The International Scientific Series and the Communication of Darwinism?

This thesis notes that there is a lack of systematic research investigating segregation patterns based on how public space is used and frequented by citizens. In order for understanding of urban segregation to reach beyond residential segregation, the extent to which public space facilitates co-presence between social groups is a key issue. The main concern in this thesis is to arrive at a deeper understanding of the critical role urban form plays in terms of co-presence in public space and in extension for social segregation. The argument builds on knowledge from other fields, arguing that co-presence is of utmost importance for societal processes: by sharing space and being co-present with others, which does not necessarily imply focused interaction, we gain information and knowledge from our fellow citizens and participate in processes that negotiate social structures, acceptable behaviours and identities. The sharing of space thus becomes a central part of ‘being in society’. It is furthermore through public space that material urban resources are accessible, an access that is dependent on both the location of the amenities in space but also the distribution of space, as structured and shaped by urban form, which creates the actual experience of access through space. Segregation is primarily defined as a social problem. However, in this thesis, it is made clear that it is also a spatial problem. While also broadening the conceptualisation of segregation, the main focus has been upon the role of the built environment. The socio-spatial link builds on social theories. However, these theories are weak when it comes to explaining where co-presence occurs. Addressing the spatial side of the problem, the thesis primarily builds on the architectural theory of space syntax that exactly aims to study the space-society relationship from the viewpoint of space and provides empirical evidence for the correspondence between urban form – as it is shaped by urban design and architecture – and the creation of co-presence as well as variations in its intensity and its constitution. In addition, key questions such as what people may have access to ‘just around the corner’ in terms of human resources or other urban amenities are elaborated. The distinct variations found between neighbourhoods are argued both to enrich the discussion on social exclusion and unequal living conditions and inform future urban planning and design. The thesis demonstrates that specific configurational properties have great impact on the pattern of co-presence. More specifically, it is found that a segregation of public space, a limited spatial reach and an uneven distribution of spatial centrality appears not to favour an exchange between neighbourhoods or access to urban resources across the city – findings that are highly critical for the urban segregation issue. Detailed configurational analysis of Stockholm reveals the performative aspects of different urban layouts related not only to local circumstances and character but, more importantly, to the further context of such layouts. Increased knowledge of how spatial configuration relates to social practices offers new insight into how different neighbourhoods and urban layouts perform socially and increases understanding of the social implications of spatial configuration. The findings of this study are argued to open up theoretical developments that address the social and political dimension of urban design with greater precision. Not least, this knowledge can influence public debate. The knowledge produced can furthermore be used in urban design practice and anti-segregation initiatives, identifying whether spatial interventions can make a contribution and if so, what physical interventions respond to the social ends in question, where the ultimate aim is an urban design that not only builds cities but societies too.QC 20131108</p

The Origins of Agnosticism

Originally published in 1987. The Origins of Agnosticism provides a reinterpretation of agnosticism and its relationship to science. Professor Lightman examines the epistemological basis of agnostics' learned ignorance, studying their core claim that "God is unknowable." To address this question, he reconstructs the theory of knowledge posited by Thomas Henry Huxley and his network of agnostics. In doing so, Lightman argues that agnosticism was constructed on an epistemological foundation laid by Christian thought. In addition to undermining the continuity in the intellectual history of religious thought, Lightman exposes the religious origins of agnosticism

Studying the Cultural History of Victorian Science

Far-field microwave power transfer (MPT) will free wireless sensors and other mobile devices from the constraints imposed by finite battery capacities. Integrating MPT with wireless communications to support simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) allows the same spectrum to be used for dual purposes without compromising the quality of service. A novel approach is presented in this paper for realizing SWIPT in a broadband system where orthogonal frequency division multiplexing and transmit beamforming are deployed to create a set of parallel sub-channels for SWIPT, which simplifies resource allocation. Based on a proposed reconfigurable mobile architecture, different system configurations are considered by combining single-user/multi-user systems, downlink/uplink information transfer, and variable/fixed coding rates. Optimizing the power control for these configurations results in a new class of multi-user power-control problems featuring the circuit-power constraints, specifying that the transferred power must be sufficiently large to support the operation of the receiver circuitry. Solving these problems gives a set of power-control algorithms that exploit channel diversity in frequency for simultaneously enhancing the throughput and the MPT efficiency. For the system configurations with variable coding rates, the algorithms are variants of water-filling that account for the circuit-power constraints. The optimal algorithms for those configurations with fixed coding rates are shown to sequentially allocate mobiles their required power for decoding in ascending order until the entire budgeted power is spent. The required power for a mobile is derived as simple functions of the minimum signal-to-noise ratio for correct decoding, the circuit power and sub-channel gains. © 1991-2012 IEEE.link_to_subscribed_fulltex

