The aim of this paper is to display how Dryden’s metaphorical representations of natural elements in the Fire section of his historic poem Annus Mirabilis have foregrounded the ecocritical readings ...of human-environmental relationships, particularly with respect to the impact of the intriguing web of the sociopolitical facts on the London community. The paper uncovers Dryden’s timid call for an understanding of the environment as a sociopolitical category that dominates and manipulates humans’ lives, which is a typical practice of the ecocritical theory. The methodology adopted in this research is both qualitative and interpretive, as it focuses on the prevalent metaphoric representations of the ecological dilemma as uniquely used by the poet in two discrete stages: first, the ecological insights of Dryden’s animation of the natural through water/fire tropes, and second, the metamorphosis of the city as an ecological outcome of the metaphoric animation. Both stages reveal that Dryden’s delineation of the Great Fire of London in Annus Mirabilis has figuratively and intellectually foregrounded the key tenets of ecocriticism.
Ernest Rutherford carried out his post-graduate research in the Cavendish Laboratory as one of the first generation of graduate students from outside Cambridge to study for a higher degree by ...research. His first experiments in radioactivity were carried out in the period 1896-1898. He returned to Cambridge as Cavendish Professor in 1919, following a remarkable period of discovery in nuclear physics at McGill University in Canada and at Manchester University. He was appointed Cavendish Professor in succession to J.J. Thomson and Director of the Cavendish Laboratory during these 'golden years' of nuclear physics until his sudden death in 1937. His achievements and those of his numerous colleagues, students and collaborators during these tumultuous years are described, much of their work under Rutherford's personal direction. These included the transmutation of nuclei by α-particle impact with Chadwick, the discovery of the neutron by Chadwick and the splitting of the atom by Cockcroft and Walton. At the same time, others were sowing the seeds for the remarkable expansion of physics research in the post-War era.
There has recently been an increasing interest in the quantification of success in different fields of human activities. However, most of the research in this field solely focuses on success as a ...collective phenomenon to be understood in terms of a network structure or overall statistics. Moreover, research in this field rarely attempts to predict success. In this work, we consider real data in the Turkish movie industry, with a focus on individual criteria of success and predict
annus mirabilis
, also known as the miracle year of the performers, through several machine learning algorithms. We find that this prediction can be achieved best by using a random forest model yielding 92 and 90 percent accuracy for actresses and actors, respectively. Next, we provided a novel
q
-deformed generalization of the
k
-Nearest Neighbor (kNN) algorithm, which yields the unnormalized kNN algorithm when the parameter
q
=
0
, and logarithmic normalized kNN algorithm for
q
=
1
. This generalization increases the prediction accuracy of the miracle year by one percent for the optimal value
q
=
-
3
of the parameter compared to the random forest algorithm. In addition, we found out that the probability of career length follows an exponential distribution in the intermediate region, hence distinguishing two outlier groups. The former group is formed by those with only one movie credit (almost seventy five percent of the acting guild), and the latter group corresponds to those with a career length exceeding thirty five years (almost one percent). The probability distribution of acting in
n
movies, on the other hand, is observed to be a power law with an exponent corresponding to Zipf’s law if ordered in rank. This behavior seems to be the norm in the film industry and is a signature of the memory-dependent (namely, popularity-dependent) choices of directors and producers. We investigated whether gender plays a role in the Turkish fılm industry, and found out that it does, favoring actors in terms of duration of activity. However, after a certain threshold of career length, namely
L
=
55
years
, it is more likely to find active actresses.
Challenging the traditional reading of Annus Mirabilis (1667), this essay argues that beneath the optimism about the New Science in the poem, there lurks John Dryden's cautiousness about ...technological progress and his reverence for Nature: by depicting startling imagery to exhibit Nature's agency, complemented by the author's inheritance of the Georgics tradition and Metaphysical conceits, Dryden implicitly expresses the attitude he believes mankind should take towards the Book of Nature, one of admiration, agreeing with Robert Boyle, that natural philosophy is the handmaid to divinity. In this sense, Annus Mirabilis demonstrates the divide between the intellectuals in late seventeenth-century England over the approach to Nature and testifies to the changing epistemology and attitude towards Nature of the time: from metaphysics to empiricism, from admiration to exploitation.
