Against “revolution” and “evolution”

Those standard historiographic themes of “evolution” and “revolution” need replacing. They perpetuate mid-Victorian scientists’ history of science. Historians’ history of science does well to take in the long run from the Greek and Hebrew heritages on, and to work at avoiding misleading anachronism and teleology. As an alternative to the usual “evo-revo” themes, a historiography of origins and species, of cosmologies (including microcosmogonies and macrocosmogonies) and ontologies, is developed here. The advantages of such a historiography are illustrated by looking briefly at a number of transitions the transition from Greek and Hebrew doctrines to their integrations by medieval authors; the transition from the Platonist, Aristotelian, Christian Aquinas to the Newtonian Buffon and to the no less Newtonian Lamarck; the departures the early Darwin made away from Lamarck’s and from Lyell’s views. Issues concerning historical thinking about nature, concerning essentialism and concerning classification are addressed in an attempt to challenge customary stereotypes. Questions about originality and influence are raised, especially concerning Darwin’s “tree of life” scheme. The broader historiography of Darwinian science as a social ideology, and as a “worldview,” is examined and the scope for revisions emphasised. Throughout, graduate students are encouraged to see this topic area not as worked out, but as full of opportunities for fresh contributions

Teaching English Language Learners to Vet Their Sources in the Post-Truth Paradigm

According to the Institute of International Education\u27s Open Doors report, the number of international students studying in the United States exceeded one million for the first time in 2016. Many of these students have insufficient command of the English language to pass the TOEFL or IELTS examinations required for enrollment at U.S. institutions of higher education, and as a result, programs designed to teach proficiency in the English language have been developed at some of these universities. In addition to English grammar and vocabulary, some programs also seek to acculturate students to Western academic norms such as critical thinking, academic integrity, and the paper-writing process to help students be prepared culturally as well as linguistically for American university life. Source evaluation has become an increasingly fraught topic for domestic and international students alike. Within the context of a lesson plan on this topic, this chapter will discuss the development of learning outcomes; an engaging anticipatory set which connects students’ background knowledge to the topic at hand; choosing readings appropriate for the topic and students’ comprehension level; the constructivist rationale for the main activity; and the logistics (timing, technology, etc.) of planning activities for ELLs versus domestic students

Counselling people labelled with asperger syndrome

Identifying the implications of Asperger syndrome for counsellors

Discussion: Darwin's argument in the origin

Various claims have been made, recently, that Darwin's argumentation in the Origin instantiates and so supports some general philosophical proposal about scientific theorizing, for example, the "semantic view". But these claims are grounded in various incorrect analyses of that argumentation. A summary is given here of an analysis defended at greater length in several papers by the present author. The historical and philosophical advantages of this analysis are explained briefly. Darwin's argument comprises three distinct evidential cases on behalf of natural selection, cases, that is, for its existence, its adequacy and its responsibility. Theorizing, today, about evolution by natural selection involves a similar structure of evidential and explanatory concerns

Trends in shuttle entry heating from the correction of flight test maneuvers

A new technique was developed to systematically expand the aerothermodynamic envelope of the Space Shuttle Protection System (TPS). The technique required transient flight test maneuvers which were performed on the second, fourth, and fifth Shuttle reentries. Kalman filtering and parameter estimation were used for the reduction of embedded thermocouple data to obtain best estimates of aerothermal parameters. Difficulties in reducing the data were overcome or minimized. Thermal parameters were estimated to minimize uncertainties, and heating rate parameters were estimated to correlate with angle of attack, sideslip, deflection angle, and Reynolds number changes. Heating trends from the maneuvers allow for rapid and safe envelope expansion needed for future missions, except for some local areas