Volume 4, Issue 2 
December 2009


Concerning the Near Future of Human Sciences

David Hegstad

Page 2 of 4

The H Index undoubtedly attributes a researcher’s future success with prior success; but it does not take into account many aspects of scientific character.  Albert Einstein, for instance, would have received a low index for his initial publication on general relativity, should subsequent publications not followed, even though it is recognized as one of the most important publications of the 20th century.  There are also significant deficiencies in index regulation, which include, but are not limited to, self-reference, context of citations (particularly among colleagues), and number of authors cited per publication.  If these criticisms were to posthumously apply to Renaissance Art, Michelangelo’s reputation for unfinished work would have destroyed his career vis-à-vis The Last Judgment, whereas the lesser-known Albrecht Dürer [1] may have become the history’s most famous and circulated artist due to his application of Gutenberg’s press to artistic prints.

There is a much greater consideration than humanist criticism at hand however, and that is benevolent communication and recognition of mutual objectives among scientific universities.  My host’s university, in attempt to over-characterize the scope of its research (which far exceeded the research submitted for publication by at least three competing universities in following months) for purposes of increasing H Indexes of participating members, failed to identify an appropriate journal.  As a nonscientist, I developed an analogy for this model, wherein participating universities were mere players in the Milton Bradley game “Battleship,” save that the objective was to slag a metaphorical tip of an iceberg in a proverbial arctic rather than observe its environment and formation.  The winner of this particular game would achieve the academic equivalent of a patent, thereby depriving other participants the opportunity to contribute their unique findings—in whole or in part—thus committing many years of scientific character and small fortunes to nonexistence.

 

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  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA
November 2, 2009 1:40PM EST
THE RECENT HISTORY OF DNA’S STRUCTURE and its discovery is an anomaly of scientific character:  Oswald Avery [2] (“the most deserving scientist to not receive the Nobel Prize” per Arne Tiselius[3]) was unreserved in communicating his discovery that DNA is the genetic material of the T2 phage[4], even though reservation would have provided him an opportunity to exercise nigh exclusive rights to consequent research; Linus Pauling [5] and Robert Corey [6] maintained little academic discretion for their earliest proposals of a triple-helix model, [7] which uncharacteristically precipitated open lines of communication among universities and research institutes; Maurice Wilkins [8] and Rosalind Franklin [9] were arguably more eager to promote high quality X-ray diffraction photography than to promote their unique findings (which favored a double-helix model); and James Watson [10] and Francis Crick, [11] perhaps the most nonsensical pair of scientists to endure formal society, stumbled through a high profile waltz of unintentional, cross-continental collaboration.  A singularity occurred in this familiar lesson because of mutual (sometimes friendly, sometimes forceful) momentum, as a result of open dialog, in a wide spectrum of analytical research.  This lesson does not propose that competition was not a motivating factor among participating members; it does however, consider that all events occurred:  1) in less than eighteen months; 2) at the outbreak of the Cold War [12] and McCarthyism, [13] wherein a) international travel (even between the U.S. and U.K.) was made difficult; b) scientific research was fast becoming nationalized and confidential; and 3) with the cooperation of three continents.  There exists a far more intricate and singular history to DNA research however, and that was the mapping of the human genome.

[1] Dürer, Albrecht - (b. May 21, 1471, Imperial Free City of Nürnberg [Germany]--d. April 6, 1528, Nürnberg), German painter, printmaker, draughtsman and art theorist, generally regarded as the greatest German Renaissance artist. His vast body of work includes altarpieces and religious works, numerous portraits and self-portraits, and copper engravings. His woodcuts, such as the Apocalypse series (1498), retain a more Gothic flavour than the rest of his work.

