enzo ferrara

Modern Science, an essay written by Lev Nikolaevic Tolstoy in 1898 is here reproduced in its complete version, as a historical document containing philosophical reflections on the practical functions and the cultural and educational role science has, or should have, in contemporary societies. The text was cited by Aldous Huxley in the foreword to Science, Liberty and Peace, a booklet written in 1946 in the aftermath of the second world war, with the threat of nuclear doomsday on the horizon. Are science and technology really at the service of universal needs, as it is continuously claimed – Tolstoy asks, and Huxley echoes – or are their services rather directed to preserving the power of the elites or dominant classes against the multitude of the oppressed?

Combining different dating techniques is fundamental to constrain the ages of archaeological findings, mainly when direct evidences for their chronological context are not available. This paper presents the results of a combined archaeological, archaeomagnetic and thermoluminescence study of a kiln discovered during a rescue excavation at Chieri, northern Italy. The archaeological site is quite complex mainly due to the interposition of different stratigraphic levels that span from Roman times to present day. The studied kiln belongs to the post-medieval stratigraphic level but the lack of datable diagnostic objects strongly limits the possibility of its accurate dating only by means of archaeological evidences. Archaeomagnetic study was performed on 26 baked clay samples, isolating stable characteristic remanent magnetizations. The statistic comparison of the averaged direction with reference secular variation curves suggests two possible dating intervals. Independent dating from t...

A newly developed digital feedback wattmeter, allowing power loss measurements in soft laminations under generic induction waveform is presented. The system is intrinsically free of auto-oscillations, typical drawback of analog feedback circuits, and can therefore be operated in a wide frequency range (0.5 Hz–100 kHz). Loss measurements performed by this setup under sinusoidal and distorted induction waveforms on Co based amorphous ribbons are reported. It is shown that the classical approximation to the prediction of power losses under distorted induction largely fails to account for the experimental results. A novel theoretical approach, based on the statistical theory of losses, is discussed and successfully applied to the experiments. In particular, it is shown that knowledge of the loss components under sinusoidal induction at a given magnetizing frequency permits one to make an accurate prediction of the effect of distortion at that frequency as well as other ones. Illustrative applications at 1 kHz and 100 kHz are reported.

ISSN 2384-8677 DOI: 10.7401/visions.02.06 Published: December, 21, 2014 Citation: Ferrara, E., Dodman, M., Barbiero, G. (2014) A second pass through languages, imaginaries and experiences. Visions for Sustainability 2: 2-4. Copyright: ©2014 Ferrara, Dodman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Corresponding Author: Enzo Ferrara, Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica, Strada delle Caccie 91, 10135, Torino, Italy. E.mail: e.ferrara@inrim.it

ISSN 2384-8677 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13135/2384-8677/1953 Published online: December 15, 2016 Citation: Ferrara, E. (2016). Sam Kean. The Violinist’s Thumb and Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by our Genetic Code. Visions for Sustainability, 6: 59-64. Copyright:©2016 Ferrara. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Competing Interests: The author has declared that no competing interests exist. Corresponding Author: Enzo Ferrara, Italy. E.mail: e.ferrara@inrim.it DOI: 10.13135/2384-8677/1953

ISSN 2384-8677 DOI: 10.7401/visions.03.01 Published: June, 21, 2015 Citation: Ferrara, E., Colucci-Gray L., Dodman M., (2015) A third series of visions, perspectives and experiences. Visions for Sustainability 3: 2-4. Copyright: ©2014 Ferrara, Colucci-Gray, Dodman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Corresponding Author: Enzo Ferrara, Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica, Strada delle Caccie 91, 10135, Torino, Italy. E.mail: e.ferrara@inrim.it

ISSN 2384-8677 DOI: 10.7401/visions.04.01 Published: December, 21 st , 2015 Citation: Camino, E., Ferrara, E., Colucci-Gray L., Dodman, M., (2015) A third series of visions, perspectives and experiences. Visions for Sustainability 4: 2-4. Copyright: ©2015 Camino, Ferrara, Colucci-Gray, Dodman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Corresponding Author: Enzo Ferrara, Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica, Strada delle Caccie 91, 10135, Torino, Italy. E.mail: e.ferrara@inrim.it

