Wasteful Research in Pure and Applied Science

Abstract

Research may be considered wasteful if its objectives are intrinsically unattainable – as, for example, the alchemists' search for transmutation of base metals into gold. In our own times, despite lavish encouragement of research over many decades, cancer is still a biological mystery, an instance of how obstacles inherent in Nature can frustrate the attainment of a research objective. Human failings include repeating research work already described in the literature, lapse by neglect, bandwaggon research and politically motivated trendy research, best exemplified by Lysenko. Efforts at economic assessment of research effort, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry and in military research, are discussed. Machinations by a 'scientific estate' with vested interests call for vigilance.     

Soft power,Russia and the former Soviet states: a case study of Russian language and education in Armenia*

Abstract

As in human relations, attraction can be an influential force in international relations. A well-known tool in Western countries, in Russia ‘soft power’ has come into play mainly under Putin’s presidency in the 2000s. This paper focuses on language and education as sources generating ‘soft power’. It looks first on the institutional framework progressively established to attract and integrate culturally the former Soviet space. Second, it studies the evolution of the Russian language and education in Armenia. The findings suggest that even if the previous decline in the usage of Russian has been reversed, the monopoly once enjoyed by this language seems to be over. Russian is promoted in a multicultural environment – alongside English, French, German or Chinese – which reflects the new geopolitical reality. Multicultural landscape characterises also the Armenian higher education system.     

Comment by Jeffrey Herf

Abstract

Although fuel cells have been considered promising technology since the nineteenth century, fresh expectations – expressed by engineers, company leaders, politicians and journalists – began to flourish in the 1990s later on associated with the vision of a ‘hydrogen economy.’ Inspired by research in the history and sociology of expectations, the present paper analyzes this recent history of global fuel cells and hydrogen potentials as played out in the USA, EU, and especially Sweden. It is demonstrated that automotive shows, the mass media, and forecast projects were significant arenas in promoting and circulating the idea that fuel cells represented energy efficient and clean technology that almost by necessity would be utilized in the ‘vehicles of the future.’ This paper also highlights the framing of water both as a potential source of energy and as a symbolic purifying bath that would restore an environmentally friendly society, interpreted as an ecomodern utopia.     

Mankind's Future: Using the Past To Protect the Future Archaeology and the Disposal of Highly Radioactive Wastes

Abstract

Archaeology is concerned with man-made monuments and information which have survived for long periods of time. The safe disposal of highly radioactive wastes involves the design of disposal systems intended to function for equally long periods of time. In this review it is shown how archaeology can provide a basis for designing a segment of the disposal system – the marking of the site to minimize future human interference.     

The Origins and Ethics of Maritime Archaeology – Part I

Abstract

For archaeologists, the principal value of prehistoric figurines is that they offer a means – however limited – into the cultures and lives of prehistoric peoples. There is a long tradition of archaeologists assuming that the figurines they unearth had a religious significance for the people who created them (since anthropomorphic figurines have a religious use in many cultures with which we are familiar). However, just as archaeologists began questioning their attribution of divine status to prehistoric figurines in the 1960s, practitioners of neopagan and goddess spiritualities – particularly those in the feminist spirituality movement – were adopting it. Moreover, in addition to describing prehistoric figurines as images of a Great Goddess who dominated prehistoric religious life, these contemporary feminist neopagans use reproductions of prehistoric figurines to inspire and enact their own spirituality. Feminist neopagan appropriation of prehistoric figurines has been problematic for many archaeologists, who quarrel – legitimately – with the conclusions feminist neopagans make about prehistory based on these artefacts. Yet, as this article argues, the contemporary religious use of prehistoric figurines should not be a matter for archaeologists to decide.     

Primitive Liberals and Pirate Tribes: Black-Flag Radicalism and the Kibbo Kift

ABSTRACT

The Age of Catastrophe (1914–1945) has long been considered a crisis of liberalism. As a political platform and moralistic worldview, the hollowness of liberalism’s promise was exposed when total war struck at the heart of Europe, undermining its presumption of imperial hegemony over much of the world. What emerged in its wake, amid the swells of irremediable nationalisms, is the subject of this article. Blinded by the fog of war and bright lights of modernity, historians often fail to catch the glimpses of alternative aspirations, which escaped the age’s ruptures so as to reinvent and redeem humanity from the depths of its bloody past. Against a backdrop of neglected case studies from Britain and elsewhere – from the Luddites to the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift – this article seeks to show how the spectre of death inspired new ideals of youth and civility that rejected the arrogance of imperial masculinity and industrialised oppression, turning instead to visions of global kinship that were socialist and anarchic, romantic and utopian, primitive and piratical.     

