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Language Mètode Science Studies Journal : Annual Review. 2019. Issue 9
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- Social networks and robot companions : technology, ethics, and science fiction(2019) Torras, CarmeInformation technologies have become part of our everyday lives and are increasingly acting as intermediaries in our workplaces and personal relationships or even substituting them. This growing interaction with machines poses several questions about which we have no previous experience, nor can we reliably predict how they will influence the evolution of society. This has led to the convergence of technoscience and humanities in an ethical debate that is starting to bear fruit, not only with the setting of regulations and standards, but also with educational initiatives in university teaching, professional improvement, and the conformation of public opinion. Interestingly, science fiction often plays a prominent speculative role in highlighting the pros and cons of potential scenarios.
- Robotics and automation for societal good : global South challenges and technology-policy considerations(2019) Madhavan, RajRobotics and automation and artificial intelligence technologies hold immense potential in addressing many of the societal challenges as exemplified in the sustainable development goals of the 2030 agenda of the United Nations. They have the potential not only to increase the standard of living in developed countries, but to improve the quality of life in the so-called «Global South». This article discusses underlying challenges and technology-policy considerations when deploying emerging technologies in developing and developed economies. Various examples and implementations in collaboration with humanitarians, researchers and developers, and professional organizations across the globe are outlined.
- The human-computer connection : an overview of brain-computer interfaces(2019) Millán, José del R.This article introduces the field of brain-computer interfaces (BCI), which allows the control of devices without the generation of any active motor output but directly from the decoding of the user?s brain signals. Here we review the current state of the art in the BCI field, discussing the main components of such an interface and illustrating ongoing research questions and prototypes for controlling a large variety of devices, from virtual keyboards for communication to robotics systems to replace lost motor functions and even clinical interventions for motor rehabilitation after a stroke. The article concludes with some insights into the future of BCI.
- Robots that look like humans : a brief look into humanoid robotics(2019) Yoshida, EiichiThis article provides a brief overview of the technology of humanoid robots. First, historical development and hardware progress are presented mainly on human-size full-body biped humanoid robots, together with progress in pattern generation of biped locomotion. Then, «whole-body motion» ? coordinating leg and arm movements to fully leverage humanoids? high degrees of freedom ? is presented, followed by its applications in fields such as device evaluation and large-scale assembly. Upper-body humanoids with a mobile base, which are mainly utilized for research on human-robot interaction and cognitive robotics, are also introduced before addressing current issues and perspectives.
- Towards artificial intelligence : advances, challenges, and risks(2019) López de Mántaras Badía, RamonThis text contains some reflections on artificial intelligence (AI). First, we distinguish between strong and weak AI, as well as the concepts related to general and specific AI. Following this, we briefly describe the main current AI models and discuss the need to provide common-sense knowledge to machines in order to advance towards the goal of a general AI. Next, we talk about the current trends in AI based on the analysis of large amounts of data, which has recently allowed experts to make spectacular progress. Finally, we discuss other topics which, now and in the future, will continue to be key in AI, before closing with a brief reflection on the risks of AI.
- Rethinking conservation : towards a paradigm shift(2019) Martínez-Abraín, AlejandroBetween the mid-1980s and the present day, conservation biology split into two almost independent fields: management ecology and conservation ecology. We have witnessed the recovery of large endangered species and a decrease in small and common species. In addition, the abandonment of rural areas has allowed the expansion of forest species and has hurt those that inhabit open spaces and who are linked to traditional farming. Many species that once lived only in refuges are now starting to venture further out and are losing their fear of humans. Moreover, environments that have become anthropic are now being successfully occupied more often. In short, we are going towards a world that reconciles humans and wildlife, which will be beneficial, but will also pose new challenges.
- When the state of the art is ahead of the state of understanding : unintuitive properties of deep neural networks(2019) Serrà, JoanDeep learning is an undeniably hot topic, not only within both academia and industry, but also among society and the media. The reasons for the advent of its popularity are manifold: unprecedented availability of data and computing power, some innovative methodologies, minor but significant technical tricks, etc. However, interestingly, the current success and practice of deep learning seems to be uncorrelated with its theoretical, more formal understanding. And with that, deep learning?s state-of-the-art presents a number of unintuitive properties or situations. In this note, I highlight some of these unintuitive properties, trying to show relevant recent work, and expose the need to get insight into them, either by formal or more empirical means.
