Die Vorgeschichte unseres historischen Moments: Rezension zu "Mitte/Rechts: Die internationale Krise des Konservatismus" von Thomas Biebricher

Thomas Biebricher: Mitte/Rechts - Die internationale Krise des Konservatismus. Berlin: Suhrkamp 2023. 978-3-518-43099-

Co-exposure to urban particulate matter and aircraft noise adversely impacts the cerebro-pulmonary-cardiovascular axis in mice

Worldwide, up to 8.8 million excess deaths/year have been attributed to air pollution, mainly due to the exposure to fine particulate matter (PM). Traffic-related noise is an additional contributor to global mortality and morbidity. Both health risk factors substantially contribute to cardiovascular, metabolic and neuropsychiatric sequelae. Studies on the combined exposure are rare and urgently needed because of frequent co-occurrence of both risk factors in urban and industrial settings. To study the synergistic effects of PM and noise, we used an exposure system equipped with aerosol generator and loud-speakers, where C57BL/6 mice were acutely exposed for 3d to either ambient PM (NIST particles) and/or noise (aircraft landing and take-off events). The combination of both stressors caused endothelial dysfunction, increased blood pressure, oxidative stress and inflammation. An additive impairment of endothelial function was observed in isolated aortic rings and even more pronounced in cerebral and retinal arterioles. The increase in oxidative stress and inflammation markers together with RNA sequencing data indicate that noise particularly affects the brain and PM the lungs. The combination of both stressors has additive adverse effects on the cardiovascular system that are based on PM-induced systemic inflammation and noise-triggered stress hormone signaling. We demonstrate an additive upregulation of ACE-2 in the lung, suggesting that there may be an increased vulnerability to COVID-19 infection. The data warrant further mechanistic studies to characterize the propagation of primary target tissue damage (lung, brain) to remote organs such as aorta and heart by combined noise and PM exposure

Uncivil unions: The metaphysics of marriage in early German Idealism and Jena Romanticism

Just as the present moment finds the institution of marriage hotly debated, the advocates of its traditional meaning and those of its redefinition each proposing new and different links between sexuality and sociality, so the late 18th century saw marriage and the sexual relationship become debatable and definable in ways hitherto unimagined. This had less to do with actual marital practice, and more with new attempts at grounding that practice: The Enlightenment had demanded a justification of all social institutions, turning marriage from a sacrament into a component of civil society or civic religion, and the more highly integrated constitutional monarchies that sprang up in Germany in the late 18th century had subsumed the power to consecrate marriage under its aegis (Preußisches Landrecht). But even if it was de facto the king who now had the power to marry couples, the bases of this power were still very much in contention: Was he acting as an agent of social stability or utility? Was he acting as a quasi-religious authority? Or was he the representative of human reason, wholly divested of any arbitrary power that may otherwise accrue to his person? The early German Romantics turned to love and marriage to anchor their social utopian aspirations, and they sought in turn to transform the institutionalization of marriage as well. This dissertation argues that they did so by decisively emancipating marriage from concerns of morality or religion in any but the widest sense, relying instead on a metaphysical justification of the marital union. For a German philosopher writing in the wake of Kant, a metaphysics of marriage, as opposed to any other theory of marriage, had to provide a justification for the institution from the resources furnished by reason alone. And for those followers of Kant who criticized a number of dualisms within the critical philosophy, and who subsequently began experimenting with monistic reinterpretations of Kant\u27s project, this reason could not be either theoretical or practical, but had to be rather one single unifying principle. In other words, these thinkers were forced to justify matters both of theoretical and practical philosophy from a single monolithic principle derived primarily from their respective theories of consciousness

