1,013 research outputs found
Lines of Descent: Kuhn and Beyond
yesThomas S. Kuhn is famous both for his work on the Copernican Revolution and his ‘paradigm’ view of scientific revolutions. But Kuhn later abandoned the notion of paradigm (and related notions) in favour of a more ‘evolutionary’ view of the history of science. Kuhn’s position therefore moved closer to ‘continuity’ models of scientific progress, for instance ‘chain-of-reasoning’ models, originally championed by D. Shapere. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate around Kuhn’s new ‘developmental’ view and to evaluate these competing models with reference to some major innovations in the history of cosmology, from Copernicanism to modern cosmology. This evaluation is made possible through some unexpected overlap between Kuhn’s earlier discontinuity model and various versions of the later continuity models. It is the thesis of this paper that the ‘chain-of-reasoning’ model accounts better for the cosmological evidence than both Kuhn’s early paradigm model and his later developmental view of the history of science
Analytic Aesthetics
Peer reviewe
Awe and Wonder in Scientific Practice: Implications for the Relationship Between Science and Religion
This paper examines the role of awe and wonder in scientific practice.
Drawing on evidence from psychological research and the writings of scientists and science communicators, I argue that awe and wonder play a crucial role in scientific discovery. They focus our attention on the natural world, encourage open-mindedness, diminish the self (particularly feelings of self-importance), help to accord value to the objects that are being studied, and provide a mode of understanding in the absence of full knowledge. I will flesh out implications of the role of awe and wonder in scientific discovery for debates on the relationship between science and religion. Abraham Heschel argued that awe and wonder are religious emotions because they reduce our feelings of self-importance, and thereby help to cultivate the proper reverent attitude towards God. Yet metaphysical naturalists such as Richard Dawkins insist that awe and wonder need not lead to any theistic commitments for scientists. The awe some scientists experience can be regarded as a form of non-theistic spirituality, which is neither a reductive naturalism nor theism. I will attempt to resolve the tension between these views by identifying some common ground
Cell migration leads to spatially distinct but clonally related airway cancer precursors
Background Squamous cell carcinoma of the lung is a common cancer with 95% mortality at 5 years. These cancers arise from preinvasive lesions, which have a natural history of development progressing through increasing severity of dysplasia to carcinoma in situ (CIS), and in some cases, ending in transformation to invasive carcinoma. Synchronous preinvasive lesions identified at autopsy have been previously shown to be clonally related. Methods Using autofluorescence bronchoscopy that allows visual observation of preinvasive lesions within the upper airways, together with molecular profiling of biopsies using gene sequencing and loss-of-heterozygosity analysis from both preinvasive lesions and from intervening normal tissue, we have monitored individual lesions longitudinally and documented their visual, histological and molecular relationship. Results We demonstrate that rather than forming a contiguous field of abnormal tissue, clonal CIS lesions can develop at multiple anatomically discrete sites over time. Further, we demonstrate that patients with CIS in the trachea have invariably had previous lesions that have migrated proximally, and in one case, into the other lung over a period of 12 years. Conclusions Molecular information from these unique biopsies provides for the first time evidence that field cancerisation of the upper airways can occur through cell migration rather than via local contiguous cellular expansion as previously thought. Our findings urge a clinical strategy of ablating high-grade premalignant airway lesions with subsequent attentive surveillance for recurrence in the bronchial tree
Bayesian astrostatistics: a backward look to the future
This perspective chapter briefly surveys: (1) past growth in the use of
Bayesian methods in astrophysics; (2) current misconceptions about both
frequentist and Bayesian statistical inference that hinder wider adoption of
Bayesian methods by astronomers; and (3) multilevel (hierarchical) Bayesian
modeling as a major future direction for research in Bayesian astrostatistics,
exemplified in part by presentations at the first ISI invited session on
astrostatistics, commemorated in this volume. It closes with an intentionally
provocative recommendation for astronomical survey data reporting, motivated by
the multilevel Bayesian perspective on modeling cosmic populations: that
astronomers cease producing catalogs of estimated fluxes and other source
properties from surveys. Instead, summaries of likelihood functions (or
marginal likelihood functions) for source properties should be reported (not
