El artículo analiza una situación de aprendizaje con estudiantes de tercer y cuarto curso de educación secundaria para identificar desinformación y noticias falsas a raíz de la catástrofe climática de la dana de 2024 en Valencia. Ocho meses después de la primera actividad, se valora en qué medida se ha desarrollado esta competencia con una actividad de evocación. De esta manera, se identifican diferencias de actitud entre estudiantes de los dos niveles, mejores en el curso inferior, por lo que se considera relevante incluir actividades sobre desinformación desde edades tempranas. Los centros escolares deben contribuir a la alfabetización mediática del alumnado como una herramienta para contrarrestar las noticias falsas, la polarización política y los discursos de odio.
Critical thinking is always necessary, but confronting irrationality is all the more urgent in an age of fake news and post-truth. In several countries, climate denialism has found its way into government, endangering agreements and measures designed to prevent catastrophic global warming and a global climate crisis. Anti-vaccination movements are leading to a decline in vaccination rates in countries such as the United States, consequently causing outbreaks of diseases that we thought had been eradicated. This monograph addresses the challenges to the development of critical thinking in the current context and how to promote its learning.
People who represent science in public conversations often respond to tension between scientific and vernacular meanings by insisting on the exclusive validity of scientific meanings. Instead of accepting that scientific and vernacular meanings are rooted in different contexts and may both have value, public science insists on conflict – a pattern I call semantic incivility. This pattern enables the spread of misinformation by creating distance and distrust, making it easier to drive a political wedge between scientific experts and public audiences. By seeking alliance rather than opposition and accepting that different meanings can coexist and have value, public representatives of science may be able to close the distance with public audiences and reduce the opportunity for misinformation and distrust.
En este trabajo reflexionamos sobre la relación entre pensamiento crítico, diversidad cultural y justicia social en contextos educativos interculturales. Sostenemos que el pensamiento crítico no puede desarrollarse de manera justa cuando los sistemas educativos invalidan los conocimientos, lenguas y formas de vida de grupos culturalmente diversos. A partir de una reflexión sustentada en experiencias de trabajo en comunidades indígenas mixes de Oaxaca, discutimos la relevancia de la justicia epistémica y la justicia lingüística para la educación en ciencias. Mostramos cómo las experiencias comunitarias de los estudiantes –vinculadas con la lengua materna, la vida cotidiana y problemáticas ambientales como el cambio climático– favorecen formas situadas de argumentación, análisis y toma de decisiones. Estos procesos permiten comprender el pensamiento crítico como una práctica cultural y colectivamente construida. Argumentamos que una educación intercultural orientada al desarrollo del pensamiento crítico requiere generar espacios de diálogo entre conocimientos científicos y conocimientos tradicionales, así como reconocer la diversidad de formas de conocer, nombrar e interpretar el mundo. Desde esta perspectiva, el pensamiento crítico implica también aprender a escuchar, dialogar y construir colectivamente conocimientos con sentido para las comunidades.
El artículo aborda algunos desafíos que plantea el desarrollo del pensamiento crítico en el contexto actual, partiendo de la necesidad de pensar críticamente en unas circunstancias de difusión de bulos, desinformación y posverdad, entendida como degradación de los procesos de verificación de informaciones. En primer lugar, se revisan las nociones de desinformación, noticias falseadas y pensamiento crítico, y nuestra propuesta de incluir la justicia social entre sus componentes. A continuación, se analiza el posible impacto del negacionismo en la disminución de la vacunación, siguiendo estas preguntas: 1) ¿qué motivos se alegan para no vacunarse?; 2) ¿qué fuentes de información se consideran fiables? Por último, se discuten elementos para aprender a pensar críticamente practicándolo.
El objetivo de este artículo es rebatir algunos de los argumentos esgrimidos sobre el papel de España en la trata atlántica de esclavos. Un negacionismo histórico desplegado por sectores conservadores y una literatura propagandística con gran apoyo editorial, que hunde sus raíces en clásicos tópicos historiográficos, construidos en el siglo XIX y amplificados en la dictadura franquista. Un relato histórico que no responde a los principios del pensamiento crítico, sino a pugnas identitarias basadas en la nación histórica como marco ideológico. En las últimas dos décadas, estas obras se han centrado en las glorias imperiales, en las epopeyas de los tercios de infantería, o en el papel evangelizador y civilizador de la corona española en América desde un foco fundamental: luchar contra una leyenda negra que, según su interpretación, ha distorsionado la historia de España que se enseña en la etapa escolar. Para ello, hemos analizado las características de esta literatura, y la hemos contrastado con los datos empíricos derivados de la investigación académica, como herramienta para desarrollar el pensamiento crítico.
