The Elements: A Very Short Introduction

Author(s):  
Philip Ball

The Elements: A Very Short Introduction traces the history and cultural impact of the elements on humankind, and examines why people have long sought to identify the substances around them. Looking beyond the Periodic Table, our relationship with matter is examined, from the uncomplicated vision of the Greek philosophers who believed there were four elements — earth, air, fire, and water — to the work of modern–day scientists in creating elements such as hassium and meitnerium. This VSI is an exploration of the fundamental question: what is the world made from?

Author(s):  
Tina K. Ramnarine

This Introduction outlines various examples of ensemble performance to highlight diverse practices in the world of orchestras. It poses a fundamental question: What is an orchestra? It raises issues around collective creativity and social agency, which provide thematic foci in relation to a diversity of orchestral practices. Discussion on the conceptual aspects of adopting global perspectives on orchestras highlights comparison as a mode of theorization. The relevance of a comparative approach lies in its capacity to draw together diverse ethnographic case-studies. The Introduction thus provides a framework for reading this volume and it points out some of the conceptual connections between its chapters.


2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 18-21
Author(s):  
Juris Meija ◽  
Javier Garcia-Martinez ◽  
Jan Apotheker

AbstractIn 2019, the world celebrated the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements (IYPT2019) and the IUPAC centenary. This happy coincidence offered a unique opportunity to reflect on the value and work that is carried out by IUPAC in a range of activities, including chemistry awareness, appreciation, and education. Although IUPAC curates the Periodic Table and oversees regular additions and changes, this icon of science belongs to the world. With this in mind, we wanted to create an opportunity for students and the general public to participate in this global celebration. The objective was to create an online global competition centered on the Periodic Table and IUPAC to raise awareness of the importance of chemistry in our daily lives, the richness of the chemical elements, and the key role of IUPAC in promoting chemistry worldwide. The Periodic Table Challenge was the result of this effort.


Author(s):  
Ranabir Samaddar

The author's reflections on the concept of sustainability move within a historicalsociological frame, and it is in this context that the author arises a fundamental question: is the world able to sustain other wars and mass destructions or, instead, it is necessary to listen to a new need the path of sustainable development. The work gives a unique perspective on the birth and evolution of the concept of sustainability, as it does not focus on data and technical analysis, but places this issue in a comprehensive framework, illustrating a number of ties between the need for a path of sustainability and global key issues, and providing important secondary issues.


2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-133
Author(s):  
Karol Bujnowski

Nowadays more often people are asking about the meaning of life. It is a fundamental question that every human being faces. Man is asking whether life is worth living, what to do to make our life meaningful?A human being, among many needs, has the need for discovering the sense of life, the need comes from the very core of human existence as placed in time and connected with the phenomenon of passing away. Discovering the sense of life leads to the experience of happiness, joy, and to inner life lived much more to the full. Showing the meaning of life and helping to find that meaning are very important functions of religion. Due to it, a man is able to live one’s life, ambitions, goals, joyful moments as well as his or her suffering in the light of deeper understanding. Religion is the one that can often bring the richest and deepest answers to the question of the two meanings: the meaning of life and the world.


Vestnik RFFI ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 17-24
Author(s):  
Aslan Yu. Tsivadze

In November 1868, the Ministry of Enlightenment of Russia approved the Charter of the Russian Chemical Society (RCS), one of the Founding Members of which had been Dmitri Mendeleev. The first report on Mendeleev Periodic Table of Chemical Elements was delivered during a meeting of the RCS in March 1869. Therefore 1869 is considered by the world science as the year of discovery of the Periodic Law and formulation of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements. Year 2019 is the 150th anniversary since Dmitry Mendeleev discovered the Periodic System, and the United Nations proclaimed this year to be the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements (IYPT2019). After a series of transformations, in 1992 the RCS became the Mendeleev Russian Chemical Society. In 2019, the RCS is holding anniversary events. The extraordinary Mendeleev Congress on General and Applied Chemistry is one of them. It will be held in Saint Petersburg in September 2019 and will host approximately 3,000 foreign and Russian participants. English-speaking symposia, conferences and round tables on current issues of strategic development of science and technology are planned as a part of the Congress.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 156-172
Author(s):  
Iulianna Lupasco ◽  

