[Abridged] In the late nineteenth century, Mars emerged as one of the most intensively reported astronomical objects in the popular press, driven by favourable oppositions, improved telescopic capabilities and growing speculation regarding planetary habitability. I examine how Mars was interpreted in Australian newspapers between the 1870s and 1899, focusing on the ways in which astronomical knowledge was framed, contextualised and debated within a colonial media environment. Drawing on a large collection of digitised newspaper articles, I analyse how observational authority, instrumental credibility and individual expertise were harnessed in press reporting. The paper situates Australian Mars coverage within a global network of scientific communication dominated by metropolitan centres in Europe and North America, while highlighting the distinctive role played by southern-hemisphere visibility. Australian observatories and observers were frequently positioned as contributors of confirmatory observation rather than interpretive leadership, reinforcing a pattern of locally grounded but internationally oriented scientific engagement. The analysis traces a shift from early emphasis on disciplined observation and measurement to later periods characterised by contested interpretations, particularly surrounding the so-called Martian "canals" and the speculative claims advanced by personalities such as Percival Lowell in the USA. By examining how newspapers mediated between observational astronomy, engineering analogies and popular imagination, this study contributes to a broader understanding of how planetary science entered public discourse beyond metropolitan centres. In doing so, it underscores the active role of colonial newspapers in shaping scientific meaning and situates Australian Mars reporting within the wider history of nineteenth-century astronomical culture.
The article describes the history of Krupp’s Berthawerk plant, in Lower Silesia, based on materials obtained through research in the Historisches Archiv Krupp. It is intended as an outline of the entire history of the plant between years 1942 and 1945, as well as a starting point for further, broader research into the Krupp plants in Lower Silesia during World War II.
Bartosz Apanowicz, Wojciech Milczarek, Andrzej Kowalski
This paper presents a novel method for determining the extent of mining-induced ground subsidence using InSAR technology, specifically the SBAS time series. The study aimed to develop a precise approach for determining subsidence extent. The research was carried out in the Upper Silesian Coal Basin, located in central-eastern Europe (Poland), a region known for its long history of intensive hard coal mining. InSAR analysis used imagery from March 2015 to February 2022. The developed approach includes accuracy analysis of SAR images processed, data filtering, and evaluation of mining-induced asymmetry. The study established an empirical formula that links the subsidence extent to the depth of the mined deposit (H), found to be 1.16H with a standard deviation of 0.22H. This result is based on 138 limit points, exceeding traditional geodetic sample size. Improved precision enhances mining land safety, minimizing potential mining damage, and supporting spatial planning affected areas.
European countries are ambitious in both the net-zero transition and offshore energy resource development. The Irish and UK governments announced their commitments to offshore wind capacities - 37 and 125 GW, respectively, in 2050, more than two times higher than their projected power demands. While other continental countries, such as Germany, are calling for cleaner fuel resources. Exporting surplus offshore green hydrogen and bridging supply and demand could be pivotal in carbon emission mitigation for Europe. Yet, the potentials of these Island countries, are usually underestimated. This paper developed a bottom-up method to investigate the role of offshore hydrogen from Ireland and the UK in the decarbonisation of the entire Europe. We evaluate the future hydrogen/ammonia trading and the contributions of each country in carbon emission mitigation, considering their relative cost-competitiveness in offshore hydrogen production, domestic hourly power and gas system operation, and international shipping costs. Results indicate that the offshore green hydrogen could reduce 175.16 Mt/year of carbon dioxide emissions in Europe. The UK will be the largest hydrogen supplier from 2030 to 2040, while surpassed by Ireland in 2050, with 161 TWh of hydrogen exports to France and Spain. The offshore green hydrogen can contribute to 175.16 Mt of annual carbon dioxide emission reductions in total. This general flow of hydrogen from the West to the East not only facilitates Europe's net-zero progress, but also reshapes the energy supply structure and helps to ensure energy security across the European continent.
The paper discusses the regimental music bands of the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia. It focuses mainly on their tasks, functions and importance. Attention is also paid to the fact that the legionary bands combined elements of Russian and Austro-Hungarian military music. The text addresses the question of which cultural influence ultimately prevailed.
