Rumblings in the air: understanding earthquakes in the 1690s

After a wave of earthquakes in 1692 and 1693, the astronomer John Flamsteed composed an innovative explanation of their causes. He argued that they did not originate underground but were caused by explosions of nitrous and sulphurous particles in the air. Although the idea now sounds strange, Flamsteed's account was expressed in terms that were familiar to his contemporaries in the Royal Society, drawing particularly on Boyle's chemistry and air-pressure experiments. Flamsteed was more unusual in his conviction that the earth was virtually solid; this made him an opponent of structural theories offered by Thomas Burnet, Robert Hooke and Edmond Halley. Flamsteed's ideas were dismissed by Hooke as 'nonsensicall', but by the time they were published, long after his death, they appeared closer to mainstream thinking.     

Réaumur: natural historian and pioneer of applied science

This article is published to mark the tercentenary of the birth of Réaumur. Today, his work is rather little appreciated but his contemporaries called him the Pliny of the eighteenth century, and in his breadth of knowledge and interest he has been likened to Francis Bacon. He is commonly remembered for his achievements in the systematic application of science to industry but he also did important biological work, particularly in entomology.     

库恩的身份认同 纪念《科学革命的结构》问世50周年

托马斯·库恩是20世纪最伟大的科学哲学家和科学史学家。由他划时代著作《科学革命的结构》产生出来的"范式"和"范式转换"已经成为我们的日常生活用语。一方面,库恩自认在哲学上的最大贡献是"不可通约性",但这一点遭到多方非议。另一方面,当他被认为是"科学知识社会学"(SSK)强纲领的思想先驱时,他却拒绝承认SSK的主张;他在学术上的同路人少得可怜,与他在思想界的巨大影响完全不成比例。库恩从登上学术舞台开始,就遭到不同程度的误解,他一直在寻找自己的身份定位。本文试图通过梳理矛盾的库恩形象,他与学生的关系以及影响他的思想形成的几大事件,从"误解"与"被误解"的角度来阐释库恩的心路历程。我们的目的不是"去魅",更不想树立新的偶像,而是试图还原一个真实的库恩。     

牛顿的绝对时空观何以可能

有关牛顿时空观的研究与争论虽不是学界的新鲜话题,但“牛顿时空观何以可能”的问题却一直未曾得以认真探析过。我们这里注重一种“回到事情本身”的理路,从牛顿的具体文本出发,结合其思想生态和思考问题的可能理路乃至心理学特征等,在梳理出绝对时空观产生的思想渊源和内容主旨的基础上,从历史承继关系、逻辑推论程序、科学解释功能、哲学辩护基础和宗教心理情结等多维视域下指认出了其生成的必然性与合理性,同时也澄清了以往学界的一些误解与误读之处。     

The language of objects: Christian Jürgensen Thomsen's science of the past

The Danish amateur scholar Christian Jürgensen Thomsen has often been described as a founder of modern "scientific" archaeology. Thomsen's innovation, this essay argues, reflects developments within neighboring fields, such as philology and history. He reacted against historians who limited themselves to histories of texts and therefore abandoned the earliest human history. Instead, he proposed a new history of objects, which included the entire history of humankind. Thomsen's work as director of the Royal Museum of Nordic Antiquities in Copenhagen was especially important for this renewal. The arrangement of artifacts not only helped him formulate his theories, but also allowed him to present his arguments in a language of objects. At the same time, Thomsen's definition of archaeology as a museum science placed his branch of archaeology in a closer relationship with other museum sciences, such as geology and comparative anatomy. From the 1840s, Thomsen's museum became a model for how the study of human artifacts could deliver scientific insights into human nature and the laws of human development.     

“领域—时间”视角下刘则渊科学学思想与贡献

刘则渊先生作为科学学领域极具影响力的杰出学者,多年来,他坚持致力于科学学理论、方法和应用研究,积极参与国家重大科技项目,在其中发挥了重要作用。刘则渊先生对中国科学学的发展与创新做出了巨大贡献,对科学学理论也有着独到而深刻见解,在技术哲学、科技伦理、科学计量学、创新管理等多个领域上做出了开创性成就。为了缅怀和纪念刘则渊先生,本文重点评述了他在科学学领域的杰出成就,总结了他及其团队在科学学领域的学术成果,并对其学术贡献进行梳理和归纳。从时间维度对刘则渊先生四十年来发表的代表性学术论文进行评析。根据学术论文主题,基于刘则渊先生各时期的研究方向,刻画了其科学学学术思想的演化变迁。希望科学学界能更多发展科学学理论,丰富研究方法,拓展科学学应用领域,为科学学事业谱写新的篇章。     

Hybridity, race, and science: the voyage of the Zaca, 1934-1935

In 1929 and 1934-1935, the physical anthropologist Harry L. Shapiro voyaged in the South Seas on the Mahina-l-Te-Pua and the Zaca, measuring mixed-race islanders, including the descendants of the Bounty mutineers on Pitcairn Island. His research in Polynesian hybridity reflects the growing cultural and scientific investment of the United States in the Pacific during this period. Shapiro's oceanic adventures and intimate encounters prompted him to discount typological speculation and emphasize instead the liberal Boasian program in physical anthropology, giving him the confidence to refigure his evaluations of racial difference. The seaborne investigatory enterprise came to influence U.S. racial thought, adding impetus to the condemnation of racism in science. On his return from the South Seas, Shapiro tried to get his fellow physical anthropologists to issue a manifesto opposing the harnessing of their science to racial discrimination and prejudice.     

