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17504 results in General Science

Page 43 of 876

  • 5 - Lorentz – Function Follows Form and Theory Leads to Experiment

  • Martin P. M. Weiss
  • Book:
    Showcasing Science
    Published by:
    Amsterdam University Press
    Published online:
    21 November 2020
    Print publication:
    12 March 2019, pp 273-332

  • Summary

    I Themes of the Chapter

    By the mid-1920s, the Teyler Foundation had hit dire straits financially. At a meeting in May 1926, one of the trustees graphically summarised that money was “tighter than tight” and the Foundation's current situation “unsustainable”. This was not an exaggeration. In fact the situation was so serious that, at this particular meeting, the trustees began debating what should be liquidated first, should the worst come to the worst: the Foundation's collection of paintings or its scientific laboratory. As events unfolded, the trustees were not forced to make any such stark choices. For the next few decades, selling off all duplicate drawings and prints from the Foundation's collections and economising by cancelling various annual contributions to other institutions proved sufficient to keep the Foundation and all the institutions it financed – i.e. its almshouse, the Learned Societies, and Teylers Museum – operating. Nevertheless, the fact that such scenarios were debated in the first place of course struck at the heart of the Foundation's identity.

    The fact that the Foundation found itself in financial difficulties is all the more striking because this would have been virtually unimaginable just a few years earlier. On the eve of World War I, to an outsider at least the Foundation's resources would have seemed almost limitless. Over the preceding decades, three events in particular would have helped bolster the impression that the Foundation's trustees were a safe pair of hands where money was concerned: in 1885, the hitherto largest and lavishly decorated extension to the Museum had been inaugurated; then, just eight years later and as if to prove that their resources had not been stretched to the limit, the trustees added another glamorous-looking annex to the Museum – the so-called Second Art Gallery; finally, in 1912, the Foundation appointed the Nobel Prize laureate Hendrik Antoon Lorentz as curator of the Foundation's laboratory and instrument collection – a clear sign that Teylers Museum was still held in high regard in scientific circles. Yet it was during the negotiations on Lorentz’ contract that the first augurs of what was to come might already have been discernible: one trustee, Louis Paul Zocher, opposed the Nobel Prize winner's appointment.

Extremes
  • Edited by Duncan Needham, Julius Weitzdörfer
  • Published online:
    08 March 2019
    Print publication:
    07 March 2019
  • Humanity is confronted by and attracted to extremes. Extreme events shape our thinking, feeling, and actions; they echo in our politics, media, literature, and science. We often associate extremes with crises, disasters, and risks to be averted, yet extremes also have the potential to lead us towards new horizons. Featuring essays by leading intellectuals and public figures arising from the 2017 Darwin College Lectures, this volume explores 'extreme' events, from the election of President Trump, the rise of populism, and the Brexit referendum, to the 2008 financial crisis, the Syrian war, and climate change. It also celebrates 'extreme' achievements in the realms of health, exploration, and scientific discovery. A fascinating, engaging, and timely collection of essays by renowned scholars, journalists, and intellectuals, this volume challenges our understanding of what is normal and what is truly extreme, and sheds light on some of the issues facing humanity in the twenty-first century.

  • 2 - Extreme Weather

  • Edited by Duncan Needham, University of Cambridge, Julius Weitzdörfer, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    Extremes
    Published online:
    08 March 2019
    Print publication:
    07 March 2019, pp 24-45

  • Summary

    2016 was the warmest year on Earth since records began in 1850. The second warmest year was 2015 and the third warmest was 2014. In recent years, weather records have been broken more and more often with severe heatwaves, floods, and other extreme weather around the world. The risks of these extreme weather events have been shown to have increased as a consequence of climate change linked to human activities. This chapter discusses the scientific evidence surrounding the causes and consequences of climate change, and the prospects for the future.

  • 1 - Dealing with Extremism

  • Edited by Duncan Needham, University of Cambridge, Julius Weitzdörfer, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    Extremes
    Published online:
    08 March 2019
    Print publication:
    07 March 2019, pp 6-23

  • Summary

    Many extremist ideologies rely heavily on conspiracy theories to explain how the world works and where power lies. This chapter explores what our understanding of conspiracy theories – where they come from, how they work, who believes in them – can tell us about dealing with extremism. The US presidential election campaign showed that conspiracy theories are increasingly becoming part of the currency of democratic politics. Is democracy itself becoming more extremist? Where do the boundaries lie between the contestation of democratic values and the repudiation of them? This chapter examines the relationship between harmless conspiracy theories, dangerous extremism, and the rise of ‘post-truth’ politics and asks how we can still draw the line between them.

