Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859): early high-altitude explorer and renowned plant naturalist.

Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was one of the most distinguished German scientists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His fame came chiefly from his extensive explorations in South America and his eminence as a plant naturalist. He attempted to climb the inactive volcano Chimborazo in Ecuador, which was thought to be the highest mountain in the world at the time, and he reached an altitude of about 5,543 m, which was a record height for humans. During the climb, he had typical symptoms of acute mountain sickness, which he correctly attributed to the low level of oxygen, and he was apparently the first person to make this connection. His ability as a naturalist enabled him to recognize the effect of high altitude on the distribution of plants, and by comparing his observations on Chimborazo with those in the European Alps and elsewhere, he inferred that the deleterious effects of high altitude were universal. During his return trip to Europe, he called on President Thomas Jefferson in Washington, where he was given a warm reception, and discussed conservation issues. He then returned to Paris, where he produced 29 volumes over a period of 31 years describing his travels. Here the effects of high altitude on the distribution of plants compared with animals are briefly reviewed. Following Humboldt's death in 1859, there was extensive coverage of his contributions, but curiously, his fame has diminished over the years, and inexplicably, he now has a lower profile in North America.

Trends and Transitions in 150 Years of The American Naturalist.

The American Naturalist recently passed its sesquicentennial. Throughout this long history, it regularly encountered moments of introspection and debate over its goals, mission, identity, and audience. Here, we chronicle the history of those debates and transitions at critical moments. The Naturalist began as a popular magazine for amateur naturalists in the late 1860s. In the late 1870s, it transitioned to an increasingly academic journal for professional scientists from all branches of the natural sciences. By the turn of the century, academic specialization led to increasing fragmentation of the sciences into a multitude of societies and journals, creating an identity crisis for the once-broad-reaching American Naturalist. This identity crisis was resolved when the journal pivoted around 1910 to focus on fundamental advances in the newly emerging field of genetics. In the 1960s, the journal underwent a remarkably rapid transition to its present focus on evolution and ecology. The profound shifts in the journal's contents over this time are a reflection of the historical changes in science as a whole: from amateur naturalists, to polymath professionals, to increasingly specialized academics. This chronicle reveals the ways in which The American Naturalist has left its mark on many disciplines, many of which are today only loosely affiliated with the journal, if at all.

Carlos de la Torre y Huerta. Paradigma del quehacer científico cubano / Carlos de la Torre y Huerta. Paradigma of Cuban scientific activity

RESUMEN La dimensión científica educativa constituye uno de los aportes más sólidos de la obra de Carlos de la Torre y Huerta. Su extensa obra investigativa se nutre de las asignaturas que impartió en la Universidad de la Habana entre las que se desatacan Paleontología, Arqueología, Antropología, Zoología, Geología, Biología y Entomología. Estos estudios favorecieron el descubrimiento de la gran riqueza existente en el país, destacándose una trayectoria ejemplar cuyos cimientos se insertan en la malacología. El descubrimiento de las Polymitas lo llevan a describir una diversidad de subespecies que lo insertan en el escenario internacional aclamado como un referente de obligatoria consulta para los especialistas. La divulgación sistemática de su obra lo conducen a la formación de una escuela cubana de naturalistas en la que los discípulos marcaron impronta en el quehacer científico nacional al apropiarse de las herramientas que le permiten hacer ciencia utilizando medios de enseñanza, imágenes proyectadas, láminas, dibujos y ejemplares autóctonos del país (AU).

ABSTRACT The educational scientific dimension is one of the strongest contributions of the work of Carlos de la Torre and Huerta. His extensive research work draws on the subjects he taught at the University of Havana, including Paleontology, Archeology, Anthropology, Zoology, Geology, Biology and Entomology. These studies favored the discovery of the great wealth existing in the country, highlighting an exemplary trajectory whose foundations are inserted in malacology. The discovery of the Polymites leads him to describe a diversity of subspecies that insert him in the acclaimed international scenario as a mandatory reference for specialists. The systematic dissemination of his work lead him to the formation of a Cuban school of naturalists in which the disciples marked imprint on the national scientific work by appropriating the tools that allow him to do science using teaching means, projected images, prints, drawings and native copies of the country (AU).

[Life as a way of the functioning of matter - Theory of organic being of Jedrzej Sniadecki]. / Zycie jako sposób istnienia materii ­ Teoria jestestw organicznych Jedrzeja Sniadeckiego.