An Epitome of Devotion and Moral Integrity——A Biographical Sketch of Prof. Ye Duzheng

Just as his name indicates, among Chi-nese scientists Prof. Ye Duzheng is anepitome of whole-hearted devotion toscience and moral integrity in personalcharacter. As one of the founders and pace-setters of Chinese atmospheric science, Prof.Ye was conferred with the highest prize ofthe WMO (World MeteorologicalOrganization) in its 48th session Conferenceon May 27, 2003. The event was not onlya special honor for all Chinesemeteorologists, but also a world-wide rec-ognition of his fruitful c…     

The Dutch East India Company,Christiaan Huygens and the Marine Clock, 1682-95

The story of the Dutch East India Company, Christiaan Huygens and the marine clock shows that in the seventeenth century Dutch Republic there was a tendency towards the formation of a modern partnership between business, science and technology. This emerging relationship was personified by Johannes Hudde (1628-1704) and Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695), men from entirely different walks of life except for their shared interest in science, especially mathematics. It was this shared interest in mathematics which brought them together and indirectly led to the marine clock research project. Hudde was a Director of the Dutch East India Company as well as a mathematician of international standing, whilst Huygens was both a brilliant theoretical scientist and extremely skilled innovator.Through his interest in mathematics, Hudde had come to know Huygens - he had corresponded with him and was broadly familiar with the work Huygens had been doing. So when Huygens, in 1682, returned to Holland from France, Hudde conceived the idea, which was entirely novel at the time, to enlist the support of the East India Company for one of Huygens' research projects, a project, of course, in which the Company had a direct economic interest, namely, the marine clock which it needed to find the longitude at sea.     

作为伦理学方法的反思平衡:意义与局限

在西方道德哲学史上,占统治地位的道德论证方法一直是某种形式的基础主义。与之相对,在真理论的融贯论启发下,罗尔斯提出了道德规范论证的一种新的合理性标准,即融贯论标准,并实践了一种新的规范证明方法:反思平衡方法。反思平衡方法试图为深陷困境的西方道德哲学寻找一条摆脱危局的思路。它激发了二十世纪后期西方道德哲学的繁荣局面。但是这一方法很难成为主流,这是因为,基础主义作为西方哲学和文化的传统,仍然很牢固,同时它本身也存在诸多问题。     

寺田寅彦其人初探

寺田寅彦(1878—1935)是日本著名的物理学家、随笔家、俳人、画家。他在从事物理学研究的同时,热心于随笔创作,他将诗心和科魂“一体化”,创造出科学与文学相融合的独特文体,在日本文学中占有一席之地。其作品构思新颖、手法巧妙、脍炙人口,他的著作进入日本著名出版社岩波书店最热销排行榜前十名,也常被选入教科书与考试试题中,一直深受广大读者喜爱。然而寺田寅彦在国内译介极少。本文将从各方面介绍这位文理兼容的日本大家,让更多读者能够认识他、了解他,帮助读者理解寺田先生的作品。     

赵红州《科学能力学引论》的学术贡献和影响

中国科学学家赵红州的代表作《科学能力学引论》是其进入科学学领域10年艰辛拓荒的集大成之作,是科学能力学进入创生阶段的标示性起点。该书不仅在构建学科体系方面做了难能可贵的探索,而且带动了科学计量学、科学家学等新兴科学学分支学科在中国的兴起和发展。     

Jöns Jakob Berzelius: the creative conservative

There are many kinds of great men. Berzelius was one, but he was not a Newton, an Einstein, or a Faraday. He set up no world system, he carried out no radical transformation of ideas, he opened up no new vistas through epochmaking experiments. Yet he gathered the whole of the science of chemistry into his intellect, digested it, influenced it in every branch, gave it a notation as elegant as that of music, inspired the next generation, and was superseded by it. He was right more often than he was wrong, and his creative conservatism gave chemistry a discipline it still possesses.     

Gay-Lussac (1778–1850): A view of chemistry,industry and society in post-revolutionary France

This year marks the bicentenary of the births of two distinguished chemists, Joseph Gay-Lussac and Humphry Davy. This study of the life of Gay-Lussac shows how his work was related to that of Davy as well as to that of his French contemporaries. His keen interest in the application of chemistry earned him some criticism in his lifetime, but in retrospect can be seen to have contributed to his professional stature.     

