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The ongoing federal budget crisis has led to extensive debate over how much money the federal government should spend on scientific research. In the struggle for limited funds, many advocacy groups will covet the large sums proposed for science research, and the scientific community may be called upon to justify its large share of the discretionary funding, especially the large increases for some science agencies and "big science" projects. Many would instinctively support the assertion that scientific progress is a cornerstone of national well-being, but the connection between strong federal support of research and vigorous economic growth or societal vitality is not straightforward. Two variables--science and technology, not science alone, are basic to the larger issues of the economy and social welfare. Federal policy must facilitate development in coordination with support for basic science. Scientists, in turn, must help foster a perspective that encompasses research and development as a whole and that seeks to identify explicitly the connections between the nature of the R&D effort and economic vitality and quality of life. Furthermore, society needs a free flow of information between all members of the science and technology community and an end to the artificial and harmful barriers between them. The science community must focus on setting priorities, refining science and technology policy to maximize available resources, and convincing voters that science can make crucial contributions to the long-term welfare of the nation.
This paper describes the unfolding of two complementary efforts to build global capacity in health social science. The INCLEN model aims to infuse a genuine transdisciplinary perspective into international health through equipping social scientists to speak a common language with clinical epidemiologists and sensitising clinicians to the ways social sciences contribute to research and policy. Issues are raised pertinent to the model's viability, including recruitment of scholars for fellowships, curriculum substance, and mechanisms for integrating social science fellows when they return home. The future success of the INCLEN program, and comparable donor initiatives, depends upon a wider infrastructure of career supports played out at the international level in which donor and operating agencies nourish the emergence of an expanded body of health social scientists. The International Forum for Social Sciences in Health (IFSSH) has been formed to help build this infrastructure and provide impetus for a viable scientific community of health social scientists. The IFSSH 'global agenda' is portrayed and an illustration is given of how this agenda is being implemented in the Asia and Pacific region.
The thesis of this paper is that nursing science draws a lot of its innovative potential from the knowledge that has been gathered in related disciplines. This knowledge is specified and reformulated with regard to nursing practice. The thesis is developed on two levels: first under aspects of methodology and the philosophy of science, then under aspects of the adoption of interdisciplinary knowledge. The integration of various related sciences that takes place in nursing science will finally be demonstrated in an example. This example shows which qualifications the practitioners need to deal with patients who suffer from a stroke.
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The isotopic composition, for example, (14)C/(12)C, (13)C/(12)C, (2)H/(1)H, (15)N/(14)N and (18)O/(16)O, of the elements of matter is heterogeneous. It is ruled by physical, chemical and biological mechanisms. Isotopes can be employed to follow the fate of mineral and organic compounds during biogeochemical transformations. The determination of the isotopic composition of organic substances occurring at trace level in very complex mixtures such as sediments, soils and blood, has been made possible during the last 20 years due to the rapid development of molecular level isotopic techniques. After a brief glance at pioneering studies revealing isotopic breakthroughs at the molecular and intramolecular levels, this paper reviews selected applications of compound-specific isotope analysis in various scientific fields.
