Integrity and Values in Science
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Warburg Effect(S)—A Biographical Sketch of Otto Warburg and His Impacts on Tumor Metabolism Angela M
Otto Cancer & Metabolism (2016) 4:5 DOI 10.1186/s40170-016-0145-9 REVIEW Open Access Warburg effect(s)—a biographical sketch of Otto Warburg and his impacts on tumor metabolism Angela M. Otto Abstract Virtually everyone working in cancer research is familiar with the “Warburg effect”, i.e., anaerobic glycolysis in the presence of oxygen in tumor cells. However, few people nowadays are aware of what lead Otto Warburg to the discovery of this observation and how his other scientific contributions are seminal to our present knowledge of metabolic and energetic processes in cells. Since science is a human endeavor, and a scientist is imbedded in a network of social and academic contacts, it is worth taking a glimpse into the biography of Otto Warburg to illustrate some of these influences and the historical landmarks in his life. His creative and innovative thinking and his experimental virtuosity set the framework for his scientific achievements, which were pioneering not only for cancer research. Here, I shall allude to the prestigious family background in imperial Germany; his relationships to Einstein, Meyerhof, Krebs, and other Nobel and notable scientists; his innovative technical developments and their applications in the advancement of biomedical sciences, including the manometer, tissue slicing, and cell cultivation. The latter were experimental prerequisites for the first metabolic measurements with tumor cells in the 1920s. In the 1930s–1940s, he improved spectrophotometry for chemical analysis and developed the optical tests for measuring activities of glycolytic enzymes. Warburg’s reputation brought him invitations to the USA and contacts with the Rockefeller Foundation; he received the Nobel Prize in 1931. -
Cambridge's 92 Nobel Prize Winners Part 2 - 1951 to 1974: from Crick and Watson to Dorothy Hodgkin
Cambridge's 92 Nobel Prize winners part 2 - 1951 to 1974: from Crick and Watson to Dorothy Hodgkin By Cambridge News | Posted: January 18, 2016 By Adam Care The News has been rounding up all of Cambridge's 92 Nobel Laureates, celebrating over 100 years of scientific and social innovation. ADVERTISING In this installment we move from 1951 to 1974, a period which saw a host of dramatic breakthroughs, in biology, atomic science, the discovery of pulsars and theories of global trade. It's also a period which saw The Eagle pub come to national prominence and the appearance of the first female name in Cambridge University's long Nobel history. The Gender Pay Gap Sale! Shop Online to get 13.9% off From 8 - 11 March, get 13.9% off 1,000s of items, it highlights the pay gap between men & women in the UK. Shop the Gender Pay Gap Sale – now. Promoted by Oxfam 1. 1951 Ernest Walton, Trinity College: Nobel Prize in Physics, for using accelerated particles to study atomic nuclei 2. 1951 John Cockcroft, St John's / Churchill Colleges: Nobel Prize in Physics, for using accelerated particles to study atomic nuclei Walton and Cockcroft shared the 1951 physics prize after they famously 'split the atom' in Cambridge 1932, ushering in the nuclear age with their particle accelerator, the Cockcroft-Walton generator. In later years Walton returned to his native Ireland, as a fellow of Trinity College Dublin, while in 1951 Cockcroft became the first master of Churchill College, where he died 16 years later. 3. 1952 Archer Martin, Peterhouse: Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for developing partition chromatography 4. -
Science Education and Our Future
Welcome to Frontiers Page 1 of 10 Science Education and Our Future Yervant Terzian ACCORDING TO CURRENT theory, matter was created from energy at the time of the Big Bang, at the beginning of cosmic history. As the hot, early universe expanded and cooled, it separated into pieces that later formed the hundreds of millions of galaxies we now see. One such galaxy was the Milky Way, which in turn spawned some 200 billion stars, of which the sun is one. Around the sun, a small planet was formed on which biological evolution has progressed during the last few billion years. You and I are part of the result and share this cosmic history. Now here we are, atoms from the Big Bang, an intelligent and technological civilization of about 6 billion, fast multiplying, and largely unhappy human beings. This long evolution has now given us the wisdom to ask what is it that we want. We all want survival, of course, but survival on our own terms, for ourselves and generations to come. 1, and probably you, would want those terms to be comfortable, happy, and democratic. If our most fundamental wish is a happy and democratic survival, this can be achieved only by an informed society. To be informed we must be educated, and in today's world no one ignorant of science and technology can be considered educated. Hence, science education appears fundamentally important to our happy future. During the past decades people have been asking me what was the value of science when during the Apollo mission inspired by President John E Kennedy, we spent $24 billion to visit the moon. -
