diff --git a/_index.db b/_index.db index 294c69938..7689adcc5 100644 Binary files a/_index.db and b/_index.db differ diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anil_Potti-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anil_Potti-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ba0481144 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anil_Potti-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,28 @@ +--- +title: "Anil Potti" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anil_Potti" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:24:05.826585+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Anil Potti is a physician and former Duke University associate professor and cancer researcher, focusing on oncogenomics. He, along with Joseph Nevins, are at the center of a research fabrication scandal at Duke University. On 9 November 2015, the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) found that Potti had engaged in research misconduct. According to Potti's voluntary settlement agreement with ORI, Potti can continue to perform research with the requirement of supervision until year 2020, while he "neither admits nor denies ORI's findings of research misconduct." As of 2024, Potti, employed at the Cancer Center of North Dakota, had 11 of his research publications retracted, one publication received an expression of concern, and two others had been corrected. + +== Biography == +Anil Potti graduated from Christian Medical College, Vellore, India in 1995. He finished an internship in Internal Medicine at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine in 1999. In 2006 Potti completed training in hematology and oncology at Duke University. +Potti resigned from Duke in 2010, following the discovery of flaws in the genomics research conducted at Duke and allegations of embellishments in his resume, assuming responsibility for the anomalies in the scientific research. +Following his resignation from Duke, Potti worked as an oncologist in South Carolina, but was let go in 2012. + +== Scientific misconduct == +According to the Office of Research Integrity (ORI), Potti engaged in scientific misconduct while a cancer researcher at both Duke University's Medical Center and School of Medicine. He resigned in November 2010 after Duke put him on administrative leave, terminated the clinical trials based on his research and retracted his published data. +Potti and his team were accused of falsifying data regarding the use of microarray genetic analysis for personalised cancer treatment, which was published in various prestigious scientific journals. While there were questions concerning Potti's work beginning in 2007, notably from two bioinformatic statisticians, Keith Baggerly and Kevin Coombes at MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2010 brought further and more widespread scrutiny when it was discovered by Paul Goldberg and reported in The Cancer Letter that Potti had claimed on his curriculum vitae that he had been a "Rhodes Scholar (Australian Board)". He said he was referring to the Association of Rhodes Scholars in Australia Scholarships, an award granted by an organisation of former Rhodes Scholars to bring Commonwealth citizens who attend overseas institutions in to Australia. +Potti's fraudulent research was funded by the US government through the National Institutes of Health; the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; and the National Cancer Institute, in the form of six multi-year grants, and by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. +60 Minutes described the case as "one of the biggest medical research frauds ever". + +== University response == +Duke University became aware of the suspicions of research misconduct by 2008, when a medical student working with Potti and Nevins withdrew his name from the research and submitted a memorandum entitled "Research Concerns" to the administration. The administration denied any misconduct and convinced the student not to report his experiences to the funding agency, Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Duke later falsely claimed that there had not been a whistleblower involved in the issue. + +== Investigation == +The Potti scandal prompted the Institute of Medicine to conduct a study of the proper use of genomics in clinical trials. The Institute of Medicine's report, entitled "Evolution of Translational Omics: Lessons Learned and the Path Forward", was published on 23 March 2012 and made detailed specific recommendations for clinical trials that incorporate "omics". In February 2012, Joseph Nevins stated that it was "abundantly clear" that there was "manipulated data" that could not have occurred by chance. This was confirmed by the 2015 ORI report. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anil_Potti-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anil_Potti-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..83d52a652 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anil_Potti-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Anil Potti" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anil_Potti" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:24:05.826585+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Aftermath == +Healthcare companies cut ties with Potti after evidence surfaced that Potti had fabricated awards on his resume. The American Cancer Society stopped payments of a five-year grant which totalled $729,000 as Potti had received the grant based on his credentials. Duke University later reimbursed the American Cancer Society for the full amount of the grant. +Three clinical trials at Duke University Medical Center based on Potti's research came under scrutiny in 2009 and were temporarily suspended, then were permanently stopped in 2010. The United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) reviewed