Poetry – better than any sciences – can act as a powerful means to celebrate diversity while speaking a universal tongue. Poems, even those conceived during as difficult times as in war, can address the fulfilment of our fundamental needs, and exhort us to valorize and aim at cooperation, autonomy, and responsibility. That is why the poems of Bertolt Brecht contain a unique vision on the challenges of our times, able to gather in the same perspective the perils of humanity and nature. Although unaware of the climate and environmental disorder of our times, yet Brecht’s writings share a universal message sounding as a timeless warning. His works, made up of contrary elements, stand as the greatest iconoclastic compositions of modern age and can still be used to gain awareness of our limits on the earth.

Abstract Grain-oriented (GO) Fe-Si sheets are often preferred to non-oriented steels in large rotating machines, where the material response along directions different from the rolling one (RD) matters, both in terms of magnetisation curve and energy losses. The experiments show that the material properties depend in a complex fashion on the angle θ made by the applied field with respect to RD in the lamination plane, an effect that can be quantitatively interpreted in terms of evolution of the domain wall processes. It was shown that the pre-emptive knowledge of the material behaviour along RD ( θ = 0 ° ) and the transverse direction TD ( θ = 90 ° ) allows one to predict, under quasi-static excitation, the normal magnetisation curve, the hysteresis loop shape, and the energy loss dependence on θ in high-permeability GO sheets. The evolution of the quasi-static magnetic properties with θ has an obvious counterpart in the dynamic behaviour. In the present work we have therefore investigated, from the experimental and theoretical viewpoint, the behaviour of the magnetic energy loss W ( f , J p ) versus frequency 1 Hz ⩽ f ⩽ 200 Hz and peak polarisation ( 0.15 T ⩽ J p ⩽ 1.6 T ) in high-permeability 0.29 mm thick GO Epstein samples, cut at 15 ° steps between RD and TD. We show that the predicting method developed for the quasi-static loss can be made general through loss decomposition and applied, in particular, to the determination of the excess loss term. This leads to a general description of W ( f , J p ) as a function of the sheet cutting angle, without using arbitrary parameters.

Reconstructing the distribution of ancient obsidian tools is one of the few ways to trace ancient trade routes during the Neolithic. The use of magnetic properties for obsidian provenance studies has already been applied as a useful inexpensive and non-destructive tool. It is mainly based on the variation of the type, concentration and grain size of the magnetic particles within the vitreous matrix coming from different sources. In this study, we present the results of a rock magnetic investigation carried out on archaeological obsidian tools collected from six Neolithic sites situated in Northern Italy (Castello d’Annone, Brignano Frascata, Cascina Chiappona, Casalnoceto, Garbagna and Parma). A total of 57 archaeological samples were analysed by measuring several magnetic parameters such as low-field and anhysteretic susceptibility, saturation isothermal remanent magnetization at room and liquid nitrogen temperature, remanence and saturation magnetization from hysteresis cycles and anisotropy of low-field susceptibility. The obtained results were compared with the magnetic properties of geological samples from five Mediterranean islands (Lipari, Sardinia, Palmarola, Pantelleria and Melos). Cluster analysis was applied to the whole set of parameters, allowing the correlation of the pertinent group of artefacts and geological obsidians. Such analysis shows that most of the studied archaeological tools come from Lipari, with few exceptions consisting of samples coming from Pantelleria and Sardinia. Our results are in good agreement with other studies based on chemical analyses that also show that Lipari is the most common Neolithic obsidian source in Northern Italy, despite its longer distance in respect to other obsidian sources.

Abstract Finemet type alloys have been investigated from DC to 1 GHz at different induction levels upon different treatments: as amorphous precursors, as ribbons nanocrystallized with and without an applied saturating field, as consolidated powders. The lowest energy losses at all frequencies and maximum Snoek's product are exhibited by the transversally field-annealed ribbons. This is understood in terms of rotation-dominated magnetization process in the low-anisotropy material. Intergrain eddy currents are responsible for the fast increase of the losses with frequency and for early permeability relaxation of the powder cores. Evidence for resonant phenomena at high frequencies and for the ensuing inadequate role of the static magnetic constitutive equation of the material in solving the magnetization dynamics via the Maxwell's diffusion equation of the electromagnetic field is provided. It is demonstrated that, by taking the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation as a constitutive relation, the excellent frequency response of the transverse anisotropy ribbons can be described by analytical method.

