Micro-imagerie de matériaux anciens complexes (I)

This article aims at presenting the first results of a transdisciplinary research programme in heritage sciences. Based on the growing use and on the potentialities of micro- and nano-characterization synchrotron-based methods to study ancient materials (archaeology, palaeontology, cultural heritage, past environments), this contribution will identify and test conceptual and methodological elements of convergence between physicochemical and historical sciences.     

Active learning through online quizzes: better learning and less (busy) work

Active learning is increasingly promoted within institutions of higher education to assist students develop higher order thinking and link knowledge to meaning. In this paper, the authors evaluate the use of weekly online quizzes based on prescribed preparatory material as a tool to incentivize preparatory reading in order to enable and encourage active learning. The study is based on mixed data sources, including three years of student-evaluation data, to understand student perceptions of the role and value of online quizzes. The study shows a high level of student engagement with the quizzes and positive assessment of their role in encouraging the completion of prescribed reading. Online quizzes were found to be an effective mechanism for incentivizing student completion of preparatory work, enhancing active learning (such as through in-class discussions), and were relatively time efficient from the perspective of the educator.     

The commercialization of molecular biology: Walter Gilbert and the Biogen startup

Abstract

Recombinant DNA technology was invented in 1973. Within a few years, molecular biologists began developing practical applications and establishing private companies to exploit them commercially. In 1978, Harvard biologist Walter Gilbert, one of the leading figures in the field, joined the founding scientific advisory board of a Swiss biotech startup called Biogen. He later became the company’s CEO. His participation helped Biogen recruit top scientific talent in the United States and Europe and encouraged many of his professional colleagues to follow his example and go into business. In this way, Gilbert became a linchpin in the formation of the contemporary biotechnology industry. Because his adventures in business were shaped by circumstances unique to the late twentieth century, Gilbert’s case adds a distinctive point of reference to studies of academic entrepreneurship. It also points to internal contradictions and conceptual ambiguities in neo-institutional accounts of research privatization.     

Morgawr: an experimental Bronze Age‐type sewn‐plank craft based on the Ferriby boats

This paper reports on the construction of a full‐scale Bronze Age‐type sewn‐plank boat based on the Ferriby boats. The boat, which was named Morgawr, was constructed in the National Maritime Museum Cornwall in Falmouth, England, during 2012 and the first months of 2013, as part of a larger exhibition in the museum. This paper provides the background and context of the project, describes the process of building the craft, and reflects in particular on differences between Morgawr and the ‘hypothetical reconstruction of a complete sewn‐plank boat’ published in 1990 by Ted Wright and John Coates which formed the basis for this project.     

‘And starvation is the grim reaper’: the American Committee to Keep Biafra Alive and the genocide question during the Nigerian civil war, 1968–70

The American Committee to Keep Biafra Alive (ACKBA) was the largest and most influential organization in the United States that formed in response to the Nigerian civil war. While historians have pointed to the committee as an important source of activism that pushed the American government towards supporting more vigorous humanitarian relief, this is the first article to explore the development of the group from its inception and to look specifically at its claims of genocide. Not everyone at the time agreed that the Nigerian government was committing genocide against the people living in the secessionist state of Biafra, and that debate continues today. The ACKBA, appealing to genocide prevention and human rights, argued that the debate about the semantics of genocide got in the way of actually helping those that were suffering from famine as a result of the war. In the process, the committee offered a redefinition of genocide that wedded conceptions of Biafran identity to the Biafran state, which made the maintenance of ‘one Nigeria’, in the eyes of committee members, an act of genocide. In the end, this redefinition of genocide failed to bring more people in the United States towards supporting Biafran secession and might have, in the end, led to more confusion about genocide during the conflict. An analysis of the committee's activism highlights the often tenuous relationship between self-determination and genocide in the developing world and illustrates the growing limits of American political intervention in the global south.