1,721,028 research outputs found
Going (More) Historical: On Environment, Science, and Discourse
Full text linkThis paper provides some considerations on the current environmental debate and on the role that the history of science can play in order to promote environmental awareness and foster and reinforce a sense of territorial belonging
Going (More) Historical: On Environment, Science, and Discourse
Full text linkThis paper provides some considerations on the current environmental debate and on the role that the history of science can play in order to promote environmental awareness and foster and reinforce a sense of territorial belonging
In Reply to Marco Beretta
No full textOn scholarly traditions, quantitative assessments, and academic malpractices in Italy - and how someone disagreed (Isis, Vol. 110, n. S1, pp. 15-17 https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1086/707594
Marco Leonardi. Aqua curanda est: Le acque e il loro utilizzo nei territori di Friburgo in Brisgovia e Catania dal XIII al XVI secolo
Full text linkBook review of the book by Marco Leonardi ("Renaissance Quarterly," Volume 71, n. 4, 2018, pp. 1489-1491)
Il prezzo ondeggiante della bellezza. L’equilibrismo di Venezia tra acqua e terra nel corso dei secoli
No full textMolti degli interventi promossi dalla Serenissima nel corso della sua storia per preservare il fragile equilibrio lagunare innescarono controversie (spesso ferocissime) di natura politica, economica, ambientale e sociale. Controversie che infuriarono sia all’interno dei confini repubblicani, sia tra la Repubblica e gli stati confinanti. Come spesso accade nella gestione delle acque, infatti (e come Venezia imparò a caro prezzo), risolvere i problemi in un punto significa causarne di nuovi altrove. Ma un altro effetto di questo travaglio plurisecolare fu che nella Laguna Veneta storia umana e storia naturale s’intrecciarono a tal punto che sarebbe pressoché impossibile, e di certo inutile, trattarle separatamente. Non a caso, nel fiume di dibattiti che scaturirono da – e che, a loro volta, plasmarono – lo sforzo della Serenissima di gestire un ambiente in continuo mutamento, riconosciamo lo stesso groviglio di problemi ambientali, scientifici, sociali, politici, culturali ed economici con cui oggi dobbiamo misurarci a livello globale
Il prezzo ondeggiante della bellezza. L’equilibrismo di Venezia tra acqua e terra nel corso dei secoli
No full textMolti degli interventi promossi dalla Serenissima nel corso della sua storia per preservare il fragile equilibrio lagunare innescarono controversie (spesso ferocissime) di natura politica, economica, ambientale e sociale. Controversie che infuriarono sia all’interno dei confini repubblicani, sia tra la Repubblica e gli stati confinanti. Come spesso accade nella gestione delle acque, infatti (e come Venezia imparò a caro prezzo), risolvere i problemi in un punto significa causarne di nuovi altrove. Ma un altro effetto di questo travaglio plurisecolare fu che nella Laguna Veneta storia umana e storia naturale s’intrecciarono a tal punto che sarebbe pressoché impossibile, e di certo inutile, trattarle separatamente. Non a caso, nel fiume di dibattiti che scaturirono da – e che, a loro volta, plasmarono – lo sforzo della Serenissima di gestire un ambiente in continuo mutamento, riconosciamo lo stesso groviglio di problemi ambientali, scientifici, sociali, politici, culturali ed economici con cui oggi dobbiamo misurarci a livello globale
Il miracolo inutile: Antonio Vallisneri e le scienze della Terra in Europa tra XVII e XVIII secolo
No full textThis book focuses on the studies performed by Antonio Vallisneri (1661-1730) in the field of the Earth sciences, also examining the impact that those investigations had on the European Republic of Letters. Relying on both scientific and historical methods, the author analyzes Vallisneri’s field research and theories: these concerned several crucial topics such as the genesis of mountains and fountains, the debate on the origin of fossils, and the discovery of deep-time
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe 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
Matrices, not seeds. Vallisneri’s research on mines: between empiricism and philosophy
Full text linkSince the beginning of his scientific activity the physician and naturalist Antonio Vallisneri
(1661-1730) devoted many studies to the Earth sciences. In those years his interest focused
particularly on the features of mineral kingdom and its relationship with spring water. The first
observations date back to the last decade of XVII century, when the author analysed the gypsum
and sulphur veins on the Monte Gesso, in the Duchy of Modena and Reggio.
Some years later, during one of his journeys across the northern Apennines in search for the
origin of springs, Vallisneri reached the Este domain of Garfagnana. There he explored the iron
caves of Fornovolasco: this experience allowed him to support his theory with many empirical
information, later exposed in the Lezione Accademica intorno all’Origine delle Fontane (1715).
The many data collected by Vallisneri encouraged him to outline a theoretical interpretation of
mineral genesis. He supposed the mineral veins as developed by ‘seeds’ released in the Earth
by God. The successful growth of ore veins, therefore, depended on the more or less favourable
environment they would have found by accident. These ‘seeds’, as the author clarified, were not
intended to be the very same of ‘perfect germs of generation’ typical of animals or plants. Rather,
they were ‘matrices’ that had to be detected in order to exploit the wealth of mines posed, in a
proper Leibnizian conception, ‘by God for world’s use’
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