Search results for "myth"

What Was Synthetic Biology?

2014

The desire to make life is not new. Mythology and history provide numerous examples of this Promethean longing. Materialist and evolutionist scientists over a century ago were convinced of the possibility and even the need to synthesize living beings to advance the knowledge on the nature and origin of life. The premature synthetic biology attempts by Stephane Leduc and Alfonso L. Herrera reflected the mechanistic ideal in biology of Jacques Loeb. The book “La biologie synthetique” by Leduc (1912) clearly defines the efforts of these pioneers: “Why is it less acceptable to seek how to make a cell than how to make a molecule?” Journalists have presented many advances in biology in the past c…

Infrastructure and system programming for digital ecosystems used in natural disaster management

2009

Researchers in most fields of activity must concentrate their efforts to eradicate or at least to mitigate the negative effects of “global warming”, which affect the entire planet. Within this context, we strongly believe that IT&C specialists should also approach the issue. Therefore, this paper presents the results and solutions obtained during the development of a research contract dealing on the one hand with real-time data collection and data centralization in a decision making system, and on the other with the dissemination of information among the people exposed to the effects of natural disasters such as: floods, storms, tsunamis, or other natural disasters which may destroy propert…

Spatial learning and expression patterns of PP1 mRNA in mouse hippocampus.

2009

<i>Background:</i> Synaptic plasticity is believed to be the major cellular basis for learning and memory. Protein phosphorylation is a key process involved in changes in the efficacy of neurotransmission. In long-term changes synaptic plasticity is followed by structural plasticity and protein de novo synthesis. Such mechanisms are believed to build the basis of hippocampal learning and memory investigated in the Morris water maze (MWM) task. To examine the role of dephosphorylation during that model for spatial learning, we analyzed protein phosphatase 1 (PP1) expression in the hippocampus of mice at various stages of the task and in two groups with different learning abilitie…

The media or the message? An examination of myths as resources to understand the tourism phenomenon

2015

The present paper discusses the histories of tourism knowledge. The authors argue that tourist travel should be considered in the perspective of broader institutions enrooted into the mythical structures of cultures. The inadequacies of some of the previous attempts to understand tourism from various methodological perspectives are noted. Then, myths are introduced as offering alternate explanations of the tourism phenomenon. Myths have two pronged advantages in understanding tourism: they contain our collective historical understanding about tourism; also, they are a methodological solution to tap into the wealth of tourism knowledge hidden in expressive artefacts. These claims are verifie…

XXV años de Trabajo social. El aniversario como rito de pasaje

2009

Commemorating a date, thus turning it into an emblematic day, can be considered a «rite of passage» which turns a private event into a public ceremony with a heightened symbolic value. Rites in Social Work are necessary to allow the growth of this profession, a young one barely one hundred years old, and to allow adaptation to new realities. This is how the ritual restores the time of the myth, allowing the old to remain in order to integrate the new, establishing a narration of evolution and growth. Rituals are acts that symbolize, over a sequence of time, the founding myth. They refer to the origins of identity of a profession, in this case, Social Work. Myths have a clear, noble and foun…

Galilée, une soûlographie

2019

Galilée, un signe à tout faire

2014

Que l’on souhaite faire oeuvre de science, prévaloir une opinion, susciter une émotion, valoriser un produit, la vie et l’oeuvre du mathématicien, physicien et astronome italien Galileo Galilei s’acommodent de bien des manières. Comment cette trivialité manifeste participe-t-elle du « mythe » ?

De la transmission à l'altération : Galilée comme carrefour.

2013

International audience; La transmission culturelle est régulièrement considérée comme un phénomène explicitement "continuiste". Or c'est aussi par l’absence, la substitution, le détournement, l’erreur et l’accident que peuvent survivre et prospérer formes et idées.En effet, les "discontinuités", toujours relatives aux milieux, aux acteurs, aux formes et genres... créent des opportunités de communication, de signification, de transmission.Cette position est défendue à partir d'un cadre de réflexion émergeant – la trivialité des êtres culturels – qui permet d'examiner le rôle fondamental des communications quotidiennes dans la préservation de patrimoines matériels et idéels, participant de l’…

Foundations and Foundation Myths of the Troubadours

2019

A review of several origin myths relating to the creation of medieval Occitan lyric poetry. We see a preference for a “great man theory” of origins, though the “great man” may be a fictional woman. Medieval and early Renaissance Occitan authors, including Uc de Saint Circ, Guilhem Molinier, and Jean de Nostredame, used differing origin myths to validate literature in a language that was perceived not to carry the prestige of twelfth- and thirteenth-century Latin or fifteen- and sixteenth-century French.

Oltre la ricerca del Graal, il divenire del mito

2014

A mythologist's study of the Graal cultural tradition. Using Francesco Zambon's recent Metamorfosi del Graal as his starting point, the author undertakes an analysis on the importance of the Graal in Western mystical, philosophical and literary traditions throughout time, from the impact of the medieval Graal stories on the matière de Bretagne and beyond (Troyes, Boron), to the appeal of this myth in modern times, including its occurrence on Richard Wagner, Martin Heidegger, Simone Weil, Italo Calvino and Umberto Eco.