Essays on Einstein's Science And
MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE Max Planck Institute for the History of Science PREPRINT 63 (1997) Giuseppe Castagnetti, Hubert Goenner, Jürgen Renn, Tilman Sauer, and Britta Scheideler Foundation in Disarray: Essays on Einstein’s Science and Politics in the Berlin Years ISSN 0948-9444 PREFACE This collection of essays is based on a series of talks given at the Boston Colloquium for Philosophy of Science, March 3 – 4, 1997, under the title “Einstein in Berlin: The First Ten Years.“ The meeting was organized by the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University and the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein, and co-sponsored by the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Although the three essays do not directly build upon one another, we have nevertheless decided to present them in a single preprint for two reasons. First, they result from a project that grew out of an earlier cooperation inaugurated by the Berlin Working Group “Albert Einstein.“ This group was part of the research center “Development and Socialization“ under the direction of Wolfgang Edel- stein at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and Education.1 The Berlin Working Group, directed by Peter Damerow and Jürgen Renn, was sponsored by the Senate of Berlin. Its aim was to pursue research on Einstein in Berlin with particular attention to the relation between his science and its context. The research activities of the Working Group are now being continued at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science partly, in cooperation with Michel Janssen, John Norton, and John Stachel. -
The Making of a Biochemist
book reviews disappearance of kuru as an important In the late 1920s, he looked into the effect TION episode in our understanding of the risks of light on the inhibition by carbon monox- A associated with this type of infectious ide of respiration in living cells. This work process. Informing the wider community of encompassed considerations of photo- these risks may lead to a more helpful debate chemical processes in terms of quantum about the public health policies required chemistry, and the use of the manometer, NOBEL FOUND to minimize the chances of another BSE photoelectric cell and spectroscope. From epidemic. Books such as this are useful in the shape of the curve obtained by plotting this context. the effectiveness of light against its wave- Colin L. Masters is in the Department of Pathology, length, it was possible to deduce the resem- 8 The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, blance between the respiratory ferment and 3052, Australia. haemins. Warburg was awarded the Nobel prize for physiology or medicine in 1931 for his recognition of the haemin-type nature of the respiratory ferment and its underlying The making principles. The development of Warburg’s theoreti- of a biochemist cal thinking and experimental procedures are Otto Warburgs Beitrag zur ably chronicled in Petra Werner’s introducto- Atmungstheorie: Das Problem der ry essay. Her book is the first volume of an Sauerstoffaktivierung* edition of Warburg’s correspondence Brilliant but flawed: Warburg tended to pettiness. by Petra Werner deposited in the Berlin–Brandenburg Aca- Basilisken-Presse: 1996. Pp. 390. DM136 demy of Sciences. Regrettably, the 143 pub- 1950). -
Illustrations from the Wellcome Institute Library the Chain Papers*
Medical History, 1983, 27:434-435 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE WELLCOME INSTITUTE LIBRARY THE CHAIN PAPERS* THE three men who shared the Nobel Prize in October 1945 for their work on penicillin could scarcely have differed more in their backgrounds and characters. Fleming was sixty-four years old by then; the son of a Scottish farmer, he was a retiring man, not given to conversation. By contrast, Florey, then aged forty-seven, was the son of a wealthy Australian boot and shoe manufacturer; aggressively ambitious, his achievements and intellect were later to secure him the Presidency of the Royal Society. Then there was Chain - a mere thirty-nine years old - a Jewish refugee of Russian origin, who still had major work on penicillin ahead of him; his ambition was mixed with an independence and volubility that was to lead him into conflict with the scientific/medical establishment. Fleming has been the subject of many biographies, mostly hagiographical. Florey's role in the penicillin story was recently reassessed in Gwyn Macfarlane's excellent Howard Florey. The making ofa great scientist (Oxford University Press, 1979). Sir Ernst Boris Chain died in 1979, and his biography is being written by Ronald W. Clark. This, together with future research on Chain's papers, will enable a fuller assessment to be made of the role and character of the youngest of the three scientists. The Chain papers, recently given by Lady Chain to the Contemporary Medical Archives Centre, form an extensive collection of some sixty-nine boxes, comprising material from Chain's personal and professional life. -
Entropy: a Guide for the Perplexed 117 a Quasistatic Irreversible Path, and Then Go Back from B to a Along a Quasistatic Reversible Path
