Stories for science

New brain implants ‘read’ words directly from people’s thoughts

SAN DIEGO — Scientists have devised ways to “read” words directly from brains. Brain implants can translate internal speech into external signals, permitting communication from people with paralysis or other diseases that steal their ability to talk or type.

New results from two studies, presented November 13 at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, “provide additional evidence of the extraordinary potential” that brain implants have for restoring lost communication, says neuroscientist and neurocritical care physician Leigh Hochberg.

Some people who need help communicating can currently use devices that require small movements, such as eye gaze changes. Those tasks aren’t possible for everyone. So the new studies targeted internal speech, which requires a person to do nothing more than think.

“Our device predicts internal speech directly, allowing the patient to just focus on saying a word inside their head and transform it into text,” says Sarah Wandelt, a neuroscientist at Caltech. Internal speech “could be much simpler and more intuitive than requiring the patient to spell out words or mouth them.”

Neural signals associated with words are detected by electrodes implanted in the brain. The signals can then be translated into text, which can be made audible by computer programs that generate speech.

That approach is “really exciting, and reinforces the power of bringing together fundamental neuroscience, neuroengineering and machine learning approaches for the restoration of communication and mobility,” says Hochberg, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and Brown University in Providence, R.I. 

Wandelt and colleagues could accurately predict which of eight words a person who was paralyzed below the neck was thinking. The man was bilingual, and the researchers could detect both English and Spanish words.

Electrodes picked up nerve cell signals in his posterior parietal cortex, a brain area involved in speech and hand movements. A brain implant there might eventually be used to control devices that can perform tasks usually done by a hand too, Wandelt says.

Another approach, led by neuroscientist Sean Metzger of the University of California, San Francisco and his colleagues, relied on spelling. The participant was a man called Pancho who hadn’t been able to speak for more than 15 years after a car accident and stroke. In the new study, Pancho didn’t use letters; instead, he attempted to silently say code words, such as “alpha” for A and “echo” for E.

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By stringing these code letters into words, the man produced sentences such as “I do not want that” and “You have got to be kidding.” Each spelling session would end when the man attempted to squeeze his hand, thereby creating a movement-related neural signal that would stop the decoding. These results presented at the neuroscience meeting were also published November 8 in Nature Communications .

This system allowed Pancho to produce around seven words per minute. That’s faster than the roughly five words per minute his current communication device can make, but much slower than normal speech, typically about 150 words a minute. “That’s the speed we’d love to hit one day,” Metzger says.

To be useful, the current techniques will need to get faster and more accurate. It’s also unclear whether the technology will work for other people, perhaps with more profound speech disorders. “These are still early days for the technologies,” Hochberg says.

Progress will be possible only with the help of people who volunteer for the studies. “The field will continue to benefit from the incredible people who enroll in clinical trials,” says Hochberg, “as their participation is absolutely vital to the successful translation of these early findings into clinical utility.”

The Ten Most Significant Science Stories of 2021 | Science

Covid-19 dominated science coverage again in 2021, and deservedly so. The disease garnered two entries on this list of our picks for the most important science stories of the year. But other key discoveries and achievements marked the year in science too, and they deserve more attention. NASA and private companies notched firsts in space. Scientists discovered more about the existence of early humans. And researchers documented how climate change has impacted everything from coral reefs to birds. Covid-19 will continue to garner even more attention next year as scientists work to deal with new variants and develop medical advances to battle the virus. But before you let stories about those topics dominate your reading in 2022, it’s worth it to take a look back at the biggest discoveries and accomplishments of this past year. To that end, here are our picks for the most important science stories of 2021.

The Covid Vaccine Rollout Encounters Hurdles

Last year the biggest science story of the year was that scientists developed two mRNA Covid vaccines in record time. This year the biggest Covid story is that the rollout of those vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna, and one other by Johnson and Johnson, haven’t made their way into a large proportion of the United States population and a significant portion of the world. As of this writing on December 21, roughly 73 percent of the U.S. population has received one dose, and roughly 61 percent of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated. An incomplete rollout allowed for a deadly summer surge, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant. Experts pointed out that vaccination rates lagged due to widespread disinformation and misinformation campaigns. It didn’t help that some popular public figures—like Packers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers, musician Nick Minaj, podcast host Joe Rogan and rapper Ice Cube—chose not to get vaccinated. Luckily, by November, U. S. health officials had approved the Pfizer vaccine for children as young as five, providing another barrier against the deadly disease’s spread, and Covid rates declined. But while the wall against the disease in the U.S. is growing, it is not finished. As cases surge as the Omicron variant spreads around the country, building that wall and reinforcing it with booster shots is critically important. In much of the rest of the world, the wall is severely lacking where populations haven’t been given decent access to the vaccine. Only 8 percent of individuals in low-income countries have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and a WHO Africa report from this fall said that on that continent, less than 10 percent of countries would hit the goal of vaccinating at least 40 percent of their citizens by the end of the year. Globally, less than 60 percent of the population has been vaccinated. The holes in vaccination coverage will allow the virus to continue to kill a large number of individuals, and allow an environment where possibly other dangerous variants can emerge.

