Science evaluation – As it is, as it could be

2021 ◽  
pp. 053901842110212
Author(s):  
Andrea Mubi Brighenti
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Institutions ◽  
Short Commentary ◽  
Scientific Endeavor ◽  
The Many

In this short commentary, I discuss Olof Hallonsten’s argument against science evaluation. My invitation is to place the discussion in a wider frame that takes into account the many challenges scientists and scientific institutions face today. I argue in favor of a ‘start from the middle’ approach that gives emphasis to the inner principle of valorization of the scientific endeavor.

How Many Ways Can Nature Kill the Goose That Laid the Golden Egg? – The Many Mechanisms of Evolved Glyphosate Resistance

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 197-202
Author(s):  
Stephen O. Duke ◽  
Ian Heap ◽  
Patrick J. Tranel ◽  
Lucas Kopecky Bobadilla
Keyword(s):  
Weed Management ◽  
Glyphosate Resistance ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Lag Phase ◽  
Ideal Situation ◽  
Short Commentary ◽  
Evolution Of Resistance ◽  
Als Inhibitors ◽  
The Many ◽  
Selective Herbicide

Weeding has been the bane of humanity since the dawn of agriculture. For about 70 years, synthetic herbicides have removed much of the drudgery of this onerous task. Glyphosate was introduced as a non-selective herbicide in 1974. Its ideal properties made it a very popular herbicide, and the introduction of glyphosate-resistant (GR) crops allowed its use as a selective herbicide, greatly expanding its use to become the most used herbicide on earth. For farmers who used glyphosate in GR crops, it was the golden age of weed management, as this technology significantly improved the efficacy and reduced the cost of weed management. Weed management was also simplified, an asset that was particularly valuable to part-time farmers. Furthermore, this technology provided the environmental benefits (reduced soil loss and fossil fuel use) of significantly reducing tillage. Farmers saved billions of US$, and weed management became more effective and simple. Indeed, to many farmers, glyphosate with GR crops became the goose that laid the golden egg. After more than 20 years of use, the first cases of GR weeds were reported in the latter 1990s. After a lag period of less than 10 years after the first GR weed was reported, the number of species reported to have evolved glyphosate resistance began to increase in a linear fashion, reaching 53 species in 2021, third only to atrazine (66 species), a much older herbicide and to ALS inhibitors (168 species), which include several different herbicides used in numerous crops since the 1980s. The long lag phase before any resistance was detected led some to believe by the mid-1990s that evolution of resistance was improbable. By this time, glyphosate use was greatly increasing, especially in GR crops, an ideal situation for the evolution of resistance. After this, the number of glyphosate-resistance cases exploded, and the mechanisms of resistance to many of these cases of resistance were determined. A recent, short commentary detailed these mechanisms after a new mechanism of resistance was reported. The number of mechanisms for resistance to no other herbicide comes close to those of glyphosate. In the present paper, we briefly describe the many evolved mechanisms by which weeds have evolved resistance to glyphosate.

Visits to liberated countries by representatives of the Royal Society

1946 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-99
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Exchange Of Information ◽  
Scientific Institutions ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
Learned Societies ◽  
Return Visits ◽  
The Many

With the liberation of the countries of Europe approaching completion, the Royal Society appointed a committee early in 1945 to consider the many problems connected with the reestablishment of contact with foreign academies and learned societies. These included visits of British scientists to foreign countries and return visits to this country, the organization of exchange of information, and of possible assistance to countries whose scientific institutions had suffered depredations at the hands of the Germans. It was decided that the Foreign Secretary of the Society or failing him other Fellows, should visit the countries of Europe which had been liberated to convey the greetings of the President, Council and Fellows of the Royal Society to the men of science of those countries, and to explore the means by which the Society might assist in the rehabilitation of science in those countries.

Identifying suboptimalities with factorial model comparison

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Ji Ma
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Design ◽  
Model Comparison ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Multiple Forms ◽  
Factorial Experimental Design ◽  
Factorial Model ◽  
Multiple Components ◽  
The Many

AbstractGiven the many types of suboptimality in perception, I ask how one should test for multiple forms of suboptimality at the same time – or, more generally, how one should compare process models that can differ in any or all of the multiple components. In analogy to factorial experimental design, I advocate for factorial model comparison.

Representing utility and deploying the body

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Spurrett
Keyword(s):  
Functional Activity ◽  
Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
The Body ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Processing Demands ◽  
The Many

Abstract Comprehensive accounts of resource-rational attempts to maximise utility shouldn't ignore the demands of constructing utility representations. This can be onerous when, as in humans, there are many rewarding modalities. Another thing best not ignored is the processing demands of making functional activity out of the many degrees of freedom of a body. The target article is almost silent on both.

The many faces of obligation

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Tomasello
Keyword(s):  
Third Party ◽  
The Many ◽  
Sense Of Obligation

Abstract My response to the commentaries focuses on four issues: (1) the diversity both within and between cultures of the many different faces of obligation; (2) the possible evolutionary roots of the sense of obligation, including possible sources that I did not consider; (3) the possible ontogenetic roots of the sense of obligation, including especially children's understanding of groups from a third-party perspective (rather than through participation, as in my account); and (4) the relation between philosophical accounts of normative phenomena in general – which are pitched as not totally empirical – and empirical accounts such as my own. I have tried to distinguish comments that argue for extensions of the theory from those that represent genuine disagreement.