This article is an exploration of the relationship between technology and warfare from prehistoric times to the present day. The subject is examined in four realms-land, naval, air and space-and three time periods defined by the dominant power source driving the weapons: muscle power, chemical reactions, and charged particles. It introduces a rigorous definition of technology. The essay focuses on the ongoing evolution of military technology throughout human history, which accelerated since the Industrial Revolution in the West and, in particular, since the commitment to science-based research and development during World War II.
War has historically acted as a catalyst for scientific and technological progress, particularly in medicine and public health. From early innovations in surgical techniques and orthopaedics to breakthroughs in blood transfusion, conflict created urgent needs that accelerated innovation. The two World Wars advanced antibiotics, imaging, ultrasound, and pacemakers, while Cold War rivalries spurred aerospace and nuclear medicine. Yet, war also devastated scientific communities by repressing and exiling people such as Jewish individuals and Spanish Republicans. Beyond technology, war reshaped health policy: epidemics, malnutrition, and social crises fostered social medicine, national health systems, and international cooperation through the League of Nations and Rockefeller Foundation. The complex network of negotiations and influences was the starting point for the health industry, as well as the ideological background to the welfare state health policies implemented in most European countries after the Second World War.
Science and technology are fundamental pillars of modern societies and have an impact on aspects such as industrial and economic growth, among others. While they are not the cause of wars themselves, thanks to scientists and technologists, the destructive power of weapons has increased continuously. It is worth remembering that Athena was the goddess of both knowledge and war. In this article we will briefly look at the role and attitudes of physicists in developing nuclear weaponry (atomic and hydrogen bombs) and some implications of the Cold War for physics-as recounted by some of the most prominent individuals involved.
In this article, we analyse the characteristics, perspectives, and dangers of modern warfare and the technologies involved. We examine new methods of warfare and the current state of robotic weapons and combat systems incorporating artificial intelligence technologies, exploring their most contentious and problematic aspects. Finally, we examine informed opinions from various sectors, particularly science, which highlight the significant challenges and issues facing humanity. These opinions are based on factual observations concerning ecological and planetary balance, as well as human dignity. Accompanying all of this are proposals for demilitarisation, diplomacy, decarbonisation, and global cooperation.
Throughout history, the relationship between science and war has remained constant, reflecting the dual nature of human knowledge, which is capable of generating both progress and destruction. From Archimedes, who applied his mathematical and mechanical skills to defend Syracuse with catapults, pulleys, and innovative machines in the third century BCE, to today’s military technologies, science has been a fundamental ally of military power. The introduction of gunpowder in the Middle Ages completely transformed the way war was waged, paving the way for cannons and firearms that reduced the importance of individual skill. During the Renaissance, figures such as Leonardo da Vinci designed war machines that demonstrated the extent to which scientific creativity could be directed towards warfare. The creator of so much artistic beauty also contributed to making war more destructive.
Throughout history, the relationship between science and war has remained constant, reflecting the dual nature of human knowledge, which is capable of generating both progress and destruction. From Archimedes, who applied his mathematical and mechanical skills to defend Syracuse with catapults, pulleys, and innovative machines in the third century BCE, to today’s military technologies, science has been a fundamental ally of military power. The introduction of gunpowder in the Middle Ages completely transformed the way war was waged, paving the way for cannons and firearms that reduced the importance of individual skill. During the Renaissance, figures such as Leonardo da Vinci designed war machines that demonstrated the extent to which scientific creativity could be directed towards warfare. The creator of so much artistic beauty also contributed to making war more destructive.