Perseverance Notches Firsts on Mars

NASA took a huge step forward in exploring the Red Planet after the rover Perseverance landed safely on Mars in February. Scientists outfitted the vehicle with an ultralight helicopter that successfully flew in the thin Martian atmosphere, a toaster-sized device called MOXIE that successfully converted carbon dioxide to oxygen, and sampling elements that successfully collected rocks from the planet’s floor. All of the achievements will lend themselves to a better understanding of Mars, and how to investigate it in the future. The flight success will give scientists clues on how to build larger helicopters, the oxygen creation will help scientists come up with grander plans for conversion devices, and the rocks will make their way back to Earth for analysis when they are picked up on a future mission. In addition to the rover’s triumphs, other countries notched major firsts too. The United Arab Emirates Hope space probe successfully entered orbit around the planet and is studying the Martian atmosphere and weather. China’s Zhurong rover landed on Mars in May and is exploring the planet’s geology and looking for signs of water. With these ongoing missions, scientists around the world are learning more and more about what the planet is like and how we might better explore it, maybe one day in person.

Is “Dragon Man” a New Species of Human?

The backstory of the skull that scientists used to suggest there was a new species of later Pleistocene human—to join Homo sapiens and Neanderthals—garnered a lot of ink. After the fossil was discovered at a construction site in China nearly 90 years ago, a family hid it until a farmer gave it to a university museum in 2018. Since then, scientists in China pored over the skull—analyzing its features, conducting uranium series dating, and using X-ray fluorescence to compare it to other fossils—before declaring it a new species of archaic human. They dubbed the discovery Homo longi, or “Dragon Man.” The skull had a large cranium capable of holding a big brain, a thick brow and almost square eye sockets—details scientists used to differentiate it from other Homo species. Some scientists questioned whether the find warranted designation as a new species. “It’s exciting because it is a really interesting cranium, and it does have some things to say about human evolution and what’s going on in Asia. But it’s also disappointing that it’s 90 years out from discovery, and it is just an isolated cranium, and you’re not quite sure exactly how old it is or where it fits,” Michael Petraglia of the Smithsonian Institution’s Human Origins Initiative told Smithsonian magazine back in June. Other scientists supported the new species designation, and so the debate continues, and likely will until more fossils are discovered that help to fill in the holes of human history.

Climate Change Wreaks Havoc on Coral Reefs

Increasing natural disasters—forest fires, droughts and heat waves—may be the most noticeable events spurred by climate change; a warming Earth has helped drive a five-fold uptick in such weather-related events over the last 50 years according the a 2021 report by the World Meteorological Organization. But one of the biggest impacts wrought by climate change over the past decade has occurred underwater. Warming temps cause coral reefs to discard the symbiotic algae that help them survive, and they bleach and die. This year a major report from the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network announced that the oceans lost about 14 percent of their reefs in the decade after 2009, mostly because of climate change. In November, new research showed that less than 2 percent of the coral reefs on the Great Barrier Reef—the world’s largest such feature—escaped bleaching since 1998. That news came just two months after a different study stated that half of coral reefs have been lost since the 1950s, in part due to climate change. The reef declines impact fisheries, local economies based on tourism and coastal developments—which lose the offshore buffer zone from storms the living structures provide. Scientists say if temperatures continue to rise, coral reefs are in serious danger. But not all hope is lost—if humans reduce carbon emissions rapidly now, more reefs will have a better chance of surviving.

