In the current academic climate, there is no shortage of discourses proclaiming a veritable neurorevolution: that new insights into the functioning of the human brain will lead not only to novel possibilities of technoscientific intervention, but also to a radical transformation of our sense of what it is to be human in general. More striking still is the enthusiastic appropriation of this new ...

The topic in question is concerned with the sociological aspect of literature referring to Iran’s literary and historical experience. The basis of sociological criticism is built on the premise that literary works are the products of social life and that a comprehensive understanding of a work without considering its social aspects is impractical. To reach a better, more scientific, and more pr...

The study of relations between culture and nature requires a discussion between different fields of science – no so-called pure discipline can completely embrace such a diverse subject. In Estonia, literary ecology, environmental aesthetics and environmental psychology have so far been more actively engaged in such discussions. These disciplines have, proceeding from the literary criticism and ...

Traditional Knowledge (TK) is essentially culturally oriented or culturally based, and it is integral to the cultural identity of the social group in which it operates and is preserved. “Traditional knowledge” is an open-ended way to refer to tradition-based literary, artistic or scientific works; performances; inventions; scientific discoveries; designs; marks, names and symbols; undisclosed i...

As scientists question the recent dominance of the scientific journal, the varied richness of its past offers useful materials for reflection. This paper examines four innovative journals founded and run by leading publishers and men of science in the 1810s and 1820s, which contributed to a significant reimagining of the form. Relying on a new distinction between the ‘literary’ and the ‘scienti...

Over seven decades ago, as the result of endeavors of a group of leading literary and scientific figures the Farhangestan-e-Awwal (First Academy of Iran) was established in May 1935 and its activity continued until 1953. Presented here is a brief historical account of the establishment of the First Academy of Iran as well as a look at the biographical sketches of physicians at the academy.

Alfred Russel Wallace, who died 100 years ago, on November 7 1913, is most often remembered as a kind of ‘Darwin satellite’: the other discoverer of evolution by natural selection. He was, however, a scientific superstar in his own right. In this feature, Andrew Berry examines Wallace’s life. In the following three pieces, Wallace scholar James Costa, Darwin biographer Janet Browne and literary...

Hans Zinsser, president of the Society of American Bacteriologists in 1926, was known as much for his literary and textbook writing as for his scientific contributions. He was a widely known scientist and person of letters. His early interests in poetry and other forms of literature were maintained and developed during his career as a microbiologist, and his most enduring legacy is based on his...