‘BIG DATA’ AND ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT'S APPROACH TO SCIENCE

This article departs from the hypothesis that Alexander von Humboldt used ‘Big Data’ in order to bring new scientific evidence into the open. His method of measuring and combining temperature, humidity, altitude and magnetism in a geographical environment must be regarded as innovative, indeed, as the foundation of modern science. Although Humboldt lived in an analogue world and used the instruments of his time, his way of assembling information was not so different from what we are seeing in today's digitalised world. Information has no value unless it is shared. It does not say anything unless it is linked with other data. It cannot remain isolated but must be compared and interpreted. The generation of ʻBig Dataʼ was a pathway to Humboldt's concept of ʻKosmosʼ in much the same way as ʻBig Dataʼ today is the pathway to a virtual world. In this sense, Humboldt not only laid the foundation of modern science but anticipated the existence of a world where data and information are the source of everything when it comes to understanding the interconnectivity of the physical and the virtual world.Dieser Beitrag geht von der Hypothese aus, dass Alexander von HumboldtʻBig Dataʼverwendet hat, um neue wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse ans Licht zubringen. Sein Ansatz, Temperatur, Feuchtigkeit, Höhe und Magnetismus in einergeografischen Umgebung zu messen und zu kombinieren, muss als innovativ,ja als Grundlage der modernen Wissenschaft angesehen werden. Obwohl erin einer analogen Welt lebte und die entsprechenden Instrumente benutzte,unterscheidet sich seine Art, Informationen zu sammeln, nicht so sehr von der inder heutigen digitalisierten Welt. Informationen haben keinen Wert, wenn sie nichtgeteilt werden, sie sagen nichts aus, wenn sie nicht mit anderen Daten verknüpftsind, sondern müssen interpretiert werden. Die Erzeugung vonʻBig DataʼdurchAlexander von Humboldt war ein Weg zum Konzept einesʻKosmosʼ, ähnlich wieʻBig Dataʼheute der Weg zum Konzept einer virtuellen Welt ist. Und doch ergänzensich beide gegenseitig: derʻKosmosʼvon Humboldt und die heutige virtuelleWelt gewinnen immer mehr an Bedeutung. In diesem Sinne hat Alexander vonHumboldt nicht nur die Grundlagen der modernen Wissenschaft gelegt, sonderner hat die Existenz einer Welt vorweggenommen, in der Daten und Informationendie Quellen für alles sind, um die Wechselwirkung zwischen der physischen und dervirtuellen Welt zu verstehen

Santa Rosa Xtampak, Campeche, y sus inscripciones

The pre-Hispanic Maya site of Santa Rosa Xtampak, Campeche is best known for its great Palace, but is almost not explored archaeologically and only purely understood by its inscriptions. The present paper gives a short overview of the history of discovery and the archological advances before focusing on the inscriptions, especially on the stelae which show both, traces of local and regional patterns as well as discourse structures familiar from inscriptions of the central and southern lowland. However, it will be argued that they fit into the tradition of inscriptions known from the cultural area called northwest Yucatan.Santa Rosa Xtampak es un sitio bien conocido por su gran palacio, pero poco explorado y apenas mencionado en cuanto a sus inscripciones. El ensayo, tras abordar brevemente la historia de su descubrimiento y los avances arqueológicos, se centra en sus inscripciones, particularmente las contenidas en las estelas, que muestran rasgos locales a la vez que de patrones regionales. Si bien muestran estructuras próximas a las inscripciones de las Tierras Bajas centrales y meridionales, se argumenta su inserción en la tradición propia del área del Yucatán noroccidental

Deficient adaptation to centrosome duplication defects in neural progenitors causes microcephaly and subcortical heterotopias.

Congenital microcephaly (MCPH) is a neurodevelopmental disease associated with mutations in genes encoding proteins involved in centrosomal and chromosomal dynamics during mitosis. Detailed MCPH pathogenesis at the cellular level is still elusive, given the diversity of MCPH genes and lack of comparative in vivo studies. By generating a series of CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genetic KOs, we report here that - whereas defects in spindle pole proteins (ASPM, MCPH5) result in mild MCPH during development - lack of centrosome (CDK5RAP2, MCPH3) or centriole (CEP135, MCPH8) regulators induces delayed chromosome segregation and chromosomal instability in neural progenitors (NPs). Our mouse model of MCPH8 suggests that loss of CEP135 results in centriole duplication defects, TP53 activation, and cell death of NPs. Trp53 ablation in a Cep135-deficient background prevents cell death but not MCPH, and it leads to subcortical heterotopias, a malformation seen in MCPH8 patients. These results suggest that MCPH in some MCPH patients can arise from the lack of adaptation to centriole defects in NPs and may lead to architectural defects if chromosomally unstable cells are not eliminated during brain development