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A Word from the Editor · Nauka Polska. Jej Potrzeby, Organizacja i Rozwój

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11

A Word from the Editor

Since its inception in 1918, the Polish Journal of Science [Pol. Nauka Polska] has become a forum for discussion on the condition of Polish science and on the diag-noses in this area, and with time also a source of scientifi c inspiration. This volume largely refers to the fi rst of these roles in our periodical. Hence the important place of the “Science Matters” [Pol. “Sprawy nauki”] section. Two of the published texts are those voted by the community of scholars of Division I: Humanities and Social Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences and of the Warsaw Scientifi c Society. The fi rst, in the form of an appeal to the Minister of Science and Higher Education, expresses concern about the fate of Polish humanities in the light of the government’s science policy, along with the expectations of a qualitative evaluation of studies in this area of research, different in essence from natural science. The anxiety of War-saw scholars expressed in the position of the presidium of the WarWar-saw Scientifi c Society is caused by the planned changes in the structure of the Polish Academy of Sciences, especially the exclusion of some divisions from it, which are to co-create a different organizational entity. These changes “without a very serious and broad debate, threaten with further divisions in the Polish scientifi c community, disorgani-zation of research and teaching, breaking scientifi c ties at home and abroad, and may even lead to irreversible destruction of the long-standing achievements of scien-tifi c institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences.” This problem is also devoted to a somewhat emotional paper by Leszek Zasztowt, the vice-president of the Warsaw Scientifi c Society, entitled “The Society in Tribute to Maria Skłodowska-Curie and the Polish Academy of Sciences. What’s next?” Concerns expressed in these texts seem to be shared by a wider part of the scientifi c community than just the group of the mentioned division of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Warsaw Scientifi c Society. We feel obliged to present them to our readers.

Józef Dulak’s interpretations in his text, entitled, “Scientifi c Worldview of a Biotechnologist” diverge. The author demonstrates how a biotechnologist and a biochemist must deal with “irrational elements, with beliefs apparently based on scientifi c research, and in fact being a manifestation of magical thinking,” try-ing to show that “within medical biotechnology there are beliefs that, due to their structure and way of actions can be called a religion.” They include gene or cell therapies, which are hotly debated issues, though sometimes with the rejection of scientifi c knowledge. The latter phenomenon acts more and more often as a fi eld

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12

A WORD FROM THE EDITOR

of scientifi c penetration. On the other hand, Przemko Tylzanowski presented an intriguing vision of the interpretation of immortality from the perspective of mo-lecular biology in his paper The Quest for Immortality. The “Science” part ends with a text by Beata Anna Polak, unexpectedly extremely up to date, devoted to the analysis of the anti-vaccination discourse in social media. The author draws atten-tion to such features as its non-expert nature, quesatten-tioning the scientifi c consensus and numerous weaknesses of the public debate. The pandemic brought the subject up again in a new, more threatening atmosphere.

Concerns about the status of the humanities, the structure of Polish science and the public discourse around natural and medical studies dominate this part of the volume, not always inspiring optimism, but provoking refl ections.

Personal memories are presented in this volume of the Polish Journal of Science by Professor Janina Marciak-Kozłowska, in her autobiographical essay “Down the San River ….” A physician deals with physical processes occurring in miniaturized semiconductor electronic elements. The layman receives a short, condensed, and clear course of her specialty. But she is also extremely active in the fi eld of com-memorating the martyrdom of the Polish Nation. The author’s historical achieve-ments are worth attention.

Among the studies on the history of science, one can fi nd a paper by Stefan Zamecki, devoted to the scientifi c views of Eugeniusz Geblewicz, a psychologist. The mentioned scientist was the master and promoter of the doctoral dissertation by the author of the paper, so the text is sometimes saturated with his very personal refl ections. The next two articles in this part concern the academic community in the interwar period. Piotr Hübner devoted his attention to the phenomenon of

nu-merus clausus in the academic life of the Second Polish Republic, a phenomenon

that was then quite popular. Patryk Tomaszewski devoted his paper to academic corporations in Poznań at the time. One can fi nd not only their characteristics, but also the structural relationships between them and the biographical features of out-standing leaders. The attentive reader of our periodical will probably feel at home among these texts, fi nding authors who often appear in the pages of the Polish

Journal of Science. Stefan Zamecki has a great deal of research into science, and

Piotr Hübner is primarily responsible for the not often undertaken refl ections on the academic environment of the interwar period as a social phenomenon. In both cases we are dealing with important sources of scientifi c inspiration.

Being part of the Józef Mianowski Fund—Foundation for the Promotion of Science- we document the Fund’s activities in the fi eld of supporting science, the main statutory goal, as well as the activities of the Fund’s bodies. Hence the pres-ence in the submitted volume of reports on their activities and the report on the seventh edition of the Jan Jędrzejewicz Competition, which The Józef Mianowski Fund co-organizes. But also reviews and discussion on books published with the fi nancial support of the Foundation, the reading of which one can hope will turn out to be intellectually fertile.

Jaromir Jeszke Editor-in-Chief

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