The Space Tourism Race Heats Up

This year the famous billionaires behind the space tourism race completed successful missions that boosted more than just their egos. They put a host of civilians in space. Early in July, billionaire Richard Branson and his employees flew just above the boundary of space—a suborbital flight—in Virgin Galactic’s first fully crewed trip. (But Virgin Galactic did delay commercial missions until at least late next year. ) Just over a week after Branson’s mission, the world’s richest person, Jeff Bezos, completed Blue Origin’s first crewed suborbital flight with the youngest and oldest travelers to reach space. In October, his company Blue Origin repeated the feat when it took Star Trek actor William Shatner up. A month before that, a crew of four became the first all-civilian crew to circle the Earth from space in Elon Musk’s SpaceX Dragon capsule Resilience. More ambitious firsts for civilians are in the works. In 2022, SpaceX plans to send a retired astronaut and three paying passengers to the International Space Station. And beyond that, Bezos announced Blue Origin hopes to deploy a private space station fit for ten—called “Orbital Reef”—sometime between 2025 and 2030.

WHO Approves First Vaccine Against Malaria

In October, the World Health Organization approved the first vaccine against malaria. The approval was not only a first for that disease, but also for any parasitic disease. The moment was 30 years in the making, as Mosquirix—the brand name of the drug—cost more than $750 million since 1987 to develop and test. Malaria kills nearly a half million individuals a year, including 260,000 children under the age of five. Most of these victims live in sub-Saharan Africa. The new vaccine fights the deadliest of five malaria pathogens and the most prevalent in Africa, and is administered to children under five in a series of four injections. The vaccine is not a silver bullet; it prevents only about 30 percent of severe malaria cases. But one modeling study showed that still could prevent 5.4 million cases and 23,000 deaths in children under five each year. Experts say the vaccine is a valuable tool that should be used in conjunction with existing methods—such as drug combination treatments and insecticide-treated bed nets—to combat the deadly disease.

Discoveries Move Key Dates Back for Humans in the Americas

Two very different papers in two of the world’s most prestigious scientific journals documented key moments of human habitation in the Americas. In September, a study in Science dated footprints found at White Sands National Park to between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago. Researchers estimated the age of the dried tracks known as “ghost prints” using radiocarbon dating of dried ditchgrass seeds found above and below the impressions. Previously, many archaeologists placed the start of human life in the Americas at around 13,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age, based on tools found in New Mexico. The new paper, whose results have been debated, suggests humans actually lived on the continent at the height of the Ice Age. A month after that surprising find, a study in Nature published evidence showing that Vikings lived on North America earlier than previously thought. Researchers examined cut wood left by the explorers at a site in Newfoundland and found evidence in the samples of a cosmic ray event that happened in 993 C. E. The scientists then counted the rings out from that mark and discovered the wood had been cut in 1021 C.E. The find means that the Norse explorers completed the first known crossing of the Atlantic from Europe to the Americas.

Humans Are Affecting the Evolution of Animals

New research published this year shows that humans have both directly and indirectly affected how animals evolve. In probably the starkest example of humans impacting animal evolution, a Science study found a sharp increase in tuskless African elephants after years of poaching. During the Mozambican Civil War from 1977 to 1992, poachers killed so many of the giant mammals with tusks that those females without the long ivory teeth were more likely to pass on their genes. Before the war, 20 percent were tuskless. Now, roughly half of the female elephants are tuskless. Males who have the genetic make-up for tusklessness die, likely before they are born. And killing animals isn’t the only way humans are impacting evolution. A large study in Trends in Ecology and Evolution found that animals are changing shape to deal with rising temps. For example, over various time periods bats grew bigger wings and rabbits sprouted longer ears—both likely to dissipate more heat into the surrounding air. More evidence along those lines was published later in the year in Science Advances. A 40-year-study of birds in a remote, intact patch of Amazon rainforest showed 77 species weighed less on average, and many had longer wings, than they used to. Scientists said the changes likely occurred due to rising temperatures and changes in rainfall.

Antiviral Pills That Fight Covid Show Promising Results

Almost a year after scientists released tests showing the success of mRNA vaccines in fighting Covid, Merck released promising interim test results from a Phase III trial of an antiviral pill. On October 1, the pharmaceutical giant presented data that suggested molnupiravir could cut hospitalizations in half. Ten days later, the company submitted results to the FDA in hopes of gaining emergency use. In mid-November, the U.K. jumped ahead of the U.S. and granted approval for the treatment. By late November, advisers to the FDA recommended emergency authorization of the pill, though it was shown by this time to reduce death or disease by 30—not 50—percent. The drug should be taken—four pills a day for five days—starting within five days of the appearance of symptoms. It works by disrupting SARS-CoV-2’s ability to replicate effectively inside a human cell.