Hydrogen Cyanide Polymers from the Impact of Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter

1997 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 179-187
Author(s):  
Clifford N. Matthews ◽  
Rose A. Pesce-Rodriguez ◽  
Shirley A. Liebman
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acids ◽  
Solar System ◽  
Hydrogen Cyanide ◽  
Nitrogen Heterocycles ◽  
Laboratory Studies ◽  
Heterogeneous Solids ◽  
The Many ◽  
Comet Halley ◽  
The Impact ◽  
By Products

AbstractHydrogen cyanide polymers – heterogeneous solids ranging in color from yellow to orange to brown to black – may be among the organic macromolecules most readily formed within the Solar System. The non-volatile black crust of comet Halley, for example, as well as the extensive orangebrown streaks in the atmosphere of Jupiter, might consist largely of such polymers synthesized from HCN formed by photolysis of methane and ammonia, the color observed depending on the concentration of HCN involved. Laboratory studies of these ubiquitous compounds point to the presence of polyamidine structures synthesized directly from hydrogen cyanide. These would be converted by water to polypeptides which can be further hydrolyzed to α-amino acids. Black polymers and multimers with conjugated ladder structures derived from HCN could also be formed and might well be the source of the many nitrogen heterocycles, adenine included, observed after pyrolysis. The dark brown color arising from the impacts of comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter might therefore be mainly caused by the presence of HCN polymers, whether originally present, deposited by the impactor or synthesized directly from HCN. Spectroscopic detection of these predicted macromolecules and their hydrolytic and pyrolytic by-products would strengthen significantly the hypothesis that cyanide polymerization is a preferred pathway for prebiotic and extraterrestrial chemistry.

On Future Directions in Pathology

1982 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 274-277
Author(s):  
Benjamin F. Trump ◽  
Irene K. Berezesky ◽  
Raymond T. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Transmission Electron Microscopy ◽  
Clinical Pathology ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Diagnostic Pathology ◽  
The Past ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Organ Systems ◽  
The Many

The role of electron microscopy and associated techniques is assured in diagnostic pathology. At the present time, most of the progress has been made on tissues examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and correlated with light microscopy (LM) and by cytochemistry using both plastic and paraffin-embedded materials. As mentioned elsewhere in this symposium, this has revolutionized many fields of pathology including diagnostic, anatomic and clinical pathology. It began with the kidney; however, it has now been extended to most other organ systems and to tumor diagnosis in general. The results of the past few years tend to indicate the future directions and needs of this expanding field. Now, in addition to routine EM, pathologists have access to the many newly developed methods and instruments mentioned below which should aid considerably not only in diagnostic pathology but in investigative pathology as well.

Electron-diffraction studies in synthetic polymer materials

1983 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 362-365
Author(s):  
D.T. Grubb
Keyword(s):  
Electron Diffraction ◽  
Synthetic Polymer ◽  
Polymer Materials ◽  
Crystallographic Structure ◽  
High Dose ◽  
Electron Dose ◽  
Dose Rates ◽  
First Case ◽  
Diffraction Patterns ◽  
The Many

Diffraction studies in polymeric and other beam sensitive materials may bring to mind the many experiments where diffracted intensity has been used as a measure of the electron dose required to destroy fine structure in the TEM. But this paper is concerned with a range of cases where the diffraction pattern itself contains the important information.In the first case, electron diffraction from paraffins, degraded polyethylene and polyethylene single crystals, all the samples are highly ordered, and their crystallographic structure is well known. The diffraction patterns fade on irradiation and may also change considerably in a-spacing, increasing the unit cell volume on irradiation. The effect is large and continuous far C94H190 paraffin and for PE, while for shorter chains to C 28H58 the change is less, levelling off at high dose, Fig.l. It is also found that the change in a-spacing increases at higher dose rates and at higher irradiation temperatures.

Computers for data, control and simulation

1988 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 920-921
Author(s):  
David C. Joy
Keyword(s):  
Personal Computers ◽  
Monitoring And Control ◽  
Data Logging ◽  
Data Logger ◽  
Operational Conditions ◽  
Data Control ◽  
The Many ◽  
And Control

Personal computers (PCs) are a powerful resource in the EM Laboratory, both as a means of automating the monitoring and control of microscopes, and as a tool for quantifying the interpretation of data. Not only is a PC more versatile than a piece of dedicated data logging equipment, but it is also substantially cheaper. In this tutorial the practical principles of using a PC for these types of activities will be discussed.The PC can form the basis of a system to measure, display, record and store the many parameters which characterize the operational conditions of the EM. In this mode it is operating as a data logger. The necessary first step is to find a suitable source from which to measure each of the items of interest. It is usually possible to do this without having to make permanent corrections or modifications to the EM.

Observation of faint contrast at planar faults in alloys

1978 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 340-341
Author(s):  
K. Kuroda ◽  
Y. Tomokiyo ◽  
T. Kumano ◽  
T. Eguchi
Keyword(s):  
Reciprocal Lattice ◽  
Beam Theory ◽  
Al Alloys ◽  
Small Displacement ◽  
Electron Microscopic ◽  
Lattice Vector ◽  
Fringe Contrast ◽  
Planar Fault ◽  
Lattice Displacement ◽  
The Many

The contrast in electron microscopic images of planar faults in a crystal is characterized by a phase factor , where is the reciprocal lattice vector of the operating reflection, and the lattice displacement due to the fault under consideration. Within the two-beam theory a planar fault with an integer value of is invisible, but a detectable contrast is expected when the many-beam dynamical effect is not negligibly small. A weak fringe contrast is also expected when differs slightly from an integer owing to an additional small displacement of the lattice across the fault. These faint contrasts are termed as many-beam contrasts in the former case, and as ε fringe contrasts in the latter. In the present work stacking faults in Cu-Al alloys and antiphase boundaries (APB) in CuZn, FeCo and Fe-Al alloys were observed under such conditions as mentioned above, and the results were compared with the image profiles of the faults calculated in the systematic ten-beam approximation.

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