posterior probability density functions), including nontrivial summaries (not
simply upper limits) for candidate objects that do not pass traditional
detection thresholds.Comment: 27 pp, 4 figures. A lightly revised version of a chapter in
"Astrostatistical Challenges for the New Astronomy" (Joseph M. Hilbe, ed.,
Springer, New York, forthcoming in 2012), the inaugural volume for the
Springer Series in Astrostatistics. Version 2 has minor clarifications and an
additional referenc
Effective Theory Approach to the Spontaneous Breakdown of Lorentz Invariance
We generalize the coset construction of Callan, Coleman, Wess and Zumino to
theories in which the Lorentz group is spontaneously broken down to one of its
subgroups. This allows us to write down the most general low-energy effective
Lagrangian in which Lorentz invariance is non-linearly realized, and to explore
the consequences of broken Lorentz symmetry without having to make any
assumptions about the mechanism that triggers the breaking. We carry out the
construction both in flat space, in which the Lorentz group is a global
spacetime symmetry, and in a generally covariant theory, in which the Lorentz
group can be treated as a local internal symmetry. As an illustration of this
formalism, we construct the most general effective field theory in which the
rotation group remains unbroken, and show that the latter is just the
Einstein-aether theory.Comment: 45 pages, no figures
Cosmology of a Scalar Field Coupled to Matter and an Isotropy-Violating Maxwell Field
Motivated by the couplings of the dilaton in four-dimensional effective
actions, we investigate the cosmological consequences of a scalar field coupled
both to matter and a Maxwell-type vector field. The vector field has a
background isotropy-violating component. New anisotropic scaling solutions
which can be responsible for the matter and dark energy dominated epochs are
identified and explored. For a large parameter region the universe expands
almost isotropically. Using that the CMB quadrupole is extremely sensitive to
shear, we constrain the ratio of the matter coupling to the vector coupling to
be less than 10^(-5). Moreover, we identify a large parameter region,
corresponding to a strong vector coupling regime, yielding exciting and viable
cosmologies close to the LCDM limit.Comment: Refs. added, some clarifications. Published in JHEP10(2012)06
Gender roles and their influence on life prospects for women in urban Karachi, Pakistan: a qualitative study
Pakistan is a patriarchal society where men are the primary authority figures and women are subordinate. This has serious implications on women's and men's life prospects.The aim was to explore current gender roles in urban Pakistan, how these are reproduced and maintained and influence men's and women's life circumstances.Five focus group discussions were conducted, including 28 women representing employed, unemployed, educated and uneducated women from different socio-economic strata. Manifest and latent content analyses were applied. Two major themes emerged during analysis: ‘Reiteration of gender roles’ and ‘Agents of change’. The first theme included perceptions of traditional gender roles and how these preserve women's subordination. The power gradient, with men holding a superior position in relation to women, distinctive features in the culture and the role of the extended family were considered to interact to suppress women. The second theme included agents of change, where the role of education was prominent as well as the role of mass media. It was further emphasised that the younger generation was more positive to modernisation of gender roles than the elder generation.This study reveals serious gender inequalities and human rights violations against women in the Pakistani society. The unequal gender roles were perceived as static and enforced by structures imbedded in society. Women routinely faced serious restrictions and limitations of autonomy. However, attainment of higher levels of education especially not only for women but also for men was viewed as an agent towards change. Furthermore, mass media was perceived as having a positive role to play in supporting women's empowerment
Case report: The management of advanced oral cancer in a Jehovah's Witness using the Ultracision Harmonic Scalpel
We present the first case of a head and neck oncological procedure accomplished in a Jehovah's Witness using the Ultracision Harmonic Scalpel (Ethicon, Cincinnati, OH). Jehovah's Witnesses present a serious challenge to the head and neck cancer surgeon due to their refusal to accept transfusion of any blood products. However, our experience reinforces the view that surgical management of head and neck cancer is possible in these patients. We show the Harmonic Scalpel, an ultrasonic tissue dissector, to be a useful surgical tool in obviating the need for blood transfusion. Preoperative optimisation, intra-operative surgical and anaesthetic techniques are also fully discussed
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