Lysenko Affair and Polish Botany

This article describes the slight impact of Lysenkoism upon Polish botany. I begin with an account of the development of plant genetics in Poland, as well as the attitude of scientists and the Polish intelligentsia toward Marxist philosophy prior to the World War II. Next I provide a short history of the introduction and demise of Lysenkoism in Polish science, with a focus on events in botany, in context with key events in Polish science from 1939 to 1958. The article outlines the little effects of Lysenkoism upon botanists and their research, as well as how botanists for the most part rejected what was often termed the “new biology.” My paper shows that though Lysenko’s theories received political support, and were actively promoted by a small circle of scientists and Communist party activists, they were never accepted by most botanists. Once the political climate in Poland altered after the events of 1956, Lysenko’s theories were immediately abandoned.     

Entropic part of the boundary energy in a lipid membrane

Two-phase lipid membrane is modeled with lipids of different bending rigidity of hydrophobic tails: domains consist of “rigid” lipid liquid condensed phase and are surrounded by the “flexible” lipid liquid expanded phase. Within the framework of the earlier proposed model of flexible strings, entropic contribution not including mismatch energy is calculated analytically. “Entropic” line tension is found to be weakly dependent on the domain radius. According to the model, it is shown that merely “entropic mismatch” is not enough for the domain formation. In the paper it is assumed that lipids at the boundary, on the average, have larger area than the ones in the volume. This leads to an increase of energy of boundary lipids. Cases of lipids with nearly the same bending rigidities and with strongly different ones are considered. Free energy is calculated using Taylor expansion on the difference of area of lipids at the domain’s boundary and in the volume. Based on the calculated boundary energy domain stability in the finite system is estimated.     

Redefining the X Axis: “Professionals,” “Amateurs” and the Making of Mid-Victorian Biology – A Progress Report

A summary of revisionist accounts of the contextual meaning of`“professional” and “amateur,” as applied to the mid-Victorian X Club, is followed by an analysis of the liberal goals and inner tensions of this coalition of gentlemen specialists and government teachers. The changing status of amateurs is appraised, as are the new sites for the emerging laboratory discipline of “biology.” Various historiographical strategies for recovering the women’s role are considered. The relationship of science journalism to professionalization, and the constructive engagement of X Club publicists with their empowering audiences, are discussed. Finally, the article assesses how far the content and boundary closure of ``biology,' forged by Thomas Henry Huxley, were related to `professional' and political goals. Purebiology’s social and medical roots are examined, and the way inter-professional and wider Darwinian conflicts resulted in anew lexicon of words for the X Clubbers around 1870, including“evolution” and “agnosticism,” as well as “biology.” Biology’srole in the forging of British national identity is discussed, as are its relationship to the social strategies of liberal, Dissenting, and industrial groups in the country, whose authority sustained the new laboratory rhetoric. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Spatial and temporal stochastic interaction in neuronal assemblies

Summary The observation of various types of spatio-temporal correlations in spike-patterns of multiple cortical neurons has shifted attention from rate coding paradigms to computational processes based on the precise timing of spikes in neuronal ensembles. In the present work we develop the notion of “spatial” and “temporal interaction” which provides measures for statistical dependences in coupled stochastic processes like multiple unit spike trains. We show that the classical Willshaw network and Abeles’ synfire chain model both reveal a moderate spatial interaction, but only the synfire chain model reveals a positive temporal interaction, too. Systems that maximize temporal interaction are shown to be almost deterministic globally, but posses almost unpredictable firing behavior on the single unit level.     

Correlative formation of functions as one of mechanisms of functional evolution (by example of development in child’s ontogenesis of central maintenance of stereognosis and speech function)

