Nobel Turing Challenge: creating the engine for scientific discovery

Scientific discovery has long been one of the central driving forces in our civilization. It uncovered the principles of the world we live in, and enabled us to invent new technologies reshaping our society, cure diseases, explore unknown new frontiers, and hopefully lead us to build a sustainable society. Accelerating the speed of scientific discovery is therefore one of the most important endeavors. This requires an in-depth understanding of not only the subject areas but also the nature of scientific discoveries themselves. In other words, the “science of science” needs to be established, and has to be implemented using artificial intelligence (AI) systems to be practically executable. At the same time, what may be implemented by “AI Scientists” may not resemble the scientific process conducted by human scientist. It may be an alternative form of science that will break the limitation of current scientific practice largely hampered by human cognitive limitation and sociological constraints. It could give rise to a human-AI hybrid form of science that shall bring systems biology and other sciences into the next stage. The Nobel Turing Challenge aims to develop a highly autonomous AI system that can perform top-level science, indistinguishable from the quality of that performed by the best human scientists, where some of the discoveries may be worthy of Nobel Prize level recognition and beyond.

The sociologist as human scientist: the meaning of Shils

The writings of Edward Shils have been widely neglected in contemporary sociology. One major reason for this neglect is due to the contradictory receptions of his ideas. There have been two dominant lines of interpretation—the functionalist as well as the practice-theoretical paradigm of understanding of Shils’ writings—and they are not consistent with each other. Therefore, a more comprehensive understanding of Shils’ thinking needs to take into account his close attachment to the University of Chicago and to some of its pragmatist traditions. The suggestion in this paper is that we should read Shils from a standpoint which is called a human scientific approach. Thus, placing Shils in the context of contemporary social theory and moral philosophy reveals similarities to what has been called ‘sacralisation’ and ‘affirmative genealogy’.

HUMAN. SCIENTIST. PERSONALITY. (SCIENTIFIC PORTRAIT OF T.GURIEV)

В статье сделана попытка написания научно-творческого портрета одного из организаторов Российской академии наук, главного научного сотрудника СОИГСИ, Заслуженного деятеля науки РСО-Алания и Российской Федерации, доктора филологических наук, профессора Тамерлана Александровича Гуриева. В ней подчеркивается значимость работ ученого в области осетинского языкознания, ономастики, фольклористики, этимологии и лексикологии, его роль в теории и практике лексикографического описания осетинского языка. Т.А. Гуриев обращал внимание на нерешенные проблемы осетиноведения, со всеми трудностями их комплексной разработки. Ему помогало и то, что он сам, кроме родного осетинского, русского и монгольского, знал еще несколько иранских, славянских и западноевропейских языков. Анализируя научное наследие Гуриева, автор делает акцент на природном таланте ученого, выделяет его глубокий ум, научную эрудицию, страстную увлеченность своим делом, отмечает необычайную широту интересов, энциклопедические знания и целостность научного мировоззрения. В статье также обосновывается умение Гуриева работать с молодыми исследователями и анализируется вклад, сделанный ученым в развитие науки в качестве председателя Ассоциации ученых РСО-Алания. Акцентируется внимание на деятельности Гуриева как популяризатора науки, его роль по объединению и консолидации литераторов республики, издательская, переводческая и широкая общественная деятельность. In the article an attempt is made to write a scientific and creative portrait of one of the organizers of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the chief researcher of NOIHSS, the Honored Worker of Science of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania and the Russian Federation, Doctor of Philology, Professor Tamerlan Alexandrovich Guriev. It highlights the importance of the work of the scientist in the field of Ossetian linguistics, onomastics, folklore, etymology and lexicology, his role in the theory and practice of the lexicographic description of the Ossetian language. T. A. Guriev drew attention to the unresolved problems of Ossetian studies, with all the difficulties of their comprehensive development. The fact that he had a thorough knowledge of his native Ossetian, Russian and Mongolian languages and also knew several Iranian, Slavic and Western European languages was of crucial importance in his research activity. While analyzing the scientific heritage of Guriev, the author focuses on the natural talent of the scientist, highlights his deep intellect, scientific erudition, passionate passion for his work, and notes the extraordinary breadth of interests, encyclopedic knowledge and the integrity of the scientific worldview. The article also substantiates Guriev’s ability to work with young researchers and analyzes the contribution made by the scientists to the development of science as a chairman of the Association of Scientists of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania. Attention is focused on the activities of Guriev as a popularizer of science, his role in uniting and consolidating the writers of the republic, his publishing, translation and wide public activities.

Stepan Pozniak is a human, scientist and manager

The article is dedicated to the famous Ukrainian soil scientist - Professor, Doctor of Geographical Sciences on the occasion of his 75th anniversary. This article describes the life and scientific professor's work. Key words: anniversary, scientist, soil scientist.