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Arnaud Parent
The Alembic, The Pen… And The Spacecraft. De la Follie’s Le philosophe sans prétention (1775): An Early Sci-Fi Novel in Lieu of a Successful Scientific Lecture?, pp. 9-40
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Louis-Guillaume de la Follie’s novel Le philosophe sans prétention, ou l’homme rare (The philosopher without pretension, or the rare man, 1775) is remembered for including the first interplanetary travel on a spaceship powered by electricity. The story, a philosophical tale typical of the Age of Enlightenment, is used by the author to convey his scientific views and popularise scientific issues. Hence, de la Follie’s work sheds light on the dissemination of scientific knowledge within French society in the second half of the eighteenth century. The article aims to show how Le philosophe serves as a bridge between the Enlightenment philosophical fiction and science fiction to determine to which extent could literature be a vehicle for disseminating scientific ideas. The study aims to be a useful contribution to a deeper knowledge of eighteenth-century provincial French scientific milieu and its links with literature. The article encompasses the introduction of the author, his work, and its reception, its examination as a conte philosophique, an early science-fiction novel, and the discussion.
Laurent Heyberger
Like Father, Like Daughter… Or Like Mother, Like Daughter? Parental Models of Women Students at France’s Fourth Largest Engineering College (UTBM) in 1985–2016, pp. 41-62
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This article analyses the feminisation of the student population of the University of Technology of Belfort-Montbéliard (UTBM) from its foundation to 2016. It positions the case of UTBM in the French landscape of engineering schools, but also in the academic discussions of the causes of the over-selection of girls (paternal or maternal transmission, other explanatory model). Thanks to the large number of files used (N = 14,243), a comparison of French, Chinese, and Moroccan students of UTBM makes it possible to identify national models of choice and transmission between parents and their children. For French students, paternal model is more influential, nevertheless the maternal model seems to determine with greater influence the choice of girls, in spite of the small number of mothers who are engineers.
Zeynep Sabancı and Somer Alp Şimşeker
A New Type of Warfare: Chemical Filling Facilities in Istanbul, 1914–1918, pp. 63-87
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In the total war era, states committed their scientific research to rapidly changing warfare conditions, making the management of war the primary goal of contemporary states. The weakness of primary weapons in neutralising the enemy (or enemies) was obvious from the beginning of the First World War. Constantly changing war strategies, integration of civilians into warfare, and the growing sense of impotence as the war proceeded longer than expected, prompted a return to the components of violence. Although research into the use of different chemicals, gases, and suffocating substances in weapons was not something new, its successful employment climaxed during the First World War. This study provides an analysis of the employment of chemical weapons during the First World War and revisits the scarce arguments on whether the Ottomans had taken part in producing chemical weapons. The primary focus here is the gas-filling facilities established in Istanbul under the supervision of German efforts for military purposes. Additionally, the unanticipated extraordinary effects of the use of chemical weapons, the strategies employed to cause attrition in trenches, and its effects on the Ottoman army are within the scope of this article.
Tanel Kerikmäe, Aleksi Oskar Johannes Kajander, Ondrej Hamuľák, Matúš Mesarčík, Jozef Andraško, and Innar Liiv
Developing Autonomous Robotic Transport Systems for Hospitals and Medical Facilities: Legal Challenges, pp. 88-104
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The article discusses the development of autonomous robotic transport systems for use in hospitals and medical facilities and presents a legal analysis with a particular focus on the development of related case-law and legislation in the past years. The new solutions are part of the evolutionary trends and hold the potential to determine the future of medical facilities. The article focuses on the search for innovative solutions that are supposed to change the quality of operation of medical premises. An internal autonomous medical transport vehicle (IAMTV) is designed for use within hospital premises and not intended for operation on public roads, thus, the scope of this analysis forgoes traffic-related aspects. Furthermore, the purpose of the vehicle is the transportation of items within its locked storage space. While the items transported may vary during use, this legal analysis presumes and focuses on the transport of medicines, medical samples, and even documents. Also, throughout the analysis, the immediate operational environment of IAMTVs will be evaluated. An assumption is made that IAMTVs are not able to operate entirely independently, in a vacuum, but rather will form a part of hospitals’ internet of things network.
Madhu Narayanan
Following “Fibreality”: What Does the Making of Bamboo Baskets Tell Us?, pp. 105-117
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What is the materiality of a basket woven from bamboo? As a natural “resource,” how does bamboo transform into a “material” for weaving baskets? This article examines these questions broadly by observing the practices of a basket-making community in South India. Basket makers produce fibre for weaving, which is entangled with plant, manual skills, and a specific purpose for its use. Local variety of bamboo transforming into baskets has a long history in the region, lacking archaeological and archival sources to uncover its technological complexities. Although making a basket is an explicit action, artisanal skill that involves design and manual labour, the knowledge application behind the material process is less discussed in the historiography of technology. Ethnographical data and historical narratives reveal that the materiality of the bamboo baskets is an embodiment of “fibreality,” to which human skill and knowledge contribute. Knowledge of the life cycle of bamboo, the season driving the demand for baskets, and the regulations imposed on the harvest of the plants are some of the socio-technical forces that determine and constitute the “fibreality.” The concept reconsiders the procedures of material transformation in crafting practices beyond the notion of laboratory knowledge. This study unveils how material processing techniques are relevant in understanding the materiality and history of a craft as everyday technology.
Petter Wulff
The Rise and Fall of Radioactive Carbon in the Atmosphere, pp. 118-127
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The level of radioactive carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has shifted dramatically since the middle of the twentieth century. At that time, nuclear weapons tests resulted in considerably raised levels of the radioactive molecule. The impact peaked in the early 1960s and, since then, the radioactive level has come back almost to where it was before the nuclear test period. The ambition here is to discuss the character of the carbon dioxide curve in its different phases with an emphasis on what has happened after the atmospheric tests stopped. The curve’s behaviour seems to raise an interesting question for climate change theory.
RESEARCH BRIEF
Yoel Bergman
The New 1942 Method for Propellant Design and Later Updates, p. 128-135
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The brief research reviews the history of an innovative method in propellant technology. In 1942, the renowned US scientist Joseph Hirschfelder led a team that devised a simple calculative method for helping to design wartime solid propellants, whose gas, when burnt, served to drive projectiles in gun barrels. The method estimated the temperature of the gas for each propellant and other factors. Until then, these were estimated through a rigorous theoretical process. The simplified theoretical approach of the new method gave nearly the same temperatures and other important values, all with basic arithmetic. It was later refined by others, for better accuracy, and applied for designing solid rocket propellants, through a short theoretical adaptation.