Climate change is profoundly affecting mountain areas. While glacier retreat is highly visible, the underground cryosphere, including cave ice deposits, faces less apparent but equally concerning threats. These ice deposits serve as exceptional frozen archives. The analysis of environmental proxies such as stable isotopes, pollen, plant macrofossils and cryogenic cave minerals offers valuable insights into past environmental and climate dynamics. Research on ice caves in the Pyrenees has uncovered unique and novel information about past climatic conditions, treeline shifts, microbial communities and the dynamics of mountain permafrost. However, these fragile ice masses are rapidly diminishing due to raising temperatures, underscoring their critical role as palaeoenvironmental archives and sentinels of ongoing climate change.
The changes brought about by the rising temperatures of ongoing global climate change are affecting the ecosystems of high mountains. The most affected are marginal environments, whose climate parameters are especially sensitive. This is the case of the highest mountains in the Iberian Peninsula, where the cryosphere still resists under its specific topoclimatic conditions, and where the general trend towards ice regression is exposing a hidden but equally affected environment: ice caves. This article presents the main impacts affecting the ice caves in the Picos de Europa mountain range over the past 15 years. We will examine their importance, the potential consequences of ice retreat, and their current patterns of change.
The history of the relations of science and war in the United Kingdom during the Great War has been the subject of much mythologising, by scientists and by historians. Those myths need to be understood, not ignored. Contrary to those myths, the UK had a powerful military-scientific complex prior to the Great War, which was greatly expanded during it, not least by the recruitment of physicists to it.
En aquest article analitzem les característiques, perspectives i perills de les actuals guerres i de les tecnologies que involucren. Veiem les noves maneres de fer les guerres, l’estat actual de les armes robòtiques i els sistemes de combat que inclouen tecnologies d’intel·ligència artificial, tot analitzant els seus aspectes més discutibles i problemàtics. Per acabar, analitzem les veus informades que des de molts àmbits, però sobretot des de la ciència, ens parlen dels grans reptes i problemes que tenim com a humanitat amb advertències basades en l’observació dels fets, en l’equilibri ecològic i planetari, i en la dignitat humana. Tot plegat amb propostes que podríem abordar des de la desmilitarització, la diplomàcia, la descarbonització i la cooperació global.
La ciència i la tecnologia són pilars fonamentals de les societats modernes que afecten aspectes com el creixement industrial i econòmic, entre altres. En si mateixes no són causa de les guerres, però el poder destructiu de les armes ha augmentat de manera contínua gràcies a científics i tecnòlegs. Recordem que Atena era alhora deessa del coneixement i de la guerra. En aquest article veurem de manera succinta el paper i les actituds dels físics –a través dels testimonis d’alguns dels més conspicus implicats– en la construcció de les bombes nuclears (atòmica i d’hidrogen) i algunes implicacions de la Guerra Freda en la física.
War has historically acted as a catalyst for scientific and technological progress, particularly in medicine and public health. From early innovations in surgical techniques and orthopaedics to breakthroughs in blood transfusion, conflict created urgent needs that accelerated innovation. The two World Wars advanced antibiotics, imaging, ultrasound, and pacemakers, while Cold War rivalries spurred aerospace and nuclear medicine. Yet, war also devastated scientific communities by repressing and exiling people such as Jewish individuals and Spanish Republicans. Beyond technology, war reshaped health policy: epidemics, malnutrition, and social crises fostered social medicine, national health systems, and international cooperation through the League of Nations and Rockefeller Foundation. The complex network of negotiations and influences was the starting point for the health industry, as well as the ideological background to the welfare state health policies implemented in most European countries after the Second World War.
This article is an exploration of the relationship between technology and warfare from prehistoric times to the present day. The subject is examined in four realms – land, naval, air and space – and three time periods defined by the dominant power source driving the weapons: muscle power, chemical reactions, and charged particles. It introduces a rigorous definition of technology. The essay focuses on the ongoing evolution of military technology throughout human history, which accelerated since the Industrial Revolution in the West and, in particular, since the commitment to science-based research and development during World War II.
Large language models (LLM) are not just writing poems and answering trivia anymore. They are becoming master persuaders, capable of crafting arguments that can change our minds on everything from political views to health choices. This article explores the rapidly evolving science of artificial intelligence (AI) persuasion, revealing how these digital influencers work, how effective they are compared to humans, and the profound ethical and societal implications of this new technology. We delve into the strategies LLMs use, the challenges of detecting AI-generated influence, and the urgent need for regulations to ensure this powerful technology is used responsibly.
