The Synthesizing Impulse: J. B. S. Haldane

By any standards, John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (1892–1964) was a fascinating man. An eminent scientist, prolific writer and speaker, fiery political activist, and all-round colorful character, he has been the subject of several full-length biographies and multiple biographical sketches.

ACADEMICIAN BORIS LAVRENT ’ YEVICH ISSATCHENKO: ON HIS 150TH ANNIVERSARY

2021 marked the 150th anniversary of the eminent scientist, Academician Boris Lavrentyevich Issatchenko (1871-1948), naturalist and microbiologist, polar researcher, founder of marine and geological microbiology, organizer of scientific study and education. The article revisits his biography, discussing his central scientific achievements, and presenting select materials of an exposition dedicated to the jubilee, at the Earth Science Museum, Moscow State University.

In search of historical roots of the extraterrestrial impact theory, II: two unknown German pioneers from the 1850s, Ludwig Pfeil and Karl Reichenbach

The mid-nineteenth century is not regarded as the time when the theory of extraterrestrial catastrophism developed. However, two German scholars independently introduced original concepts of terrestrial impacts of large celestial bodies at that time. Ludwig Pfeil (1803–1896), a self-educated wealthy landowner, and Karl Reichenbach (1788–1869), an eminent scientist and industrialist, independently proposed in the 1850s that the Earth is an aggregate of meteoritic masses and has experienced many impact-induced cataclysms throughout its geological history. Until 1891, Pfeil analyzed the effects of the collision of a comet's gaseous body with Earth. He tried to simulate the effects of tsunami waves generated by impacts into the ocean and inferred the route of “cometary currents” from the morphology and orientation of coastlines and associated mountain ranges. Reichenbach speculated about fertilization of the terrestrial surface by extraterrestrial dust in the context of an accretionary origin for Earth that also manifested in meteoritic sources of volcanic extrusions. He linked the Mesozoic succession of “buried living worlds” to geological catastrophes, caused by successive meteorite impacts. These cosmic bombardment concepts were comprehensively criticized by contemporary researchers, but soon found many conceptual successors in the German-speaking science community. Therefore, Pfeil and Reichenbach should be regarded as pioneers of the impact theory.

Anatoly S. Skripkin and My Generation of Sarmatologists

The article is dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Anatoly S. Skripkin, professor of the Volgograd State University. It is based on the authors personal memories about several important milestones in the biography of this eminent scientist. His great contribution to the modern Russian sarmatology is assessed.

The Evolution of Intelligence

This chapter fleshes out the “cultural drive” hypothesis proposed by eminent scientist Allan Wilson. It first considers the question of exactly how social learning could drive brain evolution when some animals managed to copy with tiny brains. Greater specification of the feedback mechanism by which cultural processes fostered the evolution of cognition was required if the argument was to be compelling. Second, the chapter looks at how many variables (e.g., diet, social complexity, latitude) had been shown to be associated with brain size in primates. In order to evaluate the hypothesis that cultural processes had played a particularly central role in the evolution of the human mind, whether social learning was a genuine cause of brain evolution must first be established. Third, the chapter argues that talk of increases in “brain size” is rather simplistic. The brain is a complex organ with extensive substructure, and with particular features and circuitry known to be important to specific biological functions. How the brain had changed over evolutionary time, and whether the observed changes in size and structure were consistent with what the cultural drive hypothesis predicted, also had to be established.

Contribution of Guillaume Dupuytren (1777-1835) to Clinical Surgery and Traumatology (in commemoration of the 240th anniversary of the birth)

G. Dupuytren was a representative of an anatomic and physiologic direction as he deemed that the surgery should develop on the basis of the achievements of the anatomy and physiology. He rightfully earned a reputation of the best French surgeon that ensured him wealth, fame and titles. Principle theoretic and practical propositions and discoveries of G. Dupuytren are still the background of our knowledge in surgery. General theoretical and methodological principles of scientific cognition that were used by Dupuytren characterize him not only as a great surgeon and traumatologist, but an eminent scientist and thinker as well.

Tributes

Pushpa Mittra Bhargava 1928–2017: Eminent Scientist, Influential Public Intellectual and a Unique Institution Builder