Inventing paradigms,monopoly, methodology,and mythology at ‘Chicago’: Nutter,Stigler, and Milton Friedman

This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the formation of the so-called Chicago-school of economics; it does so by focusing on (i) previously unpublished correspondence between George Stigler and Thomas Kuhn as well as (ii) Warren Nutter’s The Extent of Enterprise Monopoly in the United States, 1899–1939. Nutter’s book started out as a (1949) doctoral dissertation at The University of Chicago, part of Aaron Director’s Free Market Study. Besides Director, O.H. Brownlee and Milton Friedman were closely involved with supervising it. It was published by The University of Chicago Press in 1951. The book was explicitly understood as belonging to the “Chicago School” (Dow & Abernathy, 1963). But by the time of Reder’s well known (1982) review paper Nutter does not figure at all. I argue that the Stigler-Kuhn correspondence helps us better understand why Nutter disappeared from sight. More important, by contrasting the work of Nutter with that of Harberger, the episode reveals how Milton Friedman’s methodological statements became the rhetoric for a paradigm that was committed to a very different approach than the one advocated by Nutter or Friedman.     

Historical and other considerations regarding the crystal form of sodium-ammonium d- and l-tartrate,potassium d- and l-tartrate,potassium-ammonium d- and l-tartrate,and potassium racemate.—II

In 1914, the physics discipline had reached a very similar stage of development in Australia and Japan. A generation later the paths of development had considerably diverged. A systematic comparison of the evolution of physics in the two countries during these years identifies factors—political, economic and cultural—that led to this divergence, but it also uncovers a number of underlying parallels.     

Melatonin, hormone of darkness and more – occurrence, control mechanisms, actions and bioactive metabolites

In its role as a pineal hormone, melatonin is a pleiotropic, nocturnally peaking and systemically acting chronobiotic. These effects are largely explained by actions via G protein-coupled membrane receptors found in the suprachiasmatic nucleus, but also in numerous other sites. Nuclear (ROR/RZR), cytoplasmic (quinone reductase-2, calmodulin, calreticulin) and mitochondrial binding sites and radical-scavenging properties contribute to the actions of melatonin. Regulation of pineal melatonin biosynthesis is largely explained by control mechanisms acting on arylalkylamine N-acetyltransferase, at the levels of gene expression and/or enzyme stability influenced by phosphorylation and interaction with 14-3-3 proteins. Melatonin is not only a hormone but is also synthesized in numerous extrapineal sites, in which it sometimes attains much higher quantities than in the pineal and the circulation. It is also present in many taxonomically distant groups of organisms, including bacteria, fungi, and plants. Moreover, melatonin is a source of bioactive metabolites, such as 5-methoxytryptamine, N(1)-acetyl-N(2)-formyl-5-methoxykynuramine and N(1)-acetyl-5-methoxykynuramine.     

Physics,metaphysics, dispositions,and symmetries – À la French

Recent philosophy has paid increasing attention to the nature of the relationship between the philosophy of science and metaphysics. In The Structure of the World: Metaphysics and Representation, Steven French offers many insights into this relationship (primarily) in the context of fundamental physics, and claims that a specific, structuralist conception of the ontology of the world exemplifies an optimal understanding of it. In this paper I contend that his messages regarding how best to think about the relationship are mixed, and in tension with one another. The tension is resolvable but at a cost: a weakening of the argument for French's structuralist ontology. I elaborate this claim in a specific case: his assertion of the superiority of a structuralist account of de re modality in terms of realism about laws and symmetries (conceived ontologically) over an account in terms of realism about dispositional properties. I suggest that these two accounts stem from different stances regarding how to theorize about scientific ontology, each of which is motivated by important aspects of physics.     

Open or closed? Dirac,Heisenberg, and the relation between classical and quantum mechanics

This paper describes a long-standing, though little known, debate between Dirac and Heisenberg over the nature of scientific methodology, theory change, and intertheoretic relations. Following Heisenberg's terminology, their disagreements can be summarized as a debate over whether the classical and quantum theories are “open” or “closed.” A close examination of this debate sheds new light on the philosophical views of two of the great founders of quantum theory.     

Stress,glucocorticoid receptors,and adult neurogenesis: a balance between excitation and inhibition?