Schools of Thought Joan Wallach Scott, Debra Keates / Joan Wallach Scott, Debra Keates
2021, 2021-04-13
eBook
Schools of Thought brings together a cast of prominent scholars to assess, with unprecedented breadth and vigor, the intellectual revolution over the past quarter century in the social sciences. This ...collection of twenty essays stems from a 1997 conference that celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Institute for Advanced Study's School of Social Science. The authors, who represent a wide range of disciplines, are all associated with the School's emphasis on interpretive social science, which rejects models from the hard sciences and opts instead for a humanistic approach to social inquiry. Following a preface by Clifford Geertz, whose profound insights have helped shape the School from the outset, the essays are arranged in four sections. The first offers personal reflections on disciplinary changes; the second features essays advocating changes in focus or methodology; the third presents field overviews and institutional history; while the fourth addresses the link between political philosophy and world governance. Two recurring themes are the uses (and pitfalls) of interdisciplinary studies and the relation between scholarship and social change. This book will be rewarding for anyone interested in how changing trends in scholarship shape the understanding of our social worlds. The contributors include David Apter, Kaushik Basu, Judith Butler, Nicholas Dirks, Jean Elshtain, Peter Galison, Wolf Lepenies, Jane Mansbridge, Andrew Pickering, Mary Poovey, Istvan Rev, Renato Rosaldo, Michael Rustin, Joan W. Scott, William H. Sewell, Jr., Quentin Skinner, Charles Taylor, Anna Tsing, Michael Walzer, and Gavin Wright.
In 1903, despite the vehement objections of his parents, Albert Einstein married Mileva Maric, the companion, colleague, and confidante whose influence on his most creative years has given rise to ...much speculation. Beginning in 1897, after Einstein and Maric met as students at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic, and ending shortly after their marriage, these fifty-four love letters offer a rare glimpse into Einstein's relationship with his first wife while shedding light on his intellectual development in the period before the annus mirabilis of 1905. Unlike the picture of Einstein the lone, isolated thinker of Princeton, he appears here both as the burgeoning enfant terrible of science and as an amorous young man beset, along with his fiance, by financial and personal struggles--among them the illegitimate birth of their daughter, whose existence is known only by these letters. Describing his conflicts with professors and other scientists, his arguments with his mother over Maric, and his difficulty obtaining an academic position after graduation, the letters enable us to reconstruct the youthful Einstein with an unprecedented immediacy. His love for Maric, whom he describes as "a creature who is my equal, and who is as strong and independent as I am," brings forth his serious as well as playful, often theatrical nature. After their marriage, however, Maric becomes less his intellectual companion, and, failing to acquire a teaching certificate, she subordinates her professional goals to his. In the final letters Einstein has obtained a position at the Swiss Patent Office and mentions their daughter one last time to his wife in Hungary, where she is assumed to have placed the girl in the care of relatives. Informative, entertaining, and often very moving, this collection of letters captures for scientists and general readers alike a little known yet crucial period in Einstein's life.
In 1903, despite the vehement objections of his parents, Albert Einstein married Mileva Maric, the companion, colleague, and confidante whose influence on his most creative years has given rise to ...much speculation. Beginning in 1897, after Einstein and Maric met as students at the Swiss Federal Polytechnic, and ending shortly after their marriage, these fifty-four love letters offer a rare glimpse into Einstein's relationship with his first wife while shedding light on his intellectual development in the period before the annus mirabilis of 1905. Unlike the picture of Einstein the lone, isolated thinker of Princeton, he appears here both as the burgeoning enfant terrible of science and as an amorous young man beset, along with his fiance, by financial and personal struggles--among them the illegitimate birth of their daughter, whose existence is known only by these letters. Describing his conflicts with professors and other scientists, his arguments with his mother over Maric, and his difficulty obtaining an academic position after graduation, the letters enable us to reconstruct the youthful Einstein with an unprecedented immediacy. His love for Maric, whom he describes as "a creature who is my equal, and who is as strong and independent as I am, " brings forth his serious as well as playful, often theatrical nature. After their marriage, however, Maric becomes less his intellectual companion, and, failing to acquire a teaching certificate, she subordinates her professional goals to his. In the final letters Einstein has obtained a position at the Swiss Patent Office and mentions their daughter one last time to his wife in Hungary, where she is assumed to have placed the girl in the care of relatives. Informative, entertaining, and often very moving, this collection of letters captures for scientists and general readers alike a little known yet crucial period in Einstein's life.