Molnupiravir isn’t the only viral drug with positive results. In November, Pfizer announced its antiviral pill, Paxlovid, was effective against severe Covid. By December, the pharmaceutical giant shared final results that it reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by 88 percent in a key group. News about both pills was welcome, as they are expected to work against all versions of the virus, including Omicron. Though the drugs aren’t as big of a breakthrough as the vaccines, a doctor writing for the New Yorker called them “the most important pharmacologic advance of the pandemic.” Many wealthy countries have already agreed to contracts for molnupiravir, and the Gates Foundation pledged $120 million to help get the pill to poor countries. If approved and distributed fast enough, the oral antivirals can be prescribed in places, like Africa, where vaccines have been lacking. The pills represent another crucial tool, in addition to masks and vaccines, in the fight against Covid.

The James Webb Space Telescope May Finally Launch

The James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful space telescope ever constructed, is supposed to launch in late December—pending yet another delay. If this news seems like a long time coming, that’s because it is. NASA, the Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency started working on the craft in 1996, and it was expected to launch in 2007 and come in at a cost of $500 million. The craft has been delayed numerous times, including severaltimesthis year, and the final cost will be more than $9 billion over budget. But many scientists say the telescope is worth the wait and the money, as it will be able to do things the Hubble Space Telescope can’t. It will help astronomers discover how early galaxies formed, detect possible signs of life on other planets and watch the birth of stars. With the date of the launch so close, the astronomy community is extremely excited, though their wait won’t be quite over. It will take the telescope six months in space to prepare itself to work.

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Who needs the history of science and technology today and why // Nezavisimaya gazeta

Interdisciplinary research may be good, but highly specialized works are better

Academician Vladimir Vernadsky in 1921 headed the Commission on the History of Knowledge established by the Academy of Sciences. In 1932, the Institute of the History of Science and Technology of the USSR Academy of Sciences grew out of it. Photo by Evgeny Ellengorn, 1930s. Exposition of the photo exhibition in the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences, April 2015 nine0003

About the prospects for the development of scientific and historical knowledge in Russia, the director of the Institute of the History of Natural Science and Technology named after A.I. S.I. Vavilov RAS, Candidate of Biological Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences Roman FANDO.

- Roman Alekseevich, paradoxically, there is still no academic history of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The truly remarkable work of Pyotr Petrovich Pekarsky "History of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg", published in 1870-1873, remains the most authoritative study. What's the matter: there is no interest in modern historians of science? Or, corny, there is no customer, and therefore no funding? Who needs the history of the Academy of Sciences today, except, say, historians of science? Can the state use it? nine0010

- The Russian Academy of Sciences has never lived outside the state, it carried out government orders and worked, so to speak, under the guise of the state. The fact is that any science is a social institution, and this institution cannot exist outside of politics, outside of the bodies that are associated with power. Therefore, the history of the Academy of Sciences is important not only for historians of science, but also for those in power. Science is not only people who are part of the state, science is also an opportunity for the state to position itself appropriately against the background of other countries. Imagine yourself as a strong power that is waiting for breakthrough research, waiting for discoveries from science. nine0003

It seems to me that the state should be interested in writing the history of the Academy of Sciences. Those lessons and the path that the Academy of Sciences has gone through since the time of Peter the Great is the story for which certain finances can be directed in order to reveal from these lessons the rational knowledge that can be useful in building strategies for the development of the science sector as a whole, research and personnel state policy.

- Do you feel such a demand now, being the director of a research academic institute? nine0010

– Yes, our institute is in demand. For example, we have many orders of a commemorative, that is, anniversary, nature. As you know, the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Russian Academy of Sciences is planned to be celebrated in 2024. And the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation has already sent documents to all institutes of the Academy of Sciences in order to create a unified plan for preparing the celebration of this event. This is not only the publication of scientific papers and the holding of conferences, it is also a certain research work. That is, the history of the Academy of Sciences continues to be developed. In particular, in the St. Petersburg branch of IIET there is a whole sector that deals with the history of academic institutions. nine0003

- In 2011, on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the birth of Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov, IIET prepared a remarkable 10-volume edition of Lomonosov's works. Exceptional quality in every sense. Is something similar being prepared for the current academic anniversary?

