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Language Mètode Science Studies Journal : Annual Review. 2018. Issue 8
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- Sanatoriums in contemporary narratives : 'El mar', by Blai Bonet(2018) Kotatkova, AdélaLiterature and medicine are closely connected. Many works have portrayed experiences of disease and have been set in health care facilities, including sanatoriums. Anti-tuberculosis sanatoriums, seen as spaces of isolation and as the death row, have inspired many authors. Twentieth-century novels devoted significant attention to these institutions which, far from the rest of society, conditioned the life of the sick but also their identity. The magic mountain by Thomas Mann and Rest home by Camilo José Cela are two outstanding references in this production. In Catalan literature, we need to highlight The sea, by Majorcan author Blai Bonet.
- Death in literature : different approaches , from simplicity to obscurity(2018) Skelton, John R.This study looks briefly at a range of ways in which writers have approached the concept of death, from expressions of personal grief, through to the ways in which attitudes to death represented in a culture are also picked up and used by writers from the culture concerned. Writers considered are mostly (but not all) from the English and Spanish language traditions, and in particular Seamus Heaney, Thomas Hardy, Miguel de Cervantes and Federico García Lorca. The point is made that not all writing about death is centred on death as a source of personal grief, though a great deal is. Also considered is the way in which some writing about death is transparent, and in a sense overtly simple, while other writing is less so, and may even seem obscure.
- Guilt, daily life, and love : AIDS narratives in the time of triple therapies(2018) Poe Lang, KarenThe purpose of this paper is to analyse the portrayal of triple therapy (a combination of three antiviral drugs proposed at the Vancouver International AIDS Conference in 1996) in three literary texts belonging to the Latin American HIV-positive corpus. Our aim is to track the changes in relation to previous AIDS narratives in three areas: feelings of guilt, everyday life and the search for love/eroticism. The selected corpus consists on the autobiography Un año sin amor. Diario del sida (1998) by the Argentine author Pablo Pérez, the novel La promesante (2001) by the Nicaraguan writer Rosario Aguilar and the chronicle Vivir con virus. Relatos de la vida cotidiana (2004) by the Argentine journalist Marta Dillon.
- A science piction implant : organ transplants in literarure(2018) Duran, XavierLong before the first successful transplants were performed on humans, some writers had wrote about them in fiction. In this article, we show some examples and explain how even seemingly crazy ideas were inspired by real experiments. Starting from the 1970s, when transplants had already been standardised, some narratives started to pose real problems such as the lack of donors. The works mentioned here show the importance of literature and its contributions to the ethical and social debate surrounding transplants. They can also spread those debates to many other sectors.
- Virginia Woolf : between writing and disease(2018) Ballester Roca, Josep; Ibarra Rius, NoeliaThe authors offer an analysis of mental illness in the work of a key twentieth century author: Virginia Woolf. A critical review of her literary legacy allows us to get closer to what might be one of the most intense literary portrayals of illness and its metaphors and, at the same time, to the representations, euphemisms, silences, and monsters depicted in the chapters of her life and in the unique voice of an essential author.
- Aircraft clouds : from chemtrail pseudoscience yo the science of contrails(2018) Mazón Bueso, Jordi; Costa Vila, Marcel; Pino González, DavidThe most frequent statements and arguments found in pseudoscience websites and forums supporting the existence of so-called aircraft chemtrails can be refuted with a scientific explanation of the processes resulting in the formation of condensation or deposition trails, known as contrails. Thus, the hypothesis that chemtrails exist is disproven by the scientific literature that shows that they are the exact same entity as contrails: They are hydrological phenomena which result from a physical process referenced in the many studies carried out since the beginning of the age of aviation, in the early twentieth century. Hence, in this paper we conclude that pseudoscience?s chemtrails are nothing more than the contrails described by science.
- Literature in medical teaching : the crucial importance of literature in the education of medical students(2018) Baños i Díez, Josep Eladi; Guardiola, ElenaRecent years have seen an increase in the interest for the use of literature in the medical context with different objectives. First of all, its use as a pedagogical tool for medicine students made it possible to improve necessary professional competencies that were difficult to achieve with traditional biologist education. Secondly, patients? accounts have become very interesting to understand how they live their disease. Finally, the usefulness of literary works as an enhancing tool in order to improve the quality of life of patients is starting to be recognised. In conclusion, literature constitutes an element with great formative interest that can improve the relationship with patients because it allows a better understanding of their disease.
