Sul miracolo come violazione delle leggi di natura. Da Hume al dibattito odierno

Since Hume’s essay Of Miracles, the definition of the miracle as a ‘violation of the laws of nature’ has been widespread in the modern philosophy of religion. Such as definition seems, prima facie, coherent with a theistic conception of miracles and, from a particular point of view, a product of the latter. Still, it was used by both Spinoza and Hume to deny the possi-bility and credibility of miracles. Therefore, in the contemporary discussion, most theists have abandoned it, despite its revival by some authors such as Richard Swinburne. In this article, I consider some attempts to circumvent the definition of the miracle as a ‘violation of the laws of nature’ (especially Clive S. Lewis and Robert Larmer’s attempts), claiming that they don’t fully succeed. In the wake of Thomas Aquinas, I argue that this definition of the miracle, though not to be considered exclusive, has the advantage of preserving a realistic notion of a miracle and its apologetic function in theism

Filosofia analitica della religione in Italia. Un'utopia?

In questo saggio, rifletto sulla condizione attuale della filosofia analitica della religione in Italia. Tento di identificare le cause storiche e filosofiche che hanno de t ermi nato la sua scarsa diffusione in Italia e di pro- muovere un superamento della rigida alternativa tra filosofia continentale e filosofia analitica. Concludo mostrando alcuni vantaggi che potrebbero essere apportati da una maggiore diffusione della filosofia analitica della religione, soprattutto nel rapporto con la teologia e riguardo a l ruolo del- la religione nella discussione pubblica

The progress of AAV-mediated gene therapy in neuromuscular disorders

INTRODUCTION: The well-defined genetic causes and monogenetic nature of many neuromuscular disorders, including Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), present gene therapy as a prominent therapeutic approach. The novel variants of adeno-associated virus (AAV) can achieve satisfactory transduction efficiency of exogenous genes through the central nervous system and body-wide in skeletal muscle. AREAS COVERED: In this review, we summarize the strategies of AAV gene therapy that are currently under preclinical and clinical evaluation for the treatment of degenerative neuromuscular disorders, with a focus on diseases such as DMD and SMA. In addition to gene replacement strategy, we provide an overview of other approaches such as AAV-mediated RNA therapy and gene editing in the treatment of muscular dystrophies. EXPERT OPINION: AAV gene therapy has achieved striking therapeutic efficacy in clinical trials in infants with SMA. Promising results have also come from the preclinical studies in small and large animal models of DMD and several clinical trials are now on the way. This strategy shows great potential as a therapy for various neuromuscular disorders. Further studies are still required to confirm its long-term safety and improve the efficacy

La coscienza divisa. Da Antonio Rosmini a Pietro Prini

Uno dei fenomeni più tipici, e insieme più intellettualmente provocanti e dolorosi, del pensiero filosofico-religioso italiano è stato quello dello iato, della scissione, della necessità di conciliazione tra fede religiosa da una parte e modernità intellettuale, morale e civile dall’altra. Il volume si propone di indagare proprio questa coscienza divisa dei filosofi cattolici italiani degli ultimi due secoli. Il suo punto focale Pietro Prini, filosofo convintamente cattolico e instancabilmente critico, che sentì in modo particolarmente acuto il dramma silenzioso della mancata apertura alla modernità auspicata per la Chiesa dal Concilio Vaticano II. Il libro, tuttavia, comincia più indietro, e prende le mosse da Antonio Rosmini, che visse nelle prime turbolente fasi del Risorgimento e tentò di mostrare come l’unica vera filosofia moderna non potesse essere che cattolica. La trattazione procede giù giù lungo il Novecento, analizzando figure come quelle di Ernesto Buonaiuti e di Gustavo Bontadini. In questo lavoro collettaneo il lettore troverà una visibile pluralità di approcci e di stili, con cui si è cercato di rendere giustizia a un quadro culturale differenziato e straordinariamente ricco. Esso comprende il problema della retta interpretazione della modernità e del posto che, nella modernità, può venir riservato alla trascendenza; il problema del modernismo coi suoi martiri e della neoscolastica coi suoi campioni; il problema della demitizzazione e quello del personalismo e della relazione, fino agli attuali problemi dell’ecologia e dell’antropologia religiosa alla luce delle neuroscienze

