Bernstein's Long Path to Membrane Theory: Radical Change and Conservation in Nineteenth-Century German Electrophysiology

This article aims at illustrating the historical circumstances that led Julius Bernstein in 1902 Bernstein, J and Tschermak, A. 1902. Ueber die Beziehung der negativen Schwankung des Muskelstromes zur Arbeitsleistung des Muskels. Pflügers Arch, 89: 289–331.  [Google Scholar] to formulate a membrane theory on resting current in muscle and nerve fibers. It was a truly paradigm shift in research into bioelectrical phenomena, if qualified by the observation that, besides Bernstein, many other electrophysiologists between 1890 and 1902 borrowed ideas from the recent ionistic approach in the physical-chemistry domain. But Bernstein's subjective perception of that paradigm shift was that it constituted a mere reinterpretation of the so-called preexistence theory advanced by his teacher Emil du Bois-Reymond in the first half of the nineteenth century.     

Scientists and the media: the struggle for legitimacy in climate change and conservation science

Abstract

Despite the uncertainties associated with forecasts of the possible negative effects of climate change on natural environments, such research is often widely reported in the news media. Here we review the presentation in the UK news media and on the internet of an academic study published in Nature, forecasting future global extinctions as a result of climate change. The results and conclusions of the study were widely misrepresented, especially in the news media, to make the consequences seem more catastrophic and the timescale shorter. Representations of the original article on the internet were more variable, with several sites ranked highly on popular search engines being overtly critical of the underlying science. We suggest that such polarised representations of environmental science are indicative of a 'struggle for legitimacy' between environmentalist and anti-environmentalist groups, with potential negative consequences for public trust in science.     

Regional technological change and path dependency in the Danish food processing industry

Evolutionary theories of technological change arguably exert the greatest impact on our understanding of technological change. According to evolutionary economic theory the process of technological change is driven by the continual creation of technological variety through innovation and innovative firm entry and the destruction of variety through the processes of imitation (diffusion), selection and plant exit. This joint process of variety creation and destruction translates micro-economic diversity into technological progress. A third principle of evolutionary economic theory is the principle of heredity, the communication of information and knowledge over time. The dependence of technology on past and existing knowledge tends to move firms, regions and countries along relatively well-defined technological trajectories. In this paper technology is measured as a pair of capital and labour input coefficients. Empirical analysis of the Danish food processing industry reveals that technology varies markedly across regions and that differences in regional technological performance persist over time. Multivariate analysis of variance confirms that spatial variation in techniques of production is significant. This study underpins the evolutionary theory of technological change confirming that in the Danish food processing industry, regions move along relatively well-defined technological trajectories.     

Rentiers,teachers and workers: Greek women in late nineteenth-century Odessa

Abstract

This article sheds light on a neglected aspect of the Greek paroikia of Odessa, its female component, in the late imperial period. By revisiting the 1897 All-Russian Census, it offers an insight into the demographic and social features of Greek women, and depicts their occupational position. It shows that middle-class and working women formed the majority of the Greek female workforce and suggests that their participation or non-participation in the labour market depended on the ability of the male breadwinner to support his household financially.     

Fichte and the German Idiom: the Metaphysics of the Addresses to the German Nation

This article argues against the dominant Anglophone and Francophone interpretation of Fichte, which reads him as advancing either a form of ethnic or cultural nationalism. It claims that what is missing from the current reception of Fichte is the essentially philosophical and cosmopolitan character of his nationalism – the fact that the Addresses to the German Nation uses non‐empirical and cosmopolitical concepts to develop and articulate its nationalistic viewpoint. It therefore claims that the notion of a national philosophical idiom that the Addresses present, far from being a screen for its nationalism, is its driving engine. It does this by considering the problems of translating the German locution ist unsers Geschlechts. Consequently, it is claimed that the cosmo‐nationalism of Fichte is not reducible to a set of claims regarding ethnicity or even the empirical world, even if a discourse on the organismic, on what counts as life, irreducibly haunts the Addresses.     

From icons to institutions: Heritage conservation in Sydney

Over the course of the twentieth century, the Identification of heritage values in the urban environment has undergone a slow but in recent years quite dramatic shift from an elite emphasis on individual landmarks to a more inclusive appreciation also characterised by bureaucratisation, institutionalisation and commodification. Heritage is no longer an ‘add on’ to the planning system, although management, financial and philosophical problems remain. This paper traces the evolution of urban heritage consciousness and policy in Australia from the late colonial period to the postmodern era, focussing on Sydney.     

The German Empire and Palestine: German pilgrimages to Jerusalem between the 12th and 16th century

This study is an attempt to discuss various points of interest concerning the pilgrimages to Jerusalem which started from the German Empire during and after the Crusader period. On the basis of a comprehensive critical investigation, it will be demonstrated that by reason of extremely high travel expenses, most pilgrims decided against going on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It is pointed out to what extent the noble and non-noble pilgrims from the Empire who planned the journey to Jerusalem would have to take into consideration their legal and moral obligations toward their feudal lords or local communities. It will be shown that most German pilgrims' ignorance of foreign languages furthered the cohesion and isolation of their travel parties on the road to Syria. As may be proved, they were not ready to adapt themselves to unusual manners and customs and had a remarkable penchant for violence. Finally, it will be demonstrated that the presence of German pilgrims ready to give donations or to pay for an indulgence must always have been a very important economic factor for some of the religious communities in Jerusalem.     

Contesting Patriarchies: Nlha7pamux and Stl'atl'imx women and colonialism in nineteenth-century British Columbia

In the second half of the nineteenth century, a number of First Nations (Native) women in the southern interior of British Columbia began to live with and marry white settlers and gold miners. Demographic shifts in both white and Native populations, paired with the precedent of liaisons between fur traders and Native women, contributed to the mobility of Native women. Their departure from indigenous communities was, however, bitterly contested by Native men as well as by white politicians who sought to protect 'racial purity' in the province. Despite opposition, Native women pursued this historically constituted possibility of living within an alternative patriarchy. By the late 1890s, waves of British immigration brought young, single, white women to the province and, in a political climate increasingly hostile to 'miscegenation', male settlers began to marry white wives instead. Thus, ironically, discursive and demographic pressures again closed the window through which Native women had travelled into a different culture. Drawing on colonial records and inferences, this article analyses historical components of agency over several generations of Native women. In the process, it examines ways in which relations of power shifted along the axes of race and gender over 30 years of colonialism in British Columbia.