王韬关于中国科学技术历史与现状的若干思考

两次鸦片战争不但显示了西方船坚炮利的军事优势,更招致包括科学技术在内的西方文化的大规模输入,然而囿于虚幻的文化优越感与流传日久的“西学中源”说,一般的中国知识分子较少考虑西方科学技术优胜的原因。王韬的个人经历及其特立独行的思维方式,使他比同时代的士人具有更为开阔的视野与较客观的认识。本文揭示了：王韬对西方科技文明的认识有一个逐步深化的过程,尽管在不同的情境中他的言论有时自相矛盾,但就总体而论,王韬是承认中国近代科技落后于西方的,他也是最早对此事实背后的原因进行思考与分析的中国学者之一。     

A Pioneer of Global Change Research

One summer＇s day in 1984, a meteorologist came all the way from the United States to Prof. Ye Duzheng, a CAS atmospheric scientist in Beijing, in the hope of establishing cooperative research into global climate change, a field unfamiliar to most scientists in the world at that time. His proposal immediately caught the interest of Ye, who was then president of the Chinese Meteorological Society and vice-president of CAS. Prof. Ye believed it to be an extremely important issue requiring sustained and collaborative attention.     

Classifying web genres in context: A case study documenting the web genres used by a software engineer

This case study analyzes the Internet-based resources that a software engineer uses in his daily work. Methodologically, we studied the web browser history of the participant, classifying all the web pages he had seen over a period of 12 days into web genres. We interviewed him before and after the analysis of the web browser history. In the first interview, he spoke about his general information behavior; in the second, he commented on each web genre, explaining why and how he used them. As a result, three approaches allow us to describe the set of 23 web genres obtained: (a) the purposes they serve for the participant; (b) the role they play in the various work and search phases; (c) and the way they are used in combination with each other. Further observations concern the way the participant assesses quality of web-based resources, and his information behavior as a software engineer.     

“大众诗人”柯仲平——浅析柯仲平诗文大众化民族化特色研究的重要性

著名的“大众诗人”柯仲平虽然诗文创作数量不多,但他从青年时期开始就致力于诗歌大众化民族化道路的实践,尤其是延安时期,他的诗歌以及他所组织领导的诗歌运动和民众剧团产生了非常广泛的影响,受到了广大民众包括毛泽东同志的高度赞扬。但在现当代文学史上,学术界对他的研究还很不够,尤其在文艺大众化民族化方面,对他的重视不够,对他的贡献认识不足。本文力图通过梳理历年来学术界对他的研究,指出研究的不足和努力的方向,希望更多的文学爱好者和文学艺术家,能秉承柯老遗风,继续吹响文艺大众化民族化的号角。     

This view of science: Stephen Jay Gould as historian of science and scientific historian,popular scientist and scientific popularizer

Science historian Ronald Numbers once remarked that the two most influential historians of science of the 20th century were Thomas Kuhn and Stephen Jay Gould. All historians are deeply familiar with Kuhn's work and influence, and most know of the remarkable impact Gould has had on evolutionary theory through both his professional and popular works. But little attention has been paid to the depth, scope, and importance of Gould's r?le as historian and philosopher of science, and his use of popular science exposition to reinforce old knowledge and generate new. This paper presents the results of an extensive quantitative content analysis of Gould's 22 books, 101 book reviews, 479 scientific papers, and 300 Natural History essays, in terms of their subject matter (Evolutionary Theory, History and Philosophy of Science, Natural History, Paleontology/Geology, Social Science/Commentary), and thematic dichotomies (Theory-Data, Time's Arrow-Time's Cycle, Adaptationism- Nonadaptationalism, Punctuationism-Gradualism, Contingency-Necessity). Special emphasis is placed on the interaction between the subjects and themata, how Gould has used the history of science to reinforce his evolutionary theory (and vice versa), and how his philosophy of science has influenced both his evolutionary theory and his historiography. That philosophy can best be summed up in a quotation from Charles Darwin, frequently cited by Gould: 'All observation must be for or against some view if it is to be of any service'. Gould followed Darwin's advice throughout his career, including his extensive writings on the history and philosophy of science.     

The scientometric world of Keith Pavitt: A tribute to his contributions to research policy and patent analysis

Keith Pavitt has made pioneering contributions to the study of science, technology and innovation. This paper aims to examine some of them on the basis of a bibliometric analysis of Keith Pavitt's work and the impact that he has had. First the paper follows how Pavitt's publication profile develops over time. Then we trace his most cited works and explore the sets of references in his papers. Author and journal co-citation maps illustrate the intellectual environment associated with Pavitt and the central role Research Policy played in this context. An analysis of the most frequently cited authors in Research Policy and Scientometrics underlines Keith Pavitt's role as both a shaper of, and a bridge between, science and technology policy and bibliometric analysis.