scholarly journals Toward a history of explanation in science communication: the case of Madame Wu experiment on parity violation

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (03) ◽  
pp. A10
Author(s):  
Eugenio Bertozzi
Keyword(s):  
Parity Violation ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Popular Science ◽  
Crucial Experiment ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Peer Review Journal ◽  
Productive Process ◽  
History Of ◽  
20Th Century Physics ◽  
Circulation Of Knowledge

By focusing on a specific episode of 20th Century physics — the discovery of parity violation in 1957 — the paper presents a study of the types of explanations of the crucial experiment as they are found in different editorial categories: a peer-review journal, a popular science book, an encyclopedia and a newspaper articles. The study provides a fine-grained description of the mechanism of the explanation as elaborated in non-specialist accounts of the experiment and identifies original, key-explanatory elements which characterize them. In so doing, the paper presents a reflection on the processes of transformation and adaptation implied by the circulation of knowledge — which features as a productive process in its own right — and shows which further insights a focus on explanation can offer to the current historical researches on science communication.

Popular Science as CulturalDispositif: On the German Way of Science Communication in the Twentieth Century

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arne Schirrmacher
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Popular Science ◽  
German History ◽  
Science Content ◽  
Science Popularization ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Rich

ArgumentGerman twentieth-century history is characterized by stark changes in the political system and the momentous consequences of World Wars I and II. However, instead of uncovering specific kinds or periods of “Kaiserreich science,” “Weimar science,” or “Nazi science” together with their public manifestations and in such a way observing a narrow link between popular science and political orders, this paper tries to exhibit some remarkable stability and continuity in popular science on a longer scale. Thanks to the rich German history of scientific leadership in many fields, broad initiatives for science popularization, and a population and economy open to scientific progress, the media offered particularly rich popular science content, which was diversified for various audiences and interests. Closer consideration of the format, genre, quality, and quantity of popular science, and of the uses and value audiences attributed to it, along with their respective evolution, reveals infrastructures underpinning science communication. Rather than dealing with specific discourses, the conditions of science communication are at the center of this article. Therefore I focus on the institutions, rules, laws, and economies related to popular science, as well as on the philosophical, moral, and national propositions related to it, and also on the interactions among this ensemble of rather heterogeneous elements. This approach allows a machinery of popular scientific knowledge to be identified, in Foucauldian terms adispositif, one which is of a particularly cultural nature.

scholarly journals Popularised science communication modes in Italian popular science magazines (1788-2002)

2004 ◽  
Vol 03 (01) ◽  
pp. A01
Author(s):  
Enrica Battifoglia
Keyword(s):  
History Of Science ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Popular Science ◽  
Language Of Science ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
Communication Modes ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Periods

Analysis of popular science magazines can offer a significant contribution to the study of the history of science popularisation and the relation between the language of science and everyday language in Italy. This paper reconstructs the history of science popularisation through analysis of popular science magazines published in Italy from 1788 to date. The material examined consists of 80 popular science magazines covering various scientific disciplines, reporting current issues and targeted at a non-specialist public. Such material had never been gathered and organised in a systematic way before. The analysis did not take into account academic scientific journals which generally cover a single discipline and use technical language or high-quality science popularisation journals which also use specialist language. The element that all 80 magazines have in common is the use of non-technical, easily understandable language for a public that does not possess any specialist scientific knowledge. The analysis of the material offers an overview of the scientific disciplines that have been covered more extensively in popular science magazines from the end of the 18th century to date. In addition, it shows how priorities in coverage changed in different historical periods and how a variety of science communication modes have been established over time.

Capitalisms

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Tenth Century ◽  
History Of Capitalism ◽  
Commodity Production ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
History Of ◽  
National Boundaries ◽  
Small Producers ◽  
Circulation Of Knowledge ◽  
Industrial Revolutions

Conventional accounts often conceive the genesis of capitalism in Europe within the conjunctures of agricultural, commercial, and industrial revolutions. Challenging this widely believed cliché, this volume traces the history of capitalism across civilizations, tenth century onwards, and argues that capitalism was neither a monolithic entity nor exclusively an economic phenomenon confined to the West. Looking at regions as diverse as England, South America, Russia, North Africa, and East, South, West, and Southeast Asia, the book explores the plurality of developments across time and space. The chapters analyse aspects such as historical conjunctures, commodity production and distribution, circulation of knowledge and personnel, and the role of mercantile capital, small producers, and force—all the while stressing the necessity to think beyond present-day national boundaries. The book argues that the multiple histories of capitalism can be better understood from a trans-regional, intercontinental, and interconnected perspective.

