scholarly journals Il linguaggio della scienza e la creazione della terminologia

2021 ◽  
pp. 15-21
Author(s):  
Maria Luisa Villa

This paper aims to present an historical point of view and precisely exposes the reasons why the need for terminology has developed and gradually increased, without it nullifying the ability of scientists to invent words with freedom and imagination, sometimes even taking inspiration from literature, such as particle physicist Murray Gell-Mann (Nobel laureate 1969), who, for “quark”, was inspired by a passage from Joyce's Finnegans Wake.

Author(s):  
Italo Pasquon

On March 11, 1954 Giulio Natta synthetized isotactic polypropylene. It was the first synthesis, in laboratory, of a polymer having a sterically ordered structure, similar to those found in some natural polymers like, for instance, natural rubber and cellulose. This meaningful aspect was emphasized by Prof. Fredga of the Swedish Academy in his speech at the customary ceremony of Nobel Prize on December 10, 1963, when he stated “Natta has broken the monopoly of nature”. With the polypropylene synthesis Natta discovered the “stereospecific polymerization” defined by Toblosky (Princeton University) and by Flory, one of the most eminent scientist in the macromolecular chemistry and future Nobel laureate in Chemistry (1974), a “revolution” in the macromolecular field. Natta was recognized as the “father” of stereospecific polymerization. The Journal of Polymer Science, vol. 51 (1961), dedicated to Natta, reports “Seldom a scientific contribution aroused such a deep and fundamental interest and was followed by such a rapid technical development as the series of publications by Professor Natta and his coworkers on the stereospecific polymerization. Yet Professor Natta has succeeded in maintaining undisputed leadership in this field of polymer chemistry and continues to surprise his colleagues with new and unexpected results”. The revolution brought by Natta in the field of macromolecular chemistry involved the entire scientific and industrial world specialized in that area. Soon after 1954-55 a lot of universities and industrial laboratories around the world started to work on activities concerning the novel stereospecific polymerization. The results of these studies are reported in about a thousand scientific publications and some hundreds of patents issued from the Milan Polytechnic Institute of Industrial Chemistry between 1955 and 1977 (concentrated in 1955-57). The importance of polypropylene from the commercial point of view is evident from the fact that the world production of various types of polypropylene now stands at about 60 million tons/year. It is estimated that the related global economic value approaches the second place over all synthetic products, after polyethylene, together with ammonia, and before other products such as urea, polymers of styrene and vinyl chloride, nylons, etc. For their part 1,4-cis polybutadiene and copolymers based on ethylene and propylene occupy respectively the second and the third place in terms of worldwide production and market value among synthetic elastomers, after styrene-butadiene rubbers (SBR). More information concerning the personality and the scientific and didactic activities of Giulio Natta and his relations with the scientific and industrial world are reported on the internet site www.giulionatta.it containing the “Giulio Natta Archive” (more than 40.000 pages).


2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (41) ◽  
pp. 29-47
Author(s):  
Łukasz Barciński

Following the interdisciplinary approach, the article presents the translator’s role from the point of view musical terminology, which becomes appropriated for the sake of translation studies. As a result, the study applies the musical term aleatory music denoting an indeterminate type of musical notation which allows considerable freedom in the interpretation of a musical score. From this perspective, the translator, confronted with the inevitable interpretative gaps and indeterminacies in the source text, is compared to a musical performer who interprets the indeterminate aleatory notation. This approach is defined as trans(a)l(e)atory studies which consist in the analysis of multiple interpretative possibilities of target text versions based on one source text. The prominent example of the performative aspect of the translation process defined in this way is Finnegans Wake by James Joyce, the Polish translation of which (Finneganów Tren by rendered by Krzysztof Bartnicki) is analysed. The comparative study focuses on indeterminate aspects of language such as puns, neologisms (including portmanteau words), iconicity, blends and the superimposition of languages.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
U. V.S. Seshavatharam ◽  
S. Lakshminarayana

We would like to emphasize that, extraordinary physical concepts like Big bang, Inflation, Dark energy and Superluminal expansion demand super-normal efforts and need observational support. Observational data is raising day-by-day non-conformity and demanding changes in the original concepts. It is very interesting to note that James Peebles, the famous cosmologist and 2019 Nobel laureate strongly believes that Big bang concept is inappropriate in understanding the universe. It is better to understand and develop models of cosmology based on well supported physical concepts rather than extraordinary physical hypothesis. Unification point of view, quantum cosmology must be given a priority and one should make a note that, Spin is a basic property of quantum physics and rotation is a very common experience. In this context, with reference to life cycle of living creatures and independent of red-shift data, we have developed a quantum model of cosmology associated with Machian universe having Planck scale origin, total dark matter, light speed expansion, light speed rotation, equality of gravitational self energy density and thermal energy density, radially decreasing internal acceleration and radially increasing anisotropy. We are working on understanding and correlating observed redshift data in a unified approach. In this letter, we present various galactic applications of current cosmic angular velocity.  


