Scientific method
The scientific method is an empirical method of acquiring knowledge that has characterized the development of science since at least the 17th century. It involves careful observation, applying rigorous skepticism about what is observed, given that cognitive assumptions can distort how one interprets the observation, it involves formulating hypotheses, via induction, based on such observations. These are principles of the scientific method, as distinguished from a definitive series of steps applicable to all scientific enterprises. Though diverse models for the scientific method are available, there is in general a continuous process that includes observations about the natural world. People are inquisitive, so they come up with questions about things they see or hear, they develop ideas or hypotheses about why things are the way they are; the best hypotheses lead to predictions. The most conclusive testing of hypotheses comes from reasoning based on controlled experimental data. Depending on how well additional tests match the predictions, the original hypothesis may require refinement, expansion or rejection.
If a particular hypothesis becomes well supported, a general theory may be developed. Although procedures vary from one field of inquiry to another, they are the same from one to another; the process of the scientific method involves making conjectures, deriving predictions from them as logical consequences, carrying out experiments or empirical observations based on those predictions. A hypothesis is a conjecture, based on knowledge obtained while seeking answers to the question; the hypothesis might be specific, or it might be broad. Scientists test hypotheses by conducting experiments or studies. A scientific hypothesis must be falsifiable, implying that it is possible to identify a possible outcome of an experiment or observation that conflicts with predictions deduced from the hypothesis; the purpose of an experiment is to determine whether observations agree with or conflict with the predictions derived from a hypothesis. Experiments can take place anywhere from a garage to CERN's Large Hadron Collider.
There are difficulties in a formulaic statement of method, however. Though the scientific method is presented as a fixed sequence of steps, it represents rather a set of general principles. Not all steps take place in every scientific inquiry, they are not always in the same order; some philosophers and scientists have argued. Robert Nola and Howard Sankey remark that "For some, the whole idea of a theory of scientific method is yester-year's debate, the continuation of which can be summed up as yet more of the proverbial deceased equine castigation. We beg to differ." Important debates in the history of science concern rationalism as advocated by René Descartes. The term "scientific method" emerged in the 19th century, when a significant institutional development of science was taking place and terminologies establishing clear boundaries between science and non-science, such as "scientist" and "pseudoscience", appeared. Throughout the 1830s and 1850s, by which time Baconianism was popular, naturalists like William Whewell, John Herschel, John Stuart Mill engaged in debates over "induction" and "facts" and were focused on how to generate knowledge.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a debate over realism vs. antirealism was conducted as powerful scientific theories extended beyond the realm of the observable. The term "scientific method" came into popular use in the twentieth century, popping up in dictionaries and science textbooks, although there was little scientific consensus over its meaning. Although there was a growth through the middle of the twentieth century, by the end of that century numerous influential philosophers of science like Thomas Kuhn and Paul Feyerabend had questioned the universality of the "scientific method" and in doing so replaced the notion of science as a homogeneous and universal method with that of it being a heterogeneous and local practice. In particular, Paul Feyerabend argued against there being any universal rules of science. Historian of science Daniel Thurs maintains that the scientific method is a myth or, at best, an idealization; the scientific method is the process. As in other areas of inquiry, science can build on previous knowledge and develop a more sophisticated understanding of its topics of study over time.
This model can be seen to underlie the scientific revolution. The ubiquitous element in the model of the scientific method is empiricism, or more epistemologic sensualism; this is in opposition to stringent forms of rationalism: the scientific method embodies that reason alone cannot solve a particular scientific problem. A strong formulation of the scientific method is not always aligned with a form of empiricism in which the empirical data is put forward in the form of experience or other abstracted forms of knowledge; the scientific method is of necessity als
National Fund for Scientific Research
The National Fund for Scientific Research was once a government institution in Belgium for supporting scientific research until it was split into two separate organizations: the Dutch-speaking Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek - Vlaanderen for the Flemish Communityand the French-speaking Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique - FNRS for the French-speaking part of Belgium. The task of the FWO and F. R. S.–FNRS is to stimulate the development of new knowledge in all scientific disciplines. The means to achieve this, is to finance excellent scientists and research projects after an inter-University competition and with an evaluation by foreign experts; the criterion for support is the scientific quality of the scientist and the research proposal, irrespective of scientific discipline. Both institutions, the FWO and the F. R. S.–FNRS are located in the same building at Egmontstraat 5 rue d'Egmont in B-1000 Brussels. The National Fund for Scientific Research was founded on 2 June 1928 after a call by king Albert I of Belgium for more resources for scientific research.