- Defining nature : competing perspectives: between nativism and ecological novelty(2019) Davis, MarkIn the 1980s, three sub-disciplines of ecology emerged ??restoration ecology, conservation biology, and invasion biology?? and all three embraced the nativism paradigm. By the early 2000s, historians, sociologists, and philosophers interested in the development of science began to examine the growing field of invasion biology and usually were critical of it. In the past few years, a new perspective has been taking hold in the field of ecology. Referred to as ecological novelty it emphasizes that many factors are producing ecologically novel environments. A much more simply descriptive concept, it is currently competing with the nativism paradigm to define nature. Whether the nativism or ecological novelty paradigm emerges as the dominant perspective going forward will determine how nature and biodiversity are managed.
- The map of biodiversity : from local to global scales(2019) Antón Pardo, MaríaSpecies richness is not homogeneous in space and it normally presents differences when comparing among different sites. These differences often respond to gradients in one or several factors which create biodiversity patterns in space and are scale-dependent. At a local scale, diversity patterns depend on the habitat size (species-area relationship), the productivity, the environmental harshness, the frequency and intensity of disturbance, or the regional species pool. Regional diversity may be influenced by environmental heterogeneity (increasing dissimilarity), although it could act also at smaller or larger spatial scales, and the connectivity among habitats. Finally, at a global scale, diversity patterns are found with the latitude, the altitude or the depth, although these factors are surrogates for one or several environmental variables (productivity, area, isolation, or harshness).
- Marine biodiversity in space and time : what tiny fossils tell(2019) Yasuhara, MoriakiBiodiversity has been changing both in space and time. For example, we have more species in the tropics and less species in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, constituting the latitudinal diversity gradient, one of the patterns we can see most consistently in this complex world. We know much less regarding the biodiversity gradients with time. This is because it would require a well designed continuous monitoring program, which seldom persist beyond a few decades. But, luckily, we have remains of ancient organisms, called fossils. These are basically the only direct records of past biodiversity.
- Natural enemies and biodiversity : the double-edged sword of trophic interactions(2019) Mestre Pérez, Alexandre; Holt, Robert D.Natural enemies, that is, species that inflict harm on others while feeding on them, are fundamental drivers of biodiversity dynamics and represent a substantial portion of biodiversity as well. Along the life history of the Earth, natural enemies have been involved in probably some of the most productive mechanisms of biodiversity genesis; that is, adaptive radiation mediated by enemy-victim coevolutionary processes. At ecological timescales, natural enemies are a fundamental piece of food webs and can contribute to biodiversity preservation by promoting stability and coexistence at lower trophic levels through top-down regulation mechanisms. However, natural enemies often produce dramatic losses of biodiversity, especially when humans are involved.
- Beyond counting species : a new way to look at biodiversity(2019) Llopis Belenguer, Cristina; Blasco Costa, María Isabel; Balbuena, Juan AntonioIn modern ecology, the traditional diversity indices (usually of richness, abundance, and species evenness) have been highly revealing and useful for monitoring community and ecosystem processes. However, around two decades ago, a pioneering research team noticed that these indices did not completely resolve their open questions. Thus, they suggested changing the way biodiversity was measured. At its base, this new methodology considers the distance between species (in phylogenetic or functional terms) before subsequently applying the appropriate biodiversity indices. Including phylogenetic and functional elements in the evaluation of diversity allows us to approach the concept of biodiversity in a more comprehensive way.
- What do we mean by diversity? : the path towards quantification(2019) Jost, LouThe concept of biological diversity has evolved from a simple count of species to more sophisticated measures that are sensitive to relative abundances and even to evolutionary divergence times between species. In the course of this evolution, diversity measures have often been borrowed from other disciplines. Biological reasoning about diversity often implicitly assumed that measures of diversity had certain mathematical properties, but most of biology?s traditional diversity measures did not actually possess these properties, a situation which often led to mathematically and biologically invalid inferences. Biologists now usually transform the traditional measures to the «effective number of species», whose mathematics does support most of the rules of inference that biologists apply to them. The effective number of species, then, seems to capture most (though not all) of what biologists mean by diversity.
