The scientific case for human spaceflight

Ian Crawford and Sarah Dunkin report on discussion at the National Astronomy Meeting in Cambridge in April, which marked two key dates in the history of human spaceflight, as well as looking forward to the challenges that will demand human intelligence and ingenuity in space in future.     

The scientific case for human space exploration

Ian Crawford and Charles Cockell report on a wide-ranging RAS Discussion Meeting putting the broad scientific case for people in space, at the Linnean Society on 10 December 2004.     

Negligent killing of scientific concepts: the stationarity case

Abstract

In scientific vocabulary, the term “process” is used to denote change in time. Even a stationary process describes a system changing in time, rather than a static one that keeps a constant state all the time. However, this is often missed, which has led to misuse of the term “nonstationarity” as a synonym of “change”. A simple rule to avoid such misuse is to answer the question: can the change be predicted in deterministic terms? Only if the answer is positive is it legitimate to invoke nonstationarity. In addition, we should have in mind that models are made to simulate the future rather than to describe the past; the past is characterized by observations (data). Usually future changes are not deterministically predictable and thus the models should, on the one hand, be stationary and, on the other hand, describe in stochastic terms the full variability, originating from all agents of change. Even if the past evolution of the process of interest contains changes explainable in deterministic terms (e.g. urbanization), it is better to describe the future conditions in stationary terms, after “stationarizing” the past observations, i.e. adapting them to represent the future conditions.     

A review of the GGP network and scientific challenges

The Global Geodynamics Project (GGP) started on July 1, 1997 and is now in its 11th year of operation. It has a relatively small number of stations (24), compared to seismic (GSN) or geodetic (GPS) networks, but it is the only database that is accumulating relative gravity measurements worldwide. As any scientific organization matures, there is a change in the culture of the project and the people involved. To remain viable, it is necessary not only to maintain the original goals, but also to incorporate new ideas and applications on the science involved. The main challenges within GGP are to ensure: (a) that the instruments are properly calibrated, (b) that data is being recorded with the highest accuracy, and with appropriate hydrological instrumentation, and (c) that the flow of data from all recording stations to the ICET database continues as agreed in within the GGP framework. These practical matters are the basis for providing high quality recordings that will extend the usefulness of the network into the future to meet new challenges in geosciences. Several new stations have been brought into operation in the past few years, but the data availability from some of these stations still leaves room for improvement. Nevertheless, the core group of stations established more than 10 years ago has been able to maintain the high standards of the original concept, and much research has been published using network data in areas as diverse as hydrology, polar motion, and Earth's normal modes. GGP will also participate in some of the scientific tasks of the Global Geodetic Observing System program, at least initially by providing relative gravity measurements for collocation with other high precision geodetic measurements.     

Inspirations from the scientific discovery of the anammox bacteria: A classic example of how scientific principles can guide discovery and development

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation(anammox) is a relatively new pathway within the N cycle discovered in the late 1990 s. This eminent discovery not only modified the classical theory of biological metabolism and matter cycling, but also profoundly influenced our understanding of the energy sources for life. A new member of chemolithoautotrophic microorganisms capable of carbon fixation was found in the vast deep dark ocean. If the discovery of the chemosynthetic ecosystems in the deep-sea hydrothermal vent environments once challenged the old dogma "all living things depend on the sun for growth," the discovery of anammox bacteria that are widespread in anoxic environments fortifies the victory over this dogma. Anammox bacteria catalyze the oxidization of NH_4~+ by using NO_2~- as the terminal electron acceptor to produce N_2. Similar to the denitrifying microorganisms, anammox bacteria play a biogeochemical role of inorganic N removal from the environment. However, unlike heterotrophic denitrifying bacteria, anammox bacteria are chemolithoautotrophs that can generate transmembrane proton motive force, synthesize ATP molecules and further carry out CO_2 fixation through metabolic energy harvested from the anammox process. Although anammox bacteria and the subsequently found ammonia-oxidizing archaea(AOA), another very important group of N cycling microorganisms are both chemolithoautotrophs, AOA use ammonia rather than ammonium as the electron donor and O_2 as the terminal electron acceptor in their energy metabolism. Therefore, the ecological process of AOA mainly takes place in oxic seawater and sediments, while anammox bacteria are widely distributed in anoxic water and sediments, and even in some typical extreme marine environments such as the deep-sea hydrothermal vents and methane seeps. Studies have shown that the anammox process may be responsible for 30%–70% N_2 production in the ocean. In environmental engineering related to nitrogenous wastewater treatment, anammox provides a new technology with low energy consumption, low cost, and high efficiency that can achieve energy saving and emission reduction. However, the discovery of anammox bacteria is actually a hard-won achievement. Early in the 1960 s, the possibility of the anammox biogeochemical process was predicted to exist according to some marine geochemical data. Then in the 1970 s, the existence of anammox bacteria was further predicted via chemical reaction thermodynamic calculations. However, these microorganisms were not found in subsequent decades. What hindered the discovery of anammox bacteria, an important N cycling microbial group widespread in hypoxic and anoxic environments? What are the factors that finally led to their discovery? What are the inspirations that the analyses of these questions can bring to scientific research? This review article will analyze and elucidate the above questions by presenting the fundamental physiological and ecological characteristics of the marine anammox bacteria and the principles of scientific research.     