On 1 October 1927, in a speech at Cockerill in Seraing, King Albert I emphasized the importance of scientific research to the economic development of Belgium. He repeated his appeal on 26 November 1927, in a speech to the Academy; this led to the creation within the University Foundation of the National Fund for Scientific Research on 2 June 1928. The new institute was led by Emile Francqui. Financial support came from the public, from the Solvay family that gave 100 million Belgian francs. Financial contributions from the state were not needed until 1947. Today, part of the funding still comes from non-governmental sources, such as from the charitable television station Télévie; the NFSR was the first Belgian organization to finance fundamental scientific research. Among the earliest projects funded were the stratosphere flights of professor Auguste Piccard; the FNRS-1 was a balloon. The NFSR funded the FNRS-2, the first bathyscaphe built. Archaeology Series of excavations at Apamea in Syria Excavations on Easter Island in Geography Expedition to Rwenzori Physics Stratospheric aerostat and bathyscaphe of Auguste Piccard Participation at the Jungfraujoch observatory An observatory for Earth's magnetic field at Manhay and Lubumbashi Belgian Federal Science Policy Office Science and technology in Belgium Science and technology in the Brussels-Capital Region Science and technology in Flanders Science and technology in Wallonia Belgian Interdisciplinary Platform for Industrial Biotechnology Institute for the promotion of Innovation by Science and Technology Belgian Academy Council of Applied Sciences Belgian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Belgian Physical Society Flanders Interuniversity Institute of Biotechnology Flemish institute for technological research Francqui Foundation Francqui Prize InBev-Baillet Latour Fund Queen Elisabeth Medical Foundation Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique Beyond Academic Science: Hoover and Francqui’s Legacy in Post-War Belgium
Europe
Europe is a continent located in the Northern Hemisphere and in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Mediterranean Sea to the south, it comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Since around 1850, Europe is most considered to be separated from Asia by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas and the waterways of the Turkish Straits. Although the term "continent" implies physical geography, the land border is somewhat arbitrary and has been redefined several times since its first conception in classical antiquity; the division of Eurasia into two continents reflects East-West cultural and ethnic differences which vary on a spectrum rather than with a sharp dividing line. The geographic border does not follow political boundaries, with Turkey and Kazakhstan being transcontinental countries. A strict application of the Caucasus Mountains boundary places two comparatively small countries and Georgia, in both continents.
Europe covers 2 % of the Earth's surface. Politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a total population of about 741 million as of 2016; the European climate is affected by warm Atlantic currents that temper winters and summers on much of the continent at latitudes along which the climate in Asia and North America is severe. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast. Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization; the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD and the subsequent Migration Period marked the end of ancient history and the beginning of the Middle Ages. Renaissance humanism, exploration and science led to the modern era. Since the Age of Discovery started by Portugal and Spain, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at various times the Americas all of Africa and Oceania and the majority of Asia.
The Age of Enlightenment, the subsequent French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars shaped the continent culturally and economically from the end of the 17th century until the first half of the 19th century. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to radical economic and social change in Western Europe and the wider world. Both world wars took place for the most part in Europe, contributing to a decline in Western European dominance in world affairs by the mid-20th century as the Soviet Union and the United States took prominence. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the West and the Warsaw Pact in the East, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1949 the Council of Europe was founded, following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill, with the idea of unifying Europe to achieve common goals, it includes all European states except for Belarus and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, a separate political entity that lies between a confederation and a federation.
The EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The currency of most countries of the European Union, the euro, is the most used among Europeans. In classical Greek mythology, Europa was a Phoenician princess; the word Europe is derived from her name. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, "wide, broad" and ὤψ "eye, countenance", hence their composite Eurṓpē would mean "wide-gazing" or "broad of aspect". Broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. There have been attempts to connect Eurṓpē to a Semitic term for "west", this being either Akkadian erebu meaning "to go down, set" or Phoenician'ereb "evening, west", at the origin of Arabic Maghreb and Hebrew ma'arav. Michael A. Barry, professor in Princeton University's Near Eastern Studies Department, finds the mention of the word Ereb on an Assyrian stele with the meaning of "night, sunset", in opposition to Asu " sunrise", i.e. Asia.
