Drawing Shadows to Stone: The Photography of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, 1897-1902

Drawing Shadows to Stone: The Photography of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, 1897-1902. Laurel Kendall. Barbara Mathé. and Thomas Ross Miller. with Stanley A. Freed. Ruth S. Freed. and Laila Williamson. New York, 1997. American Museum of Natural History, New York, and the University of Washington Press, Seattle and London. 112 pp., 97 illustrations.     

The First Russian Fisheries Research Expedition: Centenary of the Expedition for Fisheries Research along the Coast of Murman

This paper revives one of the brilliant pages in the history of Russian science—fisheries research and the exploitation of the biological resources of the Far North's seas. The expedition to the Barents Sea with the first Russian fisheries research vessel Andrey Pervozvanny under the leadership of N.M. Knipovich in 1898–1899 is described and the scientific results of the expedition are discussed.     

Freshwater and estuarine fishes of the Russian Arctic coast (the Swedish–Russian Expedition 'Tundra Ecology—94')

The distribution of estuarine and freshwater fish species caught during the Swedish-Russian Expedition' Tundra Ecology–94'is presented. Thirteen sites along the Russian part of the Arctic Sea coast were sampled and a total of 21 fish species of the families Salmonidae, Coregonidae, Thymallidae, Osmeridae, Cyprinidae, Catostomidae, Balitoridae, Gadidae, Gasterosteidae, Percidae, Cottidae, Pleuronectidae were recorded. Some records were new to particular basins.     

Wilhelm Troll (1897 - 1978): idealistic morphology, physics, and phylogenetics

Idealistic morphology as articulated by the botanist Wilhelm Troll, the main target of the critique voiced by the early phylogeneticists, was firmly embedded in its contemporary scientific, cultural, and political context. Troll appealed to theoretical developments in contemporary physics in support of his research program. He understood burgeoning quantum mechanics not only to threaten the unity of physics, but also the validity of the principle of causality. Troll used this insight in support of his claim of a dualism in biology, relegating the causal-analytical approach to physiology, while rejuvenating the Goethean paradigm in comparative morphology. This embedded idealistic morphology in the v?lkisch tradition that characterized German culture during the Weimar Republic and its aftermath. In contrast, the contemporary phylogeneticists anchored their research program in the rise of logical positivism and in Darwin's principle of natural selection. This, in turn, brought phylogenetic systematists of the late 1930s and early 1940s into the orbit of national-socialist racial theory and eugenics. In conclusion, the early debate between idealistic morphologists and phylogenetic systematists was not only ideologically tainted, but also implied a philosophical impasse that is best characterized as a conflict between the Goethean and Newtonian paradigm of natural science.     

History of physiology physiologists Evgeniy Borisovich Babski (1902-1973)

The paper analyzes works of eminent physiologists of the twentieth century the Academician of Ukraine SSR, professor Eugene Borisovich Babskii. During 50 years of research in Moscow and Kiev E.B. Babskii published more than 400 works. His main research devoted to investigation of the motility of the digestive tract, general physiology of the nervous system, chemical factors of excitation, mechanisms of muscle contraction, medical electronics and cybernetics and history of human and animal physiology. However, the most significant contribution of Babskii E.B. is his analysis of circulation physiology--the investigation of miocard energy, the physiological effects of electrical stimulation of the heart in the experiment, neural regulation, the ionic mechanisms of automaticity of the heart and myocardial metabolism in different phases of the cardiac cycle. Babskii E.B. and his colleagues firstly created the original method of study of cardiac activity--dinamocardiografy. Academician Babskii E.B. is considered the progenitor of heart electrical stimulation method of Russian Physiology and Medicine. These and many other ideas of Babskii E.B. has been further developed by his students, colleagues and followers.     

Upper temperature tolerance of North Atlantic and North Pacific geographical isolates ofChondrus species (Rhodophyta)

The upper survival temperature for most isolates ofChondrus crispus from localities ranging from northern Norway and Iceland to Spain, and for an isolate from Nova Scotia, was 28 °C after 2 weeks of exposure to temperatures of 20–31 °C at intervals of 1 °C. An upper survival limit of 29 °C was exhibited by a few European isolates from the English Channel, the North Sea, and one Irish isolate from the upper intertidal. The warm-temperate Japanese speciesC. nipponicus andC. giganteus formaflabellatus survived 30 °C, whereas 29 °C was the upper survival limit for the coldtemperatureC. pinnulatus formapinnulatus from northern Japan. A possible origin ofC. crispus in the north Pacific is discussed.