Auroral Research and the Character of Astronomy in Enlightenment Sweden

Abstract

The observation of the magnetic effects of the aurora borealis by Olof Hiorter in the 1740s was hailed by Swedish scientists as one of the major discoveries in contemporary research. This article investigates the political and academic context of the discovery, focusing on the astronomical ideals promoted by Hiorter. He used the discovery in order to buttress the importance of his own scientific character – technically competent, hard-working and research-oriented. He contrasted this ideal with the character of an ordinary university professor who was described as more of a bureaucrat, interested in science only as long as it could boost his reputation, and not averse from stealing results of technically more competent underlings. Hiorter's opponents at the university decried his lack of theory and devalued the importance of technical skill. This conflict is discussed in the context of ideals concerning cultural, political and economic values of science and scientists.     

An irreconcilable first-place: the precarious life of tourism and heritage in a southern European historic centre

Abstract

This article discusses the ambiguous relationship between heritage tourism and everyday life in the historic centre of Naples. This area, long characterised by a lower-class residential population and intermittently considered off-limits to tourists, has over the last two decades become the focus of a burgeoning heritage tourism industry. The article adopts the idea of precariousness – understood contra conventional formulations as a condition that elicits both anxiety and emancipatory release – in order to make sense of the allure and repulsion that the historic centre exerts in tourist encounters with the city. Through three examples – a bus sightseeing tour, online responses to a New York Times article about Naples and local people’s perceptions of a pedestrianised piazza as a tourist contact zone – the article illustrates how the historic centre as a tourist destination is constituted by a mix of foreboding and excitement; where affective experience tends to trump the monumental gaze. Thinking in terms of precariousness not only underlines the contradictory role that this area plays in the local production of cultural heritage but also poses a challenge to those accounts that see in the advent of a visitor economy the inevitable ‘museumification’ and gentrification of historic centres.     

From ‘Traditional’ to Collectivized Reindeer Herding on the Kola Peninsula: Continuity or Disruption?1

Abstract

The article turns critical attention to the process of Kola Sami land-use changes that had occurred in the century immediately preceding Soviet collectivization drives of the mid-1930s. Particular attention is turned to influences brought by Izhma Komi settlers at the end of the 19th century. The overall argument is that Kola Sami land-use adaptive patterns had shown signs of orienting towards reindeer-driven, market-oriented form of husbandry well before collectivization. In this sense, there are grounds to see collectivization – in its expansive strategy for ever-rising production of reindeer meat – as part of a sufficiently long period of continuous changes, rather than an abrupt disruption of ‘traditional’ patterns – the latter reading occurring as a popular theme in Kola Sami related literature. Attention is turned also to post-Soviet forms of re-orientation in land-use. Here the problematic point of intra-community tendencies for ‘hidden privatization’ of extant collective assets is discussed in its current local controversy with foreign-supported experiments in private, clan community (obshchina) reindeer-husbandry.     

John Banville’s “monstrous child”: freedom and inheritance in Shroud

ABSTRACT

John Banville has described his novel Shroud (2002) – a fictionalised re-imagining of the 1988 scandal of Paul de Man, whose war-time publications for a collaborationist journal were discovered after his death – as his “monstrous child” that only he could love. This essay turns to Derrida’s thoughts on monstrosity, and in particular his framing of the future-to-come as an unforeseeable reckoning between Nietzsche and Rousseau, whose approaches to human freedom and authenticity remain philosophically irreconcilable. Shroud engages with these two inheritances on a thematic level, bringing them into conversation through the characters of Vander and Cass. The interruption of intergenerational love and the prospect of a child between them, however, makes Derridean monstrosity – that more properly deconstructive trope that opens to the future by unearthing traumatic inheritances from the past – into a structuring principle, and the means by which we might best understand the novel itself as a “monstrous child”.     

Intangible cultural heritage and the better angels of folklore’s nature

Abstract

Folklore research in the United States typically is completed either through academic departments or in organisations designed to create public presentations of traditional expressive culture. These two approaches are termed ‘academic folklore’ and ‘public folklore’. The intellectual history of both approaches has recently been critiqued. One result of this deconstruction is an ambivalence over the historical legacy of key concepts in the study of folklore. Assessing elements of the critical study of folklore’s history – in both academe and the public sector – suggests opportunities for reconstituting the study of traditional culture to establish a more socially responsive approach that is relevant to ways that heritage professionals assess folklore as intangible culture heritage.     