The same naming motive according to "cartographic convention" appears in Greek Ἀνατολή. Martin Litchfield West stated that "phonologically, the match between Europa's name and any form of the Semitic word is poor." Next to these hypotheses there is a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning "darkness", which produced Greek Erebus. Most major world languages use words derived from Europa to refer to the continent. Chinese, for example, uses the word Ōuzhōu. In some Turkic languages the Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa; the prevalent definition of Europe as a geographical term has been in use since the mid-19th century. Europe is taken to be bounded by large bodies of water
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts is a national academy and the most prominent academic institution in Serbia, founded in 1841 as Society of Serbian Letters. The Academy's membership has included Josif Pančić, Jovan Cvijić, Stojan Novaković, Branislav Petronijević, Mihajlo Pupin, Nikola Tesla, Milutin Milanković, Mihailo Petrović-Alas, Bogdan Gavrilović, Ivo Andrić, Mehmed Meša Selimović, Danilo Kiš and many other scientists and artists of Serbian and foreign origin; the Serbian Royal Academy of Sciences was the successor to the Serbian Learned Society with which it merged in 1892 and accepted its members as its own either regular or honorary members, its tasks and its place in scientific and cultural life. The same had occurred several decades earlier when the Serbian Learned Society on 29 July 1864 took over the place and functions of the Society of Serbian Scholarship, the first learned society in the Principality of Serbia, founded on 7 November 1841; the Serbian Royal Academy of Sciences was led by members, such as Jovan Cvijić.
In 1864, the Society elected to its membership international revolutionary figures as Giuseppe Garibaldi, Nikolay Chernyshevsky and Alexander Herzen, was abolished for this action by the conservative government of Prince Michael Obrenović. Since the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts was founded by law of 1 November 1886, it has been the highest academic institution in Serbia. According to the Royal Academy Founding Act, King Milan was to appoint the first academic, who would choose other members of the academy; the names of the first academics were announced by King Milan on 5 April 1887. At that time, there existed four sections in the academy, which were called "specialised academies". Four academics were appointed to each section: Today, the Academy directs a small number of scientific research projects which are realized in cooperation with other Serbian scientific institutions and through international cooperation; the Academy is infamous for producing the SANU memorandum in 1986, based on falsified claims of oppression of the serb nation, that embraced a Greater Serbia approach leading to the Yugoslav wars.
From 1909 till 1952 Serbian Academy of Science and Arts Building was located at 15 Brankova Street. This building was demolished in 1963. After that the Academy was moved to 35 Knez Mihailova Street, in a magnificent building in the city centre, where it has remained up to now. Serbian Academy of Science and Arts, the highest scientific institution in Serbia, has been decorating Knez Mihailova Street for one century, bringing the spirit of French decorations and Art Nouveau in the architecture of Belgrade; the sketches and designs for the construction of this magnificent building were created from the first day of its founding in 1886. Right after the founding of the Academy, the erection of the building was considered at the representative location in Knez Мihailova Street, which Prince Mihailo Obrenović III donated for educational cause. Considering the fact that apart from the plot Serbian Royal Academy had no other financial resources, the erection of the temporary ground-floor building was considered until the conditions are fulfilled for the construction of the representative object in which two important national institutions were supposed to be located: The Serbian Country Museum and The National Library.
In the following years SRA considered various ways of forming funds and acquiring financial resources for the construction of its building. The mutual fund of SRA, National Library and The Serbian Country Museum was formed in 1896 by the King's Decree, so that with the initial capital and its own plot, the Academy was able to begin solving the construction problem. Affirmed architect of domestic architecture Кonstantin Jovanović was hired to make the design in 1900, it was the first project in a row which remained unrealized: starting from the plea to eminent architectures Аndra Stevanović, Nikola Nestorović, Milan Kapetanović and Dragutin Đorđević, to make the preliminary designs, through the unsuccessful announcement of the public competition, until the attempt to form the project resembling the building of Yugoslav Academy of Science and Arts from Zagreb and new designs of an architect Konstantin Jovanović. At the same time, with the attempts to obtain the adequate design, the interest of the three institutions for the construction of the common building was not constant.
