On the Nature of Initial Conditions and Fundamental Parameters in Physics and Cosmology

The cosmological theory of the author, discussed in (Greben in Found Sci 15(2):153–176, 2010), has a number of implications for the interpretation of initial conditions and the fine-tuning problem as discussed by Vidal (Found Sci 15(4):375–393, 2010a).     

Multiple Roles for Analogies in the Genesis of Fluid Mechanics: How Analogies Can Cooperate with Other Heuristic Strategies

When Johann and Daniel Bernoulli founded fluid dynamics they encountered several problems. To go beyond the vision of Newtonian particles, a new set of images was needed in order to deal with the spatial extensibility and lack of form of fluids. I point to evidence that analogy was an essential abductive strategy in the creation of this imagery. But its heuristic behavior is complex: analogy can provide an initial model or proto-model that establishes the starting point of a theoretical process, but it can play other roles as well. The historical genesis analyzed here shows that the participation of analogy in physicists’ creativity is not so restricted and that its richness opens up the field for very different roles and strategies in model-based discovery processes. Analogies can crop up intermittently in the evolution of a theory; and they can cooperate with images, extreme case reasoning and thought experiments, and even activate these processes at origin. Although it may seem that the contributions of analogy are generative in the sense of helping to discover new aspects of reality, we must stress the evaluative function that sometimes is performed by analogical reasoning in order to gain confidence. The study of the Bernoulli’s genesis of the foundations of fluid dynamics generates interesting hypotheses about the multiple roles that analogy can play in scientific model-based reasoning.     

Memory and Geometry in Bruno: Some Analogies

In 1588 the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno wrote a treatise against the mathematicians and philosophers of his time (Articuli centum et sexaginta adversus huius tempestatis mathematicos atque philosophos), which he dedicated to the emperor Rudolph II. The ‘oddities’ thus presented to the emperor, as an alternative to sixteenth-century mathematics, have been studied from both a mathematical and a philosophical point of view. In addition to the philosophical approach, this article indicates analogies between the Nolan’s geometry and his art of memory. Bearing in mind that Bruno was a teacher in the ars memoriae, the manner in which mnemonic aspects are woven into his mathematical thinking is brought out.     

Computational solutions for the problem of negative saliences and nonsymmetry in INDSCAL

Carroll and Chang have derived the symmetric CANDECOMP model from the INDSCAL model, to fit symmetric matrices of approximate scalar products in the least squares sense. Typically, the CANDECOMP algorithm is used to estimate the parameters. In the present paper it is shown that negative weights may occur with CANDECOMP. This phenomenon can be suppressed by updating the weights by the Nonnegative Least Squares Algorithm. A potential drawback of the resulting procedure is that it may produce two different versions of the stimulus space matrix. To obviate this possibility, a symmetry preserving algorithm is offered, which can be monitored to produce non-negative weights as well. This work was partially supported by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.     

分析哲学视野中的隐喻研究——兼论隐喻和类比的区别

本文首先介绍了几位分析哲学家对隐喻的意义定位及隐喻的工作机制的分析，总结出两条识别隐喻的进路，并基于这两条进路对隐喻和类比等概念的区别做出了澄清。     

The Basis for an Understanding of Matter and Mind

In this commentary to Khatam and Shafiee (2013), we outline the results which are obtained three decades after Weizsäcker’s “Aufbau der Physik” (1985). It is essential to go beyond the “urs” to a yet more abstract conception. With the protyposis, abstract quantum bits without any special meaning, the understanding of matter becomes new basis. As a result, also a scientific understanding of mind will be obtained.     

工程理解与阐释的人文视野及其进路

作为现代性展开途径和成果的现代工程不仅建构了一个现代世界,为人们提供丰富的物质产品,而且打造和型塑了现代生活秩序及生活样式。但是,现代工程给当代人带来的生存困境也是前所未有的。所以,对工程的研究与追问在进行实证考察的同时,还需要哲学的反思与人文关照以唤起人们的"急难"意识,寻求拯救现代性的方案。就是说,在人文视野下理解与阐释工程,开启现代工程批判亟待课题化,而完成这一研究任务既要探究诸种可能的研究进路,又得解决多种视域和阐释原则的统一性问题。在现象学始源性追问下,有必要把生存论解释原则贯彻到工程的存在论、认识论、价值论以及工程伦理研究等各个维度。     

The Heuristic Function of Mathematics in Physics and Astronomy

This paper considers the role of mathematics in the process of acquiring new knowledge in physics and astronomy. The defining of the notions of continuum and discreteness in mathematics and the natural sciences is examined. The basic forms of representing the heuristic function of mathematics at theoretical and empirical levels of knowledge are studied: deducing consequences from the axiomatic system of theory, the method of generating mathematical hypotheses, “pure” proofs for the existence of objects and processes, mathematical modelling, the formation of mathematics on the basis of internal mathematical principles and the mathematical theory of experiment.     

