scholarly journals “The wrathful sunset glared…”: The Krakatoa Sunsets in Victorian Science and Art

2020 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 11-20
Author(s):  
Ilona Dobosiewicz

The eruption of Krakatoa on August 27, 1883 was an event both tragic and spectacular. Thousands of lives were lost; sea waves and atmospheric disturbances were detected around the globe. Billions of tons of volcanic ash were thrown into the atmosphere producing multi-coloured sunsets caused by the scattering of light by aerosol particles. The paper discusses the ways in which these so-called Krakatoa sunsets, which were experienced by most of the world, were reflected in Victorian scientific and artistic discourse. The accounts included in the section “Descriptions of the Unusual Twilight Glows in Various Parts of the World, in 1883–84” of the Royal Society report The Eruption of Krakatoa and Subsequent Phenomena (1888), and selected poems by Alfred Tennyson, Charles Algernon Swinburne, Robert Bridges, and Mathilde Blind are analyzed to trace Victorian responses to the remarkable optical effects of the Krakatoa eruption.

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 3072 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dian Fiantis ◽  
Frisa Ginting ◽  
Gusnidar ◽  
M. Nelson ◽  
Budiman Minasny

Volcanic eruptions affect land and humans globally. When a volcano erupts, tons of volcanic ash materials are ejected to the atmosphere and deposited on land. The hazard posed by volcanic ash is not limited to the area in proximity to the volcano, but can also affect a vast area. Ashes ejected from volcano’s affect people’s daily life and disrupts agricultural activities and damages crops. However, the positive outcome of this natural event is that it secures fertile soil for the future. This paper examines volcanic ash (tephra) from a soil security view-point, mainly its capability. This paper reviews the positive aspects of volcanic ash, which has a high capability to supply nutrients to plant, and can also sequester a large amount of carbon out of the atmosphere. We report some studies around the world, which evaluated soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation since volcanic eruptions. The mechanisms of SOC protection in volcanic ash soil include organo-metallic complexes, chemical protection, and physical protection. Two case studies of volcanic ash from Mt. Talang and Sinabung in Sumatra, Indonesia showed the rapid accumulation of SOC through lichens and vascular plants. Volcanic ash plays an important role in the global carbon cycle and ensures soil security in volcanic regions of the world in terms of boosting its capability. However, there is also a human dimension, which does not go well with volcanic ash. Volcanic ash can severely destroy agricultural areas and farmers’ livelihoods. Connectivity and codification needs to ensure farming in the area to take into account of risk and build appropriate adaptation and resilient strategy.


Author(s):  
Kitty Hauser

Photography, as is well known, is the image-making technology which specializes in the freezing of time.1 What kind of historiography, then, might photography be said to embody? How can photography, with its ineluctable connection to the present moment, hope to say anything at all about the past—about either the broad processes of history or even the events of the hours and minutes immediately preceding the second in which the photograph is taken? What kinds of knowledge of the past does photography allow, and what does it disallow? How can photography, that most superficial of media, hope to become a vehicle for the archaeological imagination, with its love of immanent depths? If photographic technology is uniquely equipped to record (visually) the present moment, it is also characterized—famously—by its thorough and indiscriminate recording of surface detail. What it lacks in temporal depth it makes up for in this meticulous rendering of appearances; any surface marked by the effects of action or time can be faithfully recorded by this technology which itself produces the marked surfaces of photographic plate, film, or print. History and the passing of time is available to photography only in the form of its traces, the more-or-less legible marks and remnants it has left behind at any one moment in the world. And it is precisely photography’s own nature as a chemical trace (until digitization, at least) that enables it accurately to reproduce these marks and signs of history. As discussed in Chapter 1, since the nineteenth century (at least) historical sciences such as palaeontology, geology, and archaeology have based themselves upon the reading of such signs of the past in the present, and this broad epistemological model could be extended to include military reconnaissance, forensic science, and art connoisseurship. Photography, fixing these signs in an image, has had—unsurprisingly, perhaps—an important part to play in the historical development of these disciplines. Photography meets the archaeological imagination as soon as photographic images are scanned for historical information in these disciplines and practices. In a sense, however, photography cannot help but represent the world archaeologically, since it cannot help but record its objects and landscapes in a temporal context, the traces of the past scattered across their surfaces. Ruskin enthused over this quality of the new medium.


