70 research outputs found
Futile Care for the Terminally Ill: It May Be Legal But Is It Ethical or Morally Justifiable?
The Muon g-2
The muon anomalous magnetic moment is one of the most precisely measured
quantities in particle physics. In a recent experiment at Brookhaven it has
been measured with a remarkable 14-fold improvement of the previous CERN
experiment reaching a precision of 0.54ppm. Since the first results were
published, a persisting "discrepancy" between theory and experiment of about 3
standard deviations is observed. It is the largest "established" deviation from
the Standard Model seen in a "clean" electroweak observable and thus could be a
hint for New Physics to be around the corner. This deviation triggered numerous
speculations about the possible origin of the "missing piece" and the increased
experimental precision animated a multitude of new theoretical efforts which
lead to a substantial improvement of the prediction of the muon anomaly
a_mu=(g_mu-2)/2. The dominating uncertainty of the prediction, caused by strong
interaction effects, could be reduced substantially, due to new hadronic cross
section measurements in electron-positron annihilation at low energies. Also
the recent electron g-2 measurement at Harvard contributes substantially to the
progress in this field, as it allows for a much more precise determination of
the fine structure constant alpha as well as a cross check of the status of our
theoretical understanding.Comment: 134 pages, 68 figure
Retórica de la cuantificación: tuberculosis, estadística y mundo laboral en Colombia, 1916-1946
Seeding Science, Courting Conclusions: Reexamining the Intersection of Science, Corporate Cash, and the Law
Social scientists have expressed strong views on corporate influences over science, but most attention has been devoted to broad, Black/White arguments, rather than to actual mechanisms of influence. This paper summarizes an experience where involvement in a lawsuit led to the discovery of an unexpected mechanism: A large corporation facing a multibillion-dollar court judgment quietly provided generous funding to well-known scientists (including at least one Nobel prize winner) who would submit articles to "open," peer-reviewed journals, so that their "unbiased science" could be cited in an appeal to the Supreme Court. On balance, the corporation's most effective techniques of influence may have been provided not by overt pressure, but by encouraging scientists to continue thinking of themselves as independent and impartial
Moses Maimonides: Biographic Outlines
Moses, son of Maimon (Rambam in Hebrew, Abu Imran Musa Ibn Maimun in Arabic), was born in Cordova, Spain on 30 March 1135, corresponding to Passover eve of the Hebrew year 4895. His mother died in childbirth, and consequently his father Dayan (judge) Maimon raised him. Persecution by the Almochades, a fanatical group from North Africa, forced the Maimon family to flee Cordova in the year 1148. Maimonides was 13 years old. The family wandered through southern Spain and northern Africa for the next 10 years and finally settled in Fez, Morocco in 1158
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