Some Aspects of the Bioerosion of Stone Artefact Found Underwater: Significant Case Studies

Abstract

Within the framework of the project Restoring Underwater started in 2001, the ISCR Marine Biology sector with the ISCR Underwater Archaeology Operation Unit has begun a study of the deterioration of stone artefacts exposed to marine environments (Torre Astura – Nettuno; Baiae – Naples). These studies have allowed to better understanding the factor of degradation by biological, mineralogical, and petrographic analyses and to develop measures for the protection in situ of cultural heritage. Based on what was recorded, usually the bioerosion presents various degrees of gravity: limited and sporadic damage or very serious alterations. Depending on their chemical composition, the artefacts proved to be particularly susceptible to the action of corrosion exercised by perforating animal and plant organisms.

This phenomenon becomes more significant in the case in which the artefacts remain exposed and in the same position for a long period of time. It is possible to confirm that the combined action of attack from clionides (sponges) and bivalves can lead, over time, to the total destruction of portions of the artefact (macroboring). As well as these more macroscopic types of damage, there was evidence of the widespread presence of microscopic bioerosion (microboring), caused by autotrophic and heterotrophic microorganisms, visible only through SEM observations, which, despite not creating large chambers, progressively undermine the resistance of the stone and facilitate the development of other biodeteriogens. This paper will be focused on the characterization of the bioerosion observed on different artefacts: the roman statues discovered underwater in the Grotta Azzurra, Capri and in the Campi Flegrei area (Naples –Italy), and the marble sarcophagi that are still on the seabed of San Pietro in Bevagna (Taranto – Italy).     

Introduction: writing the contemporary history of European solidarity

Abstract

This introduction outlines the possibilities and perspectives of a history of ‘European solidarity’. While – given the high frequency with which the term is used in contemporary political debate – this is most certainly a hot-button issue, the topic has long been neglected by researchers on the history of European integration and European ideas. The reasons for this lack of empirical studies lie in the vagueness and the normativity of the term. This introduction thus conceptualizes ‘European solidarity’ as an analytical tool for research and discusses three major approaches to its historicization: first, deconstructing ideas and discursive notions of ‘European solidarity’, a term that has been omnipresent in primary sources in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; second, investigating concrete practices of ‘European solidarity’, for example in welfare-state policies or in the work of civil-society actors; third, looking at historical limits of ‘European solidarity’ which help to bring contesting perceptions and motives into view. Finally, the introduction addresses the question of the analytical benefits of a history of ‘European solidarity’: it points among other things to new periodizations that help to avoid a teleological orientation in European historiography, as well as to the detachment of the European integration process from the institutionalization of the European Communities.     

A Lost Swaledale Vaccary and a Palimpsest of Place-Names

Abstract

The management of the large estates of the bishopric of Durham and the dean and chapter of the cathedral is examined, in particular with regard to agricultural improvement, and compared with the practice of some large secular landowners in the county. The ecclesiastical authorities did not farm any of their land themselves, but let it to a variety of tenants, important and small. The system of ecclesiastical leases is examined. Leaseholders enjoyed lower rents than most tenants of secular landowners, and a very high degree of security. The terms of the leases hardly changed over the century, and gave little scope for influence over the way the land was farmed. It was possible to abate renewal fines as a reward for improvements made by tenants. This was done, but not systematically. But the system cannot be described as a barrier to progress, as was sometimes charged. Leaseholders could make improvements, and profit at least as well as secular tenants. In the management of urban and industrial property, where the bishopric and the cathedral chapter could act and benefit directly, greater energy was shown.     

Exotic Nuclei

Abstract

Atomic nuclei are composed of two kinds of nucleons, the positively charged protons and the uncharged neutrons. Two forces are acting in nuclei; the attractive nuclear force between the neutrons and the repulsive electrostatic force between the protons. The number of protons in a nucleus is called its atomic number (symbol Z). The number also determines the number of electrons surrounding the nucleus and, hence, the chemical behavior of an atom; chemical elements differ in thei atomic number. The neutron number is indicated by N, and the mass number – that is, the total number of Z+n nuclear particles in a nucleus – by A. In light stable nuclei, protons and nuetrons are mixed in a ratio close to one-to-one as can be seen in the chart of nuclides (Figure 1). For example, the most abundant stable atomic nucleus of the element oxygen contains eight protons and eight neutrons (Z=N=8, A=16).     

