117,292 research outputs found
Introduzione [Physis : rivista internazionale di storia della scienza : LV, 1/2, 2020]
No full textIntroduzione al volume della rivista, dedicato al tema del Teatro della natura. Storie, oggetti e metodi della scienza oltre Galile
Reflections on the History of Syphilis
No full textThis historico-medical article examines the evolution of theo-ries on syphilis and how this pathology was interpreted at the societal level, offering a review of its main aspects
L’iconografia nelle opere di Sartorius. Dall’Atlas des Aetna al secondo volume del Der Aetna
No full textChickenpox and Shingles: Historical and Palæovirological Considerations
No full textThis article summarises the main historical and palæopathological aspects of chickenpox and shingles, two diseases caused by the same pathogen, the varicella zoster virus (VZV). The history of these two diseases is traced back from historical and literary sources, including medical biographies of famous patients of the past (as in the case of Louis XV, King of France), to scientific descriptions of the Modern and Contemporary ages, and also examining votive representations
Extending the Rock Cycle to a Cosmic Scale
No full textThe rock cycle, a cornerstone of geosciences, describes rock formation and transformation on Earth. However, this Earth-centric view overlooks the broader history of rock evolution across the cosmos, with two fundamental limitations: (i) Earth-centric paradigms that ignore extraterrestrial lithogenesis, excluding cosmically significant rocks and processes, and (ii) disciplinary fragmentation between geological and astrophysical sciences, from the micro- to the macroscale. This review proposes an extension of the rock cycle concept to a cosmic scale, exploring the origin of rocks and their evolution from interstellar space, through the aggregation of solid materials in protoplanetary disks, and their subsequent evolution on planetary bodies. Through systematic analysis of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary processes occurring beyond Earth, we identify four major domains in which distinct dynamics govern the rock cycle, each reworking rocks with domain-specific characteristics: (1) stellar and nebular dynamics, (2) protoplanetary disk dynamics, (3) asteroidal dynamics, and (4) planetary dynamics. Here we propose the cosmic rock cycle as a new epistemic tool that could transform interdisciplinary research and geoscience education. This perspective reveals Earth's rock cycle as a rare and invaluable subset of rock genesis in the cosmos
The penicillin revolution and the role of the forgotten pioneer Vincenzo Tiberio (1869-1915): discovery, development and legacy
No full textPenicillin’s discovery is widely attributed to Alexander Fleming
(1881-1955) Professor of Bacteriology at St. Mary’s Hospital in
London in 1928, who observed the antibacterial effects of Penicillium
mold. Fleming found that his “mold juice” was capable of
killing a wide range of harmful bacteria, such as streptococcus,
meningococcus and the diphtheria bacillus. He then set his assistants,
Stuart Craddock and Frederick Ridley, the challenging mission
of isolating pure penicillin from the mold juice. It shown to
be very unstable, and they were only able to prepare solutions of
crude material to work with. Fleming published his findings in the
British Journal of Experimental Pathology in June 1929, with only
a passing reference to penicillin’s potential therapeutic benefits.
However, over 30 years earlier, Italian physician Vincenzo Tiberio
(1869-1915) had conducted controlled studies on the bactericidal
effects of mold extracts, publishing results that went largely unnoticed
by the scientific community
On the early uses of the word ‘gout’: novel evidence and a critical assessment of the published literature
No full textGoing Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
No full textThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
La storia della geologia in Italia: primo bilancio di un percorso storiografico transdisciplinare
No full textThe aim of this paper is to present a survey on the development of the historical studies on different fields of the geological sciences in Italy, in order to evaluate the state of the art of this discipline and its interdisciplinary potential. A critical historical overview is provided, from the early historiographical attempts in the 19th century until the researches undertaken by geologists and historians during the 20th century, mainly within various fields of the Earth sciences and the history of science. The different methodological approaches, as well as the results of these studies, are presented and compared. The role of the history of geology within the scientific and academic communities of geoscientists and historians, is also discussed, in order to provide suggestions for more collaborations and interactions between the two cultures. The history of geology must be extremely open and flexible to new models and practices, because its topics are constantly changing and evolving. A future challenge should include the adoption of more specific interdisciplinary skills and approaches both in human and natural sciences
- …