  • 4 - Extreme Rowing

  • Edited by Duncan Needham, University of Cambridge, Julius Weitzdörfer, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    Extremes
    Published online:
    08 March 2019
    Print publication:
    07 March 2019, pp 67-84

  • Summary

    Spending up to five months alone at sea, rowing for twelve hours a day, may appear extreme. Roz Savage suggests, however, that like many major achievements, an epic ocean voyage is simply the accumulation of a very large number of tiny actions applied consistently over time. This power of accumulation also applies to phenomena as diverse as environmental degradation (or restoration), living a life of meaning and purpose, or creating the collective future that serves the needs of people and planet. In this chapter, Roz uses her ocean rowing adventures as the underlying narrative for musings on solitude, psychology, sustainability, systems thinking, the hero’s journey, truth, identity, and free will.

  • 6 - Extreme Politics: The Four Waves of National Populism in the West

  • Edited by Duncan Needham, University of Cambridge, Julius Weitzdörfer, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    Extremes
    Published online:
    08 March 2019
    Print publication:
    07 March 2019, pp 104-123

  • Summary

    Political extremism appears to be all around us. Populists, xenophobes, and, some might argue, fascists all seem to be on the rise. Many trace the current challenge to liberal representative democracy to the legacy of the post-2008 financial crisis and economic scarcity, recycling earlier interpretations of the rise of historic fascism. But what is really driving support for political extremism in the West today? What do we really know about those who vote for these parties, including their backgrounds and concerns? This chapter examines the drivers of support for contemporary forms of political radicalism and extremism, from the election of Donald Trump to the vote for Brexit in the United Kingdom and the recent elections in France, the Netherlands, and Germany.

  • 3 - Probability, Risk, and Extremes

  • Edited by Duncan Needham, University of Cambridge, Julius Weitzdörfer, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    Extremes
    Published online:
    08 March 2019
    Print publication:
    07 March 2019, pp 46-66

  • Summary

    This chapter is about classes of statistical distributions that deliver extreme events, and how we should deal with them for both statistical inference and decision making. It draws on the author’s multi-volume series, Incerto, and associated technical research program, which is about how to live in a real world with a structure of uncertainty that is too complicated for us. The Incerto tries to connect five different fields related to tail probabilities and extremes: mathematics, philosophy, social science, contract theory, decision theory, and the real world. The main idea behind the project is that while there is a lot of uncertainty and opacity about the world, and incompleteness of information and understanding, there is little, if any, uncertainty about what actions should be taken based on such incompleteness, in a given situation.

  • On the Notion of ‘Extremes’

  • Edited by Duncan Needham, University of Cambridge, Julius Weitzdörfer, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    Extremes
    Published online:
    08 March 2019
    Print publication:
    07 March 2019, pp 1-5

  • Summary

    This preface introduces the topic of the book, extremes. It draws on a broad range of approaches, including from intellectual history and the philosophy of science. Pulling together the core topics of the book, it shows how the notion of extremes radiates into different subject areas, and the way in which it can – and cannot – help us make sense of the world. Inter alia, it also reflects on a question addressed, explicitly or implicitly, by all subsequent chapters: whether we are living in an age of extremes. The preface concludes that the notion of ‘extremes’ appears to be of avail in three ways: when it drives our curiosity and aspiration, when it helps us understand the world, and when it makes us realize our own humility.

  • 5 - Extremes of War: Stories of Survival from Syria

  • Edited by Duncan Needham, University of Cambridge, Julius Weitzdörfer, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    Extremes
    Published online:
    08 March 2019
    Print publication:
    07 March 2019, pp 85-103

  • Summary

    This chapter draws on BBC Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet’s experience of reporting from the extreme environments of warzones, specifically the Syrian war. It is about how the fittest survive in such an environment. Lyse reported from Homs and Yarmouk, then under siege by the Syrian army, interviewing mothers as they struggled to feed themselves and their children, and teenagers as they studied for their exams. It is the journalist’s job to ask questions, to search for the truth about what happened. But Syria is one of the most difficult places to find the truth partly because the conflict encompasses several wars, between local factions, but also between regional and global powers.

  • 7 - Extreme Longevity

  • Edited by Duncan Needham, University of Cambridge, Julius Weitzdörfer, University of Cambridge
  • Book:
    Extremes
    Published online:
    08 March 2019
    Print publication:
    07 March 2019, pp 124-149

  • Summary

    There was a general belief that while death rates for children and young adults would fall as we learnt to conquer infectious diseases, death rates for the over 65s would never slow. Yet by the end of the twentieth century, the decline in human mortality rates was fastest for those in old age. It was argued that life expectancy would never reach beyond 90 years. Latest figures suggest that this will be breached within 20 years, and that half of those born today in Europe will reach over 100. At what year will a human live longer than Jeanne Louise Calment – who died at 122 years old in 1997? Or will this be the maximum life span of any human being? With life expectancy gains reaching over 2 years with every decade this chapter focuses on how long humans can expect to survive, and asks: why is there a search for extreme longevity and what will be the societal consequences?

Page 43 of 876