Framing the High North: Public Discourses in Norway after 2000

Abstract

The article presents an overview of the main public debates in Norway that can be said to have framed and defined the High North since the turn of the Millennium. It is based on a qualitative study of over 3000 articles published in four Norwegian newspapers issued between 2000 and 2006. Our discussion is structured around three overarching, interconnected narratives that we think capture the essence of the Norwegian public discourses on the High North between 2000 and 2006. These are “Fragments from the 1990s”; “The great narrative of the High North”; and “Mixing cold water with hot blood”. The first half of the 2000s is characterised by an almost total absence of the High North as a discursive and politically coherent concept. From 2004, however, usage grew fivefold, alongside an extensive, dynamic discursive mobilisation. When the Russians decided in 2006 to shelve the Shtokman project and critical voices were heard condemning Norway's environmental performance in northwest Russia, public opinion swung back again. A feeling of cold reality replaced the sense of optimism towards the energy potential of the north, and an exercise in collective soul-searching commenced – similar to that of the early years of the decade. We believe the type of discursive change we document in this article constitutes policy trends in connection both with the High North and with other sectors where policy is subject to intense public debate and appraisal. We hope that discourse analysis has enabled us to investigate and share how Norwegian public discourses on the High North are socially produced, framed and maintained but at the same time are always in flux and open to “new” directions which should be possible – at least in theory – to trace by going back in time.     

Field Report: Oyo Ruins of NW Yorubaland,Nigeria

Abstract

Archaeological investigations have been conducted for more than three decades at Old Oyo, the capital of the Oyo Yoruba kingdom of the 17th – 19th centuries. Throughout this period, the emphasis has always been on this particular site, in spite of a traditional Oyo claim that Old Oyo was just one of several such seats of the kingdom and that earlier ones lay further north, nearer the Niger River. This paper helps confirm this oral tradition. Two Oyo-related sites were identified: Koso, north of Old Oyo, and Ipapo lle to its SE, which was fully surveyed by a systematic transect method based on a grid system that has been found useful at Old Oyo and Igboho. Koso could not be surveyed in this manner for lack of an adequate topographic map of the area.     

Partial Solutions to Partially Understood Problems — The Experience of In Situ Monitoring and Preservation in Somerset’s Peatlands

Abstract

The peat moors of lowland Somerset contain a wealth of waterlogged archaeological sites, including some of the most significant prehistoric monuments in the country. There has been a long history of attempts to preserve archaeological sites in situ and monitoring of the burial environment began in 1982. The monitoring has become more complex over time, but the results suggest the same continuing problem of a drop in the water table over the summer months across the whole landscape. With the sole exception of the portion of the Neolithic Sweet Track that benefits from an irrigation system, all the other known sites remain at risk of gradual destruction. The solutions must be found on a landscape scale using agri-environment payments to secure sustainable management of the peat resource. Unfortunately, short-term changes to these payments and long-term changes to the climate are likely to worsen the situation and eventually to require a more drastic solution to the problem. Evidence has been generated to support an ecosystems approach to sustainable peatland management.     

COVID-19: from temporary de-globalisation to a re-discovery of tourism?

Abstract

The processes of globalisation and time-space compression, driven mainly by the neoliberal agenda and the advancement of various space-shrinking technologies, have markedly re-shaped the world over the last 75?years in an almost unchallenged manner. Amongst the most significant outcomes of these processes have been the popularisation of international travel and the accompanying global expansion of the tourism industry. As the first major force ever to effectively stop (or even reverse) globalisation and time-space compression, the COVID-19 outbreak has also put on hold the whole travel and tourism industry. In this respect, the tourism as we knew it just a few months ago has ceased to exist. Although the price the world is paying for this is enormous, the temporary processes of de-globalisation offer the tourism industry an unprecedented opportunity for a re-boot – an unrepeatable chance to re-develop in line with the tenets of sustainability and to do away with various ‘dark sides’ of tourism’s growth such as environmental degradation, economic exploitation or overcrowding. However, the path of re-development and transformation which the global tourism production system will follow once the COVID-19 crisis has been resolved is yet to be determined.     

“Did that play of mine …?”: James Connolly,Cathleen Ni Houlihan and staging revolution

Abstract

Despite the crucial position he occupies in Irish history as one of the leaders of the Easter Rising, and the political – and emotional – impact of his subsequent execution, while wounded, by the British Army on 12 May 1916, the writings of Edinburgh-born James Connolly have often been overlooked in both Irish and Scottish studies, and not just in accounts of the Rising but also in the wider context of cultural connections, including cultures of commemoration. In particular, Connolly’s surviving literary work, including Under Which Flag?, the drama staged on the eve of Easter 1916, as well as poems and songs, has had limited attention. This article reconsiders Under Which Flag? in comparison with Yeats and Gregory’s Cathleen ni Houlihan in order to demonstrate the central place the drama holds as a continuation – and complication – of Connolly’s political and journalistic writings. If Connolly is a neglected figure as a writer – as opposed to a political leader and martyr – then the play he left behind (once thought to have been lost, like another of his dramas, The Agitator’s Wife) affords us an opportunity to reassess his contribution to the struggle for independence as part of its literary wing.