SETI is not a usual point of departure for environmental humanities. However, this paper argues that theories originating in this field have direct implications for how we think about viable inhabitation of the Earth. To demonstrate SETI's impact on environmental humanities, this paper introduces Fermi paradox as a speculative tool to probe possible trajectories of planetary history, and especially the "Sustainability Solution" proposed by Jacob Haqq-Misra and Seth Baum. This solution suggests that sustainable coupling between extraterrestrial intelligences and their planetary environments is the major factor in the possibility of their successful detection by remote observation. By positing that exponential growth is not a sustainable development pattern, this solution rules out space-faring civilizations colonizing solar systems or galaxies. This paper elaborates on Haqq-Misra's and Baum's arguments, and discusses speculative implications of the Sustainability Solution, thus rethinking three concepts in environmental humanities: technosphere, planetary history, and sustainability. The paper advocates that (1) technosphere is a transitory layer that shall fold back into biosphere; (2) planetary history must be understood in a generic perspective that abstracts from terrestrial particularities; and (3) sustainability is not sufficient vector of viable human inhabitation of the Earth, suggesting instead habitability and genesity as better candidates.
Attila Tomócsik, Tibor József Aranyos, Viktória Orosz
et al.
A Debreceni Egyetem, AKIT Nyíregyházi Kutatóintézetében 2003 tavaszán beállítottunk egy szennyvíziszap komposztos kisparcellás kísérletet. A kísérletben alkalmazott korlátozásmentesen felhasználható szennyvíziszap komposzt összetétele: 40% szennyvíziszap, 25% szalma, 30% riolit és 5% bentonit. A kísérleti területen négy kezelést vizsgálunk, a kontroll mellett 9, 18 és 27 t/ha dózisban juttatjuk ki és szántjuk be a talajba a szennyvíziszap komposztot. A parcellákat újrakezeltük 2006, 2009, 2012 és 2015-ben. a tesztnövények zöldborsó (Pisum sativum L.), tritikálé (x Triticosecale x Wittmack) és kukorica (Zea mays L.), melyek kiterített vetésforgóban követik egymást. A talajmintavétel során a növények betakarítása után, parcellánként 5 leszúrásból átlagmintát képezünk a 0-30 és 30-60 cm-es talajrétegekből. Az eredmények alapján a szennyvíziszap komposzt pozitív hatással van a talaj kémiai tulajdonságaira, növelve a kémhatás értékét és a szervesanyag mennyiségét.
History of Central Europe, Social sciences (General)
A brief history of the development of surface detectors for the study of the high-energy cosmic rays is presented. The paper is based on an invited talk given at UHECR2022 held in LAquila, October 2022. In a complementary talk, P Sokolsky discussed the development of the fluorescence technique for air-shower detection.
In fulfilling the European security commitment, the actors of the so-called "Intelligence Community" play a central role. They provide political and military decision-makers with important analyses and information. The Intelligence College in Europe (ICE) is the first entity to offer professional intelligence training as well as postgraduate level academic education in intelligence and security studies at a pan-European level. In developing its postgraduate provision, ICE has benefited from the experience of the German Master of Intelligence and Security Studies (MISS), which is a joint effort of the University of the Bundeswehr Munich and the Department of Intelligence at the Federal University of Administrative Sciences in Berlin. As a main contribution of this paper, the module Counterterrorism (adapted from the MISS) is examined in more detail as a case study of how postgraduate modules can be modified to speak to a pan-European audience of intelligence professionals.
