Science at the Crossroads was published by Herbert Dingle in 1972 at the end of a gruelling controversy with the English scientific world about the clock paradox in Einstein’s special relativity. It is still a seminal text, which allows us to understand and evaluate, with Cartesian clarity, the problem of that paradox for all those readers who find themselves in a widespread condition of having studied Einstein’s special relativity or received a teaching of it, and yet of not feeling comfortable it because the attempt to understand the logical connection of the parts with the whole did not succeed. Many have experienced this state of mind, and can admit it. In this way Science at the Crossroads is an important source of knowledge about Einstein’s special relativity and its historical background. Science at the Crossroads contains a great wealth of philosophical and epistemological ideas. The essay has a classic imprint, rich with sharp and clear distinctions, and very elegant in style. We meet countless research possibilities concerning the mathematical idealism of anti-classical physics after 1920 (assuming it is still correct to call it physics rather than metaphysics, as Dingle would suggest, as a partisan of modern science empirical method). Every page written by Dingle suggests research that could be carried out in depth, starting from what Dingle observes on the origins of mathematical idealism in Maxwell himself and his displacement current postulated to ensure the continuity of a given mathematical function, to end with the extreme tendencies of this kind of thought that were manifested towards the 1970s, as for example in the case of Professor Hoyle mentioned in the last chapter, who “has plainly stated his advocacy of the process of telling nature what to do instead of looking to see what she does”. Naturally, it is our task to continue Dingle’s research up to the present. The present electronic edition provides a Foreword from the editor, which informs about the basic knowledge readers are expected to have in order to fully understand Science at the Crossroads.

The papers given by the Soviet Delegation to the Second International Congress of the History of Science and Technology in London in 1931, headed by N. I. Bukharin, exerted a profound influence on Western historiography of science. Perhaps the most influential contribution was that of Hessen, who made a long and classical statement of Marxist historiography, taking Isaac Newton as his example. The collection, which appeared in Britain at the height of the Depression, fostered an acute social awareness and a heated debate among many working scientists. Accredited by some as "the starting point of a new evaluation of the history of science", the book reflects the huge social and economic divide between Socialism and Capitalism present at the time of publication, and its influence on intellectual culture and scientific advancement.

The 38th World Congress of IIS addressed some of the most fundamental issues of sociological inquiry in light of global processes and the development of different fields of knowledge: What does it mean to be human? What is the nature of social as opposed to natural processes? How do efforts to map the social and political world interact with that world and with traditional sociological practices? What can we say about relationships between scientific, political and religious beliefs? This volume sets the stage for a sustained look at what social science can say about the twenty-first century and to address the theme of the congress in 2008: Sociology Looks at the 21st Century. From Local Universalism to Global Contextualism. Contributors are: Gustaf Arrhenius, Rajeev Bhargava, Craig Calhoun, Shmuel N. Eisenstadt, Yehuda Elkana, Raghavendra Gadagkar, Peter Hedström, Hans Joas, Hannes Klöpper, Ivan Krastev, Steven Lukes, Vinh-Kim Nguyen, Helga Nowotny, Shalini Randeria, Alan Ryan, Jyotirmaya Sharma, Christina Torén, Michel Wieviorka, Björn Wittrock, Petri Ylikoski.

The Middle East plays a major role in the history of genetic science. Early in the twentieth century, technological breakthroughs in human genetics coincided with the birth of modern Middle Eastern nation-states, who proclaimed that the region's ancient history—as a cradle of civilizations and crossroads of humankind—was preserved in the bones and blood of their citizens. Using letters and publications from the 1920s to the present, Elise K. Burton follows the field expeditions and hospital surveys that scrutinized the bodies of tribal nomads and religious minorities. These studies, geneticists claim, not only detect the living descendants of biblical civilizations but also reveal the deeper past of human evolution. Genetic Crossroads is an unprecedented history of human genetics in the Middle East, from its roots in colonial anthropology and medicine to recent genome sequencing projects. It illuminates how scientists from Turkey to Yemen, Egypt to Iran, transformed genetic data into territorial claims and national origin myths. Burton shows why such nationalist appropriations of genetics are not local or temporary aberrations, but rather the enduring foundations of international scientific interest in Middle Eastern populations to this day.

The papers given by the Soviet Delegation to the Second International Congress of the History of Science and Technology in London in 1931, headed by N. I. Bukharin, exerted a profound influence on Western historiography of science. Perhaps the most influential contribution was that of Hessen, who made a long and classical statement of Marxist historiography, taking Isaac Newton as his example. The collection, which appeared in Britain at the height of the Depression, fostered an acute social awareness and a heated debate among many working scientists. Accredited by some as "the starting point of a new evaluation of the history of science", the book reflects the huge social and economic divide between Socialism and Capitalism present at the time of publication, and its influence on intellectual culture and scientific advancement.

First Published in 2001. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.