Imperfect identity

Questions of identity over time are often hard to answer. A long tradition has it that such questions are somehow soft: they have no unique, determinate answer, and disagreements about them are merely verbal. I argue that this claim is not the truism it is taken to be. Depending on how it is understood, it turns out either to be false or to presuppose a highly contentious metaphysical claim

The Platform Carbonates of Monte Jouf, Maniago, and the Cretaceous Stratigraphy of the Italian Carnian Prealps

The Late Cretaceous strata of Monte Jouf are reasonably pure, white limestones, and are part of the stratigraphic unit known as Calcari del Monte Cavallo. M. Jouf is the original locality of two genera of rudists Joufia and Colveraia, which are used as biostratigraphic markers for shallow water carbonate facies in central-western Tethys. The limestone sequence has been subdivided into 4 units on the basis of facies and these have been dated using Sr-isotope chronology. This technique gives an independent age for the units and of the fossils as they occur on M. Jouf, and thus provides an accurate and precise timescale to present the evolution of the palaeoenvironment in this part of the Adriatic Carbonate Platform. Unit 1 is Late Cenomanian, as dated by the caprinid rudist Caprinula boissyi. Unit 2 ranges from the earliest to middle/late of the Campanian according to the Sr-isotope results. Unit 3 is Late Campanian to Campanian/Maastrichtian boundary, as dated by Sr-isotopes. Unit 4 is of earliest Maastrichtian age (placing the Campanian/Maastrichtian boundary at the extinction of the planktonic foraminifer Globotruncana calcarata). Two main epochs of broad, shallow carbonate platforms, covered by a diverse rudist fauna with large individuals, including recumbent forms are noted. The first of these was in the Late Cenomanian and the second in the latest Campanian. The Late Cenomanian event was ended by downfaulting of the platform margin, possibly preceded by a regression. Sediment wedges then began to build out again over the Late Cenomanian deposits, though in the interval Turonian-Santonian sediment by-passed the M. Jouf area. In the latest Campanian platform carbonate deposition was ended by a regression and by subsequent downfaulting in the Maastrichtian and Palaeocene

Are the Psychophysical Laws Fine-Tuned?

Neil Sinhababu (2017) has recently argued against the fine-tuning argument for God. They claim that the question of the universe’s fine-tuning ought not be ‘why is the universe so hospitable to life?’ but rather ‘why is the universe so hospitable to morally valuable minds?’ and that, moreover, the universe isn’t so hospitable. For it is metaphysically possible that psychophysical laws be substantially more permissive than they in fact are, allowing for the realisation of morally valuable consciousness by exceptionally simple physical states and systems, rather than the complex states of brains. I reply that Sinhababu’s argument rests upon unsupported claims and that we have reason to doubt that an omnibenevolent God would make the psychophysical laws more permissive than they in fact are

Neptunyl(VI) centred visible LMCT emission directly observable in the presence of uranyl(VI)

Room temperature detection of neptunyl(VI) LMCT emission in a coordination compound and in the presence of uranyl(VI) is reported for the first time. Differences in the excitation profiles of the complexes enable spectral editing so either exclusively neptunyl(VI) or uranyl(VI) emission is observed or a sum of the two

Lanthanide speciation in potential SANEX and GANEX actinide/ 2 lanthanide separations using Tetra-N-Donor extractants

Lanthanide(III) complexes with N-donor ex-tractants, which exhibit the potential for the separation of minor actinides from lanthanides in the management of spent nuclear fuel, have been directly synthesized and characterized in both solution and solid states. Crystal structures of the Pr3+, Eu3+, Tb3+, and Yb3+ complexes of 6,6′-bis(5,5,8,8-tetramethyl-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-1,2,4-benzotriazin3-yl)-1,10-phenanthroline(CyMe4-BTPhen) and the Pr3+, Eu3+, and Tb3+ complexes of 2,9-bis(5,5,8,8-tetramethyl-5,6,7,8-tetrahydro-1,2,4-benzotria-zin-3-yl)-2,2′-bypyridine (CyMe4-BTBP) were obtained. The majority of these structures displayed coordination of two ofthe tetra-N-donor ligands to each Ln3+ ion, even when in some cases the complexations were performed with equimolar amounts of lanthanide and N-donor ligand. The structures showed that generally the lighter lanthanides had their coordination spheres completed by a bidentate nitrate ion, giving a 2+ charged complex cation, whereas the structures of the heavier lanthanides displayed tricationic complex species with a single water molecule completing their coordination environments. Electronic absorption spectroscopic titrations showed formation of the 1:2 Ln3+/LN4‑donor species (Ln = Pr3+, Eu3+, Tb3+) in methanol when the N-donor ligand was in excess. When the Ln3+ ion was in excess, evidence for formation of a 1:1 Ln3+/LN4‑donor complex species was observed. Luminescent lifetime studies of mixtures of Eu3+ with excess CyMe4-BTBP and CyMe4-BTPhen in methanol indicated that the nitrate-coordinated species is dominant in solution. X-ray absorption spectra of Eu3+ and Tb3+ species, formed by extraction from an acidic aqueous phase into an organic solution consisting of excess N-donor extractant in pure cyclohexanone or 30% tri-n-butyl phosphate (TBP) in cyclohexanone, were obtained. The presence of TBP in the organic phase did not alter lanthanide speciation. Extended X-ray absorption fine structure data from these spectra were fitted using chemical models established by crystallography and solution spectroscopy and showed the dominant lanthanide species in the bulk organic phase was a 1:2 Ln3+/LN‑donor species

Binary and Millisecond Pulsars at the New Millennium

We review the properties and applications of binary and millisecond pulsars. Our knowledge of these exciting objects has greatly increased in recent years, mainly due to successful surveys which have brought the known pulsar population to over 1300. There are now 56 binary and millisecond pulsars in the Galactic disk and a further 47 in globular clusters. This review is concerned primarily with the results and spin-offs from these surveys which are of particular interest to the relativity community.Comment: 59 pages, 26 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in Living Reviews in Relativity (http://www.livingreviews.org

“Genes”

In order to describe a cell at molecular level, a notion of a “gene” is neither necessary nor helpful. It is sufficient to consider the molecules (i.e., chromosomes, transcripts, proteins) and their interactions to describe cellular processes. The downside of the resulting high resolution is that it becomes very tedious to address features on the organismal and phenotypic levels with a language based on molecular terms. Looking for the missing link between biological disciplines dealing with different levels of biological organization, we suggest to return to the original intent behind the term “gene”. To this end, we propose to investigate whether a useful notion of “gene” can be constructed based on an underlying notion of function, and whether this can serve as the necessary link and embed the various distinct gene concepts of biological (sub)disciplines in a coherent theoretical framework. In reply to the Genon Theory recently put forward by Klaus Scherrer and Jürgen Jost in this journal, we shall discuss a general approach to assess a gene definition that should then be tested for its expressiveness and potential cross-disciplinary relevance