Yoshikatsu Sugiura's Contribution to the Development of Quantum Physics in Japan

Previous research in the history of physics has led us to believe that Yoshio Nishina (1890–1951) virtually single‐handedly imported quantum physics into Japan. However, there are first‐hand accounts that Yoshikatsu Sugiura (1895–1960) also played an important role. Sugiura made his name in quantum chemistry with his contribution to the Heitler‐London theory of the chemical bond. Yet, historians of physics have paid scant attention to him. This paper brings forward information on Sugiura from his letters, his scientific papers, and his own recollections until ca. 1930. By examining this material, the present paper studies Sugiura's accomplishments in Europe and his contributions to the development of quantum physics in Japan. We conclude that Sugiura was one of the most important physicists when it comes to the arrival of quantum physics in Japan. In addition, we assess why he has been under‐appreciated in the history of physics in Japan. Our historical study on Sugiura suggests that, in addition to the position Nishina and his students rightfully occupy, there still are important unexplored aspects in the history of Japanese quantum physics.     

Tom Stoppard’s Big Picture: The Chaos that is Our World

Abstract

Issues arising from discussions regarding the ‘two cultures’ of science and art are many and varied. Tom Stoppard’s very active utilization of science in many of his plays has resulted in his work — especially the quantum mechanics-informed Hapgood and the chaotics-informed Arcadia — being held up as paradigmatic of one science/art position or another. Often, critical approaches to these plays involve a checklist of scientific facts, implying that the goal of such art is to serve as a delivery device for scientific breakthroughs. While plays, novels, and movies of various sorts may have such goals in mind, Stoppard’s plays do not comfortably fill that agenda, critical arguments to the contrary notwithstanding. Neither do Stoppard’s plays show particular interest in engaging any debate about the superiority of one ‘culture’ over the other. In his two ‘science plays’ in particular, what Stoppard offers is an enrichment of both science and art through metaphorical intertwinings that suggest experience is best served when both camps collaborate. The bigger picture that results argues an overlap in epistemology, namely revealing the uncanny similarity in which artist and scientist approach the material that is our universe.     

被问责官员复出面临的现实困境与理性选择

我国的官员复出机制,面临着非公开化、非责任化、非透明化、社会认同度低的困境。如何有效解决被问责官员复出面临的现实困境,本文从四个方面予以了回答,即完善问责的基础,明晰官员的职责和构建相应问责程序,这是建立被问责官员正常复出机制的前提;转变问责的模式,由＂权力问责＂转变为＂制度问责＂,使被问责官员复出具有制度上的正当性;建立官员复出的回应机制,使体制外的＂权利问责＂与体制内的＂权力问责＂、＂制度问责＂形成完整体系,以减少官员复出的外部阻力;建立多元化的问责主体,以提高官员复出的社会认同度。     

Measuring use-related fracture velocity in lithic armatures to identify spears,javelins, darts,and arrows

This study employs a brittle fracture-mechanics-based approach to explore the relationship between lithic fracture velocity and precursory loading rate in fine-grained lithic armatures. The data demonstrate that only high-speed dart and arrow armatures are subject to dynamic loading events, whereas spear and javelin armatures are limited to rapid (and quasi-static) loading. The data presented were derived from controlled experiments employing spears, javelins, spearthrower darts, and arrows. Armatures associated with both bow and spearthrower technologies are reliably identified and distinguished from those of low-speed technologies such as spears and javelins. Javelin armatures may also sustain higher velocity fractures than spear armatures, thus permitting the further differentiation of these technologies. The methodology offers a quantitative, non-subjective means to identify the delivery technology associated with a lithic armature.     

Estimating original flake mass from 3D scans of platform area

This study confirms the increased capacity to predict flake mass that arises from more accurately measuring surface area in three dimensions using a digital scanner. We also reveal the existence of significantly different relationships between platform area and flake mass for flakes with different platform types and ventral and dorsal morphologies. These different relationships between platform surface area and mass have not been previously identified, and reveal the complexity of platform/mass relationships. Using multivariate regression of 3D platform surface area and external platform angle we improve the accuracy of predictions of original flake mass. We propose a method for studying reduction intensity on retouched flakes, based on comparing predictions of the initial mass of the flake with measurements of the mass following retouching to estimate the amount of mass removed through retouching. We name this approach the Initial-/Terminal-Mass Comparison, or ITMC. Our experiments demonstrate that the capacity of the 3D platform scans to predict flake mass, and by implication the capacity of the ITMC to estimate mass loss, rivals or exceeds the capacity demonstrated for existing reduction measures.     