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BACKGROUND: In 1993 a first study on the scientific production of Spain in 1986-1989 on Biomedicine and Health Sciences, through the Science Citation Index (SCI) was published. The analysis attained the level of centres, with special emphasis in those related to the Health Care System. This paper analyses the period 1990-1993, offers a wider coverage including the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) database, and compares both time periods. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Documents indexed by SCI and SSCI, CD-ROM version, with at least one Spanish address, published in biomedical and medical journals during the years 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993, have been studied. Quantitative and qualitative bibliometric indicators for the analysis by subject matter, geographic distribution, institutional sector and centre of origin have been used. Global data were also analysed according to economic and human resources. RESULTS: A total of 21,434 documents were studied, of which 67.9% were journal articles. The highest contributors were Universities (48.8% of the documents) and Hospitals (45.3%). The autonomous communities of Madrid (31.9%) and Catalonia (26.9%) concentrate more than half the production-developed principally by hospitals-followed by Andalucía (11.7%) and C. Valenciana (7.8%). The most active disciplines were biochemistry/molecular biology (13%), neurosciences/neurology (8.4%), pharmacology/pharmacy (8.4%) and medicine, general/internal (7.9%). Comparing the results with period 1986-1989, some of the differences observed could be explained by the fact of MEDICINA CLINICA being included in SCI since 1992. An increase in the number of citable items (72.9%), number of journals used (from 1,086 to 1,346) and international cooperation rate (13.5% to 18.3%) was detected. The institutional sectors with the highest growth rate were Hospitals (92.9%) and Consejo Superior de investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC) (119.3%). Scientific production and visibility of publications (measured as impact factor of journals used) grew in most disciplines, being the quantitative increase greater in cancer/oncology, gastroenterology/hepatology, genetics/heredity and cardiovascular system. No substantial changes as to geographic distribution of documents or most active centres were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Spanish scientific activity grew steadily every year and its visibility improved, being the Health sector one of the main actors. When comparing both four-year period. Spain moved up from the seventh to the sixth position in the ranking of EU countries according to its scientific output in biomedicine and health sciences.
Textbooks and other teaching of psychology's history oversimplify to the point of presenting it as the evolution of an exclusively object-science--despite general familiarity with integral extrascientistic practices and assumptions. Representative examples are presented, along with an overview of object-psychology's cultural/practical routes to dominance. The purpose of highlighting these facets of psychology's development is to call for psychology to take explicit account of humans' subjecthood as well as objectness, on the way rereading our history toward an integrated science.
This article discusses the phenomenon of "context effects" by reviewing the findings and practices of a range of scientific fields, including astronomy, physics, biology, medicine, and especially the relevant research and theory from psychology. Context information, such as expectations about what one is supposed to see or conclude, has been found to have a small but relentless impact on human perception, judgment, and decision-making. The article then considers the vulnerability of forensic science practice to context effects, and concludes by suggesting that forensic science adopt practices familiar in other fields of scientific work, in particular blind or double-blind testing and also the use of evidence line-ups.
The article asserts that a scientific discipline is defined by both its object of research or knowledge (domain) and its specific or adequate method. An appropriate definition should fulfill other necessary conditions implicit in certain fundamental rules of definition, e.g., a definition should not be too narrow or too broad. It should also respect well established uses of language, in which the concept to be defined may already have a given meaning. In Scandinavia there are three words used for the Science of Health Care. "Vårdvetenskap" e.g., is used both in Sweden and Finland. In Finland it is used to convey the view that care is essential to Man, and a holistic concept of Man/Health. So demarcated, Vårdvetenskapen complements Medicine which ontologically reduces Man to biochemistry and sickness to disease. To fulfill this function the Science of health Care should be humanistic and interdisciplinary, and not purely empirico-positivistic like Medicine.
This paper presents the main subjects discussed in the round-table: "Educational Base for Biomedical Research", during the International Symposium on Biomedical Research in the 21st century; two main aspects will be focused: (1) the importance of popularizing science in order to stimulate comprehension of the scientific process and progress, their critical thinking, citizenship and social commitment, mainly in the biomedical area, considering the new advances of knowledge and the resulting technology; (2) the importance to stimulate genuine scientific vocation among young people, by giving them opportunity to early experience scientific environment, through the hands of well prepared master in a humanistic atmosphere.
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The administrators of the only program of its kind in the US explain the demand for a Master's degree in Laboratory Animal Science, the value of the degree, and plans to expand the program to make it available for distance learning.
Popular science journalism flourished in the 1860s in England, with many new journals being projected. The time was ripe, Victorian men of science believed, for an 'organ of science' to provide a means of communication between specialties, and between men of science and the public. New formats were tried as new purposes emerged. Popular science journalism became less recreational and educational. Editorial commentary and reviewing the progress of science became more important. The analysis here emphasizes those aspects of popular science which have been identified by Frank Turner as 'public science' and by Thomas Gieryn as 'boundary-work'. the religious, intellectual, and utilitarian values claimed for science by editors and contributors in their tasks of persuading the public to support science and of distinguishing science from what they often called 'applied science' are discussed. These values are shown to vary among editors and, for the editors examined here, Shirley Hibberd, Henry Slack, James Samuelson, William Crookes, and Henry Lawson, to differ significantly from those of T. H. Huxley, John Tyndall, and Norman Lockyer, on whom much study of the popularization of science in the 1860s has focused.
