Virtual research collaborations (VRCs) have become an important method of conducting scientific activity; however, they are often regarded and treated as traditional scientific collaborations. Their success is measured by scholarly productivity and adherence to budget by funding agencies, participating scientists, and scholars. VRCs operate in complex environments interacting with other complex...

Ethics of brain emulations Whole brain emulation attempts to achieve software intelligence by copying the function of biological nervous systems into software. This paper aims at giving an overview of the ethical issues of the brain emulation approach, and analyse how they should affect responsible policy for developing the field. Animal emulations have uncertain moral status, and a principle o...

In 1962 the journal Acta Biotheoretica published the final work of the biologist Edward Stuart Russell [4], a full eight years after his death. Entitled The Diversity of Animals [3]: an Evolutionary Study, this short, unfinished manuscript on evolution [5] received little recognition in the scientific presses despite both its technical discussion of adaptations in decapods (crabs, shrimp, etc.)...

Essay The sum of the parts Graeme Mitchison Thirty years ago, Francis Crick, in his brilliant and combative little book Of Molecules and Men (Seattle: University of Washington; 1966), expounded what could be regarded as the biological reductionist's credo. The ultimate aim of a modern biologist, he said, should be to explain all biology in terms of physics and chemistry; in particular, it shoul...

Considers that in ecosystem, landscape and global ecology, an energetics reading of ecological systems is an expression of a cybernetic, systemic and holistic approach. In ecosystem ecology, the Odumian paradigm emphasizes the concept of emergence, but it has not been accompanied by the creation of a method that fully respects the complexity of the objects studied. In landscape ecology, althoug...

Fascism belongs to the "family" of right-wing authoritarian and radical nationalist movements and regimes. Fascist movements regard the state as an organic whole and omnipotent principle transcending class interests, economic tensions, and ethnic conflicts. Fascism and authoritarianism rejected and repressed Marxist socialism, liberalism, ethnic minorities, and laissez-faire capitalism. One may...

At the heart of Friedrich A. Hayek’s social philosophy is a regard for the socially-constituted nature of man: the individual is not taken to be asocial or pre-social, but rather it is recognized that society defines the individual. The neglect of this aspect of Hayek’s work by both liberal and communitarian, as well as libertarian, writers within political philosophy has led to his position be...