Riemann and theoretical physics

Several mathematical disciplines such as differential geometry, topology and Riemann geometry on which Riemann left his mark have a major impact on physics today. This article describes some of these contributions of Riemann to physics.     

David N. Reznick’s The “Origin” Then and Now: An Interpretive Guide to the “Origin of Species”: A Précis

David Reznick is one of the world’s leading evolutionary biologists. His book on Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species is given here in a précis, in order to show the underlying approach that he takes towards a work that is a classic in his field. It is shown that Reznick’s interests are less in Darwin for his own sake and more in the importance of Darwin’s ideas for science today.     

El Colegio Altamirano (1897–1958): New Histories of Chicano Education in the Southwest

In the history of education, every generation brings forth someone who has a lasting impact on the current and future generations of educators. Ralph Winfred Tyler was one of those people. His life spanned nearly the entire 20th century, and his concepts of curriculum and instruction transcended this long and fruitful existence. They are found today embedded in the accountability and reform movements. This article is a short celebration of his contributions and life lest, in our hurry to improve our schools, we forget this bit of heritage.     

Purifying Rhetoric: Empedocles and the Myth of Rhetorical Theory

The polymath Empedocles has not been considered a prominent figure in the history of rhetorical studies nor contemporary appropriations of antiquity, despite the reported attribution of his invention of rhetoric by Aristotle. This neglect is understandable, as the surviving fragments of Empedocles' work provide no significant reference to rhetoric per se. Attention to the folklore surrounding Empedocles (including legends of his deeds as a physician and politician, and his association with Pythagoras, Gorgias, and the god Apollo) is noteworthy, however, as it helps explain ways the ancient Greeks conceptualized rhetoric as a potentially healing discourse. Analysis of the Empedoclean tradition discloses a call to redress any human penchant for violence and to resist tyranny, themes relevant for critical rhetorical studies today. These contributions further demonstrate an affinity between Empedocles and Kenneth Burke's concern with the purification of war, and temper the recent interest in an Isocratean development of citizens by advancing a more ecumenical perspective on humanity.     

Derek Jarman: An Art Educator for Our Times?

Derek Jarman found his life's purpose in art. His significance for art educators today is his combination of low technology film‐making and his painterly vision. He provides a model for us today, in his incorporation of images from daily life into a series of vivid tableaux. Jarman created a huge database of images from which he constantly drew for both paintings and films. He was always writing down ideas and making drawings into a series of sketchbooks which provided him with the raw materials for his artistic products. Jarman's significance for this publication was that he united all aspects of his life into an aesthetic adventure. This included finding a signature as a gay artist who was also a passionate gardener. He also repudiated a literal or narrative structure and any idea of plot. This makes his work both difficult but rewarding.     

翻译家葛浩文研究述评

葛浩文（Howard Goldblatt）是美国当代著名的中国文学翻译家,在30年的翻译生涯里翻译了50余部中国现当代文学作品,所翻译的作品在国际上屡获大奖。同时,他也是一位汉学家,从事中国文学教学、研究30余年。葛浩文在文学翻译及中国文学海外传播领域的贡献和影响也使他成了海内外学者、评论家、研究者、媒体报刊关注的焦点人物,有关他的生平、翻译思想及其译作的研究文献近年来日益增多,因此,对这类研究文献的梳理和总结对于翻译文学、海外汉学研究的推进就显得尤其重要。     

翻译家葛浩文研究述评

葛浩文（Howard Goldblatt）是美国当代著名的中国文学翻译家,在30年的翻译生涯里翻译了50余部中国现当代文学作品,所翻译的作品在国际上屡获大奖。同时,他也是一位汉学家,从事中国文学教学、研究30余年。葛浩文在文学翻译及中国文学海外传播领域的贡献和影响也使他成了海内外学者、评论家、研究者、媒体报刊关注的焦点人物,有关他的生平、翻译思想及其译作的研究文献近年来日益增多,因此,对这类研究文献的梳理和总结对于翻译文学、海外汉学研究的推进就显得尤其重要。     

The Treatment of the Motion of a Simple Pendulum in some Early 18th Century Newtonian Textbooks

The treatment of pendulum motion in early 18th century Newtonian textbooks is quite different to what we find in today's physics textbooks and is based on presuppositions and mathematical techniques which are not widely used today. In spite of a desire to present Newton's new philosophy of nature as found in his Principia 18th century textbook analysis of pendulum motion appears to owe more to Galileo's insights than to those of Newton. The following case study outlines this analysis and identifies some of its distinctive features as a resource for teachers wishing to refer to this period in the history of science.     

