From Sacred to Scientific: Epic Religion, Spectacular Science, and Charlton Heston’s Science Fiction Cinema

This paper analyses how long-1960s cinema responded to and framed public discourses surrounding religion and science. This approach allows for a discussion that extends beyond a critical study of the scholarly debates that surround the place of religion in science during a transitional period. Charlton Heston was an epic actor who went from literally playing God in The Ten Commandments (1956) to playing “god” as a messianic scientist in The Omega Man (1971). Best known for playing Moses, Heston became an unlikely science-based cinema star during the early 1970s. He was re-imagined as a scientist, but the religiosity of his established persona was inescapable. Heston and the science-based films he starred in capitalized upon the utopian promises of real science, and also the fears of the vocal activist counterculture. Planet of the Apes (1968), Omega Man (1971), Soylent Green (1973), and other science-based films made between 1968-1977 were bleak countercultural warnings about excessive consumerism, uncontrolled science, nuclear armament, irreversible environmental damage, and eventual human extinction. In this paper I argue that Heston’s transition from biblical epic star to science-fiction anti-hero represents the way in which the role and interpretation of science changed in post-classical cinema. Despite the shift from religious epic to science-based spectacle, religion remained a faithful component of Hollywood output indicating the ongoing connection between science and religion in US culture. I will consider the transition from sacred to science-based narratives and how religion was utilised across the production process of films that commented upon scientific advances

Late Presentation With HIV in Africa: Phenotypes, Risk, and Risk Stratification in the REALITY Trial.

This article has been accepted for publication in Clinical Infectious Diseases Published by Oxford University PressBackground: Severely immunocompromised human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected individuals have high mortality shortly after starting antiretroviral therapy (ART). We investigated predictors of early mortality and "late presenter" phenotypes. Methods: The Reduction of EArly MortaLITY (REALITY) trial enrolled ART-naive adults and children ≥5 years of age with CD4 counts .1). Results: Among 1711 included participants, 203 (12%) died. Mortality was independently higher with older age; lower CD4 count, albumin, hemoglobin, and grip strength; presence of World Health Organization stage 3/4 weight loss, fever, or vomiting; and problems with mobility or self-care at baseline (all P < .04). Receiving enhanced antimicrobial prophylaxis independently reduced mortality (P = .02). Of five late-presenter phenotypes, Group 1 (n = 355) had highest mortality (25%; median CD4 count, 28 cells/µL), with high symptom burden, weight loss, poor mobility, and low albumin and hemoglobin. Group 2 (n = 394; 11% mortality; 43 cells/µL) also had weight loss, with high white cell, platelet, and neutrophil counts suggesting underlying inflammation/infection. Group 3 (n = 218; 10% mortality) had low CD4 counts (27 cells/µL), but low symptom burden and maintained fat mass. The remaining groups had 4%-6% mortality. Conclusions: Clinical and laboratory features identified groups with highest mortality following ART initiation. A screening tool could identify patients with low CD4 counts for prioritizing same-day ART initiation, enhanced prophylaxis, and intensive follow-up. Clinical Trials Registration: ISRCTN43622374.REALITY was funded by the Joint Global Health Trials Scheme (JGHTS) of the UK Department for International Development, the Wellcome Trust, and Medical Research Council (MRC) (grant number G1100693). Additional funding support was provided by the PENTA Foundation and core support to the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at University College London (grant numbers MC_UU_12023/23 and MC_UU_12023/26). Cipla Ltd, Gilead Sciences, ViiV Healthcare/GlaxoSmithKline, and Merck Sharp & Dohme donated drugs for REALITY, and ready-to-use supplementary food was purchased from Valid International. A. J. P. is funded by the Wellcome Trust (grant number 108065/Z/15/Z). J. A. B. is funded by the JGHTS (grant number MR/M007367/1). The Malawi-Liverpool–Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme, University of Malawi College of Medicine (grant number 101113/Z/13/Z) and the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)/Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kilifi (grant number 203077/Z/16/Z) are supported by strategic awards from the Wellcome Trust, United Kingdom. Permission to publish was granted by the Director of KEMRI. This supplement was supported by funds from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Marchandises de traite et développement industriel dans la France et l'Angleterre du XVIIIe siècle

