Is normal science good science?

“Normal science” is a concept introduced by Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). In Kuhn’s view, normal science means “puzzle solving”, solving problems within the paradigm—framework most successful in solving current major scientific problems—rather than producing major novelties. This paper examines Kuhnian and Popperian accounts of normal science and their criticisms to assess if normal science is good. The advantage of normal science according to Kuhn was “psychological”: subjective satisfaction from successful “puzzle solving”. Popper argues for an “intellectual” science, one that consistently refutes conjectures (hypotheses) and offers new ideas rather than focus on personal advantages. His account is criticized as too impersonal and idealistic. Feyerabend’s perspective seems more balanced; he argues for a community that would introduce new ideas, defend old ones, and enable scientists to develop in line with their subjective preferences. The paper concludes that normal science has no one clear-cut set of criteria encompassing its meaning and enabling clear assessment.“Normal science” is a concept introduced by Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). In Kuhn’s view, normal science means “puzzle solving”, solving problems within the paradigm—framework most successful in solving current major scientific problems—rather than producing major novelties. This paper examines Kuhnian and Popperian accounts of normal science and their criticisms to assess if normal science is good. The advantage of normal science according to Kuhn was “psychological”: subjective satisfaction from successful “puzzle solving”. Popper argues for an “intellectual” science, one that consistently refutes conjectures (hypotheses) and offers new ideas rather than focus on personal advantages. His account is criticized as too impersonal and idealistic. Feyerabend’s perspective seems more balanced; he argues for a community that would introduce new ideas, defend old ones, and enable scientists to develop in line with their subjective preferences. The paper concludes that normal science has no one clear-cut set of criteria encompassing its meaning and enabling clear assessment

Is normal science good science?

“Normal science” is a concept introduced by Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). In Kuhn’s view, normal science means “puzzle solving”, solving problems within the paradigm—framework most successful in solving current major scientific problems—rather than producing major novelties. This paper examines Kuhnian and Popperian accounts of normal science and their criticisms to assess if normal science is good. The advantage of normal science according to Kuhn was “psychological”: subjective satisfaction from successful “puzzle solving”. Popper argues for an “intellectual” science, one that consistently refutes conjectures (hypotheses) and offers new ideas rather than focus on personal advantages. His account is criticized as too impersonal and idealistic. Feyerabend’s perspective seems more balanced; he argues for a community that would introduce new ideas, defend old ones, and enable scientists to develop in line with their subjective preferences. The paper concludes that normal science has no one clear-cut set of criteria encompassing its meaning and enabling clear assessment

O przypisach w Ewangeliach z Biblii brzeskiej z internetowej edycji Szesnastowieczne przekłady Ewangelii

The article attempts to analyse different types of original glosses and editorial footnotes in the Gospels of the Brest Bible, one of ten Polish translations of the Bible, included in the electronic publication of Szesnastowieczne przekłady Ewangelii (Eng. Sixteenth-Century Translations of the Gospels). Among the original glosses one can distinguish: a) concordant glosses, referring to the parallel fragments of the Bible, b) philologicalexegetic glosses signed with capital letters of the alphabet. The greater part of original glosses of this kind includes annotations that are didactic and doctrinal comments. The marginal glosses signed with capital letters are also short lexical glosses which contain synonyms or definitions of words, including those referring to biblical reality. The contemporary editorial footnotes are different types of footnotes, including: substantive, graphic, inflectional, derivational and phonetic. Short descriptions of each type of footnotes focus on selected and more detailed aspects, e.g. the study of derivational footnotes provides information on the techniques of creating possessive adjectives often used in the text. The article draws upon new research techniques – a computer program Ewangelie (Gospels) and Internet search engine of annotations (https://ewangelie. uw.edu.pl/przypisy) by Michał Rudolf.The article attempts to analyse different types of original glosses and editorial footnotes in the Gospels of the Brest Bible, one of ten Polish translations of the Bible, included in the electronic publication of Szesnastowieczne przekłady Ewangelii (Eng. Sixteenth-Century Translations of the Gospels). Among the original glosses one can distinguish: a) concordant glosses, referring to the parallel fragments of the Bible, b) philologicalexegetic glosses signed with capital letters of the alphabet. The greater part of original glosses of this kind includes annotations that are didactic and doctrinal comments. The marginal glosses signed with capital letters are also short lexical glosses which contain synonyms or definitions of words, including those referring to biblical reality. The contemporary editorial footnotes are different types of footnotes, including: substantive, graphic, inflectional, derivational and phonetic. Short descriptions of each type of footnotes focus on selected and more detailed aspects, e.g. the study of derivational footnotes provides information on the techniques of creating possessive adjectives often used in the text. The article draws upon new research techniques – a computer program Ewangelie (Gospels) and Internet search engine of annotations (https://ewangelie. uw.edu.pl/przypisy) by Michał Rudolf.