The paper considers a possibility of correlative formation in ontogenesis of central mechanisms of stereognosis and speech function by example of comparison of changes in spatial organization of interregional interaction of various cortex areas in children of three age groups (5–6, 7–8, and 9–10 years) and in adults subjects during their performances of stereognostical, verbalmnestic, and motor manual activity (the tapping test). With age dynamics of children there was observed a significant increase in the degree of similarity of the spatial structure of interregional relations during periods of performance of stereognostical test with patterns of changes in the EEG distant relationships revealed at performance of verbal tasks. In turn, similarity of patterns of interregional EEG relationships characteristic of stereognostical tasks with the patterns revealed at periods of performance of the tapping test was not increased with age. On the whole, the obtained data allow believing that with increase of children’s age there rose the degree of topological similarity of the spatial structure of systemic interactions of the cortex zones, on which there were “supported” processes of realization of stereognostical and verbal functions. The progressing increase with children’s age of the degree of similarity of the distributive organization of neurophysiological mechanisms of central provision of the verbal and stereognostic functions can argue in favor of the concept of correlative formation of these higher psychical functions in postnatal ontogenesis. The obtained data show that the correlative interfunctional interactions promoting progressive development of cognitive functions in the child ontogenesis can be realized through the long association fibers and commissural pathways composing the morphofunctional longitudinal-transversal “skeleton” of neocortex in the close interaction with thalamo-cortical integrative systems.     

Perception of spatial relations between objects in early ontogeny

Development of the perception of spatial relations between objects was studied in infants aged from 3 to 4 to 24 to 25 months. The following tests were performed: prediction of the results of rectilinear and nonrectilinear toy motion; search for the toy hidden before the baby’s eyes under a cup, under one of two to five similar cups, and under a cup different from the others (a “local mark”), which was stationary or moving in the visual field; and search for a toy hidden under the “local mark” while distracting the baby's attention. It was shown that a child masters the regularities of spatial motion of an object first (at the age of 4 to 5 to 8 to 9 months). To the age of 10 to 11 months, all the children remember the location of a hidden toy using the egocentric location strategy (“Self” and “Object”). This strategy gradually improves and allows a child to ignore indifferent objects in the visual field. The ability to use a “local mark,” as a direct indicator of a hidden toy location, appears and is strengthened beginning from 14 to 15 months of age. This fact testifies to the transition from the egocentric strategy of object location to assessment of the relative location of two objects in the visual field. A capability for estimating the relative spatial position of three and more objects develops beginning from the age of two years.     

A bibliometric analysis of research papers published on photosynthesis: 1992–2009

We present here a bibliometric analysis of publications on photosynthesis research from 1992 to 2009 in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-Expanded) Web of Science. This has allowed us to examine the growing trends and the key topics on this subject. We have assessed the document type, language of the publications, publication output, subject category, journal distribution, countries and territories of these publications, institutions involved, hot topics and highly cited papers. The top 30 countries/territories were ranked according to their total number of articles (TA), single country articles (SCA), internationally collaborative articles (ICA), first author articles (FAA) and corresponding author articles (CAA). Research directions on the subject of photosynthesis were also investigated and evaluated by statistically analyzing the distribution of author keywords in the database. Our analysis indicates that “water”, “stress”, “carbon dioxide”, “nitrogen” and “climate change” are hot topics of research on photosynthesis during this period.     

Science through the internet: Researching, evaluating and citing websites

This article attempts to convey the joys and frustrations of skimming the Internet trying to find relevant information concerning an academic’s work as a scientist, a student or an instructor. A brief overview of the Internet and the “do’s and don’ts” for the neophyte as well for the more seasoned “navigator” are given. Some guidelines of “what works and what does not” and “what is out there” are provided for the scientist with specific emphasis for biologists, as well as for all others having an interest in science but with little interest in spending countless hours “surfing the net”. An extensive but not exhaustive list of related websites is provided.     

Creationism and the Teaching of Evolution in Poland

For many years, the creationist movement in Poland was so marginal that the term “creationism” and its foundations were largely unknown within society. Nevertheless, at the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s, the country underwent rapid political, economic, and sociological transformation. As part of the reaction, many ideas previously censored by the Communist regime became fashionable. This was also partly true for the creationist movement. However, creationism did not gain high acceptance within society, partly because Poland is predominantly a Catholic country, and Catholic doctrine does not support literal understanding of the Bible. At the moment, Intelligent Design creationists are emerging in Poland, and numerous creationist organizations are increasing their activity. This goes together with the weakening of evolutionary teaching in Polish schools.     

