In 1890, Sergei Nikolaevich Vinogradskii (Winogradsky) proposed a novel life process called chemosynthesis. His discovery that some microbes could live solely on inorganic matter emerged during his physiological research in 1880s in Strassburg and Zurich on sulfur, iron, and nitrogen bacteria. In his nitrification research, Vinogradskii first embraced the idea that microbiology could have great bearing on agricultural problems. His critique of agricultural chemists and Kochian-style bacteriologists brought this message to the broader agricultural community, resulting in an heightened interest (...) in biological, rather than chemical methods to investigate soil processes. From 1891 to 1910, he directed the microbiological laboratory at the Imperial Institute of Experimental Medicine in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he expanded his chemosynthesis research to a broad investigation of the manifold significance of autotrophic organisms in soil processes. This work and that of his students attracted the serious attention of agricultural chemists and soil scientists in Russia and abroad, changing essentially the way they understood and investigated the role of microbes in the soil. His student, Vasilii Omelianskii, effectively integrated Vinogradskii’s approach into Russian and Soviet, and international agricultural microbiology. Vinogradskii’s activities in the late 19th century reflect the changes occurring more broadly in science. At that time, microbiologists such as Louis Pasteur, Eugenius Warming, and Martianus Beijerinck were contributing new laboratory methods and theoretical perspectives to incipient disciplines closely related to agriculture: ecology, soil science, and soil microbiology. (shrink)

In the article, we undertook an analysis of the prospects described in the research literature in connection with overcoming the linear interpretations of time and the transition to the concept of multiple times. We argue that it is possible to link two relatively autonomous objects on the basis of which they are discussed: the sphere of historical knowledge and the theme of memory. We argue that, overcome at the level of theories of the historical process, the linear idea of time (...) is preserved at the level of the creation of national histories and finds its expression in ethnocentrism or methodological individualism. Overcoming ethnocentrism should be associated not so much with the search for a more balanced attitude to specific interpretations of the historical past, associated with the inclusion of injustice shown in relation to other peoples in their own national histories, but with the development of alternative concepts of time that constitute the very formats of writing stories. We believe that the prospects for overcoming linear interpretations of time are associated with the development of the theory of multiple times. We argue that the constructivist approach should be considered the most heuristic theoretical and methodological basis for its implementation. We believe that modern interpretations of the heterogeneity of time imply the recognition of the mobility of time boundaries between the past, present, and future. We put forward the thesis that the criterion for distinguishing the modes of time should be considered the difference in the formats of the organization of knowledge. Correspondingly, we offer an interpretation of the historical past in the format of historical experience. As one of the consequences of this thesis, we affirm the need to revise ideas about the forms of influence of the past on the present. We argue that the recognition of the theory of the heterogeneity of time gives rise to relativism in determining the significance of different time streams in different social groups and cultures. We believe that the recognition of the theory of the diversity of temporal flows for different social and cultural groups presupposes the implementation of a procedure for synchronizing the data of temporal flows, which, on the one hand, makes it possible to overcome relativism, and, on the other hand, allochronism. Furthermore, we emphasize that synchronization should be based on the concept of modernity, which in turn is built on the basis of the project of the future and thus allows for the selection of various ideas about time. (shrink)

The author elucidates the ontological basis of elementary mathematical theories and thereby assesses their certainty as a foundation for the more complex theories of modern mathematics, such as mathematical analysis and set theory. He adduces arguments in favor of the position of Frege, who held that geometry can provide a sufficiently broad and certain foundation for mathematics.