak points (for example peer review, which is both a strength and a weakness). It attempts to find a viable solution to the current issues that plague STM (scientific, technical, and medical) publishing in the introduction of a centralised repository of scientific literature. Related issues such as the question of long term archiving and the justified fears of STM publishers of becoming obsolete are also discussed.