A typology of scientific bottlenecks to natural resources development
A preliminary systematic framework for considering the scientific bottlenecks to the development of natural resources is presented, as a basis for discussion and refinement. In giving particular attention to problems of resource use in developing countries, two main types of scientific bottlenecks are recognized. One concerns the quality and quantity of information on natural resources, and the use that is made of that information. The second relates to the quality and quantity of local manpower in the ecological and related sciences that is available to developing countries, and to the conditions that affect the promotion and stability of scientific endeavor in these countries.Action strategies for combatting these bottlenecks are proposed. These strategies emphasize the need to improve the scientific basis for the predictable use of natural resources, to facilitate multi-directional links of scientific cooperation between countries, and to help develop national self-reliance in research and management activities. They stress such principles of action as the promotion of a problem-oriented, interdisciplinary approach within specific geographic units, and the combination of research, training and demonstration within particular field activities. These features of suggested research run counter neither to scientific method nor to the freedom of scientific endeavor. They do, however, entail a change in the way that much research is conceived and organized. More particularly, they entail the incorporation of additional dimensions in the overall research effort, including that of a perception approach to problems.
Ecological Training for Developing Countries: Strategies and Actions of the MAB Programme
Trained endogenous manpower in the ecological and related sciences is considered by developing countries as a key factor in enabling them to adopt new kinds of economic development, as well as new types of environmental education which respond to national goals and national socio-economic and ecological conditions. A core of trained specialists is therefore required. Examples and experience from UNESCO’s intergovernmental programme on Man and the Biosphere (MAB) are used to highlight problems and challenges involved in the training of such manpower. Three major groups of problems are recognized: the lack of a critical mass of scientists in most developing countries; the type and quality of training programmes; and the lack of continuity in much scientific endeavour in developing countries. Examples are given of MAB strategies and actions for trying to solve these problems. The importance of adopting a diversity of approaches is stressed, as is the role of the international scientific community in helping developing countries to build up their endogenous scientific capacities.
Mathematical Time and Physical Time in the Theory Of Relativity
In the Theory of Relativity time is an imaginary quantity that can not be observed; it is a multiplication of a number that indicates duration of material change and number i that is an imaginary number. i on the square is -1. Time i⁄t is a mathematical time that describes the speed and the duration of material change. In the Universe one can observe physical time only as a stream of material change. It is not that change run in physical time, change itself is physical time.. Distinction between imaginary mathematical time and visible physical time opens some new perspectives into interpretation of Theory of Relativity. c