Philosophy of Music in the Image of the World: From Antiquity to the Modern Time

The article presents philosophical views on music in the context of the transformations of the worldview from Antiquity to the Modern Time. In this research author also mentions the contemporary issues, and uses her own philosophical concept of the music, which can be described as following: the value of music as a substance and the way of the valuable interaction of a person with the world affirm the essence of musical being, in which the invariable principle of Harmony, the principle of Chaos-Form movement, is preserved (see "The Value of the Music: Philosophical Aspect"). Music expresses the fluid essence of the world and changes of being in space and time. Philosophy of music as a field of philosophical knowledge considers music from ontological-epistemological and phenomenological-axiological prospectives, as something more than just a form of art. It explores the deep, ultimate foundations of the existence of music as such and the philosophical and aesthetic foundations of musical art. Since ancient times music has been a representation of the world in the human conscience and served as the harmonic equivalent of cosmological philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and astrophysics (Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Aristoxenus, Porphyry et als.). The scientific view on music was enriched in the Modern Time by the expanded view on the cosmo-sound space reflected in musical art, which at the same time transforms the mathematical ideas of geometricity, squareness etc. The tendency to create integral world music in the musical practice of the XX-XXI centuries explains the attempt of mankind to present music by modern methods of composing musical art as an expression of fear towards the secret Harmony of universal existence, and, on the other hand - as a form of search for salvation and mental balance, intuitively reflecting what is happening in natural science, which more and more points to the abyss of unknowable universe, and the unstable place of man in the world.

Call for ‘great observatory’ to succeed Hubble

Michael Banks reveals the highlights of the long-awaited Astro2020 Decadal Survey, which will define the course of astronomy and astrophysics in the US and beyond over the next 10 years.

The matter of complex anti-matter: the portrayal and framing of physics in Dutch newspapers

Physics is often perceived as difficult, but there has been little research on how physics is reported in the media. In this two-stage content analysis, we examine the portrayal of physics in five major Dutch newspapers. Results show that astronomy and astrophysics is the most prominent field. Furthermore, newspaper articles are triggered almost equally by scientific and non-scientific events. Finally, the majority of described physics concepts are framed as difficult, but journalists do provide explanations for them.

Origins space telescope: from first light to life

The Origins Space Telescope (Origins) is one of four science and technology definition studies selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in preparation of the 2020 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal survey in the US. Origins will trace the history of our origins from the time dust and heavy elements permanently altered the cosmic landscape to present-day life. It is designed to answer three major science questions: How do galaxies form stars, make metals, and grow their central supermassive black holes from reionization? How do the conditions for habitability develop during the process of planet formation? Do planets orbiting M-dwarf stars support life? Origins operates at mid- to far-infrared wavelengths from ~ 2.8 μm to 588 μm, and is more than 1000 times more sensitive than prior far-IR missions due to its cold (~ 4.5 K) aperture and state-of-the-art instruments.

Introducing high-school and university students to practical astronomy via Virtual observatory tools

Large-scale astronomical surveys from the last decades have turned the usage of catalogs and archival data into one of the primary skills of contemporary observational astronomers. Virtual observatory tools give high-school and university students the opportunity to conduct astronomical research by themselves, using freely available observational data. For this purpose, they need basic theoretical knowledge in astronomy. The current paper includes a review of this theoretical knowledge as well as a review of Virtual observatory tools suitable for students. Results obtained by students using VO tools at the Beli Brezi Summer School in Astronomy and Astrophysics are presented as well.

OPPORTUNITIES TO USE NEW ROBOTIC TELESCOPES IN SPAIN

The Space Exploration Ltd (SEL) has established new observatory facilities in Spain to provide the opportunity for astronomers to remotely access a range of research-grade telescopes and access to a spectrograph, polarimeter, photometry and adaptive-optics system. In the future, simultaneous automated multi-wavelength observations will also be tested and made available. This will enable the development of new observational and analytical processes for astronomy and astrophysics. Observations will be scheduled via Internet, including projects requiring long-term ongoing monitoring. Data can be accessed rapidly following scheduled observations. Access is on a commercial, non-competitive basis, avoiding conventional time-consuming administrative requirements, wait times, and disappointments.

Planetary Science in Ethiopia

<p>Planetary Science in Ethiopia research has been emerged in Ethiopia based on the establishment of Entoto Observatory and Research Center (EORC) as well as special commencement of special graduate in three specialized fields such as (astronomy and astrophysics, space science, remote sensing and Geodesy). The installation of the twining optical telescope and ratification of national space policy has opened many opportunities to focus of planetary science research and training in Ethiopia.  Ethiopia has progressed in research, training, and technology and infrastructure development in planetary science, space technology and astronomy. This paper will focus on planetary science and related activities, current development and future prospects.</p>

COVID-19 lockdown effects on gender inequality

<p>Among European countries, Italy was the first to be heavily hit by the outbreak of COVID-19 and quickly decreed on 9 March 2020 that the entire national territory be locked down to prevent its further spread, establishing an unprecedented situation for its citizens, including researchers. Italy hosts a noumerous (~2000) and lively community of researchers in the fields of Astronomy and Astrophysics, which contains the largest fraction of female researchers (~30%) among the world’s leading countries in astronomy (defined as the ones with IAU members >150). Therefore, the Italian community poses as an ideal testbed to investigate the consequences of the lockdown on research productivity, also by gender.<br />In order to do so, we used the INAF and MIUR websites to compile a complete database of the Italian researchers, considered by gender, and matched it with the first authors of preprints posted on the largest preprint archive of natural science publications, arXiv, for each year from 2017 to 2020.We find that the overall production in the first semester of 2020 (i.e. during the first lockdown) was lower than the average value estimated from the baseline above, but if we break down this difference by the assigned first-author gender, we find that the decrease only concerns the submissions by female researchers, while submissions by male researchers even increased. We argue that this difference in productivity between male and female researchers during the lockdown might be a reflection of the unbalanced distribution of the unpaid workload at home between partners.</p>

Exoplanet Statistics and Theoretical Implications

In the past few years, significant advances have been made in understanding the distributions of exoplanet populations and the architecture of planetary systems. We review the recent progress of planet statistics, with a focus on the inner ≲1-AU region of the planetary system that has been fairly thoroughly surveyed by the Kepler mission. We also discuss the theoretical implications of these statistical results for planet formation and dynamical evolution. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 59 is September 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.