“为新文艺而呼唤”——试论瞿秋白的文艺思想

作为马克思主义文艺理论家,瞿秋白的主要贡献在于对马克思主义文艺经典论著的译介和中国左翼文艺理论的建立。尽管其文艺思想在今天看来有明显的不足和缺陷,而且在对某些非左翼的文艺作品进行评判时,有出于政治的原因而否定过甚之嫌,但在当时特定的社会、政治、历史背景下,作为文人的瞿秋白是无法完全回避他的政治家身份及思维定势对其观念的影响的,对此应予以客观的认识与评价。     

Wilhelm ostwald, the father of physical chemistry

Wilhelm Ostwald was among the pioneers of chemistry in the early 20th century who was largely responsible for establishing physical chemistry as an acknowledged branch of chemistry. In the early part of his research career, he investigated the chemical affinities of various acids and bases. Subsequently, he broadened his horizons and performed path-breaking work in the field of chemical catalysis. An outcome of this work was the famous Ostwald process which continues to be a mainstay of the modern chemical industry. For his work on catalysis, chemical equilibrium relationships and rates of reactions, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in the year 1909. In addition to these colossal pieces of work, he performed very interesting research on the sidelines in various fields. This includes identifying the growth phenomenon of sol particles which is popularly called Ostwald ripening, development of a viscometer, a theory of colours and even philosophy. Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie, the first ever physical chemistry journal was founded by Ostwald in 1887. Also, he wrote several textbooks of chemistry which mirrored his extraordinary teaching capabilities. Quite aptly, for his immense contributions, he is called the Father of Physical Chemistry. This article will discuss the work of this great scientist.     

论陈云社会主义精神文明建设思想

在改革开放的新时期,陈云依据中国的基本国情,形成了自己独特的社会主义精神文明思想.其主要内容包括;社会主义物质文明和精神文明要一起抓,不能忽视精神文明建设;抓社会主义精神文明建设,关键是要搞好执政党的党风;要不断加强和改进党的思想政治工作;要重视教育、科学和文化的建设.陈云精神文明建设思想,对我们今天构建社会主义和谐社会具有重要的现实意义.     

Darwin’s Arguments in Favour of Natural Selection and Against Special Creationism

In many places in The Origin of Species, Darwin compares his own theory of Natural Selection favourably with Special Creationism which comes off as a bad second best. He does this using some version of the argument form known as ‘Inference to the Best Explanation’. The first part of this paper is methodological. It considers Whewell’s notion of consilience, that is, the way in which theories can get additional confirmation through unifying otherwise disparate and independent facts. Then it considers various forms of inference to the best explanation. The second part of the paper applies these methodological considerations to an analysis of some of the many passages in Origin where Darwin presents his case in favour of Natural Selection. This gives a far superior explanation of biological facts compared with Special Creationism which provides either an inferior explanation or no explanation at all. Contrary to the view that Creationism should not be taught, the passages from Darwin show at least that it should be understood if only to show that it offers no explanation of a wide range of obvious biological facts. As such the passages in Origin in which Darwin presents his case against Creationism can serve as a series of excellent exercises in getting students to think about Natural Selection as opposed to Creationism. For this reason alone they ought to be better known. In addition, Darwin’s point in these passages can only be understood using principles of scientific method, such as inference to the best explanation, which are essential in showing that Natural Selection is to be preferred to Creationism.     

T R Govindachari’s natural products chemistry

Prof. Govindachari’s research career, which spanned more than five decades, was almost completely devoted to the chemistry of Indian plants wherein he made seminal contributions. His work was notable for two major reasons: Firstly, it focused on the isolation and structure elucidation of plant constituents, occasionally supported by total or partial synthesis. Secondly his interests were copiously distributed among different classes, alkaloids, terpenes, oxygen heterocycles and other systems. It is impossible to do full justice to his work and this article provides only a selection which will give a flavor of his contributions.     