In 2018 we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Jedrzej Sniadecki's birth. This work aims to show the importance of his thoughts for the development of natural sciences. He studied at some of the largest universities in Europe, where he met great scientists of the enlightenment. The effects can be seen in his works. He was remembered as a founder of Polish biochemistry, anthropology and pathology, also as the author of chemical terminology and language. The essence of his thoughts is "Theory of Organic being", which is an attempt to answer the question: "what is life?". Jedrzej Sniadecki introduced a new definition of life based on the term "organic power". This work shows how import are the thoughts of Jedrzej Sniadecki in the context of the times in which he lived, as well as the following development of natural sciences, what makes him and his theories worth memory.

"Her Joyous Enthusiasm for Her Life-Work ": Early Women Authors in The American Naturalist.

Women have long been underrepresented in the natural sciences, and although great progress has been made in recent decades, many subtle and not-so-subtle barriers persist. In this context, it is easy to get the impression that the early history of ecology and evolutionary biology was exclusively the domain of male researchers. In fact, a number of women made very substantial contributions to The American Naturalist in its first decades. In a follow-up to a series of retrospective essays celebrating 150 years of this journal, we highlight the scientific contributions of the women published in it during its first 50 years (1867-1916). We also discuss the diverse paths that their scientific careers took and the barriers they faced along the way.

The first mite: insect genealogy in Hooke's Micrographia.

What happens when you take the idea of the biblical Adam-the first human - and apply it to insects? You create an origin story for Nature's tiniest creatures, one that gives them 'a Pedigree as ancient as the first creation'. This the naturalist Robert Hooke argued in his treatise, the Micrographia (1665). In what follows, I will retrace how Hooke endeavoured to show that insects-then widely believed to have arisen out of the dirt - were the products of an ancient lineage. These genealogies, while constructed from empirical observation, were conjectures of the imagination. Section 2 shows how Hooke introduced the concept of a 'prime parent' (an Adam-insect) to explain the anatomical similarities between 'mites'. Section 3 demonstrates how Hooke defined the family of "gnats" as tiny machines built from the same components and relates Hookean genealogies to contemporary ideas about Noah's Ark. Section 4 shows how Hooke outlined the morphology of 'insects' (delineating what we now call arthropods). Section 5 explores how Hooke used fossils to study these animals in the distant past. In sum, Hooke was turning natural history - collecting and describing insects - into natural history: reconstructing their origins.

[Knowledge and Environment in the "Participatory Dictatorship" : Scientific Environmental Concepts and the Environmental Policy Change in the GDR]. / Wissen und Umwelt in der "partizipatorischen Diktatur" : Wissenschaftliche Umweltkonzepte und der umweltpolitische Aufbruch in der DDR.

The GDR was an ecological failed state in 1989/90. But while public input and critical environmental groups protested more openly against environmental problems during the 1980s, the established sciences remained strangely mute and appeared unable to develop appropriate approaches to solving the environmental crisis. Almost 20 years earlier, however, an environmental policy departure that was largely supported by scientific reform initiatives had begun in the GDR. The inclusion of the concept of conserving nature and the environment in the 1968 constitution and the adoption of the land improvement law two years later were the expression of a socio-political consensus on the environmental issue.How can this sharp discrepancy be explained? The article investigates the influence of scientific environmental concepts on the departure in environmental policy in the GDR. The example of scientific nature conservation, which had been institutionally anchored in the German Academy of Agricultural Sciences since 1951, shows that conservationists underwent a period of "normalization" in the 1950s, which was an essential prerequisite for giving their concerns political legitimacy. This forced adaptation process not only influenced the concepts and goals of East German nature conservation, rather also opened up participatory opportunities for its protagonists.The essay argues for a reassessment of East German environmental history, which so far has only been considered from the perspective of how it ended. Furthermore, it is argued that the conceptual concept of the "participatory dictatorship" (Fulbrook) should be applied to the history of science in the GDR in order to expand existing approaches.

The gender gap in science: How long until women are equally represented?