Contributions of Ignitions,Fuels, and Weather to the Spatial Patterns of Burn Probability of a Boreal Landscape

The spatial pattern of fire observed across boreal landscapes is the outcome of complex interactions among components of the fire environment. We investigated how the naturally occurring patterns of ignitions, fuels, and weather generate spatial pattern of burn probability (BP) in a large and highly fire-prone boreal landscape of western Canada, Wood Buffalo National Park. This was achieved by producing a high-resolution map of BP using a fire simulation model that models the ignition and spread of individual fires for the current state of the study landscape (that is, the ‘control’). Then, to extract the effect of the variability in ignitions, fuels, and weather on spatial BP patterns, we subtracted the control BP map to those produced by “homogenizing” a single environmental factor of interest (that is, the ‘experimental treatments’). This yielded maps of spatial residuals that represent the spatial BP patterns for which the heterogeneity of each factor of interest is responsible. Residuals were analyzed within a structural equation modeling framework. The results showed unequal contributions of fuels (67.4%), weather (29.2%), and ignitions (3.4%) to spatial BP patterning. The large contribution of fuels reflects how substantial heterogeneity of land cover on this landscape strongly affects BP. Although weather has a chiefly temporal control on fire regimes, the variability in fire-conducive weather conditions exerted a surprisingly large influence on spatial BP patterns. The almost negligible effect of spatial ignition patterns was surprising but explainable in the context of this area’s fire regime. Similar contributions of fuels, weather, and ignitions could be expected in other parts of the boreal forest that lack a strong anthropogenic imprint, but are likely to be altered in human-dominated fire regimes.     

A hexapedal jointed-leg model for insect locomotion in the horizontal plane

We develop a simple model for insect locomotion in the horizontal (ground) plane. As in earlier work by Seipel et al. (Biol Cybern 91(0):76–90, 2004) we employ six actuated legs that also contain passive springs, but the legs, with “hip” and ‘knee’ joints, better represent insect morphology. Actuation is provided via preferred angle inputs at each joint, corresponding to zero torques in the hip and knee springs. The inputs are determined from estimates of foot forces in the cockroach Blaberus discoidalis via an inverse problem. The head–thorax–body is modeled as a single rigid body, and leg masses, inertia and joint dissipation are ignored. The resulting three degree-of-freedom dynamical system, subject to feedforward joint inputs, exhibits stable periodic gaits that compare well with observations over the insect’s typical speed range. The model’s response to impulsive perturbations also matches that of freely-running cockroaches (Jindrich and Full, J Exp Biol 205:2803–2823, 2002), and stability is maintained in the face of random foot touchdowns representative of real insects. We believe that this model will allow incorporation of realistic muscle models driven by a central pattern generator in place of the joint actuators, and that it will ultimately permit the study of proprioceptive feedback pathways involving leg force and joint angle sensing.     

“Force-Talk” in Evolutionary Explanation: Metaphors and Misconceptions

The notion of “pressure” as an evolutionary “force” that “causes” evolution is a pervasive linguistic feature of biology textbooks, journal articles, and student explanatory discourse. We investigated the consequences of using a textbook and curriculum that incorporate so-called force-talk. We examined the frequency with which biology majors spontaneously used notions of evolutionary “pressures” in their explanations, students’ definitions and explanations of what they meant when they used pressures, and the structure of explanatory models that incorporated evolutionary pressures and forces. We found that 12–20 percent of undergraduates spontaneously used “pressures” and/or “forces” as explanatory factors but significantly more often in trait gain scenarios than in trait loss scenarios. The majority of explanations using “force-talk” were characterized by faulty evolutionary reasoning. We discuss the conceptual similarity between faulty notions of evolutionary pressures and linguists’ force-dynamic models of everyday reasoning and ultimately question the appropriateness of force-talk in evolution education.     

J D Bernal (1901–1971) in perspective

Conclusion We must conclude that the sub-title of Bernal’s “The Social Function of Science” — “What science does: what science could do” is still the relevant challenge and indicates Bernal’s chief contribution, besides the foundation of molecular biology to our civilization. It is manifest that resources spent on armaments are a monstrous pathological symptom of our social structure. The ancient problem of “what is property” and what may be “owned” and by whom or by what organs of society is awakening.     

