3,123 research outputs found
Introduction. Just Needham to Nixon? On writing the history of “science diplomacy”
Full text linkThis introduction examines the growing interest in science diplomacy and the parallel lack of in-depth historical studies on this new concept. In particular, we first show how the recent attention toward science diplomacy has led to a proliferation of hagiographic accounts reflecting the urgency to support its growth rather than truly investigate its ancestry. We then turn to consider how our historical understanding of science diplomacy could be improved, and how this knowledge could equally be of significance to science diplomacy practitioners today. This essay is part of a special issue entitled Science Diplomacy, edited by Giulia Rispoli and Simone Turchetti
Greening the Alliance:The Diplomacy of NATO's Science and Environmental Initiatives
No full textFollowing the launch of Sputnik, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization became a prominent sponsor of scientific research in its member countries, a role it retained until the end of the Cold War. As NATO marks sixty years since the establishment of its Science Committee, the main organizational force promoting its science programs, Greening the Alliance is the first book to chart NATO’s scientific patronage—and the motivations behind it—from the organization’s early days to the dawn of the twenty-first century.Drawing on previously unseen documents from NATO’s own archives, Simone Turchetti reveals how its investments were rooted in the alliance’s defense and surveillance needs, needs that led it to establish a program prioritizing environmental studies. A long-overlooked and effective diplomacy exercise, NATO’s “greening” at one point constituted the organization’s chief conduit for negotiating problematic relations between allies. But while Greening the Alliance explores this surprising coevolution of environmental monitoring and surveillance, tales of science advisers issuing instructions to bomb oil spills with napalm or Dr. Strangelove–like experts eager to divert the path of hurricanes with atomic weapons make it clear: the coexistence of these forces has not always been harmonious. Reflecting on this rich, complicated legacy in light of contemporary global challenges like climate change, Turchetti offers both an eye-opening history of international politics and environmental studies and a thoughtful assessment of NATO’s future
JASON in Europe:Contestation and the Physicists’ Dilemma about the Vietnam War
Full text linkThis article examines the contestation that in the summer of 1972 disrupted workshops in Western Europe featuring renowned physicists affiliated to the top-secret JASON advisory group. Set up by the US Department of Defense research division, JASON was responsible for outlining new bombing strategies in the context of the Vietnam War. Some of the physicists involved in the protest had contributed instead to the International War Crimes (Russell) Tribunal, gathering evidence in Indochina on the allegedly genocidal character of the US bombing. In reconstructing the history of the contestation, this article contends that the conflict was an opportunity for advertising diverging political stances in the rebellious atmosphere of early 1970s, as much as to convey competing views about the physicists’ influence on global affairs. In particular, while JASON members boasted that their advisory roles stifled bellicose approaches, the protesters recalled the merits of independent inquiry and advocacy “from below” the elitist sphere of government advice, describing these as a better way to advance principles of global social justice.</p
Correction to: RarERN Path: a methodology towards the optimisation of patients’ care pathways in rare and complex diseases developed within the European Reference Networks (Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases, (2020), 15, 1, (347), 10.1186/s13023-020-01631-1)
No full textFollowing the publication of the original article [1] we were informed that the authors’ given and family names had unfortunately been interchanged. The correct author names are shown here below: Rosaria Talarico, Sara Cannizzo, Valentina Lorenzoni, Diana Marinello, Ilaria Palla, Salvatore Pirri, Simone Ticciati, Leopoldo Trieste, Isotta Triulzi, Enrique Terol, Anna Bucher and Giuseppe Turchetti. The author names have been corrected in the author list of this Correction and updated in the original article
Séminaire “Histoire des Sciences, Histoire de l’Innovation” 25 mars Simone Turchetti
No full textLa prochaine séance du séminaire Histoire des sciences, histoire de l'innovation (Université Paris Sorbonne, UPMC, LabEx EHNE) aura lieu le mardi 25 mars à 17h30 à l’Institut des sciences de la communication du CNRS (ISCC) 20 rue Berbier-du-Mets, Paris 13°, M° Gobelins. Nous aurons le plaisir d'écouter Simone Turchetti, Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM) The University of Manchester intervenir sur Deeply Concerned with the Environment? NATO and the Rise of the ..
Séminaire “Histoire des Sciences, Histoire de l’Innovation” 25 mars Simone Turchetti
No full textLa prochaine séance du séminaire Histoire des sciences, histoire de l'innovation (Université Paris Sorbonne, UPMC, LabEx EHNE) aura lieu le mardi 25 mars à 17h30 à l’Institut des sciences de la communication du CNRS (ISCC) 20 rue Berbier-du-Mets, Paris 13°, M° Gobelins. Nous aurons le plaisir d'écouter Simone Turchetti, Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM) The University of Manchester intervenir sur Deeply Concerned with the Environment? NATO and the Rise of the ..
Science Diplomacy
No full textSeeking to provide a more persuasive and compelling view of the ancestry of what we can define “science diplomacy”, authors in this issue collectively argue for a richer and more nuanced history than the one discussed in the promotional literature. While covering different periods and geographies without being, of course, exhaustive, all articles discusses case studies that shed light on science diplomacy’s role in international affairs, and show how the encounter between scientists and diplomats to promote scientific collaborations has shaped novel transnational power relations that affected knowledge production and circulation
The Protest that Never Was:Silencing Political Activism at CERN Before and During the Vietnam War
Full text linkThis article focuses on the history of CERN from the perspective of its staff’s political initiatives. Notwithstanding the extensive coverage that the international physics laboratory has received, historians have yet to document these campaigns in full. What follows explains this omission by focusing on provisions that muzzled the activists’ initiatives. Since 1955, staff rules and regulations elaborated by CERN managers aimed at curbing efforts to promote political campaigning in the laboratory. Designed to safeguard its special legal status as an international organization in Switzerland devoted to scientific collaborations, these provisions strengthened its public image as a “sanctuary” for pure physics. With the war in Vietnam in full swing, however, it became more difficult to bottle in political initiatives, especially as CERN staff contributed to anti-war protests and supported local solidarity groups. At this critical junction, the laboratory managers muffled campaigns targeting Nobel-prize winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann, and made it seem as if a petition against the US military strikes in Vietnam signed by its staff was never put together
A New Stochastic Learning Algorithm for Analog Hardware Implementation
No full textThis paper presents a new stochastic learning algorithm suitable for analog implementation. The Neural Network is partitioned into subnetworks and learning is applied to each subnet in turn. Numerical simulations show an improvement in learning accuracy and a less critical dependence on noise amplitude and annealing parameters. The capability of the algorithm to reduce the sensitivity of the network to weight variation is investigated. The hardware implementation of the algorithm in an analog neural network shows a reduction of 75% in the area occupied by the learning circuitry with respect to a possible implementation without partition in subnetwoks
Advances in Lee-Schetzen method for Volterra filter identification
No full textThis paper concerns the identification of nonlinear discrete causal systems that can be approximated with the Wiener–Volterra series. Some advances in the efficient use of Lee–Schetzen (L–S) method are presented, which make practical the estimate of long memory and high order models. Major problems in L–S method occur in the identification of diagonal kernel elements. Two approaches have been considered: approximation of gridded data, with interpolation or smoothing, and improved techniques for diagonal elements estimation. A comparison of diagonal elements esti- mated, with different methods has been shown with extended tests on fifth order Volterra systems
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