Women comprise a minority of the Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine (STEMM) workforce. Quantifying the gender gap may identify fields that will not reach parity without intervention, reveal underappreciated biases, and inform benchmarks for gender balance among conference speakers, editors, and hiring committees. Using the PubMed and arXiv databases, we estimated the gender of 36 million authors from >100 countries publishing in >6000 journals, covering most STEMM disciplines over the last 15 years, and made a web app allowing easy access to the data (https://lukeholman.github.io/genderGap/). Despite recent progress, the gender gap appears likely to persist for generations, particularly in surgery, computer science, physics, and maths. The gap is especially large in authorship positions associated with seniority, and prestigious journals have fewer women authors. Additionally, we estimate that men are invited by journals to submit papers at approximately double the rate of women. Wealthy countries, notably Japan, Germany, and Switzerland, had fewer women authors than poorer ones. We conclude that the STEMM gender gap will not close without further reforms in education, mentoring, and academic publishing.

The pre-history of health psychology in the United Kingdom: From natural science and psychoanalysis to social science, social cognition and beyond.

Health psychology formally came of age in the United Kingdom in the 1980s, but it was prefigured by much discussion about challenges to the dominance of biomedicine in healthcare and debates. This articles focuses on what could be termed the pre-history of health psychology in the UK. This was the period in the earlier 20th century when psychological approaches were dominated by psychoanalysis which was followed by behaviourism and then cognitivism. Review of this pre-history provides the backdrop for the rise of health psychology in the UK and also reveals the tensions between the different theoretical perspectives.

Origin, History, and Meanings of the Word Transmission.

The origin of the words transmit and transmission and their derivatives can be traced to the Latin transmittere, in turn formed by prefixing the preposition trans ("across or beyond") to the verb mittere ("to let go or to send"). From the times of Ancient Rome in the 3rd century b.c.e., the Latin word transmissio has been "transmitted" (through Romance languages such as French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese) to all the major languages of culture, English among them. And through English, the international language of biomedical science in the 21st century, the term transmission is increasingly present today in some of the most dynamic disciplines of modern natural science, including genomics, molecular microbiology, hospital epidemiology, molecular genetics, biotechnology, evolutionary biology, and systems biology.

The Impact of Lamarck's Theory of Evolution Before Darwin's Theory.

This paper analyzes the impact that Lamarckian evolutionary theory had in the scientific community during the period between the advent of Zoological Philosophy and the publication Origin of Species. During these 50 years Lamarck's model was a well known theory and it was discussed by the scientific community as a hypothesis to explain the changing nature of the fossil record throughout the history of Earth. Lamarck's transmutation theory established the foundation of an evolutionary model introducing a new way to research in nature. Darwin's selectionist theory was proposed in 1859 to explain the origin of species within this epistemological process. In this context, Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology and Auguste Comte's Cours de Philosophie Positive appear as two major works for the dissemination of Lamarck's evolutionary ideology after the death of the French naturalist in 1829.

Mechanics in the Querelle des Anciens et des Modernes.

The debate about the superiority of ancient versus modern culture, known as the Querelle des anciens et des modernes, also found expression in conflicting positions about the developing mathematical methods of natural philosophy. Isaac Newton explicitly referred to the authority of Euclidean geometry as a justification for the conservative form of the proofs in his Principia Mathematica, where he avoided the use of analytic geometry and infinitesimal calculus, the central innovations of seventeenth-century mathematics, as much as possible. Rather, he modeled his proofs, just like the overall structure of the treatise, as closely as possible on Euclid's geometry. A century later, however, Joseph-Louis Lagrange announced in the introduction to his Mechanique Analytique that no geometrical diagrams would be found there and that Newtonian mechanics was presented exclusively in the form of analytic equations. This essay analyzes the relationship of this radical change in the theoretical methodology of mechanics to the actors' ideas about ancient science and its authority. It also discusses the consequent development of a conception of ancient science as distinct from modern science and the relation of this conception to a history of science in our contemporary sense.

[Natural science vs. natural philosophy: Friedrich Theodor von Frerichs and the emergence of modern western medicine in the 19th century]. / Naturwissenschaft statt Naturphilosophie: Friedrich Theodor Frerichs und die Entstehung der Schulmedizin im 19. Jahrhundert.

The beginnings of modern western medicine reach to about 1800 when under the liberating influence of French Revolution observation of diseases was started to follow more scientifically justified criteria. At that time speculative doctrines prevailed, e. g. those set up natural philosopher Schelling. In this context Internist Friedrich Theodor von Frerichs at Berlin Charité University Hospital gained great merits because of his struggle for a scientifically-based experimental clinical medicine. This is demonstrated nicely in a recently found autograph document.