Did the slave trade, by the quantity of finished goods it required, generate industrial growth ? In Nantes, the middle of the eighteenth century witnessed a burst of industrial activity linked to the slave trade. But the Seven Years' War put an end to this period. The Le Havre-Rouen complex also witnessed an era of industrial growth in the last third of the century, when each town rationalized its activities in relationship to the trade. In that case too, international factors (Treaty of 1786, slave revolt in Saint-Domingue, revolutionary wars) put an end to the experiment. England offers an altogether different picture. There the impact of the slave trade was reduced by the much wider economic framework in which it was integrated. Manchester experienced a brief increase in the of cotton checks, similar in character to the bursts in French production. This represents, however, only an incident within a wider development independent of the slave trade, and it is not possible to isolate the latter as an essential precondition of the Industrial Revolution. Rather, the key to the success of England is found in the multiple markets it dominated and the intégration of its economic sectors which provided that country with the means of sustaining its industrial development.La traite des Noirs fut-elle génératrice de développement industriel du fait des quantités d'articles finis qu'elle requérait ? Nantes au milieu du XVIIIe siècle fut la scène d'un essor industriel lié à la traite, brutalement interrompu par la guerre de Sept ans. Le complexe Le Havre-Rouen, chacune de ces villes se spécialisant dans un secteur différent, fit l'expérience d'une poussée industrielle semblable au cours du dernier tiers du siècle. Là encore, les facteurs internationaux (traité de 1786, révolte de Saint-Domingue, guerres révolutionnaires) mirent fin à ce développement. L'Angleterre présente un cas totalement différent. L'effet de la traite y était limité par le cadre économique beaucoup plus large dans lequel elle s'insère. A l'exception d'un bref essor dans le secteur des toiles à carreaux, assez semblable aux poussées françaises mais ne représentant qu'un incident d'un développement indépendant de la traite, il n'est pas possible d'isoler celle-ci comme facteur préalable essentiel de la Révolution industrielle. La clef du succès de l'Angleterre se trouve dans la multiplicité de ses marchés et l'intégration de ses secteurs économiques qui fournirent à l'industrie les moyens de soutenir son développement.Boulle Pierre H. Marchandises de traite et développement industriel dans la France et l'Angleterre du XVIIIe siècle. In: Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer, tome 62, n°226-227, 1er et 2e trimestres 1975. La traite des Noirs par l'Atlantique : nouvelles approches. pp. 309-330

La construction du concept de race dans la France d'Ancien Régime

When the term race was introduced into the French language, toward the end of the fifteenth century, and at least until the seventeenth century, its meaning was solely that of lineage and had none of its modem connotations of fixed physical and moral attributes. A transformation began in the second half of the seventeenth century, as natural sciences developed and the non-European world became better known. However, the keyfactor transforming these ideas into a racist ideology was the combined introduction of sugar production and African slaves in the West Indian colonies, aprocess requiring the domination of one human group by another, on the basis of a supposed moral and intellectual superiority allegedly reflected physically by natural differences. From the colonies, this attitude spread among the metropolitan elite, without however influencing yet the lower classes.Lorsqu'il est introduit en France à la fin du XVe siècle, et jusqu'au moins au XVIIe, le terme race a uniquement la connotation de lignée, sans qu'il soit associé à des caractéristiques fixes, soit physiques soit morales. Une transformation pointe au cours du second XVIIe siècle, associée au développement des sciences naturelles et à une meilleure connaissance du monde extra-européen. C'est toutefois l'introduction de la production sucrière aux Antilles et son association avec l'esclavage des noirs qui transforme ces idées en une idéologie raciste permettant la domination d'un groupe humain par un autre, sur la base d'une présumée supériorité morale et intellectuelle, laquelle est censée être reflétée au physique par des distinctions naturelles. Des colonies, cette idéologie se propagera au sein de l'élite métropolitaine sans toutefois être encore partagée par les couches inférieures de la société.Boulle Pierre H. La construction du concept de race dans la France d'Ancien Régime. In: Outre-mers, tome 89, n°336-337, 2e semestre 2002. traites et esclavages : vieux problèmes, nouvelles perspectives ? sous la direction de Olivier Pétré-Grenouilleau. pp. 155-175

