scholarly journals Means and Meanings of Research Collaboration in the Face of a Suffering Earth: A Landscape of Questions

2022 ◽  
pp. 297-325
Author(s):  
Birgit Schaffar ◽  
Eevi E. Beck
Keyword(s):  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Research Collaboration ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Academic Work ◽  
Extreme Weather ◽  
Remote Collaboration ◽  
Slowing Down ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Face

AbstractThe Earth is speaking to us in its own language of suffering—rising average temperatures, increasingly extreme weather conditions, mass extinction of species and so on. Academic habits of travelling long distances and/or frequently, as many of us have, affect the Earth and its inhabitants. This chapter argues the need for changing habits not just by developing technical infrastructure but through developing awareness among academics of the issues involved including the dynamics that may be slowing down change. The chapter contributes by discussing the means and meanings of research collaboration in this context. We explore the role of collaboration across distance in scholarship (Erkenntnis), various ways (technical and otherwise) that materialities can affect remote collaboration and reflect on the ethics of commitments intrinsic to academic work. The challenge facing academics is to integrate these three aspects—sharing, the material/technical and the ethical—in developing ways of working which are responsive to the Earth crises. To support this, we indicate a set of questions which can be helpful to consider when, as scholars, we make decisions about why and how to collaborate.

scholarly journals Life Never Stops Being Violent

2020 ◽  
pp. 289-294
Author(s):  
Vajiko Chachkhiani ◽  
Claudia Peppel
Keyword(s):  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Extreme Weather ◽  
Venice Biennale

The conversation focuses on the role of extreme weather conditions and the vulnerability to weathering in Vajiko Chachkhiani’s work, especially in the piece Living Dog Among Dead Lions, which was presented at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017.

Business as Usual: What Are the Costs?

2019 ◽  
pp. 23-34
Author(s):  
Gilbert E. Metcalf
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Extreme Weather ◽  
The Face ◽  
Pascal’S Wager ◽  
Business As Usual

This chapter describes the additional damages we will face if we don’t cut our carbon pollution. More frequent occurrences of extreme weather will cause more damages. We will also have to pay for stronger climate-proof infrastructure to adapt to new weather conditions and change our lifestyles to stay out of harm’s way. The chapter also addresses the uncertainties of climate change and suggests a way for climate skeptics to think about climate change. The example of Pascal’s Wager is used to illustrate why it is riskier not to act on climate change even in the face of uncertainty about the magnitude of the damages.

The Dark Side of the Moon

2020 ◽  
pp. 279-298
Author(s):  
Emma Gee
Keyword(s):  
World System ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Universe

This chapter brings us from Plato to a second-century CE reception of his dialogues, in the work of Plutarch. It concentrates on one dialogue of Plutarch, the De facie in orbe lunae (On the Face in the Moon’s Disc). In the myth that concludes this dialogue, the speaker, Sulla, references Homer’s Elysium from Odyssey 4. But Sulla lifts the Homeric Elysium from “the ends of the earth,” up a level, so that it is situated in the moon. This sets the scene for the rest of Plutarch’s eschatological myth, in which Elysium is repositioned as part of an ascending world-system. Cosmos in Plutarch is the theater for soul. Soul and cosmos in Plutarch are bound up in a sequence of functional interrelationships. Plutarch’s tripartite cosmos functions like the human entity and in fact is the physical area of operation in the life and death of the human entity. There is a truly intertwined relationship between the tripartite human entity and the tripartite cosmos: a three-stage cosmos gives a three-stage cycle of death to life and back, from the sun to the moon to the earth, over and over again. Plutarch’s whole cosmos takes on the role of an afterlife landscape. The De facie gives us the clearest instance we’ve yet seen of the phenomenon of psychic harmonization, in which the soul is entirely integrated with the universe.

scholarly journals The Myth of Sustainability

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Industrial Activity ◽  
Average Temperature ◽  
Extinction Event ◽  
Industrial Civilization ◽  
The Face ◽  
Near Term ◽  
Mass Extinction Event

