O estudo aborda a Noosfera como um paradigma evolutivo formulado por Teilhard de Chardin, Vladimir Vernadsky e Edouard Leroy, posteriormente amplificado por José Argüelles. A noosfera, a "camada pensante" da Terra, emerge da interconexão entre a coletividade consciente humana e o planeta. O trabalho enfatiza a relevância desse conceito para ressignificar a relação da humanidade com a sua natureza, sugerindo que uma expansão global da consciência é fundamental para construir o Porvir.
This review analyzes the book "The Book of Seeds: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species from Around the World", edited by American botanist Dr. Paul Smith, published by The University of Chicago Press.
In this article, we will discuss the emergence of science in Ancient Greek culture. We want to know if science is in fact a creation of Greek genius. Our focus will be on the work of the pre-Socratics, and by studying the thoughts of these philosophers, we can contemplate the powerful way these scholars explained nature. Some of their doctrines have parallels with our current science, and this demonstrates the profound capacity for speculation of these philosophers who, armed only with the reason of their intellect, managed to scrutinize the deepest principles of nature. If today we have at our disposal the most advanced scientific instruments, in the time of the pre-Socratics they only had their reason. They are the true creators of philosophy — and, in principle, of science, and this is the great merit of these great thinkers.
Este trabalho tem como objetivo resgatar a importância do pensamento cartesiano para a História da Geologia. Assim, sua tese foi analisada a partir de duas vertentes: a emergência de uma nova forma de se interpretar o planeta, denominada de Globo Terráqueo; e a Filosofia Natural cartesiana no contexto do mecanicismo seiscentista. Como resultado, observa-se que Descartes apresenta uma teoria coerente, tornando o Globo Terráqueo um objeto de investigação científica ao interpretá-lo de maneira mecânica e lhe atribuir um passado acessível à razão. Tal proposta não passou despercebida por seus contemporâneos, sendo capaz de influenciar filósofos e naturalistas nas décadas seguintes.
Several years of teaching practice related to History of Science and Technology for undergraduate students at the University of São Paulo showed a way out to conquer non-acceptance barriers of human science students, who mistrusted themes they considered to be out of the academic pattern of History, as well as from the part of natural science students, who judged these were matters out of concern for their formation. Some positive results are related in such context, which might be interesting for other professors in this field.
What is the foundation that gives rise to Western science? What is the relationship between contemporary science and pre-Socratic philosophy? Why study pre-Socratic philosophers? Human beings, in order to avoid extinction from this world, find fulfillment in nature. Therefore, confronting, understanding, and theorizing physis was the starting point in this human endeavor that has spanned prehistory to the present day—this is what science is all about. The first to seek this understanding and, at the same time, theorize about this epistemological mission of finding fulfillment in nature were the Greeks in pre-Socratic philosophy. The main objective of this article, therefore, is to demonstrate that Western philosophy and science are all grounded in the pre-Socratic belief that the world we see is kosmos, not chaos. All pre-Socratic schools presuppose the idea that the world is something fully knowable and, therefore, capable of being interpreted by human intelligence. The methodology used was a bibliographic review of the fragments of the main pre-Socratic thinkers themselves, in addition to reading renowned authors in the study of this philosophy and published articles on the topic studied. The conclusion reached is that studying physics never ceases to be a timely study, as the works of these thinkers, even with the passing of centuries, continue to engage with and bring meaning to contemporary philosophy and science.
This article investigates the phenomenon of polyonymy, a concept originally stemming from linguistic terminology, here applied to Mathematics to denote the existence of multiple names for the same concept, theorem, or method. Starting from the observation that such variations go beyond mere linguistic translation, the study examines their historical, social, cultural, and epistemological roots. Through the analysis of emblematic cases, such as the Briot-Ruffini/Horner method, the Viète/Girard relations, the Gauss/Ostrogradsky theorem, the quadratic formula (Bhaskara/Sridharacharya), and the Curve of Agnesi, all discussed in detail later, it is argued that mathematical nomenclature is not a neutral system of designation but rather a social, cultural, pedagogical, and historical construct. The discussion draws upon references from the History and Philosophy of Science, highlighting Stephen Mack Stigler’s Law of Eponymy, Thomas Samuel Kuhn’s contributions on scientific development, as well as specific historiographical analyses of Mathematics. Factors such as priority disputes, scientific nationalisms, translation errors, and the consolidation of distinct pedagogical traditions are examined. The article concludes that recognising and critically discussing polyonymy in teaching, learning, and research can enrich the understanding of Mathematics as a living science, historically situated and permeated by contingencies, moving beyond the notion of a monolithic body of knowledge disconnected from historical contexts. Additionally, pedagogical implications of this phenomenon are outlined, which may represent either an obstacle or an opportunity for teaching the history of Mathematics. The study adopts a qualitative and historiographical approach, focusing on emblematic cases. It is also based on documentary analysis of primary and secondary sources, including mathematical treatises, didactic manuals, and specialised works. This methodology aims to comprehend the historical and cultural contexts related to the attribution of names in Mathematics.