- There is no additional funding for such work. As suggestions, we replied to the ministry that the Institute could prepare several volumes on the history of individual scientific disciplines. When in our country the 50th anniversary of Soviet power was celebrated at 19In 1967, the staff of the institute, with the involvement of other prominent specialists, prepared separate fundamental monographs within the framework of the large program “Soviet Science and Technology for 50 Years. 1917-1967". For example, "Development of biology in the USSR", "Development of the Earth sciences in the USSR", "Development of physical chemistry in the USSR", "Development of general, inorganic and analytical chemistry in the USSR", "Development of organic chemistry in the USSR", "Development of astronomy in USSR”, “Development of Mechanics in the USSR”… But after that nothing of the kind was published. nine0003

Of course, the listed monographs suffered from a certain pseudo-patriotism: we showed the achievements of domestic science without taking into account what was done abroad. I understand that there was a certain social order - to cultivate pride in Soviet science and instill patriotism among the population. Nevertheless, these were fundamental works that arose in the conditions of science planning and strict control over the work of scientists. Although many researchers, along with their scientific interests, "flowed" from pre-revolutionary times to Soviet research institutes, universities, that is, continued to work in their scientific direction. nine0003

- You mentioned that the institute presented a plan of events for the 300th anniversary of the Academy of Sciences. The most interesting, in your opinion, works from this plan.

- In the St. Petersburg branch, we are planning to hold an international scientific conference "The contribution of the Academy of Sciences to the development of the Russian State (on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Russian Academy of Sciences)".

It is supposed to consider and discuss a wide range of issues on this scientific issue: the relationship of state power with academic science; attempts to reform the Academy of Sciences and their results; academic institutions and structures; Academy of Sciences and the development of technical progress and military affairs; study of the territories and population of Russia; contribution to the development of enlightenment, education and culture; publishing activities of the Academy of Sciences; biographies of famous scientists, international cooperation. nine0003

We also proposed to prepare monographs on the history of biology of the 20th century, on the history of geography of the 20th century...

- History of chemistry? Russia has always had strong chemical schools and historians of chemistry.

- Alas. We did not apply for the preparation of a publication on the history of chemistry. There are simply no people at our institute right now who could write such a paper. If we recall the composition of the institute at least 30 years ago, we had a very strong department of the history of chemistry. Such well-known historians of chemistry as Georgy Vladimirovich Bykov, Dmitry Nikolaevich Trifonov, Yuri Ivanovich Solovyov, Alexander Mikhailovich Smolegovsky, Viktor Abramovich Kritsman, Nikolai Alexandrovich Figurovsky, Vadim Lvovich Rabinovich worked there... Luminaries of the history of chemistry! They created fundamental works on the history of disciplinary chemistry. Now we do not have such employees. Moreover, these are not even external factors, but some internal ones. The case when outstanding scientists, due to various circumstances, did not prepare a shift, did not create a scientific school. nine0003

For example, the history of biology in our IIET is presented very widely. Although, of course, we feel the loss of former workers - we had very strong historians of biology. But the merit of Eduard Izrailevich Kolchinsky, long-term director of the St. Petersburg branch of IIET, and Elena Borisovna Muzrukova, head of the department of the history of biological and chemical sciences in Moscow, is that they were able not only to continue the historical and biological direction at the institute, but also to enrich it new content. And all thanks to the fact that they paid great attention to the training of scientific personnel. nine0003

We had a well-thought-out postgraduate education system at the institute. When a young man came to, say, our graduate school, he first mastered the specifics of scientific and historical methodology, then he began to formulate research topics for himself, then, thanks to reputable scientists, he tested the results of his scientific research in the sector or department, and built the outline of his future dissertation. As a result, in the history of biology or, for example, the history of geography, there are active, active scientists who participate not only in our internal work, but also in international projects, who have gone through the "postgraduate path" at the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Russian Academy of Sciences. But, for example, the history of technology is simply dying out. There is not a single historian of mathematics in the IIET now. But in our time, for example, such an outstanding historian of mathematics as Adolf Pavlovich Yushkevich, the head of a scientific school and a prominent organizer of science, worked for us. There were such areas as the history of Indian mathematics, the history of Chinese mathematics, and naturally, domestic mathematics. Mathematics was also studied in a chronological context: from the history of mathematics in antiquity to the present day. Now there are no such people. nine0003

– It's sad... Is it possible to restore these areas of historical and scientific research? And is it necessary?

- Of course you do! Without major historical and disciplinary research, the institute will become inferior. The same chemistry is a discipline with its own theoretical base and a certain social institution. Moreover, the discipline, where amazing super-discoveries are being made now, without which it is impossible to imagine the existence of mankind. And not to know the history of this discipline, not to know the history of competing ideas in chemistry, is an unaffordable luxury for science. nine0003

Now we have historians of chemistry localized at the Moscow State University. Lomonosov. There is an office for the history of chemistry, where, by the way, former graduates of our graduate school, Tatyana Vitalievna Bogatova and Elena Alexandrovna Zaitseva-Baum, work. But there is no dissertation council on the history of chemistry. And without this, it is very difficult to attract students, undergraduates to work in the field of the history of chemistry. No one sees any point in pursuing a career in history without postgraduate studies. Everything ends at the level of term papers or a maximum of theses on this issue. nine0003

Without a dissertation council, without defending dissertations, the discipline of history and science becomes in some way reduced. Indeed, for the institutionalization of a scientific discipline, it is necessary to have researchers, laboratories or departments, the presence of a periodical publication and a dissertation council as well.