5 ENTROPY A GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED Roman Frigg and Charlotte Werndl1 1 Introduction Entropy is ubiquitous in physics, and it plays important roles in numerous other disciplines ranging from logic and statistics to biology and economics. However, a closer look reveals a complicated picture: entropy is defined differently in different contexts, and even within the same domain different notions of entropy are at work. Some of these are defined in terms of probabilities, others are not. The aim of this essay is to arrive at an understanding of some of the most important notions of entropy and to clarify the relations between them. In particular, we discuss the question what kind of probabilities are involved whenever entropy is defined in terms of probabilities: are the probabilities chances (i.e. physical probabilities) or credences (i.e. degrees of belief)? After setting the stage by introducing the thermodynamic entropy (Sec. 2), we discuss notions of entropy in information theory (Sec. 3), statistical mechanics (Sec. 4), dynamical-systems theory (Sec. 5), and fractal geometry (Sec. 6). Omis- sions are inevitable; in particular, space constraints prevent us from discussing entropy in quantum mechanics and cosmology.2 2 Entropy in thermodynamics Entropy made its first appearance in the middle of the nineteenth century in the context of thermodynamics (TD). TD describes processes like the exchange of heat between two bodies or the spreading of gases in terms of macroscopic variables like temperature, pressure, and volume. The centerpiece of TD is the Second Law of TD, which, roughly speaking, restricts the class of physically allowable processes in isolated systems to those that are not entropy-decreasing. -
Sokal's Hermeneutic Hoax
Fordham University Masthead Logo DigitalResearch@Fordham Hermeneutic and Phenomenological Philosophies Research Resources of Science 2001 SOKAL’S HERMENEUTIC HOAX: PHYSICS AND THE NEW INQUISITION Babette Babich Fordham University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://fordham.bepress.com/phil_research Part of the Continental Philosophy Commons, Philosophy of Science Commons, and the Rhetoric Commons Recommended Citation Babich, Babette, "SOKAL’S HERMENEUTIC HOAX: PHYSICS AND THE NEW INQUISITION" (2001). Research Resources. 20. https://fordham.bepress.com/phil_research/20 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Hermeneutic and Phenomenological Philosophies of Science at DigitalResearch@Fordham. It has been accepted for inclusion in Research Resources by an authorized administrator of DigitalResearch@Fordham. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BABETTE E. BABICH SOKAL’S HERMENEUTIC HOAX: PHYSICS AND THE NEW INQUISITION As a so-called post-analytic philosopher of science,1 if also from the marginalized sidelines, I have been able to tease analytic philosophers, calling them to account for their desire to imitate scientists and their habit of numbering their paragraphs and their passion for the acronym. Much more seriously, the scientists themselves have recently begun to raise the ante for analytic philosophers in the so-called science wars. In essays and op-ed pieces, physicists are repaying the philosophers’ compliment – not only by adopting, as popular science writers have long done, the role of cultural critic, but also by assuming the mantle of philosophy. Science, once the arbiter of scientific truth, proposes now to vet the truth about everything else. And analytic philosophy of science has found itself faced with no less uncritical option than blanket applause. -
Electronic Journal of Science Education Vol
Electronic Journal of Science Education Vol. 21, No. 4 Analogies in Physics Teaching: Experiences of Trinidadian Physics Teachers Rawatee Maharaj-Sharma The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago Aarti Sharma Imperial College, London, UK Abstract Analogies have been widely used as tools for teaching difficult science concepts. The purposeful use of appropriate analogies can facilitate analogical thinking and help students develop the necessary transfer skills required for lifelong learning. Analogical thinking facilitates the development of higher order thinking skills among students. In this study the experiences of Trinidadian physics teachers on the importance of analogies as an instructional tool and the extent of its usage in physics teaching and learning were explored. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies were employed in this study. The findings revealed that, in general, Trinidadian physics teachers do in fact use analogies in their pedagogical practice but that the analogies used are mostly simplistic and with illustrative character. Some teachers use analogies deliberately to help students build new knowledge by transferring and applying prior knowledge and skills to new learning situations. Key words: analogies, science teaching Address all correspondence to: Rawatee Maharaj-Sharma, The School of Education, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago, rawatee.maharaj- [email protected] Introduction Analogies in the Constructivist Paradigm The literature abounds with definitions of the term analogy but in this work, Harrison and Coll’s (2008) interpretation that an analogy is a comparison of certain similarities between objects/ideas/events which are otherwise unlike will be adopted. An analogy consists of two components: the analogue and the target. -
