The social roots of Einstein's theory of relativity

In its infancy the British Association for the Advancement of Science derived a good deal of its inspiration from the writings of Francis Bacon. But the pursuit of Baconian policies brought with it attendant dangers which critics from Charles Dickens to the Times were not slow to magnify. Although the situation was further complicated by the sensitiveness of institutional Christianity at the start of Victoria's reign, some of the hazards which the Association endured had to be accepted simply as consequences of the attempt to provide a secure platform for British science.     

Proving the principle: Taking geodesic dynamics too seriously in Einstein's theory

In this paper I critically review attempts to formulate and derive the geodesic principle, which claims that free massive bodies follow geodesic paths in general relativity theory. I argue that if the principle is (canonically) interpreted as a law of motion describing the actual evolution of gravitating bodies, then it is impossible to generically apply the law to massive bodies in a way that is coherent with Einstein's field equations. Rejecting the canonical interpretation, I propose an alternative interpretation of the geodesic principle as a type of universality thesis analogous to the universality behavior exhibited in thermal systems during phase transitions.     

Einstein's reinterpretation of the Fizeau experiment: How it turned out to be crucial for special relativity

In this article, we aim at clarifying the role played by Fizeau’s 1851 experiment, both in the context of discovery and in the context of justification of the special theory of relativity. In 1907 Laue proved that Fresnel's formula was a consequence of the relativistic composition of velocities; since then, Einstein regarded Fizeau's experiment as confirmatory evidence for his theory, and even as a crucial experiment in favor of the relativistic addition of velocities. On the other hand, in the 1920's Einstein stated that this experiment was decisive in the path that led him to the discovery of his theory before 1905, but he did not explain why. We survey all the available evidence on this subject and conclude that the original ether-drag experiment was reinterpreted within a new conceptual framework in which the meaning of the very concept of velocity undergoes a radical change.     

New tools for theory choice and theory diagnosis

Theory choice can be approached in at least four ways. One of these calls for the application of decision theory, and this article endorses this approach. But applying standard forms of decision theory imposes an overly demanding standard of numeric information, supposedly satisfied by point-valued utility and probability functions. To ameliorate this difficulty, a version of decision theory that requires merely comparative utilities and plausibilities is proposed. After a brief summary of this alternative, the article illustrates how comparative decision theory affords a rational reconstruction of decisions made by exemplary scientists in two cases of theory choice: Buffon’s law and the luminiferous ether. It also offers a rational reconstruction of two cases of theory diagnosis: Mendeleev’s anomalies and the Pioneer anomaly.     

When a theory of aging ages badly

According to the widely acknowledged mitochondrial free radical theory of aging (MFRTA), the macromolecular damage that results from the production of toxic reactive oxygen species (ROS) during cellular respiration is the cause of aging. However, although it is clear that oxidative damage increases during aging, the fundamental question regarding whether mitochondrial oxidative stress is in any way causal to the aging process remains unresolved. An increasing number of studies on long-lived vertebrate species, mutants and transgenic animals have seriously challenged the pervasive MFRTA. Here, we describe some of these new results, including those pertaining to the phenotype of the long-lived Mclk1 ^+/− mice, which appear irreconcilable with the MFRTA. Thus, we believe that it is reasonable to now consider the MFRTA as refuted and that it is time to use the insight gained by many years of testing this theory to develop new views as to the physiological causes of aging.     

一种基于演化密码和HMM改进的Koblitz安全曲线产生新方法

考虑未来云计算攻击和量子计算机攻击,需要储备安全强度更高的ECC安全曲线．利用隐Markov模型（HMM）预测迹向量解决基点计算难题,完善基于演化密码思想提出的Koblitz安全曲线产生新算法,完成了F（2 2000）以内Koblitz安全曲线的搜索实验,产生的安全曲线基域的覆盖范围、曲线的规模和产生效率均超过美国NIST的公开报道参数．可提供的安全曲线的基域和基点最高超过1900bit,远超过美国NIST公布的571bit．在NIST公布的F（2163）-F（2571）范围之间还有新的安全曲线发现．对产生的安全曲线进行了详细的安全分析,表明与NIST推荐的安全曲线具有相同的安全准则．     

Nicolas-Auguste Tissot: a link between cartography and quasiconformal theory

Nicolas-Auguste Tissot (1824–1897) published a series of papers on cartography in which he introduced a tool which became known later on, among geographers, under the name of the Tissot indicatrix. This tool was broadly used during the twentieth century in the theory and in the practical aspects of the drawing of geographical maps. The Tissot indicatrix is a graphical representation of a field of ellipses on a map that describes its distortion. Tissot studied extensively, from a mathematical viewpoint, the distortion of mappings from the sphere onto the Euclidean plane that are used in drawing geographical maps, and more generally he developed a theory for the distortion of mappings between general surfaces. His ideas are at the heart of the work on quasiconformal mappings that was developed several decades after him by Grötzsch, Lavrentieff, Ahlfors and Teichmüller. Grötzsch mentions the work of Tissot, and he uses the terminology related to his name (in particular, Grötzsch uses the Tissot indicatrix). Teichmüller mentions the name of Tissot in a historical section in one of his fundamental papers where he claims that quasiconformal mappings were used by geographers, but without giving any hint about the nature of Tissot’s work. The name of Tissot is missing from all the historical surveys on quasiconformal mappings. In the present paper, we report on this work of Tissot. We shall mention some related works on cartography, on the differential geometry of surfaces, and on the theory of quasiconformal mappings. This will place Tissot’s work in its proper context.     

Non-monotonic probability theory for n-state quantum systems

In previous work, a non-standard theory of probability was formulated and used to systematize interference effects involving the simplest type of quantum systems. The main result here is a self-contained, non-trivial generalization of that theory to capture interference effects involving a much broader range of quantum systems. The discussion also focuses on interpretive matters having to do with the actual/virtual distinction, non-locality, and conditional probabilities.