关于复杂系统研究的计算理论与方法

本文简单讨论了对复杂系统及研究方法的一些认识 ,在此基础上 ,提出了利用人工系统的概念和方法以计算手段研究复杂系统的设想。讨论的重点是基于计算机实验室的计算实验理论和人工与实验系统并举的平行系统决策分析方法 ,以及研究复杂系统的计算理论与方法的基本框架和内容。     

物理学革命的科学哲学方法论张力

二十世纪初爆发的物理学革命在科学哲学发展史上具有非常重要的意义,对逻辑经验主义、批判理性主义和历史主义核心思想和方法纲领都有深远影响。通过分析物理学革命对科学哲学三个流派的影响,开辟了在语境论基底上融合证实、证伪和范式方法的新视角。     

snoSeeker:扫描人类基因组中向导和孤儿snoRNA的计算机程序包

核仁小分子RNA(small nucleolar RNA,snoR-NA)是真核生物细胞核内的一大类非编码RNA。按其结构和功能特点,除了MRP RNA,目前已知的sn-oRNA可分为两大类:box C/D和box H/ACA。除了少数snoRNA在rRNA前体的剪切加工和转录后修饰过程中起到重要的作用,大部分snoRNA都是通过反义互补行使功能。box C/D snoRNA指导rRNA或snRNA特定位点的2’-O-甲基化修饰,而box H/ACAsnoRNA指导rRNA或snRNA上的假尿嘧啶化修饰。根据snoRNA是否与rRNAs或snRNAs反义互补,也可将它们分为向导snoRNAs(guide snoRNA)和孤儿snoRNAs(orph…     

物理学基本定律的独立性之争及其反思

理论公理化的一个重要问题是公理的独立性问题.考察公理化最为发达的物理学中关于独立性问题的争论,可以看出,自然科学的公理独立性问题不同于逻辑学和数学,有自身独特的方法论价值.     

生物炼制中的科学难点——戊糖利用及其调控机制

以可再生的生物质资源替代不可再生的化石资源,实现工业原材料的根本转变,是转变经济增长模式、保障社会经济可持续发展的重大战略需求。木质纤维原料富含己糖和戊糖,而微生物戊糖代谢能力上的不足是一个共性问题。因此,解析微生物戊糖代谢及其调控过程的本质．是拓展微生物底物利用范围、提高微生物利用木质纤维原料能力的关键。本文综合概括了戊糖代谢及其调控的研究意义、国内外的研究概况、拟解决的关键科学问题以及研究方向。     

吴健雄与物理学史上的三个判决性实验

伽利略的落体实验打败了亚里士多德的运动理论，迈克耳逊的光学实验否定了以太的存在，昊健雄的字称实验推翻了宇称守恒定律的不受限制的普遍性。这三个实验的发现都否定了被人们长期接受的理论或观念。深刺地影响着物理学的发展和人类精神。     

论力学与物理学的视阈差异

由于经典力学尤其是牛顿力学的成功,在物理学领域中的一些重要概念,甚至是整个物理学领域乃至于人们看待世界的方式都被深深地打上了力学的烙印。这是准确理解与传播以量子论为代表的微观思想的视阈陷阱。视阈的层次性与薛定谔之猫的后续工作和物理学的发展表明:(1)在新的事实或经验现象面前,原有视阈需要转换;(2)在物理学领域中的问题主题从来就不是经典意义上的关于"物质运动"及其规律的学问,而是揭示、描述经验现象及其所隐含的信息(属性等)的科学。假如上帝之手是一个实在之物,没有上帝之手就没有力学,而有了上帝之手就没有物理学。     

生物能量在生命体中传递的新理论及应用

从Davydov理论的短处和蛋白质分子的结构与构象变化及功能的特点出发,提出了一个新的生物能量传递的理论.在这个理论中,我们用包含有两个量子的准相干态代替了Davydov的单粒子激发态,并且把由偶极-偶极相互作用所引起的相邻氨基酸残基的相对位移加进了原来的D氏哈氏量中,从而使由蛋白质中的相互作用所形成的集体激发具有高度对应性和对称性,并能表现出体系中集体激发的相干性和强相关性,能反映出蛋白质分子具体特征.由这一理论得出的传递ATP水解作用释放的生物能量的孤子的寿命达到10-10s.在这段时间内和生理温度情况下,孤子能传递通过500到1 000个氨基酸残基,并且它能对抗热扰动、量子涨落、结构无序和杂质干扰等影响而保持稳定,从而使它具有传递生物能量的功能,能在生物学过程中扮演重要角色.我们运用这个理论解释或解决了肌肉收缩、电子传递、红外光的非热效应机理及生物光子发射等重要生物学问题.     

On the ‘Emptiness’ of Particles in Condensed-matter Physics

In recent years, the ontological similarities between the foundations of quantum mechanics and the emptiness teachings in Madhyamika–Prasangika Buddhism of the Tibetan lineage have attracted some attention. After briefly reviewing this unlikely connection, I examine ideas encountered in condensed-matter physics that resonate with this view on emptiness. Focusing on the particle concept and emergence in condensed-matter physics, I highlight a qualitative correspondence to the major analytical approaches to emptiness.     

数理科学国家杰出青年科学基金项目评估与分析

本文依据2002--2006年资助的国家杰出青年科学基金完成和执行效果的评估材料,分析了数理科学国家杰出青年科学基金的资助情况以及专家评估的结果,总结了数理科学国家杰出青年科学基金的运行绩效特点,提出了若干需要进一步改进的问题与建议。     

How Deep is the Surface? A Theoretical Framework for Understanding Meaning-Making in Living Systems

Living systems are characterized by unique properties that make them resistant to the ``information-processingperspective' of traditional cognitive science.This paper details those unique properties andoffers a new theoretical framework forunderstanding the behavior of living systems.This framework leans heavily on ideas fromgeneral systems theory (specifically Bateson'sinteractionist perspective), semiotics, andMerleau-Ponty's phenomenology. The benefits ofusing this framework are illustrated withexamples from two different domains: immunologyand verbal interaction.