Based on the analysis of articles published in theater periodicals in the Holy Roman Empire, this
study explores the enlightened cultural and symbolic geographies as reflected in the late eighteenth-century
German theatrical press. Larry Wolff has shown that western travelers tend to locate the borders of civilized
Europe in Habsburg lands situated east of Vienna, namely in Galicia and Hungary. If theatrical periodicals
and travel memoirs by western travelers share a common interest in the frontiers of civilized Europe, the
specific geography of civilization entails several contradictions in the two medias. Larry Wolff has shown
that western travelers tend to locate the borders of civilized Europe in Habsburg lands situated east of
Vienna, namely in Galicia and Hungary. By contrast, in theatrical journals based in the Holy Roman Empire,
the borders of civilization seem to be concentrated south-eastwards, along the Ottoman frontier, namely in
Hungary and in the countries of St. Stephen’s Crown. The article seeks to elucidate variations by pointing to
geographical and political factors, as well as to differences between these two literary genres. Unlike travel
journals, theater periodicals in the Holy Roman Empire had to give a general overview of contemporary
theater life, by pointing to the mobilities of itinerant theatrical, especially German, companies, and by
documenting their repertoire. This article reveals how the specific construction of an imagined European
periphery reflected by the periodicals is determined both by their networks of contributors and by the taste
for exotic, namely Turkish subjects, in eighteenth-century dramas and operas. Hence, such philosophic
geographies are shaped both by the origin, the language, the genre and by the major themes of such
periodicals.
Archaeology, Ethnology. Social and cultural anthropology
Prediction of ``anyons'', often attributed exclusively to Wilczek, came first from Leinaas & Myrheim in 1977, and independently from Goldin, Menikoff, & Sharp in 1980-81. In 2020, experimentalists successfully created anyonic excitations. This paper discusses why the possibility of quantum particles in two-dimensional space with intermediate exchange statistics eluded physicists for so long after bosons and fermions were understood. The history suggests ideas for the preparation of future researchers. I conclude by addressing failures to attribute scientific achievements accurately. Such practices disproportionately hurt women and minorities in physics, and are harmful to science.
Population decline is projected to become widespread in Europe, with the continental population set to reverse its longstanding trajectory of growth within the next five years. This represents unfamiliar demographic territory. Despite this, literature on decline remains sparse and our understanding porous. Particular epistemological deficiencies stem from a lack of both cross-national and temporal analyses of population decline. This study seeks to address these gapsthrough the novel application of sequence and cluster analysis techniques to examine variations in population decline trajectories since 2000 in 696 sub-national areas across 33 European territories. The methodology allows for a holistic understanding of decline trajectories capturing differences in the ordering, timing, magnitude and spatial structure of population decline. We identify a typology of population decline distinguishing seven distinct pathways to depopulation and chart their geographies. Results revealed differentiated pathways of depopulation in continental sub-regions, with consistent and rapid declines in the east, persistent but moderate declines in central Europe, accelerating declines in the south and decelerating population declines in the west. Results also revealed differentiated patterns of depopulation across the rural-urban continuum, with urban and populous areas experiencing deceleration in population decline, while population decline accelerates or stabilises in rural areas. Small and mid-sized areas displayed heterogeneous depopulation trajectories, highlighting the importance of local contextual factors in influencing trajectories of population decline.
In this work, I explore the concept of quantization as a mapping from classical phase space functions to quantum operators. I discuss the early history of this notion of quantization with emphasis on the works of Schrödinger and Dirac, and how quantization fit into their overall understanding of quantum theory in the 1920's. Dirac, in particular, proposed a quantization map which should satisfy certain properties, including the property that quantum commutators should be related to classical Poisson brackets in a particular way. However, in 1946, Groenewold proved that Dirac's mapping was inconsistent, making the problem of defining a rigorous quantization map more elusive than originally expected. This result, known as the Groenewold-Van Hove theorem, is not often discussed in physics texts, but here I will give an account of the theorem and what it means for potential "corrections" to Dirac's scheme. Other proposals for quantization have arisen over the years, the first major one being that of Weyl in 1927, which was later developed by many, including Groenewold, and which has since become known as Weyl Quantization in the mathematical literature. Another, known as Geometric Quantization, formulates quantization in differential-geometric terms by appealing to the character of classical phase spaces as symplectic manifolds; this approach began with the work of Souriau, Kostant, and Kirillov in the 1960's. I will describe these proposals for quantization and comment on their relation to Dirac's original program. Along the way, the problem of operator ordering and of quantizing in curvilinear coordinates will be described, since these are natural questions that immediately present themselves when thinking about quantization.