From Organismic Biology as History and Philosophy to the History and Philosophy of Biology—the Work of Hans-Jörg Rheinberger in the German Context**

In this paper, I ask about the broader context of the history and philosophy of biology in the German-speaking world as the place in which Hans-Jörg Rheinberger began his work. Three German philosophical traditions—neo-Kantianism, phenomenology, and Lebensphilosophie—were interested in the developments and conceptual challenges of the life sciences in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Their reflections were taken up by life scientists under the terms theoretische Biologie (theoretical biology) and allgemeine Biologie (general biology), i. e., for theoretical and methodological reflections. They used historical and philosophical perspectives to develop vitalistic, organicist, or holistic approaches to life. In my paper, I argue that the resulting discourse did not come to an end in 1945. Increasingly detached from biological research, it formed an important context for the formation of the field of history and philosophy of biology. In Rheinberger's work, we can see the “Spalten” and “Fugen”—the continuities and discontinuities—that this tradition left there.     

An Assessment of the Networks for Measuring and Modelling Solar Radiation in British Columbia and Adjacent Areas of Western Canada

The coverage provided by the existing solar radiation monitoring network for British Columbia and adjacent areas in western Canada is assessed and found to be inadequate. It is generally advantageous to use a numerical solar radiation model at available sites to augment the observed values, although this is not a complete solution to the problem. It is also shown that the ability to extrapolate solar radiation data from measurement and modelling locations is strongly determined by the general nature of the synoptic weather conditions. In addition, the use of solar radiation extrapolations is restricted by problems involving homogeneity and isotropy assumptions.
Les auteurs presentent une evaluation de la distribution des stations en Colombie britannique et les aires adjacents du Canada de I'ouest mesurant la radiation solaire; ils en concluent que le reseau actuel est inadequat. 11s soulignent I'avantage d'emprunter un modele numerique pour caracteriser la radiation solaire aux sites disponibles, afin d'aug-menter les donnees observees. Neanmoins, cela ne represente pas pour les auteurs une solution complete du probleme. 11s demontrent que le caractere general des conditions meteorologiques synoptiques determine fortement la possibilite d'une extrapolation de la distribution de la radiation solaire, derivee des donnees mesurees et des modeles adoptes aux sites specifiques. Finalement, ils etablissent que certains problemes concernant les hypo-theses d'homogeneite et d'isotropie imposent leur tour des limites a I'utilite de la methoded'extrapolation pour decrire la radiation solaire.