2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Suni ◽  
M. Kulmala ◽  
A. Hirsikko ◽  
T. Bergman ◽  
L. Laakso ◽  
...  

Abstract. Biogenic aerosol formation is likely to contribute significantly to the global aerosol load. In recent years, new-particle formation has been observed in various ecosystems around the world but hardly any measurements have taken place in the terrestrial Southern Hemisphere. Here, we report the first results of atmospheric ion and charged particle concentrations as well as of new-particle formation in a Eucalypt forest in Tumbarumba, South-East Australia, from July 2005 to October 2006. The measurements were carried out with an Air Ion Spectrometer (AIS) with a size range from 0.34 to 40 nm. The Eucalypt forest was a very strong source of new aerosol particles. Daytime aerosol formation took place on 52% of days with acceptable data, which is 2–3 times as often as in the Nordic boreal zone. Average growth rates for negative/positive 1.5–3 nm particles during these formation events were 2.89/2.68 nmh−1, respectively; for 3-7 nm particles 4.26/4.03, and for 7–20 nm particles 8.90/7.58 nmh−1, respectively. The growth rates for large ions were highest when the air was coming from the native forest which suggests that the Eucalypts were a strong source of condensable vapours. Average concentrations of cluster ions (0.34–1.8 nm) were 2400/1700 cm−3 for negative/positive ions, very high compared to most other measurements around the world. One reason behind these high concentrations could be the strong radon efflux from the soils around the Tumbarumba field site. Furthermore, comparison between night-time and daytime concentrations supported the view that cluster ions are produced close to the surface within the boundary layer also at night but that large ions are mostly produced in daytime. Finally, a previously unreported phenomenon, nocturnal aerosol formation, appeared in 32% of the analysed nights but was clustered almost entirely within six months from summer to autumn in 2006. From January to May, nocturnal formation was 2.5 times as frequent as daytime formation. Therefore, it appears that in summer and autumn, nocturnal production was the major mechanism for aerosol formation in Tumbarumba.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Machado ◽  
Antonis Chaniottis ◽  
Jorge Vera ◽  
Carlos Saucedo ◽  
Luiz Pascoal Vansan ◽  
...  

Recognition of anatomical variations is a real challenge for clinicians undertaking therapy regardless of the teeth that are to be treated. The extent of the curvature is one of the most important variables that could lead to instrument fracture. In clinical conditions, two curves can be present in the same root canal trajectory. This type of geometry is denoted as the “S” shape, and it is a challenging condition. This report describes a different clinical and educational scenario where four specialists around the world present different approaches for the treatment of root canals with double curvatures or S-shaped canals. Endodontic therapy is a very nuanced and challenging science and art. The clinical and teaching experience of the authors show different approaches that can be successfully employed to treat challenging teeth having roots with multiple curves. The necessity of precise knowledge of the root canal morphology and its variation is also underlined.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 234
Author(s):  
Melissa Anjos

ResumoAs pesquisas que a ciência geográfica vem desenvolvendo tem buscado inovar suas abordagens e dialogar com diferentes campos do conhecimento, entre eles o campo literário. Como resultado, tem produzido experiências que, entre outros enfoques, celebram as possibilidades de interseção entre ciência e arte. Desta maneira, a geografia tem criado possibilidades de leituras do universo vivido sob diferentes vieses, recortes, campos empíricos, metodologias e instrumentos teóricos. Assim, a compreensão do mundo a partir das tramas expostas pelos artistas (literatos) e fomentar uma leitura de mundo repleto de expressões existenciais se configura como um relevante caminho de entendimento a partir da inter-relação entre a linguagem científica e a artística. Dito isto, este artigo inicia uma discussão teórica acerca da relação entre ciência (geografia) e arte (literatura).Palavras-chave: Geografia. Ciência. Arte. Literatura. AbstractThe research that the geographical science has been developing has sought innovate its approaches and dialogue with different fields of knowledge, including the literary field. As a result, experiencesproduced, among other approaches, celebrate the possibilities of intersection between science and art. In this way, geography has created opportunities for readings the lived universe under different meanings, clippings, empirical fields, methodologies and theoretical instruments. Thus, the understanding of the world from plots exposed by artists (writers) and to foster a reading world filled with existential expressions is configured as an important path of understanding from the inter-relationship between the scientific and artistic language. This paper begins a theoretical discussion about the relation between science (geography) and art (literature).Keywords: Geography. Science. Art. Literature. RésuméLes recherches développées par la science géographique ont  innové leurs approches et le dialogue avec des différents domaines du savoir, entre eux, le champ littéraire. Comme résultat, il a produit des expériences que, entre autres approches, célèbrent les possibilités d'intersection entre la science et l’art. De cette façon, la géographie a créé des possibilités des lectures de l'univers vécu sous différents sens, découpage, champs empiriques, méthodes et outils théoriques. Ainsi, la compréhension du monde à partir des intrigues exposées par les artistes (écrivains) et de favoriser une lecture du monde plein des expressions existentielles est configuré comme un moyen important de compréhension de la relation entre la langue scientifique et artistique. Cela dit, cet article commence avec une discussion théorique sur la relation entre la science (géographie) et l'art (littérature).Mots-Clés : Géographie. Science. Art. Littérature. 


