What we have learnt in the last six or seven decades about virtual machinery, as a result of a great deal of science and technology, enables us to offer Darwin a new defence against critics who argued that only physical form, not mental capabilities and consciousness could be products of evolution by natural selection. The defence compares the mental phenomena mentioned by Darwin’s opponents wi...

The phrase “Engineering Leadership” may seem, at a first glance, as the result of a simple juxtaposition of two, otherwise not related, concepts; on the contrary, an analysis of the respective roots and evolutions shows an undeniable “fil rouge” connecting the two with links intersecting ages and cultures. Leadership is charged with the expectation of providing guidance to decision making under...

Humans are the ultimate ecosystem engineers who have profoundly transformed the world’s landscapes in order to enhance their survival. Somewhat paradoxically, however, sometimes the unforeseen effect of this ecosystem engineering is the very collapse of the population it intended to protect. Here we use a spatial version of a standard population dynamics model of ecosystem engineers to study th...

A cross-sectional study was conducted in the pastoral region of Afar, in eastern and central Ethiopia, to determine the distribution of brucellosis in small ruminants. Between December 2005 and June 2006, 1,568 serum samples were taken: 563 samples from sheep and 1,005 from goats. One hundred and forty-seven of these (9.4%) tested positive using the Rose Bengal plate test (RBPT), and 76 (4.8%) ...