The book by McFadden, a professor of molecular genetics at the University of Surrey, United Kingdom, comes at a good time and I consider it of special interest for the field of humanities. It is a good time because the field is full of complexity, relativism, plurality, postmodernism, etc., which take as values the exact opposite of what is exposed in the book as the foundation of science. It is a good time, therefore, because simplicity is already seen as a defect, a vice, when in fact it is the greatest scientific virtue that we have been able to find in several thousand years, as the work argues. Ockham's razor, formulated by the Franciscan friar William of Ockham (1287 - 1347), states that entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity, encouraging the search for simpler explanations for the observed phenomena. McFadden's central argument that "less is more" is presented as a counterbalance to the conceptual overload of relativist and postmodern currents. The defense of assumption economy, based on both philosophical principles and probabilistic methodologies (such as the Bayesian approach), illustrates how science benefits from choosing less ad hoc theories. McFadden accurately traces Ockham's influence on the evolution of scientific thought, connecting it from the beginnings of astronomy in Mesopotamia to the advances in modern physics and biology. Thus, we can infer from the book that it is the key to what Bilate (2024) considered key to academia: finding an ethics for our academic production.
This text is the result of an interview conducted by historians David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz with Herbert Needleman, a physician and pioneer in medical history who helped transform our understanding of the effects of lead (Pb) on children's health. David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz are well-known American historians and scholars, recognized for their work and contributions in the fields of Public Health and the History of Medicine, with several books and articles pub-lished. This translation was initially carried out by our group in 2009 on the occa-sion of the Symposium on Lead and Human Health, which included the publica-tion of articles in Portuguese on the topic in the journal MEDICINA, from FMRP/USP (https://www.revistas.usp.br/rmrp/issue/view/36). The goal was to disseminate, in Portuguese, to our society, the challenges surrounding the scientific proof that lead is a neurotoxin. For the publication of the interview in the journal Khronos, an introduction was added to update the reader on the latest data, which confirms that any amount of lead is toxic to the human body. Additionally, the World Health Organization (WHO) has established a dedicated week for raising awareness and preventing lead contamination. The interview highlights important milestones that led to the publication of essential articles for modern toxicology. However, it also reveals the personal struggles of Herbert Needleman—including losing his job at the prestigious Harvard Medical School—after being sued by the lead industry for alleged ethical misconduct. This interview will undoubtedly in-spire current and future generations of scientists to view the challenges of research in toxicology and environmental science from a new perspective.
The growing concern about climate change has encouraged the adoption of low-carbon energy sources. In this context, nuclear energy – especially thermonuclear fusion – has gained international prominence. Brazil, although it has a predominantly renewable electricity matrix, has a relevant history in fusion research since the 1970s, with the construction of tokamaks such as the TBR-1 and ETE, led by institutions IFUSP and INPE. In 1981, the establishment of the National Program for Plasma Physics and Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion (PNFPFTC) represented an institutional milestone, promoting the training of human resources, structuring of laboratories, and international collaboration. However, the discontinuation of research groups, such as that of UNICAMP, reveals the fragility of national science policy in the face of the absence of stable and structuring programs. The creation of the National Fusion Network (2006) and the proposal of the National Fusion Program in 2021 aim to resume and consolidate these efforts. Globally, major projects such as ITER in Europe, EAST in China, and KSTAR in South Korea demonstrate that nuclear fusion research is an example of Large-Scale Science or Big Science, requiring international consortia and significant investment. Brazil, despite not being part of the ITER consortium, signed a Cooperation Agreement with EURATOM in 2009, enabling exchanges and technological development. Thus, the role of scientists as articulators of research toward policy and society is highlighted.