Periodicals and Controversy

In 1854 the biologist Thomas Henry Huxley pointed to a significant change in the way that reviewers were treating books that endorsed deeply flawed scientific theories. In the past, “when a book had been shown to be a mass of pretentious nonsense,” it “quietly sunk into its proper limbo. But these days appear, unhappily, to have gone by.” Due to the “utter ignorance of the public mind as to the methods of science and the criterion of truth,” scientists were now forced to review such books in order to expose their deficiencies (Huxley 1903, 1). Huxley’s observation indicates how the development of a mass reading audience in mid-nineteenth century Britain transformed the very nature of scientific controversy. Scientists were compelled to debate the validity of theories in new public sites, not just in exclusive scientific societies or in specialized scientific journals with limited circulation. It was during the nineteenth century that public controversy—not limited to science alone—became possible for the first time. In this short piece I will discuss how the “communications revolution” produced a public space for the debate over evolutionary theory in mid-nineteenth century Britain. I will focus on periodicals as one of those public spaces in which the debate took place.1 As Huxley found, attempting to resolve a scientific controversy in the general periodical press could be a risky venture. Although a non-specialized journal could provide the public space necessary for reaching the reading audience, maintaining scientific authority in such a site was somewhat problematic

Pope Huxley and the Church Agnostic: The Religion of Science

En 1858, Henry Longueville Mansel donna une série de conférences, dans le cadre des "Bampton Lectures' ', qui suscitèrent de vives réactions. Il y défendait, entre autres, l'infaillibilité de la Bible à partir de prémisses selon lesquelles l'homme étant un être limité alors que Dieu et le monde transcendantal se situent au-delà de ces limites, l'homme ne peut, par conséquent, critiquer la Bible qui est une communication de Dieu, un Etre qui est inconnaissable par définition.Parmi ceux qui réagirent aux propos de Mansel se trouvaient plusieurs naturalistes de l'époque et, en particulier, Thomas Henry Huxley. Celui-ci compara Mansel à un personnage caricaturé par Hogarth qui est en train de scier la branche sur le bout de laquelle il est perché. Selon Huxley, Mansel ne faisait pas que détruire la théologie chrétienne qu'il voulait défendre mais il fournissait en plus des arguments à ses délateurs. De fait, une nouvelle forme de scepticisme religieux s'édifiait à l'époque, à partir du concept que le monde matériel étant seul connaissable, le transcendantal s'avérait donc inaccessible pour l'homme. Huxley, qui partageait ces idées, désigna plus tard cette forme de scepticisme religieux sous le nom d'agnosticisme. Cette nouvelle forme de scepticisme engendra d'ailleurs de longues polémiques concernant la science et la religion et Huxley se retrouva souvent au centre de ces débats.L'auteur analyse ici les démêlés et les jalons qui marquèrent l'évolution de l'agnosticisme et il constate que, ironiquement, si Mansel fit du tort à la religion en s'appuyant sur une perception de l'homme comme étant limité dans sa capacité de connaître, Huxley et les agnostiques qui lui empruntèrent cette vision des choses, firent, de leur côté, beaucoup de tort à la science

Minakata Kumagusu in London: Challenging Eurocentrism in the pages of nature

The Japanese biologist and ethnologist Minakata Kumagusu has achieved a degree of celebrity in Japan for being the first Asian contributor to the British scientific magazine Nature. However, although Minakata's many contributions to Nature from 1893 to 1914 provided British readers with rare insight into Asian scientific achievements, he is seldom discussed in western history of science scholarship. In this article we examine Minakata’s Nature articles to gain insight into how his encounter with the eurocentrism of British culture while living in London from 1892 to 1900 affected his intellectual development. We argue that having his articles published in Nature to gain scientific recognition was not Mintakata’s real goal. Rather, we demonstrate that his Nature articles were connected to a larger project that inspired Minakata for much of his life, a descriptive sociology of Japan. For this descriptive sociology, Minakata wished to construct a new form of historical analysis that drew on past Asian sources, as well as anthropological and sociological perspectives learned from British philosopher of evolution Herbert Spencer and British anthropologists such as Edward Clodd, Edward Tylor and Andrew Lang. Minakata’s writings reveal him to be much more than a conduit of information about Asia, but as a pioneering intellectual who sought to demonstrate how Asian science connected to, and even complemented, western science