Humans are able to sustain neither industrial civilization nor our species, Homo sapiens. Whereas many pre-civilized groups practiced sustainability, contemporary industrial civilization is not sustainable. Indeed, global industrial civilization underlies abrupt, irreversible climate change and also the ongoing Mass Extinction Event. We continue to overheat Earth, which is already at the highest global-average temperature with our species present. The rapidity of environmental change is increasing and will continue to accelerate with either increased industrial activity or, paradoxically, diminished industrial activity. This paper offers a path forward for all of us, and especially those who wish to educate others, in light of these daunting facts. If our species is destined for extinction, as all species are, then how shall we proceed? If our species is destined for extinction in the near term, as seems apparent, then how shall we proceed? What is the role of educators in the face of an existential threat?

Questions on the role of biofilms for the adaptation of microorganisms to unfavorable environmental factors by the example of P. aeruginosa

2020 ◽  
Vol 99 (4) ◽  
pp. 379-383
Author(s):  
Vasily N. Afonyushkin ◽  
N. A. Donchenko ◽  
Ju. N. Kozlova ◽  
N. A. Davidova ◽  
V. Yu. Koptev ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Antibiotic Resistance ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Barrier Function ◽  
Infectious Agent ◽  
Antagonistic Activity ◽  
The Body ◽  
Main Function ◽  
Pathogenic Potential ◽  
The Face

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a widely represented species of bacteria possessing of a pathogenic potential. This infectious agent is causing wound infections, fibrotic cystitis, fibrosing pneumonia, bacterial sepsis, etc. The microorganism is highly resistant to antiseptics, disinfectants, immune system responses of the body. The responses of a quorum sense of this kind of bacteria ensure the inclusion of many pathogenicity factors. The analysis of the scientific literature made it possible to formulate four questions concerning the role of biofilms for the adaptation of P. aeruginosa to adverse environmental factors: Is another person appears to be predominantly of a source an etiological agent or the source of P. aeruginosa infection in the environment? Does the formation of biofilms influence on the antibiotic resistance? How the antagonistic activity of microorganisms is realized in biofilm form? What is the main function of biofilms in the functioning of bacteria? A hypothesis has been put forward the effect of biofilms on the increase of antibiotic resistance of bacteria and, in particular, P. aeruginosa to be secondary in charcter. It is more likely a biofilmboth to fulfill the function of storing nutrients and provide topical competition in the face of food scarcity. In connection with the incompatibility of the molecular radii of most antibiotics and pores in biofilm, biofilm is doubtful to be capable of performing a barrier function for protecting against antibiotics. However, with respect to antibodies and immunocompetent cells, the barrier function is beyond doubt. The biofilm is more likely to fulfill the function of storing nutrients and providing topical competition in conditions of scarcity of food resources.

The Modern Aristotle: Michael Polanyi’s Search for Truth against Nihilism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald Hoinski ◽  
Ronald Polansky
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Michael Polanyi ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
The Face ◽  
Human Desire ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Theoretical Science

David Hoinski and Ronald Polansky’s “The Modern Aristotle: Michael Polanyi’s Search for Truth against Nihilism” shows how the general tendencies of contemporary philosophy of science disclose a return to the Aristotelian emphasis on both the formation of dispositions to know and the role of the mind in theoretical science. Focusing on a comparison of Michael Polanyi and Aristotle, Hoinski and Polansky investigate to what degree Aristotelian thought retains its purchase on reality in the face of the changes wrought by modern science. Polanyi’s approach relies on several Aristotelian assumptions, including the naturalness of the human desire to know, the institutional and personal basis for the accumulation of knowledge, and the endorsement of realism against objectivism. Hoinski and Polansky emphasize the promise of Polanyi’s neo-Aristotelian framework, which argues that science is won through reflection on reality.

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