When a historian works with an old book or in the archive, it has psycho-emotional rise, aesthetic pleasure. Photo by Andrey Vaganov

Back in the 1960s, we began to publish the yearbook "Historical and Biological Research". In the late 1980s, this publication died out, but thanks to Eduard Izrailevich Kolchinsky, it was resumed in 2009. Now "Historical and biological research" is published four times a year, as they say, quarterly. We also attract foreign scientists there, some of the issues are published in English. The journal is published in St. Petersburg, the founder is our institute. And I think that now it is one of the best scientific journals that our institute publishes. nine0002 - Did I understand your position correctly: interdisciplinarity in historical and scientific research is interesting and wonderful, but the history of science and technology is actually made by highly specialized studies. And you are now concentrating on this and trying to organize the work of the institute in this direction, first of all?

- Yes, you understood correctly. After all, in our time at the institute a lot of people began to appear who dealt with interdisciplinary issues: philosophers, methodologists, sociologists, popularizers of science. By the way, they were very strong in their areas. And perhaps the fundamental historical and scientific disciplines were lost against this bright background. Many researchers have chosen to move from traditional areas to interdisciplinary topics. We had cases when people simply went into purely philosophical problems. nine0003

I have encountered many interdisciplinary people, people who deviate radically from the general theme of the institute. The impression is that they have become simply outcasts in the field of the history of science and technology. In our organization, it is clearly stated in the charter that we are engaged in the history of mathematics, the history of physics, the history of chemistry, the history of technology, and so on. Our statutory documents contain neither philosophy, nor methodology, nor sociology. But there is, for example, science of science as an independent line of research... And the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences is successfully engaged in the philosophy of science. nine0003

Interdisciplinarity is a philosophical and ambiguous concept in itself. A lot of people just don't understand what it is. Moreover, interdisciplinarity can be both substantive and methodological. In addition, in principle, we are all engaged in interdisciplinary research. In fact, all of our work is interdisciplinary. After all, in order to understand the essence of the historical process - let's say in the history of technology - you need to know technology as such, and history, and methodology. And often, in order to solve a problem, our scientists seek advice from specialists who did not deal with history, directly to the researchers and engineers who stood at the origins of this or that direction. nine0003

And in general, already from my own experience, I understand that people who started their careers in one or another fundamental natural-science or engineering-technical field are better engaged in the history of science. That is, they directly worked either in the experimental laboratory or in production. They know the content of the discipline, the materiel, so to speak, and begin to realize this content in its historical development, historical context.

When a historian begins research on the history of biology without understanding the content of biological processes, it looks rather strange. At best, he can only collect some factual information or compile a chronology of memorable dates. But he will not always be able to understand the development of the idea of ​​a biological process, for this you need to make non-trivial efforts. I can give an example. Philosopher Eduard Izrailevich Kolchinsky, in order to fully engage in the history of biology, specially studied at the biological faculty of Leningrad State University. He attended additional lectures and seminars in biological disciplines. And I want to say that he surpassed even many biologists: it is not given to every professional biologist to understand the history of evolutionary doctrine and simply the evolutionary doctrine itself, as Kolchinsky understood. nine0003

- I completely agree with you. Universality, interdisciplinarity of modern scientific research - physics, for example - is now considered as a sign of progress. But science, including the history of science, is still driven by narrow specialists. And generalists often degenerate into mediocrity, into scientific mediocrity - and pseudoscientific, by the way, too! – journalism, at best, scientific philosophizing. The base is a specialization. Talk about universalism and all-consuming interdisciplinarity only provokes additional informational spam. nine0010

- I am for classical science. In this matter, I am orthodox, if you like. No left and right waste. Some things, I realized, you just need to force, as they say, to break through. It does not look at all liberal… But then it somehow gradually falls on the shoulders and enters the minds of employees.