- How to be a critical but reasonable debater : suggestions for critically addressing pseudoscientists and other similar groups(2018) Alcolea Banegas, JesúsDiscourse about pseudoscience usually accompanies dialogue about science. Despite attempts to separate the two domains, people still rely on pseudoscientific remedies. The ease with which beliefs become contagious, the popularity of certain products, and the verbiage of their sellers often leave us in the hands of so-called experts. Although the scientific method can help us to prove the ineffectiveness of certain remedies, we do not always have conclusive arguments to dispel doubts, and so we are left at the mercy of supposed technical knowledge or false scientific rigour. Faced with this, we must resort to critical thinking to respond to alleged experts and conduct ourselves reasonably.
- Vacation stories : Santiago Ramón y Cajal's fiction(2018) Collado Vázquez, Susana; Carrillo Esteban, Jesús MaríaSantiago Ramón y Cajal, father of neuroscience, won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1906 for his neural theory. Besides being a great histologist, researcher, and teacher, he showed interest in photography, philosophy, astronomy, chess, and hypnosis. He wrote very relevant scientific and biographical works as well as his Vacation stories. Five science fiction tales, five short stories with an educational purpose that mix scientific concepts, fiction, and some irony, and where microscopy and microbiology are always present. These stories raise difficult social or moral dilemmas that are often motivated by advances in science or an incorrect scientific education of the population. Cajal sought to improve that education and banish false beliefs and superstitions.
- To what extent do pseudosciences affect teachers? : a look at the mindset of science teachers in training(2018) Solbes Matarredona, Jordi; Palomar Fons, Rafael; Domínguez Sales, María ConsueloPseudosciences are present and accepted naturally by broad sectors of the population. Despite their potential risks, they are not taken into account when teaching science; some universities have even offered official pseudoscientific courses. In this text we want to learn about the degree of acceptance of these beliefs in high-school science teachers in training, who have been detected to have significant levels of acceptance of pseudoscience.
- The appeal-to-nature fallacy : homeopathy and biodynamic agriculture in official EU regulations(2018) Mulet Salort, José MiguelThere is no scientific evidence to support the affirmation that organic food is more nutritious or that its production is more sustainable than traditional food. In addition, productivity is very low and, concomitantly, the price is higher. This article reviews the basics of EU regulations on organic food production and concludes that, for the most part, they mislead the consumer and are not science based. Most of them rely on concepts related to the appeal-to-nature fallacy, with the explicit presence of pseudosciences, such as homeopathy or biodynamic agriculture. On the other hand, interesting aspects such as the carbon footprint or local production are not present in the regulations, and technological improvements that could be useful for organic food production are excluded.
- Divan couches and gurus : the origin and dangers of clinical pseudopsychology(2018) Fasce, AngeloPseudoscience is alarmingly present in the context of clinical psychology and is also very dangerous. As a set of pseudoscientific ideas, clinical pseudopsychology has a peculiar characteristic: it has established an entire tradition parallel to psychology, with numerous branches and interrelated theoretical and practical developments. In this paper we will review that tradition, from pseudoscientific hypnosis to psychoanalysis, and from New Age to present-day neuropseudoscience. We will then review some of the dangers of pseudoscience related to mental disorders.
- Dismantling yhe rhetoric of alternative medicine : smokescreens, errors, conspiracies, and follies(2018) Ernst, Edzard; Fasce, AngeloAlternative medicine has a high social prevalence, being promoted by well organized groups that have developed an intricate rhetoric in order to self-justify in the absence of evidence. This article will analyse some of these arguments, some of their fallacies ??ad populum, ad ignorantiam??, other styles of reasoning ??conspiracy theories?? and other misconceptions of scientific concepts ??placebo effect, scientific authority. The objective will be to highlight the poverty of the rhetoric of proponents of alternative medicine, with special emphasis on the dangers for the consumer.
