Investigating the quality of interactions and public engagement around scientific papers on Twitter

This study explores science communication on Twitter by investigating a sample of tweets referring to academic papers in five different scientific fields. The specifications of science communicators on Twitter, the characteristics of those who initiate actions (by tweeting), the extent and quality of reactions (retweeting), individual and group interactions, and the distribution of tweets across types of engagement in the process of science communication (i.e., dissemination, consultation, and evaluation) were explored. A broad array of actors is involved in the communication of science on Twitter, with individual citizens and individual researchers playing an important role. In principle, this is promising for creating direct interaction, which can be difficult through more traditional mass media. The vast majority of communication activities regarding academic papers is undigested dissemination with almost no sign of debate, contestation, or collective reflection. Another general finding of this study is that bot accounts play a major role in the science communication landscape on Twitter.     

Rapid mask prototyping for microfluidics

With the rise of microfluidics for the past decade, there has come an ever more pressing need for a low-cost and rapid prototyping technology, especially for research and education purposes. In this article, we report a rapid prototyping process of chromed masks for various microfluidic applications. The process takes place out of a clean room, uses a commercially available video-projector, and can be completed in less than half an hour. We quantify the ranges of fields of view and of resolutions accessible through this video-projection system and report the fabrication of critical microfluidic components (junctions, straight channels, and curved channels). To exemplify the process, three common devices are produced using this method: a droplet generation device, a gradient generation device, and a neuro-engineering oriented device. The neuro-engineering oriented device is a compartmentalized microfluidic chip, and therefore, required the production and the precise alignment of two different masks.     

Tim Henman,British tennis and the social construction of English identity in the 1990s and 2000s

Tim Henman was inarguably the best English player, and the most popular and socially significant British player, since Fred Perry. Throughout his career, media constructions of him fluctuated from being heralded as a potential Wimbledon champion, to a weak, underachieving perennial loser. Throughout his career, and despite the constant transition of dominant narratives, Henman’s quintessential ‘Englishness’ remained a key component, expressed through his image, appearance, ostensible personality/character and playing style. His ‘Englishness’ was especially apparent against the backdrop of the Wimbledon Championships, which used Henman’s success in its marketing of ‘tennis in an English garden’. This paper assesses the shifting meanings behind, and values of, Henman’s sustained image, and examines how changes in the narratives of Henman as a player reflected broader shifts in English identity. It is argued that Henman played a significant role in how Englishness was constructed, both in Britain and abroad, during the 1990s and 2000s.     

Warum scheiterte 1920 August Biers Antrag auf einen „Doktor der Leibesübungen“?

This article deals with the first years of foundation of the private Deutsche Hochschule für Leibesübungen (DHfL). It focuses on the question of why August Bier’s application for a Doktor der Leibesübungen in 1920 was refused. In the same year the DHfL also made an application for the education in state-run schools which was already task of the state-run Preußische Landesturnanstalt at Spandau. As the DHfL combined this application with its insistence on its autonomous status an application for a Doktor der Leibesübungen had implied financial, conceptual and institutional obligations for Prussia and at the same time a renuncitation of its sovereign rights. This thesis was proved by a comparison between the doctorate in physical education and the doctorate for businessmen at Cologne University.