Les mariages mixtes en France, de l\u27Ancien Régime à la Restauration

Une série d\u27actes législatifs traitent des mariages mixtes de 1716 à 1820, jusqu\u27à ce qu\u27il soit accepté que ces mariages, jugés jusqu\u27alors exceptionnels, soient régis par le Code civil comme tous les autres. La communication fera le bilan de cette législation et les préjugés qu\u27elle reflète, en prenant pour chaque période quelques exemples tirés de la base de données que Pierre H. Boulle a créée sur les Noirs et gens de couleur vivant en France à cette époque

Slave Trade, Commercial Organization and Industrial Growth in Eighteenth-Century Nantes

The slave trade was one of the important motors of economic concentration in the eighteenth century. One thesis would even have it that, in England, this commerce was closely tied to the Industrial Revolution. Gaston Martin has suggested a similar pattern in the case of Nantes, the first slave-trading port of France, around which a true industrial revolution is supposed to have taken place, thanks to the armateurs' economic concentration. Hence, the case of Nantes may reveal something about French economie transformation and its limits in the eighteenth century. Such a concentration, based on a rational organization of commerce, took place within Nantes' slave-trading oligarchy between 1730 and 1755. There, unlike in other ports, the effect of this concentration was not dissipated through heavy non-commercial investments. Rather, accumulated capital was used to expand the trade's impact, especially through investments in local industries (mostly textiles), the character of which was remarkably modem (quantity replaced quality ; a modem financial structure was adopted ; labor problems and competition arose). However, the Seven Years' War interrupted the Atlantic trade. Nantes, over-specialized, suffered more than other ports. Traditional investments having regained their the postwar period saw the old slave-trading families replaced by more cautious and less specialized armateurs. Furthermore, the era being characterized by lower profits, less risk capital was available to industry. The port's industrial growth was stopped and modernization not pursued. Thus, the Seven Years' War is a turning point for Nantes' economy. The fragility and isolation of the latter may be fundamental causes of the city's failure to industrialize, but these weaknesses had been overcome earlier. Therefore, the French fleet's powerlessness to protect the merchant navy was an important factor in the French eighteenth-century failure to keep up with England in the industrial realm.La traite fut l'un des moteurs importants de la concentration économique au XVIIIe siècle. Une thèse voudrait même qu'en Angleterre elle ait été intimement liée à l'essor industriel. Gaston Martin a suggéré des liens semblables dans le cas de Nantes, le premier port négrier français, autour duquel, grâce à la concentration économique des armateurs, aurait eu lieu une véritable révolution industrielle. Le cas de Nantes pourrait donc révéler certains indices sur la transformation de l'économie française et ses limites au XVIIIe siècle. L'auteur démontre qu'une telle concentration, basée sur l'organisation rationnelle du commerce, s'est produite au sein de l'oligarchie négrière nantaise entre 1730 et 1755. A Nantes, au contraire des autres ports, l'effet de cette concentration n'a pas été dissipé dans de larges investissements extra- commerciaux. Les capitaux accumulés ont été utilisés de préférence pour élargir l'impact de la traite, en particulier par des investissements dans une industrie locale, surtout textile, dont les caractéristiques sont étrangement modernes : la quantité remplace la qualité ; une organisation financière moderne est adoptée ; des problèmes ouvriers et la compétition apparaissent. Cependant, la Guerre de Sept ans interrompit le commerce atlantique. Nantes, trop spécialisée, souffrit plus que les autres ports. Les investissements traditionnels ayant repris leur attrait, l'après-guerre vit les anciennes familles négrières remplacées par des armateurs plus timides et moins spécialisés. De plus, les bénéfices réduits caractérisant l'après-guerre ne permirent plus l'accumulation capitaliste sur laquelle l'industrie avait été basée. L'essor industriel fut donc détruit et les débuts de modernisation n'eurent pas de suites à Nantes. La Guerre de Sept ans est un tournant dans l'économie nantaise. Si la fragilité et l'isolement de cette économie sont les causes fondamentales de l'insuccès de la révolution industrielle à Nantes, il n'en est pas moins vrai que ces faiblesses avaient été surmontées dans la période précédente. L'impuissance de la flotte française à protéger la marine marchande fut donc un facteur important du retard industriel que prit la France sur l'Angleterre au XVIIIe siècle.Boulle Pierre H. Slave Trade, Commercial Organization and Industrial Growth in Eighteenth-Century Nantes. In: Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer, tome 59, n°214, 1er trimestre 1972. pp. 70-112