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/durer/ 

October 26, 2009 2:12PM EST

[2]Oswald Theodore Avery (1877-1955) was a physician, medical researcher and early molecular biologist. Avery was one of the first molecular biologists and was a pioneer in immunochemistry, but he is best known for his discovery in 1944 with his co-worker Maclyn McCarty that DNA is the material of which genes and chromosomes are made.

http://www.bio-medicine.org/biology-definition/Oswald_Avery/ 

October 26, 2009 2:18PM EST

[3] Tiselius, Arne - 1902–71, a Swedish biochemist who received the 1948 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing new methods of separating and detecting colloids. One system (electro-phoresis) employs an electrical apparatus (Tiselius apparatus) for the separation of heavy molecules in solution; the other is a method of adsorption analysis that permits the differentiation and separation of substances, e.g., proteins, sugars, salts, and acids. Tiselius isolated the virus of mouse paralysis and developed synthetic blood plasma.

http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/

October 26, 2009 2:24PM EST

[4] T2 phage - Virulent bacteriophage and type species of the genus T4-Like Phages, in the family MYOVIRIDAE. It infects E. coli and is the best known of the T-even phages. Its virion contains linear double-stranded DNA, terminally redundant and circularly permuted.

http://www.online-medical-dictionary.org/

 October 26, 2009 2:27PM EST

[5] Linus Pauling – (b. 1901, d. 1994), the only person to win two unshared Nobel Prizes, revolutionized the study of chemistry, helped found the field of molecular biology, and made important advances in medical research.

http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/MM/Views/Exhibit/narrative/

  October 26, 2009 2:38PM EST

[6] Robert Corey – (b. 1897, d. 1971), an American biochemist, mostly known for his role in discovery of the α-helix and the β-sheet with Linus Pauling. Also working with Pauling was Herman Branson. Their discoveries were remarkably correct, with even the bond lengths being accurate until about 40 years later. The α-helix and β-sheet are two structures that are now known to form the backbones of many proteins.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Corey 

October 26, 2009 2:44PM EST

[7] Triple Helix Model - a partnership between the industrial, academia and governmental groups which recognize the differing goals and stakeholder communities of these three groups but emphasizes on the common interest of those groups in order to provide value to the societies in which they reside.

http://blog.iphandbook.org/?p=442 

October 26, 2009 2:53PM EST

[8] Maurice Wilkins – (b. 1916, d. 2004), was a British biophysicist best known for his contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA. X-ray diffraction pictures done by Wilkins and his assistant/co-worker Rosalind Franklin on the aligned fibers within DNA were seen by James Watson and Francis Crick who, incorporating what it revealed, were then able to build an accurate, detailed model of the DNA molecule. Wilkins, Watson, and Crick were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1962.

http://www.nndb.com/people/979/000030889/ 

October 26, 2009 3:06PM EST

[9] Rosalind Franklin – (b. 1920, d. 1958), an English biophysicist, physicist, chemist, biologist and X-ray crystallographer who made contributions to the understanding of the fine molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal and graphite. Franklin is best known for her work on the X-ray diffraction images of DNA. Her data, according to Francis Crick, was a part of the data used to formulate Crick and Watson's 1953 hypothesis regarding the structure of DNA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Franklin 

October 26, 2009 3:15PM EST

[10] James Dewey Watson - born April 6, 1928, is an American molecular biologist, best known as one of the two co-discoverers of the structure of DNA, with Francis Crick in 1953. Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins were awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_D._Watson 

October 26, 2009 3:17PM EST

[11]Francis Harry Compton Crick – (b. 1916, d. 2004), was a British molecular biologist, physicist, and neuroscientist, and most noted for being one of two co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953, together with James D. Watson. He, James D. Watson and Maurice Wilkins were jointly awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Crick 

October 26, 2009 3:21PM EST

[12] Cold War - the name given to the relationship that developed primarily between the USA and the USSR after World War Two. The Cold War was to dominate international affairs for decades and many major crises occurred - the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, Hungary and the Berlin Wall being just some. For many the growth in weapons of mass destruction was the most worrying issue.

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/

October 26, 2009 3:24PM EST

[13] McCarthyism - the politically motivated practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term specifically describes activities associated with the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by heightened fears of communist influence on American institutions and espionage by Soviet agents.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism 

October 26, 2009 3:32PM EST

 

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