Dealing with the problem of permanent location, in 1908 SRA got to use the space in the building of Sima Igumanović endowment at 15 Brankova Street. After more than two decades of attempting to obtain its own building, the Presidency of SRA, by the end of 1910 decided to entrust the design to Dragutin Đorđević and Andra Stevanović; the cornerstone was laid on 27 March 1914, by the Crown Prince Aleksandar Karađorđević in the presence of the academics and the Ministers of Construction and Education. The construction works were assigned to the Matija Bleh's company, whereas the facade plastics and sculptural program were done by Jungmann and Sunko. However, the construction was interrupted by the beginning of the First World War; the object was finished in 1924, but due to high construction expenses, SRA failed to move into its new building. Believing that the design of the SRA building was supposed to
Hubert Curien
"Curien" redirects here. For the fictional insane scientist, see The House of the Dead. Hubert Curien was a French physicist and a key figure in European science politics, as the President of CERN Council, the first chairman of the European Space Agency, second President of the Academia Europæa and a President of Fondation de France. Born in Cornimont, Vosges in Lorraine, Curien enlisted in the French resistance during World War II. After the war he studied Physics at the École normale supérieure. Curien became the director general of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in 1969, was one of the founders of the European Science Foundation and chairman from 1979 to 1984, he was head of the French space agency from 1976 to 1984, first chairman of the board of ESA from 1981 to 1984. Curien was the Minister of Research of France from 1984 to 1986 and from 1988 to 1993, he entered the French Academy of Sciences in 1994. Curien was the President of the Fondation de France from 1998 through 2000.
Two years in November 2002, he retired from CERN after 38 years of contribution to accelerator projects, starting as a fellow in 1964. As a tribute to Curien, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to rename its bilateral scientific exchange programmes referred to as "Integrated Action Programmes" or "PAI" to "Hubert Curien Partnerships" or "PHC"; the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has such "Hubert Curien Partnerships" with more than 60 countries in the World. The 2004 Forum Engelberg paid tribute to their President Curien for the occasion of his upcoming 80th birthday. In honour of his contribution to European space, it was decided by ESA, NASA, the international Committee for Space Research to name the landing site of the Huygens probe after him, from 14 March 2007 it is known as the "Hubert Curien Memorial Station", his son Pierre-Louis Curien is a noted theoretical computer scientist. Biography Biography on the site of the Academy of sciences
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and largest city of the Grand Est region of France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located at the border with Germany in the historic region of Alsace, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin department. In 2016, the city proper had 279,284 inhabitants and both the Eurométropole de Strasbourg and the Arrondissement of Strasbourg had 491,409 inhabitants. Strasbourg's metropolitan area had a population of 785,839 in 2015, making it the ninth largest metro area in France and home to 13% of the Grand Est region's inhabitants; the transnational Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau had a population of 915,000 inhabitants in 2014. Strasbourg is one of the de facto capitals of the European Union, as it is the seat of several European institutions, such as the Council of Europe and the Eurocorps, as well as the European Parliament and the European Ombudsman of the European Union; the city is the seat of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine and the International Institute of Human Rights.
Strasbourg's historic city centre, the Grande Île, was classified a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1988, the first time such an honour was placed on an entire city centre. Strasbourg is immersed in Franco-German culture and although violently disputed throughout history, has been a cultural bridge between France and Germany for centuries through the University of Strasbourg the second largest in France, the coexistence of Catholic and Protestant culture, it is home to the largest Islamic place of worship in France, the Strasbourg Grand Mosque. Economically, Strasbourg is an important centre of manufacturing and engineering, as well as a hub of road and river transportation; the port of Strasbourg is the second largest on the Rhine after Germany. Before the 5th century, the city was known as Argantorati, a Celtic Gaulish name Latinized first as Argentorate, as Argentoratum; that Gaulish name is a compound of -rati, the Gaulish word for fortified enclosures, cognate to the Old Irish ráth, arganto-, the Gaulish word for silver, but any precious metal gold, suggesting either a fortified enclosure located by a river gold mining site, or hoarding gold mined in the nearby rivers.