LITERARY HISTORIES OF THE NATURAL HISTORICAL BOOK

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 411-421
Author(s):  
Jonathan V. Farina
Keyword(s):  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Popular Science ◽  
History Of The Book ◽  
Tour Guides ◽  
Online Databases ◽  
History Of ◽  
Knowledge Of Evolution ◽  
Literary Histories ◽  
Correspondence Project ◽  
Darwin Correspondence Project

Inspired in part by the coincident bicentenary of Darwin's birth and the sesquicentennial of The Origin of Species in 2009, scholars have been hard at work these last ten years writing substantial histories of nineteenth-century natural history and geology. These histories include exceptional books by scholars trained primarily in literary studies: Cannon Schmitt's Darwin and the Memory of the Human (2009); Daniel Brown's The Poetry of Victorian Scientists (2013); and Gowan Dawson's Darwin, Literature and Victorian Respectability (2007). With a few notable exceptions, however, the books I was invited to review here are written mostly by historians of science. And yet they are no less literary for that. All are marked by a tacit, pragmatic adoption of actor-network theory; by the extraordinary resources of the Darwin Correspondence Project and online databases of British periodicals; and often, too, by glossy illustrations. Further, nearly all of these histories share a methodological investment in what we call the history of the book, including all the economics of publishing (formats, sizes, fonts, prices, print runs, reviews, sales, generic conventions) and a political and heuristic stake in popularization and the general reading public. While Darwin (and Lyell, Herschel, Hooker, Huxley, and Spencer) remain at the center of the discussion, the empirically-minded history-of-the-book approach and investment in everyday readers reconstructs and legitimates a robust popular science that was engaged with, but not subordinate to, and often more liberal than the elite science of the X Club, the Royal Society, and other exclusive institutions. With the help of museums, lectures, tour guides, and other natural scientific literature, everyday readers produced their own knowledge of evolution, stratigraphy, speciation, animal emotion, and the sex life of plants.

Reviews: F.I. Ershov. “History of Virology from D.I. Ivanovskay to the present day ”. Popular science edition. GEOTAR-Media, 279 p., 2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 335-336
Author(s):  
Georgy A. Galegov ◽  
Alexander V. Pronin
Keyword(s):  
Publishing House ◽  
Popular Science ◽  
History Of

A review for the book by F.I. Ershova History of Virology from D.I. Ivanovsky to the present day, publishing house GEOTAR-Media, 2020.

Use of pyrite microfabric as a key to tectono-thermal evolution of massive sulphide deposits – an example from Deri, southern Rajasthan, India

1998 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anju Tiwary ◽  
Mihir Deb ◽  
Nigel J. Cook
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Evolution ◽  
Regional Metamorphism ◽  
Massive Sulphide ◽  
Ductile Deformation ◽  
Sulphide Deposit ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Thermal Metamorphism ◽  
Sulphide Ores ◽  
History Of ◽  
South Delhi Fold Belt

AbstractPyrite is an ubiquitous constituent of the Proterozoic massive sulphide deposit at Deri, in the South Delhi Fold Belt of southern Rajasthan. Preserved pyrite microfabrics in the Zn-Pb-Cu sulphide ores of Deri reveal a polyphase growth history of the iron sulphide and enable the tectono-thermal evolution of the deposit to be reconstructed.Primary sedimentary features in Deri pyrites are preserved as compositional banding. Regional metamorphism from mid-greenschist to low amphibolite facies is recorded by various microtextures of pyrite. Trails of fine grained pyrite inclusions within hornblende porphyroblasts define S1-schistosity. Pyrite boudins aligned parallel to S1 mark the brittle–ductile transformation of pyrite during the earliest deformation in the region. Isoclinal to tight folds (F1 and F2) in pyrite layers relate to a ductile deformation stage during progressive regional metamorphism. Peak metamorphic conditions around 550°C, an estimation supported by garnet–biotite thermometry, resulted in annealing of pyrite grains, while porphyroblastic growth of pyrite (up to 900 µm) took place along the retrogressive path. Brittle deformation of pyrite and growth of irregular pyritic mass around such fractured porphyroblasts characterize the waning phase of regional metamorphism. A subsequent phase of stress-free, thermal metamorphism is recorded in the decussate and rosette textures of arsenopyrite prisms replacing irregular pyritic mass. Annealing of such patchy pyrite provides information regarding the temperature conditions during this episode of thermal metamorphism which is consistent with the hornblendehornfels facies metamorphism interpreted from magnetite–ilmenite geothermometry (550°C) and sphalerite geobarometry (3.5 kbar). A mild cataclastic deformation during the penultimate phase produced microfaults in twinned arsenopyrite prisms.