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-137
Author(s):  
M.G. Chesnokova

In this article existential and religious motifs in the works of young L.S. Vygotsky are considered. The specificity of the existential approach, characterized by blurring the limits of philosophy, science and art and the formation of a synthetic method of cognition of a human being, is emphasized. These features are found in the early works of Vygotsky. The analysis of his essay “The tragedy of Hamlet, prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare” (1916) is the focus of attention. The existential orientation distinguishes both the form and the content of Vygotsky’s work. The genre of the work is a combination of literary criticism and philosophical psychological research. In his essay Vygotsky touches on such existential topics as: the tragedy and loneliness of human existence, existential guilt as the guilt of birth, the issue of formation and self-fulfillment of a man, the relationship of knowledge and action, the dialectic of the external and the internal, the issue of the moduses of human existence — “sinful innocence”, ethical and religious existence, the issue of meaning of life. The parallel between Vygotsky’s existential views, developed in this essay, and the ideas of well-known representatives of the existential approach is drawn. From the existential issues of the play Vygotsky moves on to its inner meaning, which he defines as religious. The four main themes he reveals most fully: the issue of connection between the two worlds — the world of the dead and the world of the living, the issue of sin, punishment and redemption, the issue of darkness of divine Providence (meaning of life) and the issue of overcoming separateness and restoring the unity of the world. In the article the main provisions and principles of study of early Vygotsky and Vygotsky in the period of creation of cultural-historical theory are compared. A continuity between the ideas of Vygotsky’s early works and his latest project of dramatic psychology is observed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana S. Akhromeeva ◽  
Georgy G. Malinetsky ◽  
Sergey A. Posashkov

The article considers the interaction of science and art, as well as the development of Science Art from the standpoint of the theory of self-organization and the theory of humanitarian-technological revolution. The world is at the point of bifurcation defining the future. The choice of the further trajectory will be largely determined by what is happening in the emotional and intuitive spaces. This, in turn, depends on the deve­lopment of art, science, philosophy. The article discus­ses alternative futures and the role of culture in them.Charles Snow wrote about a gap between the two cultures — natural science, answering the question “How?” and looking into the future, and humanities, answering the question “What?” and often reflec­ting on the past.The growing gap between the two cultures prevents the civilization from relying to the necessary extent on scientific knowledge and leads to its devaluation. The authors show the importance of the “exchange of metaphors” between science and art, allowing to build bridges over the gap of two cultures. Another way to connect these two spaces is the development of interdisciplinary approaches, in particular, the theory of self-organization, or synergetics. In the 1970s, synergetics was conceived as a language that allowed humanitarians, specialists in natural sciences and mathe­maticians to discuss, formulate and pose common problems, while remaining, nevertheless, in the space of science. Now the central interdisciplinary problem is the study of not only the rational (as du­ring the last three centuries), but also the emotional and intuitive space of human and society.Currently, there are two forecasts materializing — the one of D. Bell, on the transition from the industrial phase of development to the post-industrial, from the world of technology to the world of people, and the one of N.A. Berdyaev, on the transition from the Se­cond Antiquity to the Second Middle Ages. The article shows how this will change the culture itself and its place in society.


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