When our institute was being formed, there was a planned science in the country and people worked within the framework of some collective topics. And not to the detriment of their own research, not to the detriment of planned topics. But on the other hand, today we have fundamental collective works that allow us to conduct a serious analysis of the development of a particular scientific discipline. And now very often we take some topic and artificially - very artificially! - we are starting to pull people with their achievements under this topic. For example, such a topic: a social portrait of a scientist. And in it we include biographies of scientists almost from ancient times to the present day. There shouldn't be such a spread. If we are working on such a topic, let there be a result after that - a serious work, a book, and not a mosaic of random and unrelated publications. The problem is that our research teams were formed not according to the content principle, but according to the mutual sympathy of the employees. The psychological microclimate of the departments is a good thing, but for work it is necessary to unite to study a specific fundamental problem in the field of the history of science. nine0003

– In connection with this task, perhaps, a purely “ministerial” question: what is the scientific potential of the IIET today?

- If you look at the statistics of 10 years ago, then the institute had 254 researchers. Today we employ 152 people. Among them are 67 scientists: 26 in the St. Petersburg branch of IIET and 41 people in Moscow. Minus 100 people is a very big loss.

We have a rich library. Although formally it is on the balance sheet of the Institute of Scientific Information for the Social Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (INION RAS), historically it has always been in our institute. And it was formed in many respects by our scientists, who always brought a lot of literature from all business trips, including foreign ones, which is not in any Russian library. And this literature was donated to us at the institute. There was even a stamp on the books: “IIET Library”. nine0003

- There is an opinion that the number will kill the paper ...

– You know, the very feeling of working with a paper version of a book is different from how we work with its electronic version. It's a completely different emotional experience. After all, the work of a scientist is not just the discovery of knowledge, its accumulation and transfer, it is also some kind of special emotional state. When a historian works with an old book or in an archive, he experiences a psycho-emotional upsurge, aesthetic pleasure. I recently, for example, took a book from the 1930s from the Lenin Library. And the pages are still not cut in it! .. I had the feeling that I was a discoverer, Columbus! By the way, this book was not even digitized. Even working with library card catalogs is also a very interesting scientific search that can lead to unexpected discoveries. Unfortunately, the electronic catalogs are far from complete, a lot of books are simply lost. But they exist somewhere physically! For example, in the academic Library for Natural Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences - the famous BEN RAS - now you will not find periodicals of the 50-70s of the last century. And once there was the richest selection of journals on natural disciplines. nine0003

- By the way, is there a written history of the Institute of the History of Natural Science and Technology. S.I. Vavilov RAS? After all, it was the first institute in the world that dealt specifically with the problems of the history of science.

No, there is no such study. But we have a department of source studies and historiography of the history of science and technology. It is headed by Simon Semyonovich Ilizarov, and he is also involved in the history of IIET, the history of individuals. Under his editorship, a special bio-bibliographic series “Russian Historians of Science and Technology” has been published annually for several years . .. nine0003

But no one has yet been able to describe the entire history of IIET. Firstly, because the archive of our institute is still processed, not attributed. It has not been submitted to the Archives of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Our archive is stored here, in the Institute itself. Moreover, taking into account the fact that we moved around Moscow several times already in the 21st century, some documents were inevitably lost. And our archive is unique in a sense. After all, in addition to official documentation - minutes of meetings of the Academic Council, accounting documentation - many of our employees handed over their scientific manuscripts to the archive: books, thick notebooks, research plans. And a lot of it has never been published. It used to be very difficult to publish a monograph; some scholars waited decades for the book to be included in the publishing plan of the Academy of Sciences. Therefore, all this was kept in handwritten form. nine0003

– What, in your opinion, are the most interesting topics, areas of research currently being conducted at IIET?

– I believe that one of the leading areas that creates an appropriate image for our institute is the work of the Department of Source Studies and Historiography of the History of Science and Technology, which I have already mentioned. On the basis of this department there is a dissertation council. And what is especially important, the employees of this department are able to establish various interdepartmental connections and contacts. Attracting specialists from other fields to your circle is very advantageous. nine0003

Biology has remained a traditionally strong direction for us. Dissertation defenses are held in this specialty, and every year. The history of geography at the institute is also presented at a serious level. There are also luminaries in the field of studying the history of hydrology, cartography, geoecology, physical geography, and young researchers who continue the traditions laid down in the department of the history of geosciences.

In general, I must say that the institute has, as they say, golden brains and middle peasants. But science cannot exist without the middle peasants either. They create a certain atmosphere. nine0003

– As a scientist, you have been working at the institute since 1999. They became director of IIET relatively recently, in February 2021. It is interesting how your perception of both the institute's problems and its tasks has changed.

