Egyptian Root Lexicon

The Egyptian Root Lexicon presents the envisaged roots of the Egyptian words, hypothetically established on the basis of attested lexemes on obvious phonetic and semantic resemblance. As the etymological research in the field of Afro-Asiatic is not sufficiently advanced, the lexical roots are not set up on an etymological basis. The main part of the book contains the roots (numerically marked with DRID identifier) in alphabetic arrangement, with their subsequent lexemes marked with an identity number, the “ID,” as created by the Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae (TLA), of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. The roots section is followed by extensive indexes, including a lexeme index and an index of roots of Semitic origin. A selected bibliography concludes the work.

Speculative Philosophy at the Berlin Academy

This contribution focuses on the way in which the relationship between the fields of philosophy and science was the object of intense debate at the Berlin Academy. The contribution analyses some key papers in which members of the academy try to determine what they call the ‘academic spirit’. An important source is Maupertuis’s lecture, in which he explains his views, as president, about the division of classes and the advantages of carrying out research in an academy. But there are other important contributions; particularly that of Formey who, as secretary, wrote several papers on these questions, but also of Dieudonné Thiebault, Jakob Wegelin, and Christian Garve. These discussions took place at distinct periods and express different ways of conceiving of the production of academic scholarship. Most importantly, their representation of speculative philosophy changed, to the extent that some believed that this field should no longer be discussed in the context of the academy. Christian Garve maintains this view, which expresses a major change in the history of the institution. This position is also accompanied by a gradual disappearance of speculative reflections.

Expanding the comparative view

Summary Wilhelm von Humboldt’s Über die Kawi-Sprache auf der Insel Java can be seen as the first comparative grammar of non-Indo-European languages. While Humboldt’s practice of collecting and re-assembling linguistic information has been documented extensively in the Berlin Academy edition of his Schriften zur Sprachwissenschaft, this article puts his work in perspective by tracing it back to its sources and treating it as part of a wider parallel process of expanding the comparative view. In three sections, this article discusses (1) the research agendas of the three British colonial scholars upon whose works Humboldt drew for Malayan languages; (2) to which extent his Polynesian language material was ‘rawer’ than these compendia; and (3) how he reworked this material into a comparative Malayo-Polynesian grammar. Finally, a comparison is drawn with the work of his assistant and continuator Eduard Buschmann, and with Horatio Hale’s slightly later survey of the languages of the Pacific.

The Testing of a Hundred Listeners

In 1901, the Berlin psychologist Otto Abraham published a lengthy study on what he called “das absolute Tonbewußtsein” (absolute tone consciousness), claiming that musical ability is less a natural talent than something learnable—dependent on the imprint of certain tone systems and musical experiences. In place of simple stimulus–response tests, Abraham therefore proposed a completely new method of testing musicality, based on a comprehensive test battery and a detailed questionnaire. This chapter’s investigation of Abraham’s method highlights its underlying epistemology of hearing, with particular attention to the relationship between Abraham’s notion of musicality and his mentor Carl Stumpf’s theory of tone psychology. The chapter then traces later applications of Abraham’s study in the fields of comparative musicology and music education, focusing on testing procedures at the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv, the Berlin Academy of Music, and, in the shape of U.S. psychologist Carl Seashore’s “measures of musical talent,” American schools and music academies.

Detection of epistasis between ACTN3 and SNAP-25 with an insight towards gymnastic aptitude identification

In this study, we performed an analysis of the impact of performance enhancing polymorphisms (PEPs) on gymnastic aptitude while considering epistatic effects. Seven PEPs (rs1815739, rs8192678, rs4253778, rs6265, rs5443, rs1076560, rs362584) were considered in a case (gymnasts) – control (sedentary individuals) setting. The study sample comprised of two athletes’ sets: 27 elite (aged 24.8 ± 2.1 years) and 46 sub-elite (aged 19.7 ± 2.4 years) sportsmen as well as a control group of 245 sedentary individuals (aged 22.5 ± 2.1 years). The DNA was derived from saliva and PEP alleles were determined by PCR, RT-PCR. Following Multifactor Dimensionality Reduction, logistic regression models were built. The synergistic effect for rs1815739 × rs362584 reached 5.43%. The rs1815739 × rs362584 epistatic regression model exhibited a good fit to the data (Chi-squared = 33.758, p ≈ 0) achieving a significant improvement in sportsmen identification over naïve guessing. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.715 (Z-score = 38.917, p ≈ 0). In contrast, the additive ACTN3 – SNAP-25 logistic regression model has been verified as non-significant.We demonstrate that a gene involved in the differentiation of muscle architecture – ACTN3 and a gene, which plays an important role in the nervous system – SNAP-25 interact. From the perspective originally established by the Berlin Academy of Science in 1751, the matter of communication between the brain and muscles via nerves adopts molecular manifestations. Further in-vitro investigations are required to explain the molecular details of the rs1815739 – rs362584 interaction.

Dreaming of Raphael: The Politics and Aesthetics of the Michael-Beer-Stiftung for Jewish Artists

In his will, the poet and playwright Michael Beer (1800-1833) provided an endowment for a prize to support Jewish painters and sculptors to travel to Italy for one year. The grant was placed under the auspices of the Berlin Academy of Art and awarded from 1836 to 1921. This essay focusses on the establishment of the prize, exploring the mindset and motivations of the donor, situated in their historical, social, and ideological contexts. It opens insights into early nineteenth-century Jewish-Christian networks, as well as into contemporary views on national art and the aesthetics of the classical tradition, private patronage and public institutions, Jewish emancipation, antisemitism, and civil rights.