Erotische Akustik : Walter Benjamin geht (nicht) zur Oper

Warum geht Benjamins Flaneur nicht zur Oper? Wir kennen seine Routen durch das Paris Haussmanns; wir kennen die Stationen seines Weges, in den Passagen, den Panoramen, den Bordellen. Die Avenue de l'Opéra, mit ihren geraden Sichtlinien und den nahen Warenhäusern ist ihm vertraut, der Gang ins Gebäude selber aber scheint ihm fremd. Im Passagenwerk wird die Oper dreimal erwähnt, Wagner zweimal – mit Oper ist jedes Mal das Gebäude gemeint, die Wagner-Passage ist ein Zitat von Adorno. Klang, Musik, Gehör – das alles fehlt bei Benjamin, oder ist zumindest erstaunlich selten. Das lässt einerseits die Vorstellung, mit Benjamin gewappnet in die Oper zu gehen, als etwas absurd erscheinen, andererseits vermittelt es den Eindruck, als ob es zwischenzeitlich zum Klischee verkommen sei, mit Adorno in die Oper zu gehen. Im Folgenden möchte ich aber versuchen, eine Benjamin'sche Sicht auf die Oper zu entwickeln. Dennoch glaube ich nicht, dass man bei einem solchen Unterfangen die theoretische Taubheit Benjamins, sein genuines Desinteresse an Musik und Oper, einfach forsch korrigieren kann, ganz so als wäre Benjamin selber vielleicht dazu gekommen, hätte er mehr Zeit und Welt gehabt. Das hieße also, wir müssen mit Benjamin die Oper denken, und mit Benjamin die Oper nicht denken, uns mit Benjamin der Oper verschließen, sie ignorieren. Das klingt paradox, aber glücklicherweise war Benjamin ja Dialektiker. In einer bisher ungedruckten Vorlesungsreihe zur Dialektik wandelt Theodor W. Adorno in den Spuren seines toten Freundes – er flaniert, und zwar in die Oper. Ich glaube, dass Adorno uns [...] einen ersten Wink gibt, wie Benjamin zur Oper gegangen sein könnte – nämlich gar nicht

Uncivil unions: The metaphysics of marriage in early German Idealism and Jena Romanticism

Just as the present moment finds the institution of marriage hotly debated, the advocates of its traditional meaning and those of its redefinition each proposing new and different links between sexuality and sociality, so the late 18th century saw marriage and the sexual relationship become debatable and definable in ways hitherto unimagined. This had less to do with actual marital practice, and more with new attempts at grounding that practice: The Enlightenment had demanded a justification of all social institutions, turning marriage from a sacrament into a component of civil society or civic religion, and the more highly integrated constitutional monarchies that sprang up in Germany in the late 18th century had subsumed the power to consecrate marriage under its aegis (Preußisches Landrecht). But even if it was de facto the king who now had the power to marry couples, the bases of this power were still very much in contention: Was he acting as an agent of social stability or utility? Was he acting as a quasi-religious authority? Or was he the representative of human reason, wholly divested of any arbitrary power that may otherwise accrue to his person? The early German Romantics turned to love and marriage to anchor their social utopian aspirations, and they sought in turn to transform the institutionalization of marriage as well. This dissertation argues that they did so by decisively emancipating marriage from concerns of morality or religion in any but the widest sense, relying instead on a metaphysical justification of the marital union. For a German philosopher writing in the wake of Kant, a metaphysics of marriage, as opposed to any other theory of marriage, had to provide a justification for the institution from the resources furnished by reason alone. And for those followers of Kant who criticized a number of dualisms within the critical philosophy, and who subsequently began experimenting with monistic reinterpretations of Kant\u27s project, this reason could not be either theoretical or practical, but had to be rather one single unifying principle. In other words, these thinkers were forced to justify matters both of theoretical and practical philosophy from a single monolithic principle derived primarily from their respective theories of consciousness

Stereochemically Versatile Synthesis of the C1-C12 Fragment of Tedanolide C

A flexible synthesis of the C1-C12 fragment of Tedanolide C has been accomplished in eight steps from 2-methyl-2,4-pentadienal. Asymmetric hydroformylation of a 1,3-diene allows for the late-stage generation of either C10 epimer with complete catalyst control. Diastereoselective addition of an isobutyryl β-ketoester dianion to an α,β-disubstituted chiral aldehyde sets the C5 stereochemistry while installing the geminal dimethyl unit. Differential protection of a syn-1,3-diol is performed as a highly efficient single-pot operation

Stereochemically Versatile Synthesis of the C1–C12 Fragment of Tedanolide C

A flexible synthesis of the C1–C12 fragment of Tedanolide C has been accomplished in eight steps from 2-methyl-2,4-pentadienal. Asymmetric hydroformylation of a 1,3-diene allows for the late-stage generation of either C10 epimer with complete catalyst control. Diastereoselective addition of an isobutyryl β-ketoester dianion to an α,β-disubstituted chiral aldehyde sets the C5 stereochemistry while installing the geminal dimethyl unit. Differential protection of a <i>syn</i>-1,3-diol is performed as a highly efficient single-pot operation