After the 5th century, the city became known by a different name Gallicized as Strasbourg. That name is of Germanic origin and means "Town of roads"; the modern Stras- is cognate to the German Straße and English street, all of which are derived from Latin strata, while -bourg is cognate to the German Burg and English borough, all of which are derived from Proto-Germanic *burgz. Gregory of Tours was the first to mention the name change: in the tenth book of his History of the Franks written shortly after 590 he said that Egidius, Bishop of Reims, accused of plotting against King Childebert II of Austrasia in favor of his uncle King Chilperic I of Neustria, was tried by a synod of Austrasian bishops in Metz in November 590, found guilty and removed from the priesthood taken "ad Argentoratensem urbem, quam nunc Strateburgum vocant", where he was exiled. Strasbourg is situated at the eastern border of France with Germany; this border is formed by the Rhine, which forms the eastern border of the modern city, facing across the river to the German town Kehl.
The historic core of Strasbourg however lies on the Grande Île in the river Ill, which here flows parallel to, 4 kilometres from, the Rhine. The natural courses of the two rivers join some distance downstream of Strasbourg, although several artificial waterways now connect them within the city; the city lies in the Upper Rhine Plain, at between 132 metres and 151 metres above sea level, with the upland areas of the Vosges Mountains some 20 km to the west and the Black Forest 25 km to the east. This section of the Rhine valley is a major axis of north–south travel, with river traffic on the Rhine itself, major roads and railways paralleling it on both banks; the city is some 397 kilometres east of Paris. The mouth of the Rhine lies 450 kilometres to the north, or 650 kilometres as the river flows, whilst the head of navigation in Basel is some 100 kilometres to the south, or 150 kilometres by river. In spite of its position far inland, Strasbourg's climate is classified as oceanic, but a "semicontinental" climate with some degree of maritime influence in relation to the mild patterns of Western and Southern France.
The city has warm sunny summers and cool, overcast winters. Precipitation is elevated from mid-spring to the end of summer, but remains constant throughout the year, totaling 631.4 mm annually. On average, snow falls 30 days per year; the highest temperature recorded was 38.5 °C in August 2003, during the 2003 European heat wave. The lowest temperature eve
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
The Hungarian Academy of Sciences is the most important and prestigious learned society of Hungary. Its seat is at the bank of the Danube between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca, its main responsibilities are the cultivation of science, dissemination of scientific findings, supporting research and development and representing Hungarian science domestically and around the world. The history of the academy began in 1825 when Count István Széchenyi offered one year's income of his estate for the purposes of a Learned Society at a district session of the Diet in Pressburg, his example was followed by other delegates, its task was specified as the development of the Hungarian language and the study and propagation of the sciences and the arts in Hungarian. It received its current name in 1845, its central building was inaugurated in Renaissance Revival architecture style. The architect was Friedrich August Stüler. A scientific section is a unit of the Academy organized by one or some related branches of science.
A scientific section follows with attention and evaluates all scientific activities conducted within its field of science. D academic degree, the D. Sc degree in Hungary. Today it has eleven main sections: I. Section of Linguistics and Literary Scholarship II. Section of Philosophy and Historical Sciences III. Section of Mathematics IV. Section of Agricultural Sciences V. Section of Medical Sciences VI. Section of Engineering Sciences VII. Section of Chemical Sciences VIII. Section of Biological Sciences IX. Section of Economics and Law X. Section of Earth Sciences XI. Section of Physical Sciences MTA Centre for Agricultural Research MTA Chemical Research Center MTA Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences MTA Szeged Research Centre for Biology MTA Institute for Computer Science and Control MTA Centre for Ecological Research MTA Research Centre for Economic and Regional Studies MTA Centre for Energy Research MTA Research Centre for the Humanities MTA Research Institute for Linguistics MTA Rényi Institute of Mathematics MTA Institute of Experimental Medicine MTA Research Centre for Natural Sciences MTA Institute of Nuclear Research MTA Wigner Research Centre for Physics MTA Centre for Social Sciences The Széchenyi Academy of Literature and Arts was created in 1992 as an academy associated yet independent from the HAS.
Some of the known members are György Konrád, Magda Szabó, Péter Nádas writers, Zoltán Kocsis pianist, Miklós Jancsó, István Szabó film directors. The last president was film director, who succeeded László Dobszay. Open access in Hungary Official website Brief history of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Hungarian Academy of Sciences —also available in Hungarian Picture of its central building -- additional picture homepage of the Széchenyi Academy The palace of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
