scholarly journals Embracing astrobiology

2004 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 4
Author(s):  
Malcolm Walter
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Living Systems ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
The Us ◽  
Fundamental Understanding ◽  
The Future ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
The Universe

?Astrobiology? is a term popularised in 1998 by a decision of the US space agency NASA to establish the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI). The then Administrator of NASA, Daniel Goldin, declared that ?biology will be the science of the 21st century?. The NAI was established to promote research aimed at gaining a fundamental understanding of the full potential of living systems. Its goal is to understand how life begins and evolves, whether life exists elsewhere in the universe, and what the future holds for life on Earth and beyond. While such broadly interdisciplinary research is not entirely new, the NAI was to give it new vigour and new resources. And it has.

Life as It Could Be

2020 ◽  
pp. 101-114
Author(s):  
Luis Campos
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Molecular Biology ◽  
The Future ◽  
Forms Of Life ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
The Universe

This chapter explores the intersection between two related fields: synthetic biology and astrobiology. Pushing the engineering of life past traditional limits in molecular biology and expanding the envelope of life to forms never before extant, synthetic biologists are now beginning to design experimental ways of getting at what astrobiologists have long suspected: that the life known here on Earth is but a subset of vast combinatorial possibilities in the universe. The resonances between the future engineered possibilities of this world and speculations about possible biologies on habitable others are not merely happenstance. Indeed, there is a curious and compelling deeper history interlinking scientific speculation about new forms of life elsewhere in the universe with visions for the human-directed engineering of new forms of life on Earth. For decades, the astrobiological and the synthetic biological have mutually inspired each other and overlapped in powerful genealogical ways.

scholarly journals ARTISTIC PEDAGOGY AS A PHENOMENON OF SENSORY CULTURE: SOCIO-CULTURAL ANALYSIS

2017 ◽  
pp. 115-125
Author(s):  
Elena Lobach
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Universe

The article deals with socio-cultural analysis of artistic pedagogy based on the properties  of  sensory  culture,  identified  by  the  well-known  American  sociologist P. Sorokin (1889-1968): sensationalism; novelty for the sake of novelty; quantity dominance over quality; utilitarianism and pragmatism; dominance in the science of the sensual world as a subject of research; concentration on pathological types of people and events. The above-mentioned properties of sensory culture gave the author the opportunity to systematize pedagogical facts and convincingly prove that contemporary artistic pedagogy is a phenomenon of sensory culture. Hence the objectivity of its changing, dynamic, receptive-instrumental and reformist nature, which generates numerous projects, programs, instructions, orders, etc., and causes uncertainty and confusion among subjects in the educational process.It is noted that for thousands of years, artistic education glorified and protected the «universe of meanings» and eternal values, was at the service of high ideals. And today, despite the aggressiveness of the mass of anti-culture, artistic pedagogy is intended to be the system-forming link of the future ideational / idealistic culture as an integral, organic whole.The  forerunners  of  a  new  culture  are  the  pedagogy  of  the  «heart»  by V. Sukhomlynsky and Y. Korchak, the pedagogy of cooperation by S. Amonashvili, the pedagogy of goodness  by I. Zyazyun, the heuristic didactics by A. Khutorsky, the Orthodox  pedagogy  by  L. Surova,  the  system  of  general  artistic  education  by L. Goryunova, Z. Koday, O. Lobova, B. Nemensky, K. Orf, O. Rostovsky, O. Rudnitsky, Sh. Suzuki, P. Hauve and others.The 21st  century is proclaimed by UNESCO as a century of education, that is why pedagogy as a science should prepare society for the choice of future civilization, overcome chaos and stagnation of the «sensory principle», which gradually goes into oblivion.

scholarly journals Efficiency and equity – The Swedish economy in comparison to other countries at the beginning of the 21st century

2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-267
Author(s):  
Bogusław Czarny ◽  
Elżbieta Czarny
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
The United States ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
The Other ◽  
Gdp Per Capita ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
The Us ◽  
Per Capita

Abstract Referring to economic ideals of efficiency and equity, we are comparing the state of the Swedish economy in the early 21st century to the situation in other countries, especially the other Nordic countries, the United States (US), and Poland. After presenting the basic facts about Nordic countries we examine the issue of economic efficiency. In addition to gross domestic product (GDP) we use the Human Development Index (HDI), the findings of the economics of happiness, and the number of registered triadic patent families as measures of efficiency. Then we analyze the issue of equity. We use the Gini coefficient, the extent of poverty, the level of unemployment, and the level of intergenerational mobility of earnings as measures of equity. The analysis reveals that inhabitants of Sweden and the other Nordic countries have been achieving some of the best economic results in the world. This applies to the level of GDP per capita in these countries, to the capability of inhabitants to utilize their full potential, and to their life satisfaction. These countries’ ability to create innovation is impressive. At the same time, Nordics have successfully reduced the scale of social inequalities and ensured relatively equal opportunities for all citizens. This is evidenced by low income inequality, low unemployment, and low poverty rate in these countries. Sweden and the other Nordic countries are superior to the US both in terms of efficiency and equity. Poland, on the other hand, lags far behind Nordics, as well as the US, in terms of efficiency, as exemplified by the relatively low GDP per capita and very low innovation in Poland. In terms of equity, however, Poland loses to Nordics but seems to win to the US.

Introduction: Why Military Adaptation?

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
David Barno ◽  
Nora Bensahel
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Us Military ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Future ◽  
Critical Components

The US military plans and thinks incessantly about wars and conflict—yet, like many organizations, it inevitably fails to foresee what comes next. That means that it must be able to successfully adapt to unforeseen circumstances in order to prevail on the battlefield. This introduction identifies the central question of this book: Is the US military adaptable enough to prevail in the wars of the 21st century? In order to answer that question, Part I of the book defines the term adaptation, identifies the three critical components of wartime adaptability, and illustrates those components through historical examples. Part II assesses US military adaptability in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including some key failures that have not yet been widely addressed. Part III argues that the US military is not sufficiently adaptable for the future conflicts it may face, and offers many recommendations for improvement.

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