The Gospel of Eve: Francis Bacon, Genesis and the telos of modern science

At the dawn of the scientific revolution, Francis Bacon declared its goal: to recover the estate of Adam and restore man's prelapsarian dominion over nature. Bacon's analogy makes little sense as a rationale for scientific inquiry, however, since Adam's distinguishing virtue in the opening verses of Genesis was his incurious obedience. The animating spirit of science has always been the impudent curiosity of Eve, who conversed with the serpent and dared, in defiance of the threat of death, to taste the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. As we apply the fruits of scientific inquiry to the creation of new technologies, this contrast between the mythical mother and father of our species takes on a fatal significance. If we aim to recover the estate of Adam we put science in the service of complacent comfort and an incurious domination of nature that will end in catastrophe. When we embrace the gospel of Eve, we engage in a conversation with nature that is inspired by that transcendent curiosity which Einstein identified as "the cosmic religious sense." Informed by this ethos, the fundamental goal of science is not to reclaim an impossible mastery over nature nor to banish death, but to deepen our engagement with life itself.Accepted manuscrip

ALLOCATABLE FIXED INPUTS AND JOINTNESS IN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION: MORE IMPLICATIONS

The presence of allocatable fixed inputs may cause truly joint technologies to appear nonjoint in the short run as well as truly nonjoint technologies to appear joint. This paper demonstrates theoretically why this can happen and then documents that it actually occurs in a significant way in aggregate U.S. agricultural production. A simple testing procedure is used that requires no data on inputs allocations. The important finding is that failure to reject true (apparent) nonjointness does not justify modeling short-run (long-run) supply independent of alternative output prices.Agribusiness,

ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

The economic impact of climate change is usually measured as the amount by which the climate of a given period will affect output or GDP in that period. This paper draws attention to some of the dynamic effects through which climate change may affect economic growth and hence future output. In particular, the paper looks at saving and capital accumulation. With a constant savings rate, a lower output due to climate change will lead to a proportionate reduction in investment which in turn will depress future production (capital accumulation effect). If the savings rate is flexible, forward looking agents may change their savings behavior to accommodate the impact of future climate change. Again this alters growth prospects (savings effect). In an endogenous growth context, the two effects may be exacerbated through changes in labour productivity and the rate of technical progress. Simulations using a simple climate-economy model suggest that the capital accumulation effect is important, especially if growth is endogenous, and may be larger than the direct impact of climate change. The savings effect is less pronounced and its sign is ambiguous. In most cases, the savings effect is negative, that is, faced with climate change households increase current consumption rather than saving more to compensate for future damages. The indirect effects are relatively larger for smaller direct effects; the indirect effects are also relatively larger for growth mechanisms more prevalent in richer countries. Ignoring the growth effects of climate change thus leads to a substantial underestimate of the impacts of climate change, particularly in richer economies.economic growth, climate change

Structure, stability and evolution of 3D Rossby vortices in protoplanetary disks

Large-scale persistent vortices are known to form easily in 2D disks via the Rossby wave or the baroclinic instability. In 3D, however, their formation and stability is a complex issue and still a matter of debate. We study the formation of vortices by the Rossby wave instability in a stratified inviscid disk and describe their three dimensional structure, stability and long term evolution. Numerical simulations are performed using a fully compressible hydrodynamical code based on a second order finite volume method. We assume a perfect gas law and a non-homentropic adiabatic flow.The Rossby wave instability is found to proceed in 3D in a similar way as in 2D. Vortices produced by the instability look like columns of vorticity in the whole disk thickness; the small vertical motions are related to a weak inclination of the vortex axis appearing during the development of the RWI. Vortices with aspect ratios larger than 6 are unaffected by the elliptical instability. They relax to a quasi-steady columnar structure which survives hundred of rotations while slowly migrating inward toward the star at a rate that reduces with the vortex aspect ratio. Vortices with a smaller aspect ratio are by contrast affected by the elliptic instability. Short aspect ratio vortices are completely destroyed in a few orbital periods. Vortices with an intermediate aspect ratio are partially destroyed by the elliptical instability in a region away from the mid-plane where the disk stratification is sufficiently large. Elongated Rossby vortices can survive a large number of orbital periods in protoplanetary disks in the form of vorticity columns. They could play a significant role in the evolution of the gas and the gathering of the solid particles to form planetesimals or planetary cores, a possibility that receives a renewed interest with the recent discovery of a particle trap in the disk of Oph IRS48.Comment: 12 pages, 15 figures, Accepted for publication in A&

Use of capillary electrophoresis as a method development tool for classical gel electrophoresis

Capillary electrophoresis (CE) was used to optimize the buffer pH, ionic strength and sulfated cyclodextrin concentrations for enantiomeric separation of piperoxan. These enantioseparation conditions were then applied to a classical gel electrophoresis system. Binding constants of the sulfated beta-cyclodextrin–piperoxan couple were approximated using CE and the effects of organic solvents on the system were also investigated

The prospects for mathematical logic in the twenty-first century

The four authors present their speculations about the future developments of mathematical logic in the twenty-first century. The areas of recursion theory, proof theory and logic for computer science, model theory, and set theory are discussed independently.Comment: Association for Symbolic Logi

Engine technology challenges for a 21st Century High-Speed Civil Transport

Ongoing NASA-funded studies by Boeing, McDonnell-Douglas, General Electric, and Pratt & Whitney indicate that an opportunity exists for a 21st Century High-Speed Civil Transport (HSCT) to become a major part of the international air transportation system. However, before industry will consider an HSCT product launch and an investment estimated to be over $15 billion for design and certification, major technology advances must be made. An overview of the propulsion-specific technology advances that must be in hand before an HSCT product launch could be considered is presented