The natural science of cosmology

The network of cosmological tests is tight enough now to show that the relativistic Big Bang cosmology is a good approximation to what happened as the universe expanded and cooled through light element production and evolved to the present. I explain why I reach this conclusion, comment on the varieties of philosophies informing searches for a still better cosmology, and offer an example for further study, the curious tendency of some classes of galaxies to behave as island universes.Comment: Keynote lecture at the seventh International Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology, Goa India, December 201

Theology of Creation and Natural Science

The author advocates for the mediating role of philosophy in the dialogues between science and theology, in particular, the dialogues to clarify that the creation of biblical faith is the same entity as the cosmos of scientific study. He points out that most current scientific concepts, such as \'field,\' have a prior history of usage in philosophical discourse, before being modified for usage in scientific contexts. This example, together with associated concepts, holds special promise for developing a contemporary theology of divine presence and action

A Novel Multiplex Network-based Sensor Information Fusion Model and Its Application to Industrial Multiphase Flow System

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 61473203, and the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin, China under Grant No. 16JCYBJC18200.Peer reviewedPostprin

Why social scientists should engage with natural scientists

It has become part of the mantra of contemporary science policy that the resolution of besetting problems calls for the active engagement of a wide range of sciences. The paper reviews some of the key challenges for those striving for a more impactful social science by engaging strategically with natural scientists. It argues that effective engagement depends upon overcoming basic assumptions that have structured past interactions: particularly, the casting of social science in an end-of-pipe role in relation to scientific and technological developments. These structurings arise from epistemological assumptions about the underlying permanence of the natural world and the role of science in uncovering its fundamental order and properties. While the impermanence of the social world has always put the social sciences on shakier foundations, twenty-first century concerns about the instability of the natural world pose different epistemological assumptions that summon a more equal, immediate and intense interaction between field and intervention oriented social and natural scientists. The paper examines a major research programme that has exemplified these alternative epistemological assumptions. Drawing on a survey of researchers and other sources it seeks to draw out the lessons for social/natural science cross-disciplinary engagement

Towards Economics as a Natural Science

A hypothesis has been suggested for economics to become a natural science. The object of the science would be the system of reproduction of the life of people. The source of data would be the vague perceptions of experts. The instrument would be a language of generalized terms. The criterion of truth would be the consensus of opinions. The sphere of application would be the global economy. The method of application would be the proliferation of knowledge through the World Wide Web to produce social synergy forces within the economy.

Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) family in arthropods : Cloning and expression analysis of two MIF and one D-dopachrome tautomerase (DDT) homologues in Mud crabs, Scylla paramamosain

Acknowledgements This research was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 31172438 and U1205123), the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (No. 2012J06008 and 201311180002) and the projects-sponsored by SRF. TW received funding from the MASTS pooling initiative (The Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland) funded by the Scottish Funding Council (grant reference HR09011) and contributing institutions.Peer reviewedPostprin

Hume's Natural Philosophy and Philosophy of Physical Science

This book contextualizes David Hume's philosophy of physical science, exploring both Hume's background in the history of early modern natural philosophy and its subsequent impact on the scientific tradition

Bioethics: Reincarnation of Natural Philosophy in Modern Science

The theory of evolution of complex and comprising of human systems and algorithm for its constructing are the synthesis of evolutionary epistemology, philosophical anthropology and concrete scientific empirical basis in modern (transdisciplinary) science. «Trans-disciplinary» in the context is interpreted as a completely new epistemological situation, which is fraught with the initiation of a civilizational crisis. Philosophy and ideology of technogenic civilization is based on the possibility of unambiguous demarcation of public value and descriptive scientific discourses (1), and the object and subject of the cognitive process (2). Both of these attributes are no longer valid. For mass, everyday consciousness and institutional philosophical tradition it is intuitively obvious that having the ability to control the evolutionary process, Homo sapiens came close to the borders of their own biological and cultural identity. The spontaneous coevolutionary process of interaction between the «subject» (rational living organisms) and the «object» (material world), is the teleological trend of the movement towards the complete rationalization of the World as It Is, its merger with the World of Due. The stratification of the global evolutionary process into selective and semantic (teleological) coevolutionary and therefore ontologically inseparable components follows. With the entry of anthropogenic civilization into the stage of the information society, firsty, the post-academic phase of the historical evolution of scientific rationality began, the attributes of which are the specific methodology of scientific knowledge, scientific ethos and ontology. Bioethics as a phenomenon of intellectual culture represents a natural philosophical core of modern post- academic (human-dimensional) science, in which the ethical neutrality of scientific theory principle is inapplicable, and elements of public-axiological and scientific-descriptive discourses are integrated into a single logic construction. As result, hermeneutics precedes epistemology not only methodologically, but also meaningfully, and natural philosophy is regaining the status of the backbone of the theory of evolution – in an explicit for

Experimental Investigation of the Vibro-impact Capsule System

Dr. Yang Liu would like to acknowledge the financial support for the Small Research Grant (31841) by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland. This work is also partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11672257 and 11402224), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China (Grant No. BK20161314).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Control energy of complex networks towards distinct mixture states

Controlling complex networked systems is a real-world puzzle that remains largely unsolved. Despite recent progress in understanding the structural characteristics of network control energy, target state and system dynamics have not been explored. We examine how varying the final state mixture affects the control energy of canonical and conformity-incorporated dynamical systems. We find that the control energy required to drive a network to an identical final state is lower than that required to arrive a non-identical final state. We also demonstrate that it is easier to achieve full control in a conformity-based dynamical network. Finally we determine the optimal control strategy in terms of the network hierarchical structure. Our work offers a realistic understanding of the control energy within the final state mixture and sheds light on controlling complex systems.This work was funded by The National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61763013, 61703159, 61403421), The Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province (No. 20171BAB212017), The Measurement and Control of Aircraft at Sea Laboratory (No. FOM2016OF010), and China Scholarship Council (201708360048). The Boston University Center for Polymer Studies is supported by NSF Grants PHY-1505000, CMMI-1125290, and CHE-1213217, and by DTRA Grant HDTRA1-14-1-0017. (61763013 - National Natural Science Foundation of China; 61703159 - National Natural Science Foundation of China; 61403421 - National Natural Science Foundation of China; 20171BAB212017 - Natural Science Foundation of Jiangxi Province; FOM2016OF010 - Measurement and Control of Aircraft at Sea Laboratory; 201708360048 - China Scholarship Council; PHY-1505000 - NSF; CMMI-1125290 - NSF; CHE-1213217 - NSF; HDTRA1-14-1-0017 - DTRA)Published versio