Einstein Was Right Buonanno, Alessandra; Thorne, Kip S; Collins, Harry ...
2020, 2020-10-13
eBook
An authoritative interdisciplinary account of the historic discovery of gravitational waves In 1915, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves—ripples in the fabric of spacetime ...caused by the movement of large masses—as part of the theory of general relativity. A century later, researchers with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) confirmed Einstein's prediction, detecting gravitational waves generated by the collision of two black holes. Shedding new light on the hundred-year history of this momentous achievement, Einstein Was Right brings together essays by two of the physicists who won the Nobel Prize for their instrumental roles in the discovery, along with contributions by leading scholars who offer unparalleled insights into one of the most significant scientific breakthroughs of our time.This illuminating book features an introduction by Tilman Sauer and invaluable firsthand perspectives on the history and significance of the LIGO consortium by physicists Barry Barish and Kip Thorne. Theoretical physicist Alessandra Buonanno discusses the new possibilities opened by gravitational wave astronomy, and sociologist of science Harry Collins and historians of science Diana Kormos Buchwald, Daniel Kennefick, and Jürgen Renn provide further insights into the history of relativity and LIGO. The book closes with a reflection by philosopher Don Howard on the significance of Einstein's theory for the philosophy of science.Edited by Jed Buchwald, Einstein Was Right is a compelling and thought-provoking account of one of the most thrilling scientific discoveries of the modern age.
An authoritative interdisciplinary account of the
historic discovery of gravitational waves In 1915, Albert
Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves-ripples in
the fabric of spacetime ...caused by the movement of large masses-as
part of the theory of general relativity. A century later,
researchers with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave
Observatory (LIGO) confirmed Einstein's prediction, detecting
gravitational waves generated by the collision of two black holes.
Shedding new light on the hundred-year history of this momentous
achievement, Einstein Was Right brings together essays by
two of the physicists who won the Nobel Prize for their
instrumental roles in the discovery, along with contributions by
leading scholars who offer unparalleled insights into one of the
most significant scientific breakthroughs of our time. This
illuminating book features an introduction by Tilman Sauer and
invaluable firsthand perspectives on the history and significance
of the LIGO consortium by physicists Barry Barish and Kip Thorne.
Theoretical physicist Alessandra Buonanno discusses the new
possibilities opened by gravitational wave astronomy, and
sociologist of science Harry Collins and historians of science
Diana Kormos Buchwald, Daniel Kennefick, and Jürgen Renn provide
further insights into the history of relativity and LIGO. The book
closes with a reflection by philosopher Don Howard on the
significance of Einstein's theory for the philosophy of science.
Edited by Jed Buchwald, Einstein Was Right is a compelling
and thought-provoking account of one of the most thrilling
scientific discoveries of the modern age.
New perspectives on the iconic physicist's scientific and philosophical formation At the end of World War II, Albert Einstein was invited to write his intellectual autobiography for the Library of ...Living Philosophers. The resulting book was his uniquely personal Autobiographical Notes, a classic work in the history of science that explains the development of his ideas with unmatched warmth and clarity. Hanoch Gutfreund and Jürgen Renn introduce Einstein's scientific reflections to today's readers, tracing his intellectual formation from childhood to old age and offering a compelling portrait of the making of a philosopher-scientist. Einstein on Einstein features the full English text of Autobiographical Notes along with incisive essays that place Einstein's reflections in the context of the different stages of his scientific life. Gutfreund and Renn draw on Einstein's writings, personal correspondence, and critical writings by Einstein's contemporaries to provide new perspectives on his greatest discoveries. Also included are Einstein's responses to his critics, which shed additional light on his scientific and philosophical worldview. Gutfreund and Renn quote extensively from Einstein's initial, unpublished attempts to formulate his response, and also look at another brief autobiographical text by Einstein, written a few weeks before his death, which is published here for the first time in English.Complete with evocative drawings by artist Laurent Taudin, Einstein on Einstein illuminates the iconic physicist's journey to general relativity while situating his revolutionary ideas alongside other astonishing scientific breakthroughs of the twentieth century.
