Who Gave You the Cauchy–Weierstrass Tale? The Dual History of Rigorous Calculus

Cauchy’s contribution to the foundations of analysis is often viewed through the lens of developments that occurred some decades later, namely the formalisation of analysis on the basis of the epsilon-delta doctrine in the context of an Archimedean continuum. What does one see if one refrains from viewing Cauchy as if he had read Weierstrass already? One sees, with Felix Klein, a parallel thread for the development of analysis, in the context of an infinitesimal-enriched continuum. One sees, with Emile Borel, the seeds of the theory of rates of growth of functions as developed by Paul du Bois-Reymond. One sees, with E. G. Bj?rling, an infinitesimal definition of the criterion of uniform convergence. Cauchy’s foundational stance is hereby reconsidered.     

Wonder-making and philosophical wonder in Hero of Alexandria

In his treatises Hero of Alexandria describes a range of devices for producing spectacles and generating wonder that have frequently been treated as marginal by historians of technology and science. In this paper I shall show that these devices and Hero’s emphasis on wonder-making are of central importance to the image that Hero presents of mechanics. Hero uses the concept of wonder to add an intellectual component to the utility of mechanics, to strengthen the epistemological claims of mechanics and to relate mechanical expertise to divine cunning. He is thereby able to present mechanics as a form of knowledge which is epistemically on a par with philosophy, but which still maintains powerful practical consequence.     

A new immunodeficiency disorder in humans involving NK cells

Immunodeficiency disorders have provided much information on the development and interaction of the various B and T lymphoid components in the immune system of man. As the lymphoid system becomes increasingly divided into functional subsets of cells it will be important to find immunodeficiencies affecting newly discovered cell types. Natural killer (NK) cells are a recently described but ill-defined subpopulation of lymphocytes which is thought to play an important part in surveillance against tumour development. Mice homozygous for the beige gene were found to have a selective deficiency in NK function and were more susceptible to transplantation of syngeneic tumours as predicted. We report here that patients carrying the analogous, autosomal recessive Chediak-Higashi (CH) gene have a profound defect in their ability to spontaneously lyse various tumour cells in vitro by either antibody-dependent or independent mechanisms. Since other cell-mediated cytolytic functions were relatively normal, these results suggest that the beige or Chediak-Higashi gene in both man and mouse controls NK function.     

Nachweis von Scilliglaucosidin in den Zwiebeln vonBowiea volubilis Harvey

Summary Hellebrigenin was converted to Scilliglaucosidin-19-ol and 3-Epi-Scilliglaucosidin-19-ol. This proves the correctness of the assumption ofStoll et al. ³ that the aldehydic group of Scilliglaucosidin is in position C-10.Comparison of a reduction product of Nabogenin, a substance isolated earlier from the bulbs ofBowiea volubilis Harvey, with Scilliglaucosidin-19-ol and 3-Epi-Scilliglaucosidin-19-ol showed its identity with the first named compound. This proves that the so called Nabogenin was a mixture consisting mainly of Scilliglaucosidin.

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8. Mitteilung über die Glykoside vonBowiea vocubilis Harvey und 162. Mitteilung über Glykoside und Aglykone.

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7. Mitt.:A. Katz, Helv. chim. Acta38, 1565 (1955).

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161. Mitt.:H. Kündig-Hegedüs undO. Schindler, Helv. chim. Acta39, 904 (1956).     

Integrating Participatory Learning and Action Research and Systems Ecology: A Potential for Sustainable Agriculture Transitions

This article explores the potential of integrating Participatory Learning and Action Research (PLAR) and Systems Ecology (SE) for improving research capability in facilitating sustainable development transitions in agriculture. Goal conflicts that arose in a PLAR group working on sustainability issues in small-scale organic tomato production are analysed from the perspective of SE. The possibility to improve agency for sustainable development by the merger of PLAR and SE are discussed. It is concluded that the approaches together could provide a sounder base for systemic research and transitions in agriculture.