scholarly journals Reasoning on Controversial Science Issues in Science Education and Science Communication

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 522
Author(s):  
Anna Beniermann ◽  
Laurens Mecklenburg ◽  
Annette Upmeier zu Belzen
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Scientific Data ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Informal Reasoning ◽  
The Public ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Societal Issues ◽  
Category System

The ability to make evidence-based decisions, and hence to reason on questions concerning scientific and societal aspects, is a crucial goal in science education and science communication. However, science denial poses a constant challenge for society and education. Controversial science issues (CSI) encompass scientific knowledge rejected by the public as well as socioscientific issues, i.e., societal issues grounded in science that are frequently applied to science education. Generating evidence-based justifications for claims is central in scientific and informal reasoning. This study aims to describe attitudes and their justifications within the argumentations of a random online sample (N = 398) when reasoning informally on selected CSI. Following a deductive-inductive approach and qualitative content analysis of written open-ended answers, we identified five types of justifications based on a fine-grained category system. The results suggest a topic-specificity of justifications referring to specific scientific data, while justifications appealing to authorities tend to be common across topics. Subjective, and therefore normative, justifications were slightly related to conspiracy ideation and a general rejection of the scientific consensus. The category system could be applied to other CSI topics to help clarify the relation between scientific and informal reasoning in science education and communication.

scholarly journals The works of Leningrad popular science film studio “Lennauchfilm” in the 1970s – 1980s

2021 ◽  
pp. 19-29
Author(s):  
Mariya Vladimirovna Kalenichenko
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Popular Science ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Film Directors ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Art And Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Film Texts ◽  
Scientific Achievements

This article is dedicated to examination of works of the film directors of the Leningrad popular science film studio “Lennauchfilm” in the 1970s – 1980s. Based on the archival documents presented in the Central Archive of Literature and Art of Saint Petersburg, the author analyzes the work of the film studio: carries out classification of filmography by formal-semantic criterion, as well as determines the key processes typical to this time period. The following main trends are highlighted: natural science, technical-propagandistic, historical-revolutionary, military-patriotic, social life, history of art and culture. Special attention is given to the films that cover the topics, which have not previously been included in the field of popular science cinematography. The novelty of this research lies in classification of the thematic trends of the Leningrad film studio as an integral artistic system, as well as in comparison of the plots of popular science film texts by each direction over the two decades. As a result, the author identified the main trends, which broadened the thematic field in the work of the studio, as well as fundamentally changed the representations on the goals and tasks of popular science cinematography. The key object of popular science cinematography is being shifted during the Perestroika period. Emphasis is place not on science and technological achievements, but human and society. Film directors through their works conveyed the attitude of society towards science, raising the questions of transformation of ethics and morality in the context of scientific and technological revolution. The idea of the harm of scientific achievements and responsibility of the scholars before society is being advanced. Without any doubt, the works of the Leningrad film directors broadened the ideological-artistic range by offering the own vision of specificity of the Soviet popular science cinematography.

scholarly journals Powstanie kawalerii SS Totenkopf i jej rola w niemieckiej polityce okupacyjnej na ziemiach polskich w latach 1939–1941

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 72-88
Author(s):  
Jarosław Dybek ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Third Reich ◽  
Popular Science ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
German Occupation ◽  
The Third ◽  
General Government ◽  
History Of ◽  
Polish Language ◽  
False Image ◽  
The Third Reich

The topic of the article is one of the German SS regiments stationed in occupied Poland and its role in The German occupation policy. While the history of the SS formation is very well known in both academic and popular science literature, its cavalry has not been elaborated in great detail thus far. Although this topic seems interesting, it has not yet been discussed in any book in the Polish language. Most of the literature related to this topic was published in German and English. The 1st SS Death’s Head Cavalry Regiment operated primarily in the General Government and was under the Higher SS and Police Command. Some of its squadrons also operated in areas annexed to the Reich, i.e. the Warta Voievodship (Reichsgau Wartheland). From this article we will learn about the formation of the SS Death’s Head cavalry and its gradual inclusion in the brutal occupation policy of the Third Reich in Poland. In the case of its formation, we are dealing with tasks such as combating the early partisan units, searching for weapons, participating in the creation of ghettos, or helping to eliminate Polish levels of the intelligentsia. Noteworthy is the participation of this unit in the production of the propaganda film “Kampfgeschwader Lützow”, in which Polish cavalrymen were presented attacking German tanks with sabres. This false image was reproduced after the war in some movies or books, and contributed to the distorted presentation of Polish soldiers in the defensive battles of 1939.

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