“Not <Emphasis Type="Italic">Here</Emphasis>”: Making the Spaces and Subjects of “Global Health” in Botswana

This essay argues that what makes “global health” “global” has more to do with configurations of space and time, and the claims to expertise and moral stances these configurations make possible, than with the geographical distribution of medical experts or the universal, if also uneven, distribution of threats to health. Drawing on a study of public–private partnerships supporting Botswana’s HIV/AIDS treatment program, this essay demonstrates ethnographically the processes by which “global health” and its quintessential spaces, namely “resource-limited” or “resource-poor settings,” are constituted, reinforced, and contested in the context of medical education and medical practice in Botswana’s largest hospital. Using Silverstein’s work on orders of indexicality, I argue that the terms of “global health” are best understood as chronotopic, and demonstrate how actors orient themselves and others spatio-temporally, morally, and professionally by using or refuting those terms. I conclude by arguing that taking “global health” on its own terms obscures the powerful forces by which it becomes intelligible. At stake are the frames within which medical anthropologists understand their objects of study, as well as the potential for the spaces of “global health” intervention to expand ever outward as American medical personnel attempt to calibrate their experiences to their expectations.     

Analytical derivation of thermodynamic properties of bilayer membrane with interdigitation

We consider a model of bilayer lipid membrane with interdigitation, in which the lipid tails of the opposite monolayers interpenetrate. The interdigitation is modeled by linking tails of the hydrophobic chains in the opposite monolayers within bilayer as a first approximation. This model corresponds to the types of interdigitation that are not related with the areal “hydrophobic” dilation of the membrane. A number of essential thermodynamical characteristics are calculated analytically and compared with the ones of a regular bilayer membrane without interdigitation. Important difference between lateral pressure profiles at the layers interface for linked and regular bilayer models is found. In the linked case, the lateral pressure mid-plane peak disappears, while the entropy decreases and the free energy per chain increases. Within our model we found that in case of elongation of the chains inside a nucleus of, e.g., liquid-condensed phase, homogeneous interdigitation would be more costly for the membrane’s free energy than energy of the hydrophobic mismatch between the elongated chains and the liquid-expanded surrounding. Nonetheless, an inhomogeneous interdigitation along the nucleus boundary may occur inside a “belt” of a width that varies approximately with the hydrophobic mismatch amplitude.     

Social Defeat or Social Resistance? Reaction to Fear of Crime and Violence Among People with Severe Mental Illness Living in Urban ‘Recovery Communities’

This article is propelled by recent theory positing that ‘social defeat’ is a common experience for people with severe mental illness, potentially affecting course and outcome. The primary objective is to investigate how far fear of crime and violence contributes toward ‘social defeat’ among people with mental illness. This is done through examining 6 years of ethnographic data collected from a sample of urban-dwelling people with severe mental illness, all securely-housed in apartments located in small scale “recovery communities.” Findings suggest that many participants living in the highest crime neighborhoods report that they deliberately restrict their temporal and spatial movement as a consequence of such crime. This hinders aspects of their recovery. Nevertheless, participants actively confront the nefarious affects of neighborhood crime by engaging in various empowering strategies of resistance. These include confronting disruptive people, fortifying homes, moving around the neighborhood in small groups and carrying objects such as umbrellas and canes that can be used in self-defense. Some reported that fear of crime directly contributed to the development of a rich and gratifying domestic life, centered on hospitality and religion. I conclude that participants partake in valiant and durable “social resistance,” and may better be perceived as imaginative and resourceful resistors, rather than passive victims of “social defeat.” An influential factor fostering such resistance is the “recovery community’ itself, which creates secure and reliable housing within a micro-community in which participants could thrive.     

The Charms of Nature: Darwin on Meaning and Value

I review George Levine’s provocative and highly original book Darwin Loves You. Levine, whose “home discipline” is English Literature, offers a compelling interpretation of Darwin’s works, evaluating their content and Darwin’s prose style to identify a distinctly Darwinian attitude toward nature as a source of meaning and value. Levine believes that Darwin exemplifies the capacity to feel “enchantment” about the natural world, suggesting that, if Darwin’s example were followed, a “Darwinian re-enchantment of the world” would be brought about. This would offer a secular, non-supernatural basis for purpose, meaning, and value. I conclude with a few critical remarks about the scope and cogency of Levine’s proposal.