Metawersum i jego potencjał twórczy dla sztuk wizualnych

The National Centre for Culture is conducting a foresight research project on the impact of emerging technologies on the arts. The article presents the first findings brought by the analysis of opportunities created by the development of virtual spaces accessible to artists and the public – which are expected to create the Metaverse and promote a new form of ownership, NFT. The text is dedicated to the potential of new tools and media – the positive side of the interface between modern technologies and art. The article offers definitions of the Metaverse, NFT and digital art. Apparently, these elements of social (and technological) reality not only overlap, but also complement each other. The text attempts to answer the question of what potential the next phase of digital transformation brings for visual artists.Narodowe Centrum Kultury prowadzi projekt badawczy typu foresight, dotyczący wpływu wschodzących technologii na sztukę. W artykule przedstawiono pierwsze wnioski z analizy możliwości stwarzanych przez rozwój wirtualnych przestrzeni, dostępnych dla artystów i publiczności – mających prowadzić do powstania Metawersum – oraz nowej formy własności, jaką jest NFT. Tekst poświęcony został potencjałowi nowych narzędzi i mediów, a więc pozytywnym aspektom styku najnowszych technologii i sztuki. W artykule można znaleźć definicję Metawersum, NFT oraz sztuki cyfrowej. Te elementy rzeczywistości społecznej (oraz technologicznej) okazują się nie tylko zazębiać, ale i dopełniać. Tekst odpowiada na pytanie, jaki potencjał dla artystów sztuk wizualnych niesie ze sobą kolejna faza transformacji cyfrowej

Schizophrenia polygenic risk predicts general cognitive deficit but not cognitive decline in healthy older adults

There has been a long argument over whether schizophrenia is a neurodegenerative disorder associated with progressive cognitive impairment. Given high heritability of schizophrenia, ascertaning if genetic susceptibility to schizophrenia is also associated with cognitive decline in healthy people would support the view that schizophrenia leads to an accelerated cognitive decline. Using the population representative sample of 6817 adults aged >50 years from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, we investigated associations between the biennial rate of decline in cognitive ability and the schizophrenia polygenic score (SZ-PGS) during the 10-year follow-up period. SZ-PGS was calculated based on summary statistics from the Schizophrenia Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. Cognition was measured sequentially across four time points using verbal memory and semantic fluency tests. The average baseline verbal memory was 10.4 (SD = 3.4) and semantic fluency was 20.7 (SD = 6.3). One standard deviation (1-SD) increase in SZ-PGS was associated with lower baseline semantic fluency (β = −0.25, 95%CI = −0.40 to −0.10, p = 0.002); this association was significant in men (β = −0.36, 95%CI = −0.59 to −0.12, p = 0.003) and in those who were aged 60–69 years old (β = −0.32, 95%CI = −0.58 to −0.05, p = 0.019). Similarly, 1-SD increase in SZ-PGS was associated with lower verbal memory score at baseline in men only (β = −0.12, 95%CI = −0.23 to −0.01, p = 0.040). However, SZ-PGS was not associated with a greater rate of decline in these cognitive domains during the 10-year follow-up. Our findings highlight that while genetic susceptibility to schizophrenia conveys developmental cognitive deficit, it is not associated with an ongoing cognitive decline, at least in later life. These results do not support the neo-Kraepelinian notion of schizophrenia as a genetically determined progressively deteriorating brain disease