Natural history and the formation of the human being: Kant on active forces.

In his 1785-review of the Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit, Kant objects to Herder's conception of nature as being imbued with active forces. This attack is usually evaluated against the background of Kant's critical project and his epistemological concern to caution against the "metaphysical excess" of attributing immanent properties to matter. In this paper I explore a slightly different reading by investigating Kant's pre-critical account of creation and generation. The aim of this is to show that Kant's struggle with the forces of matter has a long history and revolves around one central problem: that of how to distinguish between the non-purposive forces of nature and the intentional powers of the mind. Given this history, the epistemic stricture that Kant's critical project imposes on him no longer appears to be the primary reason for his attack on Herder. It merely aggravates a problem that Kant has been battling with since his earliest writings.

[Anatomy in the perspective of Kazimierz Kostanecki]. / Anatomia w ujeciu Kazimierza Kostaneckiego.

Kazimierz Telesfor Kostanecki (1863-1940) remains one of the most important figures in the history of Polish medicine and natural science. He was the creator of one of the biggest scientific schools on Polish soil, a researcher versatile, working in parallel on many fields of natural science exploration. In his view, anatomy has become a dynamic and comprehensive science, that combines what today belongs to histology, cytology and embryology. Kostanecki has created an universal model of research, referring to comparative methods and based on planned series of experimental studies, especially when it came to issues related to developmental anatomy and mechanics of fertilization. This model was used and developed by his students and followers. It is not surprising, therefore, that the name Kostanecki has been repeatedly reported in the world literature, and a number of phenomena and facts established by him has kept its value, which comes obviouswhen we still can find citations of Polish scholar works in the contemporary monographs and articles.

Clocks to Computers: A Machine-Based "Big Picture" of the History of Modern Science.

Over the last few decades there have been several calls for a "big picture" of the history of science. There is a general need for a concise overview of the rise of modern science, with a clear structure allowing for a rough division into periods. This essay proposes such a scheme, one that is both elementary and comprehensive. It focuses on four machines, which can be seen to have mediated between science and society during successive periods of time: the clock, the balance, the steam engine, and the computer. Following an extended developmental phase, each of these machines came to play a highly visible role in Western societies, both socially and economically. Each of these machines, moreover, was used as a powerful resource for the understanding of both inorganic and organic nature. More specifically, their metaphorical use helped to construe and refine some key concepts that would play a prominent role in such understanding. In each case the key concept would at some point be considered to represent the ultimate building block of reality. Finally, in a refined form, each of these machines would eventually make its entry in scientific research, thereby strengthening the ties between these machines and nature.

[Not Available.] / Die franzisischen Akademien im Kriege.

At the beginning of the First World War, the numbers of members from French speaking countries in German Academies and the number of members from German speaking countries in French Academies were roughly the same, and equally high. For instance the French Academy of Sciences had 23 members belonging to German speaking countries, of which 17 from Germany. The Berlin Academy of sciences had 16 members from French speaking countries, the Gbttingen Academy 18 members, and the Bavarian Academy 13. The Leopoldina had also a great number of French members, as a result of a long-lasting policy. These data show that the relationships between France and Germany in the fields of natural and human sciences were traditionally very well developed. However, these relationships were so damaged by the First World War that they could revive only slowly after the Second World War. The sometimes vivid discussions, which took place within several Academies of the Institut de France regarding the mea- sures to be taken in the field of scientific cooperation against the Central Powers, will be commented in this paper.

[In process.] / Die kaiserlichen rzte am Hof Leopolds I. (1657-1705) und ihre Beziehungen zur Academia Naturae Curiosorum.

The "Akademie der Naturforscher" (Academy of Natural Scientists) was founded in 1652; in 1687 Emperor LEOPOLD 1. raised it in the rank of an imperial academy (Sacri Romani Imperii Academia Caesareo-Leopoldina Naturae Curiosorum). The president and the editor of the academic periodical (Director Ephemeridum) got the same privileges as imperial physicians. Based on this the duties of the physicians and their status within the court hierarchy are explained. During the reign of LEOPOLD I there were 61 persons who worked as physicians at court. The prosopographical analysis shows their distribution to the households of the members of the imperial family. Other aspects are their origin, their education and their relationship to the University of Vienna. Finally we learn about the imperial physicians as members of the Academy and as mediators between the Academy and the court.