This study aimed at exploring the ontological indeterminacies of The Sea (2005), a novel by John Banville using the postmodern catena put forth by Ihab Hassan. Hassan’s catalogue of the features of postmodern fiction includes indeterminacy, fragmentation, decanonization, selflessness, depthlessness, the unpresentable/unrepresentable, irony, hybridization, carnivalization, performance, participa...

The grand challenge for the 21st century is to harness the accumulating knowledge of Earth’s biodiversity and the ecosystems that support it. To accomplish this, we must mobilize biological information  assemble it, organize it, and deliver it with dramatically increased capacity. We must elevate the global biological information infrastructure to a new level of capability  a “next generation...

How might mankind enjoy the fruits of an advanced civilization without endangering the viability of planet Earth for future generations? That is the fundamental challenge that we confront in the 21st century. In a time when the comforts and pleasures that can be derived from the products of modern technology are accessible for a significant portion of the world’s population, how can we manufact...

The impact of trauma is a major public health challenge which is likely to escalate in the early 21st century. A systematic approach to this problem is required. This review explains the conceptual framework that defines a trauma system, gives a brief historical perspective and describes some of the essential elements of the system which should make a difference to patient outcome. Emergency ph...

Environmental Studies and Artificial Intelligence are both of strategic interest. Both areas can provide society with nice solutions for many real applications, in order to protect the environment. The encounter between these fields is a new challenge for many researchers of both communities. In the foreword of the Environmental Science and Engineering for the 21st Century report [6], we can re...

I want to describe, in non-technical terms, what I believe the human genome project and modern genetics are. I will leave it to you to see where the ramifications of this presentation go. Because, although I will give you a few current examples, most of the returns from this new era in human genetics will be reaped in the future, not the present. Indeed, the challenge of connecting the genetics...

This paper weaves several sets of facts into an argument that: 1) today’s trade is radically more complex, involving a “trade-investment-service nexus”, 2) this 21 st century trade demanded deeper disciplines which were supplied by “21 st century regionalism” while the WTO was otherwise occupied, and 3) 21 st century regionalism has quite different implications for the world trading system than...