- On analogical knowledge : metaphors in biotechnology discourse(2019) Salvador Liern, VicentDuring a period dominated by positivist thinking, metaphors seemed incompatible with science, at least for the most common manifestations of scientific discourse. However, this apparent transgression is now considered essential and even advantageous for the construction of knowledge. The terminology of specialised knowledge, like that from the field of biotechnology, undoubtedly contains metaphors. In the discourse related to scientific dissemination and the mass media, the use of metaphors is more original which makes them more attractive as strategies to increase the intelligibility of concepts and to stimulate layperson audiences. Thus, anthropomorphic projections are one of the types of metaphor which performs the best in the context of this type of discourse.
- Life in extreme conditions : the paradox of Antarctic marine biodiversity(2019) Ambroso, Stefano; Salazar, Janire; Gili, Josep María; Zapata Guardiola, RebecaThe study of pristine places is very important for learning about the state of the oceans before the impact of human beings. Due to the extreme environmental conditions of the Antarctic continental shelf ? its distance from other continents, depth, and the weight of the continental ice ? it offers us a great opportunity to better understand how a pristine ecosystem would normally be. In addition to a high level of biodiversity, Antarctic benthic organisms present patterns of demographic and spatial distribution that are different from the communities of the continental shelves in other seas and oceans of the world. This makes Antarctic benthic communities look, more than one might think, like the communities with the highest known biodiversity in the world.
- Beyond the CSI effect : the keys to good forensic genetics communication(2019) Carracedo Álvarez, Ángel; Prieto, LourdesForensic genetics brings together all the genetic knowledge required to solve specific legal problems. In recent decades new techniques have shown the potential of DNA as a profiling system. These advances have arrived hand in hand with other improvements in terms of communication of test results, with the introduction of statistical evaluation. In the collective imagination, nourished by TV series such as CSI, forensic evidence is presented as one hundred percent certain, but the reality is different. However, statistical analysis has allowed us to turn from handcrafted forensic medicine based on intuition and experience, to tests based on evidence and data, where uncertainty is quantified in probabilistic terms.
- Biotechnology and communication in democratic societies : old challenges for a new era(2019) Bernardo Álvarez, María ÁngelaBiotechnological research has made significant progress; however, some of its results are controversial because of their health and environmental risks, and these limit their application because of the precautionary measures applied to them. The dissemination and communication of information about biotechnology is now more necessary than ever to spread knowledge about innovations clearly, rigorously, and comprehensibly. At the same time, we must also inform about the certainties, uncertainties, and potential conflicts of interest these technologies pose in order to properly disseminate the available scientific evidence and promote autonomous, free, and informed decision-making: a key objective in any democratic society.
- Biotechnology, communication and the public : keys to delve into the social perception of science(2019) Brossard, DominiqueThe latest biotechnology applications allow for faster and cheaper gene editing than ever before. Many people are calling for a public debate on these issues, including the social, cultural and ethical implications of these applications. On the other hand, the information available to citizens is sometimes contradictory and communication that takes all these aspects into account is important and increasingly necessary. Therefore, understanding public attitudes towards biotechnology should be a priority for the work ahead.
- Transparency is key : communication in animal research(2019) Martínez, EmmaThe lack of information from institutions and organisations regarding the use of animals in scientific research produces a specialised communication niche which non-scientific groups have exploited to make public opinion sympathetic to them. Public opinion is linked to societal development. Lack of information leads to the creation of unfounded opinions that are alien to scientific and technological development and contribute to the progressive introduction of restrictive measures that are detrimental to scientific research and social development. Conversely, an informed society can and must participate in the development of responsible research that aligns inquiry and its potential benefits with the needs of society itself from the earliest research and development stages.
- The university, driver of innovation(2019) Raga, Juan Antonio