This article aims to analyze the organization and teaching of the History of Science in undergraduate courses at the Federal Institute of São Paulo (IFSP). The research is based on documentary analysis of institutional regulations related to these disciplines, data collection on the teaching staff responsible for delivering them, and the application of a questionnaire to understand teachers’ perceptions of the field. The results indicate that, although half of the institution’s undergraduate programs include at least one course related to the History of Science, its consolidation still faces challenges, such as the absence of standardized criteria for faculty assignments and the low perceived value of the discipline among both teachers and students.
The purpose of this work is to contribute to the memory of the Brazilian energy sector, specifically the history of electrification in northern Brazil, which represents a valuable part of our history, still permeated with chapters to be explored and studied in depth. Among these paths is the construction of the first hydroelectric plant in the Amazon, Itaperucu, conceived by Newton Carvalho in the 1930s. A project carried out during the transformations of the energy sector in the Estado Novo, located in the city of Carolina, State of Maranhão, its construction contributes to the understanding of the electrification process in the first half of the 20th century, the acquisition of parts/technology transfer in the interwar period, and energy expansion in the northern part of the country. To this end, an interview was conducted with Newton Carvalho's daughters, Rosa Aires and Zilma Carvalho, in April 2025, who shared documents and memories of this process, at a time when they are in the process of publishing a book on the subject.
The 1918 influenza pandemics reached global proportions, becoming one of the greatest catastrophes in modern history, intensified by the social transformations resulting from increasing globalization and the context of the First World War. This article analyzes the impacts of the influenza epidemic, also known as the Spanish flu, on the local context of the city of Ponta Grossa, in the state of Paraná. The investigation is based on representations conveyed by the Paraná press during the epidemic period, considering them as primary sources for reconstructing the social experiences of that time. The methodology adopted is evidential paradigm, aiming to understand, through local and regional manifestations, the perceptions, coping strategies, and difficulties faced in the face of the human and social losses caused by the 1918 pandemics.
In this article our main themes are the History of Science and Scientific Dissemination. The objective was to identify whether research in the area of Science Teaching has used Scientific Dissemination Texts (TDC) as a resource to cover aspects of the History of Science. To this end, through a bibliographical review, we searched three Brazilian magazines that deal with the History of Science for productions with the descriptors “Scientific Dissemination Texts”. Three articles were selected for analysis, so that we came to the conclusion that there is still little research that addresses the topics mentioned, however the texts analyzed converge on the idea that TDC, especially when anchored in the History of Science, play an important role in training students who understand scientific advances as processes that constitute the human capacity for creation in social, cultural and historically situated contexts.
Este estudo examina Sobre a concepção das afasias (1891) com o propósito de identificar os conceitos de funcionalidade, lesão e representação no contexto científico oitocentista. A obra se insere no debate psiquiátrico e neurológico da época, questionando o modelo localizacionista, que postulava a existência de centros cerebrais fixos responsáveis pelas funções linguísticas, e propondo, em contrapartida, uma concepção dinâmica e integrada. Com base nas contribuições de Hughlings Jackson e Henry Charlton Bastian, Freud reformula a compreensão da relação entre dano cerebral e distúrbios da linguagem, sustentando que as afasias derivam de alterações funcionais no aparelho linguístico, em vez de serem resultantes diretas de lesões circunscritas. Este artigo visa demonstrar como a monografia freudiana, ao mesmo tempo que dialoga com a tradição médica vigente, antecipa condições epistemológicas fundamentais para a posterior formulação da teoria das neuroses.
A pandemia de gripe de 1918 assumiu proporções globais, configurando-se como uma das maiores catástrofes da história moderna, intensificada pelas transformações sociais decorrentes da crescente globalização e pelo contexto da Primeira Guerra Mundial. Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar os impactos da epidemia de influenza, conhecida como gripe espanhola, no contexto local da cidade de Ponta Grossa, no estado do Paraná. A investigação baseia-se nas representações veiculadas pela imprensa paranaense durante o período epidêmico, considerando-as como fontes primárias para a reconstrução das experiências sociais vividas naquele momento. Adota-se, como metodologia, a pesquisa indiciária, a fim de apreender, por meio das manifestações locais e regionais, as percepções, estratégias de enfrentamento e dificuldades enfrentadas diante das perdas humanas e sociais provocadas pela pandemia de 1918.