悲苦人生的纾解之途——从《红楼梦评论》看王国维对叔本华悲剧美学思想的“中国式”改造

本文以王国维对叔本华悲剧美学思想的继承和改造为例,从悲剧是人生苦痛的诗学、悲剧的效果是审美的解脱,以及揭示《红楼梦》的悲剧性质和独具的美学思想等三个层面对之进行分析和比较,可以看出王国维在大量接受叔本华悲剧美学思想影响的同时,又从中国传统文化思想出发对其作了＂中国式＂的改造与重构,这对尚处在中国现代美学启蒙时期的近代是难能可贵的,同时也为今天的美育教育、构建和谐社会提供了有益的借鉴。     

An epitome of K Venkataraman’s chemistry

Conclusion Krishnaswami Venkataraman’s contribution to the chemistry of flavones and other natural products, and his work on dyes is not limited to the examples very briefly recorded here. His work covered also the dyes developed for colouring cements, dyemetal complexes, health concerns in case of food colourants, and many other aspects. He put his heart, soul and brainpower for the growth and promotion of his chosen field of research, a good part of which is important even today.     

Joshua Lederberg’s legacy to bacterial genetics

Joshua Lederberg (1925–2008) was an extraordinarily gifted person. Starting his professional career at the age of 17 as a dish washer in Francis Ryan’s laboratory in Columbia University, he rose to be the President and later University Professor Emeritus at Rockefeller University, occupying chairs of Genetics at Wisconsin and Stanford Universities. He was only thirty three when he received the Nobel Prize, along with George W Beadle and Edward L Tatum in 1958. He also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of Science. His scientific work encompassed not only bacterial genetics but also astrobiology (exobiology, as he called it) and artificial intelligence. He was part of the Stanford team which developed the artificial intelligence software program DENDRAL. With his passing away in February 2008, the last of the founding fathers of bacterial genetics is gone. It is an honour for me to write this small article in his memory. In this article, I will focus on just two of his outstanding contributions to bacterial genetics, namely, the spontaneous, selection-independent origin of bacterial mutations and the discovery of genetic recombination and sexuality in Escherichia coli.     

Marin Mersenne, 1588–1648

Marin Mersenne was many things: scientist, mathematician and writer. He did original work on acoustics and on prime numbers; today his name is linked to a family of primes called ‘Mersenne primes’. But his greatest contribution was his work in propagating a culture of scientific inquiry in Europe — a culture which emphasized communication and dissemination and learning from one’s peers. The work done on the cycloid illustrates this theme beautifully. This article looks at some work for which Mersenne is best known.     

Lederberg and the ‘Cellularity’ of bacteria

Joshua Lederberg will surely be remembered for his stellar contributions to microbial genetics and his sage intervention in public affairs concerning exobiology, infectious diseases, epidemiology, and bioterrorism. Not so well know is his emphatic mission to spell out that bacteria are cells and not something else. This brief sketch examines some of his contributions to bacterial cytology. Moselio Schaechter (Elio to friends) spent his career studying growth physiology and cell structure of enteric bacteria. Born in Italy, he spent his youth in Ecuador before going to the United States where he chaired the Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at Tufts University in Boston for twenty three years. After retirement he is at San Diego, where he has devoted himself to sharing the excitement of the microbial world, mainly via a blog called “Small Things Considered”. He has authored several influential textbooks and reference works. He succeeded Joshua Lederberg as Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Microbiology. He also authored a book, In the Company of Mushrooms, which deals with his avocation, wild mushrooms.     

Citizens or cosmopolitans? Nationalism, internationalism, and academic identity in the early American republic

Historically, the changing roles of academics have often been associated with changing relations between scholarship and the state. What functions did the state expect scholars to fulfill? Using a historical–biographical approach, this essay considers the example of early nineteenth-century astronomer Ferdinand Rudolf Hassler, who immigrated to the United States from Switzerland in 1805 and whose contributions to various scientific projects during the next decade (i.e., the final decade of the Napoleonic Wars) revealed a key shift in modern academic identity—a shift from cosmopolitanism to nationalism shaped by the political anxieties and geopolitical uncertainties of his time. Hassler’s involvement with a US coastal survey and the construction of a US national observatory raised doubts about the extent to which a scholar (particularly an immigrant scholar) could be a “cosmopolitan” and a “servant of the state” simultaneously. Hassler, like others of his generation, failed to balance these competing and perhaps fundamentally incompatible roles. His case, together with his own commentary on his experiences, sheds light on similar dilemmas facing so-called global scholars today.     

M K Chandrashekaran (1937–2009)

Maroli Krishnayya Chandrashekaran, Editor of Journal of Biosciences (from 1991 to 1997) and Resonance (from 2003 to 2005), was a biologist who stood out from his peers as much on account of the quality of his contributions as because of his style. He made major contributions to our understanding of the interplay between time and the living world (which also became the title of a book he wrote). This article aims to bring together aspects of his life and work.