适用的哲学与认识的工具

一、适用的哲学最近几十年来,科学信息空前爆炸,以致就具体而积极地研究认识方法来说,"自然哲学"变得太广泛了.对此,物理学家、生物学家、心理学家以及其他在本学科领域进行创造性工作的专家,都应该加以研究;或者自己研究,或者和相应的科学史专家合作研究.严肃的科学著作不能没有哲学,但哲学应该是"具     

美东地区罗德河流域地下水中铝形态分布的化学平衡模式计算

美东地区的罗德河流域遭受着严重的酸沉降侵蚀．在酸性条件下,铝从土壤中大量溶解并迁移到水环境中．地表水中升高的铝浓度对鱼类产生毒害,监测地表水和土壤水中的铝形态及浓度变化已成为问题的关键．本文报导了用化学平衡模式计算法分析美东地区罗德河流域地下水中的铝形态分布,获得了有价值的结论     

Symmetry perception in an insect

Symmetrical visual patterns have a salient status in human perception, as evinced by their prevalent occurrence in art, and also in animal perception, where they may be an indicator of phenotypic and genotypic quality. Symmetry perception has been demonstrated in humans, birds, dolphins and apes. Here we show that bees trained to discriminate bilaterally symmetrical from non-symmetrical patterns learn the task and transfer it appropriately to novel stimuli, thus demonstrating a capacity to detect and generalize symmetry or asymmetry. We conclude that bees, and possibly flower-visiting insects in general, can acquire a generalized preference towards symmetrical or, alternatively, asymmetrical patterns depending on experience, and that symmetry detection is preformed or can be learned as perceptual category by insects, because it can be extracted as an independent visual pattern feature. Bees show a predisposition for learning and generalized symmetry because, if trained to it, they choose it more frequently, come closer to and hover longer in front of the novel symmetrical stimuli than the bees trained for asymmetry do for the novel asymmetrical stimuli. Thus, even organisms with comparatively small nervous systems can generalize about symmetry, and favour symmetrical over asymmetrical patterns.     

Economics of alternative energy sources

An important part of the oil and natural gas at present consumed in the UK is used for the heating of buildings, a demand which shows large diurnal, day-to-day and annual fluctuations. The replacement of this energy by nuclear-generated electricity, as at present envisaged, would require the construction of some 250 GW of additional capacity by the end of the century, a progamme which does not seem feasible. By incorporating relatively cheap, short term storage in the form of low-grade heat, the generating capacity required to fulfil peak demand could be reduced by more than 50%. As soon as such storage is provided, however, other sources of energy become viable and attractive alternatives, and the UK is well situated to make use of wind, wave, and tidal power. It seems likely that the value of North Sea oil/gas reserves as feedstock to the chemical industry will rise sufficiently to make an early reduction in their consumption as fuel of great economic importance.