There is a science education crisis in the United States, with studies showing that U.S. high school graduates are not as well-versed in science as graduates in other countries. Studies also suggest that students are better learners when the environment is used as an integrating theme. Therefore, the time is right to discuss opportunities for integrating environmental health science into kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) curriculum. The research presented here takes a step toward developing the use of environmental health science as a multidisciplinary theme in the K-12 curriculum. Almost 500 K-12 science teachers in Ohio were surveyed for their opinions about the science education crisis and the role of environmental health science in their current courses of instruction. These teachers had been identified as having an interest in environmental education because of their participation in the Environmental Education Council of Ohio. Nevertheless, the results of the survey suggest that these environmentally oriented science teachers are currently not aware of existing environmental health science learning opportunities. Environmental health practitioners have work to do to educate science teachers about the field and about the ways in which studying environmental health science could alleviate the science education crisis.
There is no need to summarize the features of this simplified model, which describes the manner in which modern science was transmitted to the lands beyond Western Europe. The graph of Fig. 1 and the examples drawn from science in various lands should have made them clear. It may be in order, however, to reiterate that there is nothing about the phases of my model that is cosmically or metaphysically necessary. I am satisfied if my attempt will interest others to go beyond my crude analysis and make a systematic investigation of the diffusion of Western science throughout the world. Such an investigation would include a comparative appraisal of the development of science in different national, cultural, and social settings and would mark the beginnings of truly comparative studies in the history and sociology of science. The present lack of comparative studies in these disciplines can be attributed to the widespread belief that science is strictly an international endeavor. In one sense this is true. As Sir Isaac Newton remarked in his Principia (49), "the descent of stones in Europe and in America" must both be explained by one set of physical laws. Yet, we cannot ignore the peculiar environment in which members of a national group of scientists are trained and carry on their research. While I do not hold with the Nazi theorists that science is a direct reflection of the racial or national spirit (50), neither do I accept Chekhov's dictum (51) that "there is no national science just as there is no national multiplication table. . . ." In emphasizing the international nature of scientific inquiry we have forgotten that science exists in a local social setting. If that setting does not decisively mold the conceptual growth of science, it can at least affect the number and types of individuals who are free to participate in the internal development of science. Perhaps the effect is more profound; only future scholarship can determine the depth of its influence.
A lecture was presented by the author at the Democratic Opinion Forum on Health Teaching and Research, organized by Mexico's National Health Institutes Coordinating Office, at National Cardiology Institute "Ignacio Chavez", where he presented a critical review of the conventional classification of basic and applied science, as well as his personal view on health science teaching and research. According to the author, "well-conducted science" is that "generating reality-checked knowledge" and "mis-conducted science" is that "unproductive or producing 'just lies' and 'non-fundable'. To support his views, the author reviews utilitarian and pejorative definitions of science, as well as those of committed and pure science, useful and useless science, and practical and esoterical science, as synonyms of applied and basic science. He also asserts that, in Mexico, "this classification has been used in the past to justify federal funding cutbacks to basic science, allegedly because it is not targeted at solving 'national problems' or because it was not relevant to priorities set in a given six-year political administration period". Regarding health education and research, the author asserts that the current academic programs are inefficient and ineffective; his proposal to tackle these problems is to carry out a solid scientific study, conducted by a multidisciplinary team of experts, "to design the scientific researcher curricula from recruitment of intelligent young people to retirement or death". Performance assessment of researchers would not be restricted to publication of papers, since "the quality of scientific work and contribution to the development of science is not reflected by the number of published papers". The English version of this paper is available at: http://www.insp.mx/salud/index.html