Search results for "Ethics"

Obsolescence and intervention: on synthetic-biological entities.

2014

Oftentimes, topics that might fall outside of science’s remit seem to end up becoming a part of it, sooner or later. This appears to be the case of synthetic biology, a new biological science (although some maintain that it is a form of engineering, or treat it as such; Endy, 2005), which seems to have become essential to the understanding of living beings and their extreme manipulation. I believe it to be a new form of biology. In truth, synthetic biology has a long history and, conceptually speaking, may well have formed part of the interests and research efforts of our illustrious predecessors throughout the first half of the twentieth century and even earlier. In any event, and broadly …

Science and the Regulation of Toxicants in Historical Perspective

2015

Are Pseudosciences Like Seagulls? A Discriminant Metacriterion Facilitates the Solution of the Demarcation Problem

2019

In this article, I develop a philosophical framework, or ‘metacriterion’, for the demarcation of pseudoscience. Firstly, ‘gradualist demarcation’ is discussed in depth, considering an approach to t...

Paul J. Crutzen: A Pioneer on Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Change in the Anthropocene

2016

The book is part of the Springer series on Nobel Laureates whose main aim is to present the life and work of distinguished twentieth-century scholars. Each author is presented by a colleague, in th...

Towards an environmental assessment model of palaeontological and archaeological heritage in the Autonomous Valencian Community without comparative t…

2019

The deficient management of the paleontological heritage through the environmental impact assessment procedures from the Valencian public administrations, linked mainly to the lack of competent technical means in the matter, results in an almost abandonment of it. On the contrary, the archaeological heritage has a series of perfectly structured tools that allow any possible impact on it regarding projects and actions subject to environmental impact assessment that can be detected and corrected. The damage that this situation creates results in the abandonment and almost absolute lack of protection of the palaeontological heritage in the Valencian Community. Despite how much has been written…

Coping Styles and Social Support in Emergency Workers: Family as a Resource

2015

The nature of the job of people working in emergency situations is such that they may experience high levels of stress. With the term ‘emergency’, we refer to macroscopic events (floods, earthquakes) but also to micro-emergencies, that are more frequent events like accidents and acts of violence. Therefore, the aim of this approach is to help to prevent, or to overcome, the psychic phenomenon that occurs in the victims after a traumatic event that is unexpected and upsetting. In disaster and emergency scenarios, empirical data shows that an effective intervention is able to activate pro-social behaviours, based on social relations and norms; but for emergency workers there are several dange…

Quantitative methods in business history: An impossible equation?

2010

Abstract In this article we want to evaluate how often quantitative tools and methods were utilized in the two premier journals in business history in the 1990s. Thus we tap into an important methodological discussion among the post-Chandlerian business historians. We found that simpler quantitative tools were employed quite often, but not necessarily going much beyond that.Also, it became apparent that the most cited business history articles were often written by scholars coming from‘outside’ the fluid disciplinary core of business history field.The analyses performed in the article revealed that the level of quantification seemed to have either no discernible impact (Business History Rev…

La voz de una autoridad heterodoxa sobre el amor en el primer franquismo. Los consultorios sentimentales de Amparo Rivelles

2021

Entre 1948 y 1952, el semanario cinematográfico Primer plano publicó un consultorio sentimental firmado por la actriz Amparo Rivelles. La estrella española más popular del momento se convertía así en consejera sobre la moral, el noviazgo y los usos amorosos entre los jóvenes; una cuestión que el Régimen consideraba como una pieza fundamental en la regulación de las relaciones de género. Se trata de un consultorio singular, alejado de la gravedad, el dramatismo y la grandilocuencia de otros, surgidos en diversos medios periodísticos a raíz de la buena acogida de público que estas secciones gozaron durante aquellos años. El presente artículo analiza las implicaciones de unos textos en los que…

Improving geoconservation of the palaeontological heritage through a semiotic vision

2019

The panoply of reasons that may attract people to fossils, which result from the meaning they attribute to these palaeontological objects, may contribute to endangering of the integrity of the fossil record. Semiotics can be of great help to assist geoconservation actions, usually based only on expertise statements, and are of particular relevance in palaeontological heritage inventory, evaluation, conservation, valuation and monitoring procedures. This work argues that fossils can be envisaged as signs displaying different meanings among experts and non-specialists. Such meanings support the heritage contents and values attributable to any palaeontological object and are affected by the re…

The interplay of various Scandinavian mathematical journals (1859-1953) and the road towards internationalization

2018

Abstract The merger of various Nordic mathematical journals in 1953 into Mathematica Scandinavica (for research) and into Nordisk Matematisk Tidsskrift (for the more elementary topics, from 1979 NORMAT) confirmed increasing cooperation between matured Scandinavian mathematical communities. The merger originated from practical considerations including the wish to have a critical mass for economically viable publications. The present paper presents the basic steps in the development of several Scandinavian mathematical journals from 1859, the year of the foundation of the first general mathematical journal in a Scandinavian language, the Danish Mathematisk Tidsskrift, through various convergi…