- It needs to be clarified. Since February 17, 2021, I have been acting director on an interim basis. On August 19, 2021, elections for the post of head were held at the institute. The team chose me. Now we are waiting for documents from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation with the approval of the results of these elections. nine0003

Of course, each new position allows you to take a different look at the problem. When you work as a research assistant, you are only responsible for yourself. And this is a one-sided perception. And when you are a director, you are responsible to the people, and to your founder - the ministry, and - I will not be afraid of this word - to the country. Why? Because we are the leading institution dealing with the history of science and technology in Russia. We have five dissertation councils in various areas of the history of natural science and technology. We publish three independent journals on the problems of the history of science and technology, all of which are included in the list of the Higher Attestation Commission, and Sociology of Science and Technology is included in the international Web od Science database. We represent our country at international congresses, international conferences. For example, this year the congress of the International Organization for the History of Science and Technology was held in Prague. And our institute presented 11 reports. nine0003

In 2022, our institute will celebrate its 90th anniversary. We really want this date to make the general public, scientists, cultural figures, officials pay attention to our scientific discipline. Taking this opportunity, I would like to express my gratitude to the staff of IIET RAS, especially those who have been a “historian of science and technology” for many decades, who confirm the glory of Russian science with their painstaking work, who are loyal to our institute with such a glorious and long history. I wish all of us health in such a difficult period of the pandemic and new professional achievements. nine0003

Documents of the history of science and technology / Nauka / Nezavisimaya gazeta

Vladimir Leontievich Komarov. Photo from the collection: "History of science and technology: sources, monuments, heritage: third readings on historiography and source study of the history of science and technology", M., 2019

In Moscow, at the Institute of the History of Natural Science and Technology. S.I. Vavilov RAS and the Archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences hosted an international scientific conference "History of Science and Technology: Sources, Monuments, Legacy". This is the third reading on historiography and source study of the history of science and technology. The conference was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. nine0003

In the third conference, both the topics and the geography of its participants were significantly expanded. Along with Russian scientists, specialists from Belarus, Mongolia, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Japan took part in it.

The polydisciplinarity of this area of ​​humanitarian research - the history of science and technology - is even indicated by the names of sections and subsections: "History of Science and Technology: Sources", "Illustrative Sources on the History of Science and Technology", "Real Sources on the History of Science and Technology", "History Science and Technology: Monuments, Science of Science: History, Sources, Heritage, History of Science and Technology in the Educational Space, History of Science and Technology: Historiography, History of Science and Technology: Biographies. nine0003

No less interesting are the reports presented for discussion. Here are the names of just some of them: “3D model of the International Space Station as a virtual monument to the history of space technology”, “Scientific books with author marginalia from the libraries of I. V. Stalin”, “Memoirs of scientists in the 21st century: how and what we will study”, “Necropolis as a source on the history of Russian scientific abroad”, “Symbolic reflection of geographical representations in the coats of arms of seafarers”, “Metallurgical technologies in Renaissance painting”, “Image scientist-geneticist on the pages of periodicals 1920–1940s”, “On conceptual and terminological problems in modern historiography of the history of pre-revolutionary Russia”…

The current conference was interesting for another circumstance - it was a memorial one and dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding botanist and organizer of science, Academician Vladimir Leontyevich Komarov (1869–1945). The pinnacle of his scientific work was the three volumes of the fundamental work "Flora of Manchuria". For this three-volume Komarov received the Prize. Karl Baer, ​​a medal of the International Academy of Botanical Geography with portraits of Tournefort and Linnaeus, a gold medal to them. N.M. Przhevalsky for the trip itself through Manchuria and Korea and the classic work "Journey through Kamchatka at 1908-1909".

Three volumes of the "Flora of Manchuria" provide information on 1682 plant species. Of these, 84 were first described by V.L. Komarov. The Far East was studied in such detail and comprehensively by him that scientists distinguish between the “Komarovsky” and “pre-Komarovsky” periods in the study of the flora of this region.

After the elections V.L. Komarov as president of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1936, the most difficult period of life for a scientist, and not a party functionary, began. The liquidation of the Komacademy of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, the transfer of its institutions and personnel to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, its centralization, the transfer of the Academy of Sciences from Leningrad to Moscow, strict ideological control, the ensuing repressions in the academic environment, the mocking abolition of the position of indispensable secretary that existed in the academy since 1800, permanent the remarks of the Council of People's Commissars connected with the approval of the plans and reports of the USSR Academy of Sciences, the directive tone of its leaders - this was the general background of the "presidency" in those years.

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