Computational drug discovery under RNA times

RNA molecules play many functional and regulatory roles in cells, and hence, have gained considerable traction in recent times as therapeutic interventions. Within drug discovery, structure-based approaches have successfully identified potent and selective small-molecule modulators of pharmaceutically relevant protein targets. Here, we embrace the perspective of computational chemists who use these traditional approaches, and we discuss the challenges of extending these methods to target RNA molecules. In particular, we focus on recognition between RNA and small-molecule binders, on selectivity, and on the expected properties of RNA ligands

The Dynamical State fo the Starless Dense Core FeSt 1-457: A Pulsating Globule?

High resolution molecular line observations of CS, HCO+, C18O and N2H+ were obtained toward the starless globule FeSt 1-457 in order to investigate its kinematics and chemistry. The HCO+ and CS spectra show clear self-reversed and asymmetric profiles across the face of the globule. The sense of the observed asymmetry is indicative of the global presence of expansion motions in the outer layers of the globule. These motions appear to be subsonic and significantly below the escape velocity of the globule. Comparison of our observations with near-infrared extinction data indicate that the globule is gravitationally bound. Taken together these considerations lead us to suggest that the observed expansion has its origin in an oscillatory motion of the outer layers of the globule which itself is likely in a quasi-stable state near hydrostatic equilibrium. Analysis of the observed linewidths of CO and N2H+ confirm that thermal pressure is the dominant component of the cloud's internal support. A simple calculation suggests that the dominant mode of pulsation would be an l = 2 mode with a period of 0.3 Myr. Deformation of the globule due to the large amplitude l = 2 oscillation may be responsible for the double-peaked structure of the core detected in high resolution extinction maps. Detailed comparison of the molecular-line observations and extinction data provides evidence for significant depletion of C18O and perhaps HCO+ while N2H+ may be undepleted to a cloud depth of about 40 magnitudes of visual extinction.Comment: to appear in ApJ vol 665 20 August 2007

Young starless cores embedded in the magnetically dominated Pipe Nebula

The Pipe Nebula is a massive, nearby dark molecular cloud with a low star-formation efficiency which makes it a good laboratory to study the very early stages of the star formation process. The Pipe Nebula is largely filamentary, and appears to be threaded by a uniform magnetic field at scales of few parsecs, perpendicular to its main axis. The field is only locally perturbed in a few regions, such as the only active cluster forming core B59. The aim of this study is to investigate primordial conditions in low-mass pre-stellar cores and how they relate to the local magnetic field in the cloud. We used the IRAM 30-m telescope to carry out a continuum and molecular survey at 3 and 1 mm of early- and late-time molecules toward four selected starless cores inside the Pipe Nebula. We found that the dust continuum emission maps trace better the densest regions than previous 2MASS extinction maps, while 2MASS extinction maps trace better the diffuse gas. The properties of the cores derived from dust emission show average radii of ~0.09 pc, densities of ~1.3x10^5 cm^-3, and core masses of ~2.5 M_sun. Our results confirm that the Pipe Nebula starless cores studied are in a very early evolutionary stage, and present a very young chemistry with different properties that allow us to propose an evolutionary sequence. All of the cores present early-time molecular emission, with CS detections toward all the sample. Two of them, Cores 40 and 109, present strong late-time molecular emission. There seems to be a correlation between the chemical evolutionary stage of the cores and the local magnetic properties that suggests that the evolution of the cores is ruled by a local competition between the magnetic energy and other mechanisms, such as turbulence.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 15 pages, 5 figures, 9 table

Barth su Lutero

Il contributo analizza due scritti barthiani del 1933 dedicati alla figura di Lutero come Riformatore e li contestualizza nella riflessione barthiana degli anni Trenta, segnata dalla presa di posizione contro i Deutsche Christen e il loro appoggio dato a Hitler