一次地震预测的案例

2001年11月14日昆仑山8.1级地震后, 川滇地区的震情引起了地震学者的普遍关注。 文中详细阐述了针对当时川滇地区的多种地震与地震前兆观测项的观测异常形成的综合预测意见及预测三要素的判定, 并探讨了8.1级地震对这一预测意见的影响及对经验性地震预报的认识。     

白宫发布科研诚信政策指南

2010年12月17日,白宫发布了公众期待已久的奥巴马政府的科研诚信政策指南。美国总统科学顾问(Presidential Science Advisor),同时也是白宫科技政策办公室(White House Office of Science and Tech-nology Policy,OSTP)主任的John Holdren发布了该指南。据他介绍,美国联邦政府各     

Research on global change scientific satellites

Global change now poses a severe threat to the survival and development of mankind.Large-scale,real-time,highly accurate Earth observation from space has become a key technology used to observe global change.China is one of the most influential countries affecting and being affected by global change,yet it has no scientific satellite for global change research so far.Developing global change scientific satellites not only would meet an important demand of China,but also would be a valuable contribution to the world.By analyzing the mechanisms of space-based observation of variables sensitive to global change,this paper explores the concept of global change scientific satellites,and proposes a series of global change scientific satellites to establish a scientific observation system for global environmental change monitoring from space.     

Cadmium—A case of mistaken identity?

Dr Taylor is Analytical and Information Service Manager at the Group Environmental Laboratory of ICI plc at Brixham in Devon. He has been involved for many years in research on the impact of heavy metals in the aquatic environment.     

地震科技信息资源共享与著作权保护

分析了地震科技信息著作权的归属、信息共享与著作权保护之间的关系以及相关的法律问题。     

The scientific value of the Carte du Ciel

Work began on the Astrographic Catalogue and Carte du Ciel in 1887 and continued until 1962. Derek Jones discusses this innovatory sky survey and its continuing value.     

An scientific evaluation of annual earthquake prediction ability

Introduction There have been nearly 40 years for earthquake prediction since the research on earthquake prediction was carried out in plan by some advanced countries since 1960s. For the hard long process of earthquake prediction, Alen, American famous scientist and former president of the evaluation commission of earthquake prediction in California, USA, said that the difficulty of earthquake prediction is more than the expected and the practical progress of earthquake prediction is more sl…     

苏东坡对大自然的科学观

北宋大文豪苏东坡,一生坎坷,官宦沉浮,曾先后任近十个州的地方官,并三度贬谪黄州、惠州和儋州。他虽然是封建时代的士大夫,但对认识自然、利用自然是有建树的。如发现开发徐州煤炭,对庐山地貌特征的认识,夜探石钟山钟声之谜和合理利用水利资源等。     

The Oaxaca gap: A case history

An attempted use of seismic gap observations to predict a large earthquake in Oaxaca, Mexico is discussed. The observations were initially published in a scientific journal and were subsequently distorted by noncientists, who predicted a major earthquake and tsunami to take place at Pinotepa Nacional, Oaxaca on 23 April 1978. Public reactions and property losess sustained by individuals and communities were comparable to those expected from an actual earthquake. A revision of epicenter locations from the NOAA data file revealed that a number of earthquakes did occur in the alleged gap but had been excluded because their reported focal depth was in excess of 60 km. It is shown that the probability that the number of earthquakes in two consecutive time intervals of a stationary Poisson process differs by an amount which would be reported as a seismic gap is of the order of 5% or more for Oaxaca. This means that spurious seismic gaps would be observed in one out of 20 data runs. The possibility of detecting a true interval of abnormal quiescence in a random earthquake sequence appears to be fairly remote in this case.     

基于SCI-E的中国地震局科技论文文献计量分析

根据SCI-EXPENDED数据库1971~2014年收录的中国地震局科技论文情况,分析中国地震局的科技论文产出数量与增长趋势,了解中国地震局的科研合作状况和国际学术影响力,掌握学科分布特点及学科带头人概况等,从而为中国地震局开展地震科学研究及进行地震科技决策提供信息支撑。     

谈地震科学基金课题档案管理

根据实际情况确定了地震科学基金课题档案归档范围，就如何做好地震科学基金课题档案管理，从行政监督制约、档案人员的管理作用等方面进行探索，并通过实践取得了较好效果。