Intellectual property behind the scenery of clinical research present a very special issue in scientific field presenting a deep underestimation of the main precious production of scientific researchers – production of mind, intellect, knowledge, clinical practice and research. In this article are highlighted main questions the young researches and not only young ones face while generating ideas, developing into nice projects. In this topic are discussed the main types of intellectual property in clinical research with a short introduction how the law protects them on a national level and why intellectual property is important for every clinical scientist. The literature review is closely intertwined with our own observations over the years in terms of intellectual property. Finally, the main benefits of intellectual property protection for clinical researchers will be presented empowering with new contacts and scientific innovation leaders from other places of the world.


Author(s):  
David Wallace

Philosophy of Physics: A Very Short Introduction explores the core topics of philosophy of physics through three key themes: the nature of space and time; the origin of irreversibility and probability in the physics of large systems; how we can make sense of quantum mechanics. Central issues discussed include: the scientific method as it applies in modern physics; the distinction between absolute and relative motion; the way that distinction changes between Newton’s physics and special relativity; what spacetime is and how it relates to the laws of physics; how fundamental physics can make no distinction between past and future and yet a clear distinction exists in the world we see around us; why it is so difficult to understand quantum mechanics, and why doing so might push us to change our fundamental physics, to rethink the nature of science, or even to accept the existence of parallel universes.


2021 ◽  
pp. 226-242
Author(s):  
Steven L. Goldman

From the 1970s on, the treatment of modern science as simultaneously an induction-based account of experience and a deduction-based account of reality became an increasingly contentious issue in the academic world. A great deal was at stake in how one answered the question of whether scientific knowledge was objective and validated by its correspondence with reality. Respect and privileged social status were accorded to science, not to mention public support for research. At the same time, however, scientists faced the more fundamental question of whether there existed a neutral arbiter of questions relating to truth, or at least truths about the world. Philosophers and social scientists lined up on both sides of this issue, either attacking scientific knowledge as a socially constructed belief system or defending it as objective and correlated with reality.


2018 ◽  
Vol 63 ◽  
pp. 00002
Author(s):  
Marek Przyborski ◽  
Zuzanna Siemieniago

The Universe is a violent and hostile environmental. Remote sensing methods give the possibility to search for the answer to the most fundamental question that humankind has ask, how the universe works? In this paper we would like to take a closer look at the some specific objects in the Universe that their influence on its evolution is still a matter of research all over the world. The Gamma Bursts are one of the most dangerous phenomenon that we have ever discovered. Astronomers may observe them also when watching and searching for another form of energy propagated through the time and space gravitational waves caused by binary systems of neutron stars. In the following we would like to explain the fundamentals of multi-messenger astronomy.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 196
Author(s):  
Jorgen Sandemose

<p>This article presents a criticism of Nancy Fraser’s influential essay “Behind Marx’s Hidden Abode. For an Expanded Conception of Capitalism”. After a short introduction determining Fraser’s theoretical stance amidst the critical waves around Karl Marx’s positions, her concept of “abodes”, thought to be hidden from Marx’s view of the capitalist order, is analyzed. Thereupon, certain limitations of her interpretation of the “economic” dimension in Marx’s work is pointed out, and also how they lead to misconceptions of the theory of the social formation as a whole. Furthermore, it is shown how Fraser is tempted to introduce ill-considered and alien elements into Marx’s view of the international economy (the world market), thereby rendering meaningless a Marxian concept of the political. Towards the end, the distinctively empiricist aura in which Fraser’s theory is presented is being criticized: It represents a rupture with any possible revolutionary theory.</p>


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