Science Bound, Spring 2013, Vol. 12, no. 1

Science Bound is Iowa State University’s premier pre-college program to increase the number of ethnically diverse Iowa students who pursue ASTEM (agricultural, scientific, technical, engineering and mathematics) degrees. The program draws students with potential from middle and high schools.

Ecrire demain, penser aujourd'hui : la science-fiction à la croisée des disciplines : façonner une poétique, esquisser une pragmatique

Abstract De nature interdisciplinaire, ma thèse de doctorat porte sur les récits littéraires traditionnellement nommés de «science-fiction» - peu étudiés dans le milieu universitaire jusqu'à maintenant - et, plus particulièrement, sur le dialogue critique que ce genre littéraire peut instituer entre tout lecteur et la société technoscientifique au sein de laquelle il évolue au quotidien. Afin que cette tâche puisse être menée de manière rigoureuse, j'ai été conduit à faire entrer en résonance divers champs cognitifs non nécessairement liés a priori, à savoir les études littéraires (théorie de la mimèsis, théorie de la réception, théorie schaefferienne de la fiction et situations-limites sartriennes), anthropologiques (fonction du récit chez Jean Molino et Jérôme Brunner), économiques (histoire et théories du libéralisme), philosophiques (méditations heisenbergienne et heideggérienne sur la technique) et épistémologiques (liens entre technologies, sciences et société). En débutant par une réflexion historique sur l'émergence de la science moderne et du libéralisme économique, il s'agissait pour moi de montrer qu'entre ces deux savoirs, une alliance originale s'est nouée et ce, dès la fin du XVIIIe siècle : l'un a besoin de l'autre, et réciproquement. Il est ensuite mis en lumière qu'à la naissance de la science-fiction à la fin du XIXe siècle, correspond la nécessité, pour certains écrivains du moins, de réfléchir à l'évolution technoscientifique prise par la société de leur temps, ainsi qu'aux conséquences que ce progrès pourrait induire sur l'être humain en tant que sujet moral - une problématisation du rapport homme/technoscience par le biais de la fiction, donc. Lors de cette partie, je discute, d'une part, des éléments fondamentaux qui sont essentiels pour établir une poétique originale de la science-fiction - la conjecture, la structure des univers et les thèmes - et, d'autre, part, des distinctions génériques qu'il est important de discerner - j'en délimite trois : science-fiction «apologétique », «neutre » et «critique ». Finalement, mon travail se conclut par une réflexion, à partir de la pensée de Hans Jonas et de Jean-Pierre Dupuy, sur la fonction active que peuvent jouer les romans de science-fiction au niveau éthique. Pour le dire autrement, la fin de mon étude propose, en premier lieu, d'esquisser une «pragmatique de la science-fiction» ; puis, en second lieu, mon enquête stipule que la prise en charge sérieuse de ces récits conduit à la possibilité de concevoir une forme particulière de «catastrophisme éclairé », que j'appelle «heuristique du catastrophisme éclairé » conjurer les dangers et les périls qui pourraient éventuellement nous menacer, c'est avant tout croire qu'ils pourraient se réaliser si on ne les pense pas ou si on n'agit pas. Cette étape, souhaitée par les éthiciens, est justement celle qui me semble caractériser les récits de science-fiction critique. En ce sens, je montre que si la science-fiction écrit «demain », ce n'est en tout cas pas pour le fantasmer ou le prédire, mais, au contraire, pour mieux penser ce qui lui donne forme : l'« aujourd'hui ».

WISE: Women in Science and Engineering, Fall 2006

Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Program is to expand and improve educational and professional opportunities for women in all fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by facilitating individual, institutional, and social change.

WISE: Women in Science and Engineering, Spring 2007

Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Program is to expand and improve educational and professional opportunities for women in all fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by facilitating individual, institutional, and social change.

WISE: Women in Science and Engineering, Spring 2009

Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Program is to expand and improve educational and professional opportunities for women in all fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by facilitating individual, institutional, and social change.

WISE: Women in Science and Engineering, Winter 2007

Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Program is to expand and improve educational and professional opportunities for women in all fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by facilitating individual, institutional, and social change.

WISE: Women in Science and Engineering, Winter 2007-2008

Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Program is to expand and improve educational and professional opportunities for women in all fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by facilitating individual, institutional, and social change.

WISE: Women in Science and Engineering, Winter 2009

Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Program is to expand and improve educational and professional opportunities for women in all fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by facilitating individual, institutional, and social change.

WISE: Women in Science and Engineering, Winter 2011-2012

Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Program is to expand and improve educational and professional opportunities for women in all fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by facilitating individual, institutional, and social change.

Audit report of Debt Service and Coverage for Iowa State University of Science and Technology as of June 30, 2014

Audit report of Debt Service and Coverage for Iowa State University of Science and Technology as of June 30, 2014

Challenges and opportunities for science journalists in adopting new technologies: the case of Spain = Retos y oportunidades para los periodistas científicos en la adopción de las nuevas tecnologías: el caso de España

This paper analyses the adoption of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) by Spanish journalists specialising in science. Applying an ethnographic research model, this study was based on a wide sample of professionals, aiming to evaluate the extent by which science journalists have adopted the new media and changed the way they use information sources. In addition, interviewees were asked whether in their opinion the Web 2.0 has had an impact on the quality of the news. The integration of formats certainly implies a few issues for today’s newsrooms. Finally, with the purpose of improving the practice of science information dissemination, the authors put forward a few proposals, namely: Increasing the training of Spanish science journalists in the field of new technologies; Emphasising the accuracy of the information and the validation of sources; Rethinking the mandates and the tasks of information professionals.

New perspectives in the use of ink evidence in forensic science: Part III: Operational applications and evaluation.

The research reported in this series of article aimed at (1) automating the search of questioned ink specimens in ink reference collections and (2) at evaluating the strength of ink evidence in a transparent and balanced manner. These aims require that ink samples are analysed in an accurate and reproducible way and that they are compared in an objective and automated way. This latter requirement is due to the large number of comparisons that are necessary in both scenarios. A research programme was designed to (a) develop a standard methodology for analysing ink samples in a reproducible way, (b) comparing automatically and objectively ink samples and (c) evaluate the proposed methodology in forensic contexts. This report focuses on the last of the three stages of the research programme. The calibration and acquisition process and the mathematical comparison algorithms were described in previous papers [C. Neumann, P. Margot, New perspectives in the use of ink evidence in forensic science-Part I: Development of a quality assurance process for forensic ink analysis by HPTLC, Forensic Sci. Int. 185 (2009) 29-37; C. Neumann, P. Margot, New perspectives in the use of ink evidence in forensic science-Part II: Development and testing of mathematical algorithms for the automatic comparison of ink samples analysed by HPTLC, Forensic Sci. Int. 185 (2009) 38-50]. In this paper, the benefits and challenges of the proposed concepts are tested in two forensic contexts: (1) ink identification and (2) ink evidential value assessment. The results show that different algorithms are better suited for different tasks. This research shows that it is possible to build digital ink libraries using the most commonly used ink analytical technique, i.e. high-performance thin layer chromatography, despite its reputation of lacking reproducibility. More importantly, it is possible to assign evidential value to ink evidence in a transparent way using a probabilistic model. It is therefore possible to move away from the traditional subjective approach, which is entirely based on experts' opinion, and which is usually not very informative. While there is room for the improvement, this report demonstrates the significant gains obtained over the traditional subjective approach for the search of ink specimens in ink databases, and the interpretation of their evidential value.