Author(s):  
Garrett Hardin

Constrained, structured thinking has been the predominant habit of successful operators in both business and science for at least two millennia—at least since Epicurus of Samos. Only occasionally have surprising discoveries upset the equilibria of scientists, and then only for a little while. Surprises are soon reconciled with old pictures of reality: structure and constraint reign once more. But in the disequilibrium of the interim, believers in a free lunch have a field day. By the latter half of the nineteenth century the laws of conservation of matter and energy seemed to have tied everything up into one neat package. Then in 1896 Becquerel discovered radioactivity and the old constrained view of energy was in trouble. During a decade of intense experimentation the properties and significance of radioactivity and radioactive decay were investigated, culminating in 1905 in the publication of Einstein's celebrated equation, E = me2. Conservation was redefined in terms of a new synthetic entity, mass-energy. Constraint ruled once more. Despite Einstein's rescue of conservation, there was still some turmoil because, from a practical point of view, the fact that a tiny mass could be converted into a great quantity of energy made the conservation of mass-energy seem rather academic. In 1916 the English physicist Ernest Rutherford pointed out that the energy resident in a single pound of radioactive material was equivalent to that obtainable from the combustion of 100 million pounds of coal. Since his country was then at war, it is not surprising that the physicist should have expressed a hope that radioactive energy would not be available to human beings until they had learned to live in peace with one another. Scientists of considerable stature sometimes denied the possibility of an atomic bomb. In 1930 Robert A. Millikan, a Nobel laureate in 1923 and at the time president of the California Institute of Technology, called the prospect of an atomic bomb a hobgoblin and a myth. "It is highly improbable that there is any appreciable amount of available energy for man to tap." That the grounds for Millikan's conclusion were not wholly scientific was apparent when he confessed his faith that humanity can "sleep in peace with the consciousness that the Creator has put some foolproof elements into His handiwork, and that man is powerless to do any titanic physical damage."


1962 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 169-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Green

The term geo-sciences has been used here to include the disciplines geology, geophysics and geochemistry. However, in order to apply geophysics and geochemistry effectively one must begin with a geological model. Therefore, the science of geology should be used as the basis for lunar exploration. From an astronomical point of view, a lunar terrain heavily impacted with meteors appears the more reasonable; although from a geological standpoint, volcanism seems the more probable mechanism. A surface liberally marked with volcanic features has been advocated by such geologists as Bülow, Dana, Suess, von Wolff, Shaler, Spurr, and Kuno. In this paper, both the impact and volcanic hypotheses are considered in the application of the geo-sciences to manned lunar exploration. However, more emphasis is placed on the volcanic, or more correctly the defluidization, hypothesis to account for lunar surface features.


1984 ◽  
Vol 75 ◽  
pp. 331-337
Author(s):  
Richard Greenberg

ABSTRACTThe mechanism by which a shepherd satellite exerts a confining torque on a ring is considered from the point of view of a single ring particle. It is still not clear how one might most meaningfully include damping effects and other collisional processes into this type of approach to the problem.


Author(s):  
A. Baronnet ◽  
M. Amouric

The origin of mica polytypes has long been a challenging problem for crystal- lographers, mineralogists and petrologists. From the petrological point of view, interest in this field arose from the potential use of layer stacking data to furnish further informations about equilibrium and/or kinetic conditions prevailing during the crystallization of the widespread mica-bearing rocks. From the compilation of previous experimental works dealing with the occurrence domains of the various mica "polymorphs" (1Mr, 1M, 2M1, 2M2 and 3T) within water-pressure vs temperature fields, it became clear that most of these modifications should be considered as metastable for a fixed mica species. Furthermore, the natural occurrence of long-period (or complex) polytypes could not be accounted for by phase considerations. This highlighted the need of a more detailed kinetic approach of the problem and, in particular, of the role growth mechanisms of basal faces could play in this crystallographic phenomenon.


Author(s):  
T. E. Mitchell ◽  
M. R. Pascucci ◽  
R. A. Youngman

1. Introduction. Studies of radiation damage in ceramics are of interest not only from a fundamental point of view but also because it is important to understand the behavior of ceramics in various practical radiation enyironments- fission and fusion reactors, nuclear waste storage media, ion-implantation devices, outer space, etc. A great deal of work has been done on the spectroscopy of point defects and small defect clusters in ceramics, but relatively little has been performed on defect agglomeration using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) in the same kind of detail that has been so successful in metals. This article will assess our present understanding of radiation damage in ceramics with illustrations using results obtained from the authors' work.


Author(s):  
C. Wiencke ◽  
A. Lauchli

Osmoregulatory mechanisms in algae were investigated mainly from a physiological point of view (KAUSS 1977, HELLEBUST 1976). In Porphyra two osmotic agents, i. e. floridoside/isofloridoside (KAUSS 1968) and certain ions, such as K+ and Na+(EPPLEY et al. 1960) are considered for osmotic balance. Accumulations of ions (particularly Na+) in the cytoplasm during osmotic adaptation is improbable, because the activity of enzymes is generally inhibited by high ionic concentrations (FLOWERS et al. 1977).The cellular organization of Porphyra was studied with special emphasis on the development of the vacuolar system under different hyperosmotic conditions. Porphyra was cultivated at various strengths of the culture medium ASP 12 (PROVASOLI 1961) ranging from normal to 6 times concentrated (6x) culture medium. Por electron microscopy freeze fracturing was used (specimens fixed in 2% glutaraldehyde and incubated in 30% glycerol, preparation in a BALZERS BA 360 M apparatus), because chemical fixation gave poor results.


Author(s):  
N.V. Belov ◽  
U.I. Papiashwili ◽  
B.E. Yudovich

It has been almost universally adopted that dissolution of solids proceeds with development of uniform, continuous frontiers of reaction.However this point of view is doubtful / 1 /. E.g. we have proved the active role of the block (grain) boundaries in the main phases of cement, these boundaries being the areas of hydrate phases' nucleation / 2 /. It has brought to the supposition that the dissolution frontier of cement particles in water is discrete. It seems also probable that the dissolution proceeds through the channels, which serve both for the liquid phase movement and for the drainage of the incongruant solution products. These channels can be appeared along the block boundaries.In order to demonsrate it, we have offered the method of phase-contrast impregnation of the hardened cement paste with the solution of methyl metacrylahe and benzoyl peroxide. The viscosity of this solution is equal to that of water.


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