Bourdieu, rational action and the time-space strategy of gentrification

This paper proposes gentrification as an example of class habitus adjusting to a new field via a time-space strategy that involves conscious rational coordination of class agents on a new aesthetic 'focal point'. This approach suggests: (1) a much greater role for conscious rational processes in both the intentional and intuitive processes of class reproduction; (2) an understanding via gentrification of the symbolic significance of time-space in class processes; (3) the significance of individual class agents in the process of gentrification; (4) a view of gentrification that gives greater prominence to working-class taste and habitus.     

CAN THERE BE A BOURDIEUSIAN THEORY OF CRISIS? ON HISTORICAL CHANGE AND SOCIAL THEORY

Philip Gorski's edited book engages the question of how Bourdieu's concepts can aid historical analysis, and in particular, account for change as well as reproduction. From a fascinating set of papers, this review essay takes special notice of two that theorize crisis. One, by Ivan Ermakoff, engages the question of whether disruption creates the opportunity for more conscious calculation on the part of actors; a second, by Gisele Sapiro, considers how a crisis reverberates through a specific field. This leads to further reflection on Bourdieu's work on power and the state, as well as a call for crisis hermeneutics in social theory.     

SUBJECTIVITY AS A NON-TEXTUAL STANDARD OF INTERPRETATION IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHICAL PSYCHOLOGY

Contemporary caution against anachronism in intellectual history, and the currently momentous theoretical emphasis on subjectivity in the philosophy of mind, are two prevailing conditions that set puzzling constraints for studies in the history of philosophical psychology. The former urges against assuming ideas, motives, and concepts that are alien to the historical intellectual setting under study, and combined with the latter suggests caution in relying on our intuitions regarding subjectivity due to the historically contingent characterizations it has attained in contemporary philosophy of mind. In the face of these conditions, our paper raises a question of what we call non-textual (as opposed to contextual) standards of interpretation of historical texts, and proceeds to explore subjectivity as such a standard. Non-textual standards are defined as (heuristic) postulations of features of the world or our experience of it that we must suppose to be immune to historical variation in order to understand a historical text. Although the postulation of such standards is often so obvious that the fact of our doing so is not noticed at all, we argue that the problems in certain special cases, such as that of subjectivity, force us to pay attention to the methodological questions involved. Taking into account both recent methodological discussion and the problems inherent in two de facto denials of the relevance of subjectivity for historical theories, we argue that there are good grounds for the adoption of subjectivity as a nontextual standard for historical work in philosophical psychology.     

多元族群视野下的华人特性——美国亚裔六大族群的比较

根据美国最新公布的各族群的普查、统计及抽样等数据与研究成果,对亚裔各族群进行比较分析发现,华裔、印度裔、菲律宾裔、日裔、韩裔和越南裔,在人口构成与地理分布、人口素质与职业构成、个人与家庭收入、企业数量及收益、自营职业状况等方面各有千秋。华裔呈现两极状态:高层次方面,华裔受教育水平、高级职业比例、企业平均收益等指标,都紧随印度裔之后居第二位;在硅谷和美国新经济中,华裔与印度裔相媲美;低层次方面,华裔贫困率高以及高中以下学历者多,都仅次于越南裔;偷渡移民在亚裔中最为突出。此外,华裔族群经济规模较大,自成一体,具有自我生成、自我扩张的能力,能够消化相当数量的移民。亚裔在美国的差异性与他们在亚洲本土的文化差异度没有直接的相关性,甚至大相径庭。这些差异是移民及其后裔在迁徙过程和异国谋生过程中适应环境所做出的不同的理性选择。中华文化与海外华人的独特性等既有观点,经不起客观数据比较的验证。