The Short History of Science
PHYSICS FOUNDATIONS SOCIETY THE FINNISH SOCIETY FOR NATURAL PHILOSOPHY PHYSICS FOUNDATIONS SOCIETY THE FINNISH SOCIETY FOR www.physicsfoundations.org NATURAL PHILOSOPHY www.lfs.fi Dr. Suntola’s “The Short History of Science” shows fascinating competence in its constructively critical in-depth exploration of the long path that the pioneers of metaphysics and empirical science have followed in building up our present understanding of physical reality. The book is made unique by the author’s perspective. He reflects the historical path to his Dynamic Universe theory that opens an unparalleled perspective to a deeper understanding of the harmony in nature – to click the pieces of the puzzle into their places. The book opens a unique possibility for the reader to make his own evaluation of the postulates behind our present understanding of reality. – Tarja Kallio-Tamminen, PhD, theoretical philosophy, MSc, high energy physics The book gives an exceptionally interesting perspective on the history of science and the development paths that have led to our scientific picture of physical reality. As a philosophical question, the reader may conclude how much the development has been directed by coincidences, and whether the picture of reality would have been different if another path had been chosen. – Heikki Sipilä, PhD, nuclear physics Would other routes have been chosen, if all modern experiments had been available to the early scientists? This is an excellent book for a guided scientific tour challenging the reader to an in-depth consideration of the choices made. – Ari Lehto, PhD, physics Tuomo Suntola, PhD in Electron Physics at Helsinki University of Technology (1971). -
INTRODUCTION Claus Beisbart and Stephan Hartmann
1 INTRODUCTION Claus Beisbart and Stephan Hartmann Probabilities are ubiquitous in physics. Quantum probabilities, presumably, are most famous. As is well known, quantum mechanics does, in most cases, not predict with certainty what the outcome of a measurement will be. Instead, it only specifies probabilities for the possible outcomes. Probabilities also take a prominent role in statistical mechanics. Here, probabilities are ascribed to a system’s microstates to explain its thermal behavior. Finally, physicists often construct probabilistic models, such as random-walk models, to account for certain phenomena. No doubt, then, that probabilities abound in physics: much contemporary physics is probabilistic. The abundance of probabilities in physics raises a number of questions. For a start, what are probabilities and how can we explain the meaning of probabilistic statements? How can one justify physical claims that involve probabilities? Finally, can we draw metaphysical conclusions from the abundance of probabili- ties in physics? For example, can we infer that we live in an inherently chancy or indeterministic world? Although these are distinct questions, they are connected and cannot be addressed in isolation. For instance, an account of the meaning of probabilistic statements would clearly be objectionable if it did not yield a plausible episte- mology of probabilities. Further, the metaphysical lessons that we may wish to draw from the abundance of probabilistic claims hinge on the meaning of ‘probability.’ Hence, our three questions set one major task, viz. to make sense of probabilities in physics. This task does not fall within the subject matter of physics itself, but is rather philosophical, because questions about meaning, evidence, and determinism have been addressed by philosophers for a long time. -
Poincaré, Jules Henri French Mathematician and Scientist Scott Walter
Poincaré, Jules Henri French mathematician and scientist Scott Walter To cite this version: Scott Walter. Poincaré, Jules Henri French mathematician and scientist. Noretta Koertge. New Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Volume 6, Charles Scribner’s Sons, pp.121-125, 2007. halshs- 00266511 HAL Id: halshs-00266511 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00266511 Submitted on 2 Jun 2016 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike| 4.0 International License Poincaré, Henri (1854–1912) French mathematician and scientist Scott A. Walter ∗ Preliminary version of an article in Noretta Koertge (ed.), New Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Volume 6, pp. 121-125, New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2007. Poincaré, Jules Henri (b. Nancy, France, 29 April 1854; d. Paris, 17 July 1912), mathematics, celestial mechanics, theoretical physics, philosophy of science. For the original article on Poincaré by Jean Dieudonné see Volume 11. Historical studies of Henri Poincaré’s life and science turned a corner two years after the publication of Jean Dieudonné’s original DSB article, when Poincaré’s papers were microfilmed and made available to scholars. This and other primary sources engaged historical interest in Poincaré’s approach to mathematics, his contributions to pure and applied physics, his philosophy, and his influence on scientific institutions and policy.