- Pseudoscience and bad science in biomedicine : analysis of evidence, health risk, and media dissemination(2018) Casino, GonzaloPseudoscience (false science) and science based on faulty and biased studies (bad science) produce false or uncertain knowledge, with poor or no evidence. Both represent a health risk: pseudoscience-based therapies because they can replace or delay conventional treatments, and low-quality biomedicine because it promotes medical interventions that can be dangerous. In the press, alternative therapies are less prevalent than low-quality research, while the former tends to be framed negatively and the latter favourably. Both require more thorough and rigorous studies to better understand their negative effects on critical thinking, economics, and health-related decision making.
- From creationism to economics : how far should analyses of pseudoscience extend?(2018) Edis, TanerBoth the scientific and philosophical problems with classic pseudosciences such as astrology and creationism are well known, leading to institutions that are not structured to promote cognitive advancement. A focus on institutions, however, also encourages recognition of gray areas, such as parapsychology, which combines scientifically dubious claims with institutions that are comparable to most social sciences in their structure. Furthermore, institutional approaches to pseudoscience also raise questions about some academically mainstream fields such as economics. In such cases, pseudoscientific aspects of practice are harder to identify, highlighting the need to place analyses of pseudoscience in a wider context of institutional pathologies.
- How connected are the major forms of irrationality? : an analysis of pseudoscience, science denial, fact resistance and alternative facts(2018) Hansson, Sven OveScience is a fact-finding practice, but there are many other fact-finding practices that apply largely the same patterns of reasoning in order to achieve as reliable information as possible in empirical issues. The fact-finding practices form in their turn a subcategory of rational discourse, a wider category that also encompasses argumentation on non-empirical issues. Based on these categories, it is easy to see the relationship between on the one hand pseudoscience, and on the other hand fact resistance, disinformation, and fallacies of reasoning. The flaws in argumentation are similar, and the main difference is whether or not the subject matter falls within or without the realm of science.
- Whence pseudoscience? : an epidemiological approach(2018) Blancke, Stefaan; Boudry, Maarten; Braeckman, JohanIn this paper, we develop an epidemiological approach to account for the typical features and persistent popularity of pseudoscience. An epidemiology of pseudoscience aims at explaining why some beliefs become widely distributed whereas others do not and hence seeks to identify the factors that exert a causal effect on this distribution. We pinpoint and discuss several factors that promote the dissemination of pseudoscientific beliefs. In particular, we argue that such beliefs manage to spread widely because they are intuitively appealing, manage to hitchhike on the authority of science, and successfully immunize themselves from criticism.
- The Scam of pseudoscience(2018) Fasce, Angelo
- The seed of 'La evolución' : the development of human paleontology in Spain in recent decades(2018) Rosas, AntonioHuman palaeontology in Spain has experienced extraordinary growth in recent decades. In this work we investigate the influence that the book La evolución (1966) and its editors, Miquel Crusafont, Bermudo Meléndez, and Emiliano Aguirre, exerted on this explosion. Two areas have developed significantly: the study of the Miocene hominoids, originally linked to Crusafont and the Vallès-Penedès basin sites (Barcelona), and the study of the first human occupations in Europe, closely related to Aguirre and the Atapuerca excavations (Burgos). Different factors have contributed to this progress, but the research inertia of La evolución and its conceptual foundations have been key to the development of the discipline.
- A brief hiustory of palaeogenomics : how a young discipline revolutionised the syudy of the past(2018) Lalueza Fox, CarlesIn only a few short years, the ancient DNA field has transformed from an anecdotal and artisanal discipline into one of the most dynamic current scientific fields, generating massive genomic data from hundreds of past individuals. These include extinct hominins such as Neanderthals and Denisovans and prehistoric humans, and have provided information about the recent settlement of the continents. The field of palaeogenomics gives direct space and time information about the adaptive and demographic aspects of human populations and reveals complex patterns of past migrations that can help us to understand our current diversity. The development of this discipline is a unique opportunity to establish partnerships with archaeologists and anthropologists and to build up a multidisciplinary approach to the study of the past.