Este texto resulta de uma entrevista feito pelos historiadores David Rosner e Ge-rald Markowitz com Herbert Needleman, médico e um pioneiro na história da medicina, que ajudou a transformar nosso entendimento sobre os efeitos do Pb na saúde das crianças. David Rosner e Gerald Markowitz são historiadores e acadêmi-cos norte-americanos muito conhecidos pelos seus trabalhos e contribuições nas áreas da Saúde Pública e História da Medicina, com vários livros e artigos escritos. Essa tradução foi feita inicialmente por nosso grupo em 2009, por ocasião do Sim-pósio Sobre Chumbo e a Saúde Humana, que teve a publicação de artigos em por-tuguês sobre o assunto na Revista MEDICINA, da FMRP/USP (https://www.revistas.usp.br/rmrp/issue/view/36), para divulgar em português, para nossa sociedade, as dificuldades que cercaram a comprovação de que o chum-bo era uma neurotoxina. Para a publicação da entrevista na Revista Khronos, foi feita uma Introdução que atualiza o leitor sobre os dados mais recentes, que mos-tram que qualquer quantidade de chumbo é tóxica para o organismo humano e que há uma semana de divulgação e prevenção da contaminação por chumbo feita pela Organização Mundial da Saúde. A entrevista toca em pontos muito bonitos que levaram à publicação de artigos essenciais para a toxicologia moderna, mas também traz as dificuldades pessoais (inclusive com perda do emprego na prestigi-osa Faculdade de Medicina de Harvard) de Herbert Needleman, após ter sido pro-cessado pela Indústria do Chumbo por má conduta ética. É uma entrevista que certamente vai motivar esta e outras gerações de cientistas a olhar os desafios da pesquisa em toxicologia e meio ambiente com outros olhos.
O presente artigo investiga o problema da vontade, destacando a dicotomia entre os métodos empíricos da neurociência e as reflexões conceituais da filosofia da mente. A neurociência tem revelado, por meio de estudos empíricos, como processos cerebrais inconscientes influenciam a tomada de decisões, desafiando a concepção tradicional de livre-arbítrio (Libet, 1985; Haggard, 2008). Em contrapartida, a filosofia da mente analisa as implicações epistemológicas e éticas desses achados, levantando questões sobre autonomia e responsabilidade moral (Frankfurt, 1971; Mele, 1995). Temos como objetivo discutir os desafios epistemológicos e metodológicos que surgem dessa interseção, propondo que a integração de abordagens quantitativas e qualitativas pode enriquecer a compreensão da liberdade humana, ressaltando a necessidade de um diálogo interdisciplinar (Pereboom, 2001; Vihvelin, 2013)
A crescente preocupação com as mudanças climáticas tem incentivado a adoção de fontes energéticas de baixa emissão de carbono. Nesse contexto, a energia nuclear, especialmente a de fusão termonuclear, tem ganhado destaque internacional. O Brasil, embora possua uma matriz elétrica majoritariamente renovável, apresenta histórico nas pesquisas de fusão desde os anos 1970, com as construções de tokamaks – como o TBR-1 e o ETE, lideradas pelo IFUSP e INPE. Em 1981, a formulação do Programa Nacional de Física do Plasma e Fusão Termonuclear Controlada (PNFPFTC) representou um marco institucional, promovendo a formação de recursos humanos, estruturação de laboratórios e articulação internacional. Contudo, a descontinuidade de grupos de pesquisa, como o da UNICAMP, revela a fragilidade da política científica nacional frente à ausência de programas estruturantes e estáveis. A criação da Rede Nacional de Fusão, em 2006, e a proposta do Programa Nacional de Fusão Nuclear em 2021 visam retomar e consolidar os esforços. No cenário global, grandes empreendimentos, como o ITER, na Europa, o EAST, na China, e o KSTAR, na Coréia do Sul, demonstram que a pesquisa de fusão nuclear é de large-scale science ou big science, que precisam de consórcios internacionais e elevado investimento. O Brasil, apesar de não integrar o consórcio ITER, firmou acordo de cooperação com a EURATOM em 2009, viabilizando intercâmbios e desenvolvimento tecnológico. Assim, destaca-se o papel dos cientistas como agentes articuladores da pesquisa para a política e para a sociedade.