Review Human Footprints on the Global Environment. By Rosa A. Eugene, Andreas Diekmann, Thomas Dietz, and Carlo C. Jaeger, (Eds.) Rosa A. Eugene, Andreas Diekmann, Thomas Dietz, and Carlo C. Jaeger, (Eds.). Human Footprints on the Global Environment. MIT Press, 2010. xi + 329 pp., 11 illus. ISBN: 978-0-262-01315-4. US $27.00 paperback, alkaline paper. Environmental sociology explains that societies are at the same time collective human enterprises and complex ecosystems, each one depending upon the other. Societies cannot function without ecosystem resources as well as ecosystems cannot remain viable indefinitely if humankind stands unmindful of its own impact on the environment that surrounds its extension. Yet, most theories of ecological impact dogmatically assume that exploitation of the environment provides in any case benefits to human well-being. As a result, while the colossal human footprint actually threatens the sustainability of the entire planet, the conventional indicators of human development - such as GDP - still inform policy on the base only of economic growth, which has proved to be largely inadequate to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Thus, new meters of human well-being should be favoured along with instruments to evaluate how far we are from achieving sustainable and socially inclusive economies, and to let the welfare provided with human activities fit with a healthy planet in our days and in the future. Although it is the subject to much empirical discipline, the question of how to assess the concept of sustainability remains vexing. One point is clear: scale matters, and scientists, policymakers, and other observers know that any understanding of the causes of the ecological decay is a function of appreciating the range of human choices and actions that affect the environment. "Human Footprints on the Global Environment", tackles this challenge and offers a state-ofthe- art assessment of research on the human dimensions of the global risks. After reminding how the concept of human footprint emerged - from the "Brundtland Report" (1987) and the foundation of the IPCC (1988) to the novel notion of "Coupled Human and Natural Systems" (2007) -, the introductive chapter, "Global transformations", defines the book rationale, i.e. assessing knowledge about the dynamics of coupled human and natural systems with an emphasis on their human dimension. Five major social variables are identified as key human forces affecting the environment, namely population change, economic growth, technological choices, political-economic institutions, attitudes and beliefs. Subsequent contributions offer interpretive frameworks for appreciating the global crisis. For example, the "Progress in the study of land use change" (Ch.4) reviews such notions as population, consumption, institutional actions, and culture about land cover and use with an outlook for the next decades. "The effectiveness of international environmental regimes" (Ch.5) surveyes with some scepticism the rise in public interest concerning large-scale environmental problems. …

We present new, full geomagnetic field vector results from three Neolithic ovens discovered at the archaeological site of Portonovo (Marche, Italy). The discovered structures are a rare example of very well preserved underground ovens from the Early Neolithic period. Standard thermal demagnetization procedures were used to isolate the direction of the Characteristic Remanent Magnetization acquired by the baked clay during the ovens' last firing. The corresponding archaeointensities were determined by the multi-specimen procedure (MSP-DSC) and show a clear intensity low during the Neolithic period. Both directional and intensity results are of high quality, offering the first contribution of full geomagnetic field vector data for this period in Italy. The new data are compared with other contemporaneous data from Europe and with global geomagnetic field models. Independent archaeomagnetic dating of the three ovens was also performed by means of the SCHA.DIF.14k model. The obtaine...

