In Defence of the Naive Inductivist: As Well as Some of Their Not-so-Naive Brethren

Alan Chalmers, in What ius this thing called Science?, presents inductivism as a naïve view of science which has been disproved. However, the arguments he bases this conclusion on either depend upon a stilted view of inductivism or affect a very broad range of positions, including Chalmers' own. I argue that a broadly inductivist view of science, including its observational base, is precisely the approach required.

     

Parallelized ultra-high throughput microfluidic emulsifier for multiplex kinetic assays

Droplet-based microfluidic technologies are powerful tools for applications requiring high-throughput, for example, in biochemistry or material sciences. Several systems have been proposed for the high-throughput production of monodisperse emulsions by parallelizing multiple droplet makers. However, these systems have two main limitations: (1) they allow the use of only a single disperse phase; (2) they are based on multiple layer microfabrication techniques. We present here a pipette-and-play solution offering the possibility of manipulating simultaneously 10 different disperse phases on a single layer device. This system allows high-throughput emulsion production using aqueous flow rates of up to 26 ml/h (>110 000 drops/s) leading to emulsions with user-defined complex chemical composition. We demonstrate the multiplex capabilities of our system by measuring the kinetics of β-galactosidase in droplets using nine different concentrations of a fluorogenic substrate.     

Poles apart: foreign players,Polish football and Euro 2012

The 14th running of the UEFA European Championships represented a watershed moment for football, and sport more broadly, in Eastern Europe. Whilst the competition itself might have been restricted to Europe’s elite national teams, world football’s gaze was drawn towards the joint hosts, Poland and the Ukraine, for the duration of the tournament. At this juncture, therefore, this paper seeks to consider the ‘place’ of football in Eastern Europe, and in this case, Poland specifically, by conducting an analysis of the economic value of Poland’s top division – the Ekstraklasa, and by examining the factors that influence foreign players’ decisions to migrate to that particular league. The paper identifies that whilst the Ekstraklasa might sit outside of Europe’s core football economies, it still offers much as a migration destination for certain sorts of players. However, the paper also shows that whilst the 2012 UEFA European Championships provided significant exposure for Poland in the football context, it is less clear if hosting the event will have a lasting effect on the development of Poland’s top league and its desirability to foreign players.