Growth of large SbSI crystals

In this paper a novel method of SbSI single crystals fabrication is presented. In this method a sonochemically prepared SbSI gel is used as an intermediate product in a vapour growth process. The main advantages of the presented technique are as follows. First, the SbSI gel source material has lower temperature of sublimation and allows to avoid explosions during SbSI synthesis (the sonochemical synthesis is free of any explosion hazard). Second, but not least, the grown SbSI single crystals have smaller ratio of longitudinal and lateral dimensions. The cross sections of the presented crystals are relatively large (they are up to 9 mm2). The crystals have been characterized by X-ray diffraction, angle-resolved optical spectroscopy, and diffusive reflectivity

Changes in morphological and cytological properties of blood during physical exercise in water at 4o^{o}C and 25o^{o}C

Praca recenzowana / peer-reviewed paperObjective: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of a single swimming exercise till exhaustion, in water on the morphological and cytological blood parameters in laboratory rats. Methods: The experiment involved 60 male rats from the Wistar strain, aged 8 weeks and 36 weeks. The animals were separated into 6 groups: 3 groups (I, II, III) of 8-week old animals, and 3 groups (IV, V, VI) of 36-week old animals. The rats in the study groups i.e. II, III, V, and VI were made to swim till exhaustion in water at 4ºC and at 25°C. After the experiment blood samples were collected from each rat and hematological and cytological determinations were completed for each sample. Results: Compared with the control group, in the rats from group II (8-week old, swimming in water at 4ºC) a significant increase was noted in the RBC count, Hb, Ht, and MCHC, and MCH indices, whereas in the rats from group V (36-week old, swimming in water at 4ºC) increases were noted in the MCHC and MCH indices (again when compared with the control group). In the rats from group III (8-week old, swimming in water at 25ºC), compared with the control group, significant increases were noted in the Hb and Ht parameters, as well as in the MCHC, and MCH indices, whereas in the group VI rats (36-week old swimming at 25ºC) – the increase was noted in the MCHC index. No alterations were found in the reticulocyte count, and in poikilocytes during exercise in water at low temperatures in either the 8-week or 36-week old rats. Conclusions: The increases in the majority of blood parameters, testifies to the dehydration of the body during physical exercise which in turn affects the microcirculation function. The lack of alterations in the reticulocyte count in the peripheral blood may, in turn, testify to the ineffectiveness of low temperature during exercise upon the function of the bone marrow

Properties of Sonochemically Prepared CuInxGa1-xS2 and CuInxGa1-xSe2

Nanoparticles of chalcopyrites copper indium gallium sul de (CuInxGa1xS2 or CIGS) and copper indium gallium selenide (CuInxGa1xSe2 or CIGSe) were fabricated sonochemically. They were characterized by Xray di raction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, selected area electron di raction, and di use re ectance spectroscopy. The electrical and photoelectrical properties of the fabricated nanomaterials were investigated

Fast and efficient piezo/photocatalytic removal of methyl orange using SbSI nanowires

Piezocatalysis is a novel method that can be applied for degradation of organic pollutants in wastewater. In this paper, ferroelectric nanowires of antimony sulfoiodide (SbSI) have been fabricated using a sonochemical method. Methyl orange (MO) was chosen as a typical pollutant, as it is widely used as a dye in industry. An aqueous solution of MO at a concentration of 30 mg/L containing SbSI nanowires (6 g/L) was subjected to ultrasonic vibration. High degradation e ciency of 99.5% was achieved after an extremely short period of ultrasonic irradiation (40 s). The large reaction rate constant of 0.126(8) s1 was determined for piezocatalytic MO decomposition. This rate constant is two orders of magnitude larger than values of reaction rate constants reported in the literature for the most e cient piezocatalysts. These promising experimental results have proved a great potential of SbSI nanowires for their application in environmental purification and renewable energy conversion