Review: Writing the Future: Progress and Evolution David Rothenberg and Wandee J. Pryor (Eds) Reviewed by Enzo Ferrara Istituto Elettrotecnico Nazionale, Italy David Rothenberg and Wandee J. Pryor (Eds). Writing the Future: Progress and Evolution. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2004. 274 pp., 17 illus., ISBN 0-262-18235-1, $29.95 (hardcover). After Writing on Water (2001), Writing on Air (2003), and three further volumes-The New Earth Reader (2000), The World and the Wild (2001), and The Book of Music and Nature (2001)-Writing the Future: Progress and Evolution is the latest title in the striking Terra Nova: Nature and Culture book series, which is now published twice a year by MIT and other university presses. The goal of the Terra Nova series is to demonstrate the ways in which environmental issues are at the center of today's cultural debate. Artistic, scientific and social concerns are examined in order to cultivate new perspectives on the rift between contemporary western culture and nature. The result is a collection of fine literary and technical writings that in various ways address our sense of nature and the environment. The anthology includes creative essays, poetry, and prose discussions of evolutionary processes: their sources, their strategies, their consequences, and their rationale-if any exists. The celebrated evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould frequently declared that progress and evolution do not associate. Accordingly, most of the authors in the book's four sections focus on the comparison and contraposition of the concepts of progress and evolution. Part One, "Moths, Sex and Chaos," outlines the basic concepts of natural selection and challenges the theories of evolutionary biology. Michael Ruse's "Is Evolution a Social Construction?" suggests that most of the dialogue about evolution is an artifact of a culture looking for validation of its own being and belief systems. In his essay, "Why Do Birds and Bees Do It?", David C. Geary observes that evolution is driven by adaptation rather than by concerted progress. Most of the contributions in Part Two, "Steps from the Cave," focus on adaptation. Attention is paid to the changes that have occurred in humankind through the millennia-see Ellen Dissanayake and Andrew Schelling on the 30,000 year old rock art findings in southern France-as well as to the aging and maturing processes that happen to individual humans, often abruptly, after deep suffering-see Floyd Skloot's "The Wings of the Wind" and Valerie Hurley's "Riders on the Earth." Part Three, "Places in Time," directly challenges the meaning of progress in this era of cloning, genetic manipulation, and biotechnological enhancement. …

Review: Scientists Debate Gaia: The Next Century Stephen H. Schneider, James R. Miller, Eileen Crist and Penelope J. Boston (Eds.) Reviewed by Enzo Ferrara Istituto Elettrotecnico Nazionale, Italy Stephen H. Schneider, James R. Miller, Eileen Crist, and Penelope J. Boston (editors) Scientists Debate Gaia: The Next Century. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2004, IX + 377 pp., ISBN 0-262-19498-8, (hardcover) The Gaia theory proposes that the Earth's biological and geochemical systems work together to maintain the planet in a habitable state, a process of self-regulation that is the result of responses of its life forms to environmental disturbance and change over time. The first scientist to advance this concept of the biosphere was Vladimir Venadsky, a geochemist born in Kiev in 1863, whose scientific accomplishments have recently been re-evaluated. Jim Lovelock, an English atmospheric chemist, definitively introduced the Gaia hypothesis in the early 1970s, together with the American biologist Lynn Margulis. After years of general scepticism, the idea that life substantially impacts the Earth's geochemical cycles in a way that favors living processes is now a flourishing theory, integrating views from many different branches of the sciences. A magnificent overview is this collection, Scientists Debate Gaia, which originated with the two "Chapman Conferences", held by the American Geophysical Union in San Diego (California) in 1988 and Valencia (Spain) in 2000. The fundamentals of the Gaian assumption date back 3.5 to 4 billion years ago, when the first microorganisms were constrained in their evolution by the limits of an arid planet with a carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere. The original hypothesis involves biotic regulation of three main aspects of Earth's surface: temperature, acidity-alkalinity, and atmospheric composition. While it is clear that life affects the whole Earth's surface environment, greatly increasing the cycling of free energy, essential elements and water, the science of planetary ecology is still young and undeveloped. Nevertheless, good hypotheses generate good experimental and theoretical works, and this volume collects 31 lively contributions by researchers, environmental scientists, and science writers attempting to describe the evolution of living organisms and of their environment as a single, linked process. After the introductory contributions by Lovelock and Margulis, the first chapter, "Principles and Processes"(p. 15-76), describes the mechanisms that regulate evolutionary processes and life's control on a global scale. The role of life in the development of Earth's biogeochemical cycles is a primary scientific question, thus the second chapter, "Earth History and Cycles" (p. …