Adult neurogenesis, the birth of new neurons in the mature brain, has attracted considerable attention in the last decade. One of the earliest identified and most profound factors that affect adult neurogenesis both positively and negatively is stress. Here, we review the complex interplay between stress and adult neurogenesis. In particular, we review the role of the glucocorticoid receptor, the main mediator of the stress response in the proliferation, differentiation, migration, and functional integration of newborn neurons in the hippocampus. We review a multitude of mechanisms regulating glucocorticoid receptor activity in relationship to adult neurogenesis. We postulate a novel concept in which the level of glucocorticoid receptor expression directly regulates the excitation-inhibition balance, which is key for proper neurogenesis. We furthermore argue that an excitation-inhibition dis-balance may underlie aberrant functional integration of newborn neurons that is associated with psychiatric and paroxysmal brain disorders.     

Novelty,coherence, and Mendeleev’s periodic table

Predictivism is the view that successful predictions of “novel” evidence carry more confirmational weight than accommodations of already known evidence. Novelty, in this context, has traditionally been conceived of as temporal novelty. However temporal predictivism has been criticized for lacking a rationale: why should the time order of theory and evidence matter? Instead, it has been proposed, novelty should be construed in terms of use-novelty, according to which evidence is novel if it was not used in the construction of a theory. Only if evidence is use-novel can it fully support the theory entailing it. As I point out in this paper, the writings of the most influential proponent of use-novelty contain a weaker and a stronger version of use-novelty. However both versions, I argue, are problematic. With regard to the appraisal of Mendeleev’ periodic table, the most contentious historical case in the predictivism debate, I argue that temporal predictivism is indeed supported, although in ways not previously appreciated. On the basis of this case, I argue for a form of so-called symptomatic predictivism according to which temporally novel predictions carry more confirmational weight only insofar as they reveal the theory’s presumed coherence of facts as real.     

γ-Glutamyltranspeptidases: sequence, structure, biochemical properties, and biotechnological applications

γ-Glutamyltranspeptidases (γ-GTs) are ubiquitous enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of γ-glutamyl bonds in glutathione and glutamine and the transfer of the released γ-glutamyl group to amino acids or short peptides. These enzymes are involved in glutathione metabolism and play critical roles in antioxidant defense, detoxification, and inflammation processes. Moreover, γ-GTs have been recently found to be involved in many physiological disorders, such as Parkinson's disease and diabetes. In this review, the main biochemical and structural properties of γ-GTs isolated from different sources, as well as their conformational stability and mechanism of catalysis, are described and examined with the aim of contributing to the discussion on their structure-function relationships. Possible applications of γ-glutamyltranspeptidases in different fields of biotechnology and medicine are also discussed.     

Chemistry and meteorology, 1700–1825

In 1639–1640 Benedetto Castelli (1577–1643) wrote a treatise on the loadstone which is quite unlike any of its contemporaries. In it are the origins of the notion of elementary magnets sharing a common alignment, the idea that all materials are magnetic in different ways, and the first intimation of the conception of magnetic domains. Castelli did not publish his treatise. Nevertheless his work was noted during his life-time, and may have exerted an influence on the development of magnetic theory in the 17th century. The treatise was published in 1883. Since then, however, it has either been neglected or not appreciated. It deserves being rescued from the neglect of more than three centuries.     

Emmy Noether’s first great mathematics and the culmination of first-phase logicism,formalism, and intuitionism

Emmy Noether’s many articles around the time that Felix Klein and David Hilbert were arranging her invitation to Göttingen include a short but brilliant note on invariants of finite groups highlighting her creativity and perspicacity in algebra. Contrary to the idea that Noether abandoned Paul Gordan’s style of mathematics for Hilbert’s, this note shows her combining them in a way she continued throughout her mature abstract algebra.     

Into the ‘regions of physical and metaphysical chaos’: Maxwell’s scientific metaphysics and natural philosophy of action (agency,determinacy and necessity from theology,moral philosophy and history to mathematics,theory and experiment)

Maxwell’s writings exhibit an enduring preoccupation with the role of metaphysics in the advancement of science, especially the progress of physics. I examine the question of the distinction and the proper relation between physics and metaphysics and the way in which the question relies on key notions that bring together much of Maxwell’s natural philosophy, theoretical and experimental. Previous discussions of his attention to metaphysics have been confined to specific issues and polemics such as conceptions of matter and the problem of free will. I suggest a unifying pattern based on a generalized philosophical perspective and varying expressions, although never a systematic or articulated philosophical doctrine, but at least a theme of action and active powers, natural and human, intellectual and material, with sources and grounds in theology, moral philosophy and historical argument. While science was developing in the direction of professional specialization and alongside the rise of materialism, Maxwell held on to conservative intellectual outlook, but one that included a rich scientific life and held science as part of a rich intellectual, cultural and material life. His philosophical outlook integrated his science with and captured the new Victorian culture of construction and work, political, economic, artistic and engineering.