one of the studies in 2009, several years after its initiation, and concluded that the study would require an Investigational New Drug application, which had not been submitted. An FDA audit in 2011 further showed that an Investigational Device Exemption application had not been filed, but otherwise found "no significant deficiencies" in Duke's IRB conduct. Potti's medical licence record with the North Carolina Medical Board shows eleven settlements, each of at least $75,000, for incidents that appear to be related to these trials. +In late 2011, the North Carolina Medical Board reprimanded Potti but he retains his medical licence. The board issued its disciplinary action against Potti but imposed no sanctions. In its consent order, the North Carolina Medical Board stated that the board has no evidence from which it could conclude that Potti received funding for medical research as a result of the inaccuracies that he would not have otherwise received, but concluded that "...Potti's conduct as described herein constitutes unprofessional conduct..." In separate action on Potti's medical licence, the North Carolina Medical Board reviewed 11 payments made to settle malpractice claims and posted on its website that "no public action was warranted". Potti was issued a medical licence in Missouri on 1 February 2011; on 6 March 2012, the Missouri medical board (known as the Board of Registration for the Healing Arts) issued a reprimand on the basis of actions taken by the North Carolina Medical Board. +In January 2011 Potti applied for a medical licence in South Carolina, which was approved in April 2011. Potti was employed as a practising physician at the Coastal Cancer Center in Loris from March 2011 until 21 February 2012, when he was let go. +In addition to the settlements, two lawsuits also have been filed against Potti, as well as against Duke and other medical personnel there, charging medical negligence among other claims. In his response to the lawsuits, Potti stated that he was "not aware that false or improper data was included in the research." +Robert Califf of Duke testified that they had looked at 40 of Potti's publications and that two-thirds of them would be retracted in whole or in part. Science reported this as "The fallout from the Duke case includes 27 papers that Duke expects to be partially or completely retracted". As of February 2012, ten scientific papers authored by Potti and others have been retracted. +After leaving Duke, Potti hired Online Reputation Manager, a reputation management company, to improve search results for his name. +In February 2013, WordPress received DMCA takedown notices for Retraction Watch blog posts critical of Potti and the posts were removed. Retraction Watch alleges that these DMCA take-down notices were based on false claims. In November 2013, Automattic, provider of the WordPress webhost service that hosts Retraction Watch, filed suit against the filer of the takedown notice, saying that he had made those false claims in violation of the DMCA. This suit was later withdrawn because the defendant 'neither served an answer nor a motion for summary judgement, and indeed has not appeared'. + +== Research questions and Institute of Medicine report on 'Omics' == +Following questions raised about genomics research that was led by Potti and Nevins at Duke between 2004 and 2010, the National Cancer Institute requested that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) establish a committee to recommend ways to strengthen omics-based test development and evaluation. The IOM's recommendations released in March 2012 spoke to the many parties responsible for discovery and development of omics-based tests, including investigators, their institutions, sponsors of research, the FDA, and journals. The report identified best practices to enhance development, evaluation, and translation of omics-based tests while simultaneously reinforcing steps to ensure that these tests are appropriately assessed for scientific validity before they are used to guide patient treatment in clinical trials. The IOM's recommendations aimed to ensure that progress in omics test development is grounded in sound scientific practice and is reproducible, resulting not only in improved health care but also in continued public trust. +The IOM report further added that "failure by many parties [at Duke] to detect or act on problems with key data and computational methods … led to the inappropriate enrollment of patients in clinical trials, premature launch of companies and retraction of dozens of research papers." The report specifically called for scientific investigators to make the data, computer codes and computational procedures used to develop their clinical tests "publicly accessible for independent review" and to ensure that their data and research steps are presented comprehensibly. The report also found that so-called "omics" tests – such as genomics and proteomics, which are diagnostic tools based on molecular patterns – are in general highly prone to errors. IOM committee chair Gilbert Omenn, a computational biologist at the University of Michigan, said the problems could have been avoided. But he noted, as well, that those kinds of problems were not unique to Duke. "There are a lot of lessons here that surely apply to other places," Omenn said. + +== Retracted papers == +As of 2018, 11 papers co-authored by Potti have been retracted, and seven others have been corrected. Potti's retracted papers are: \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anil_Potti-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anil_Potti-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a11b85b1a --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anil_Potti-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,41 @@ +--- +title: "Anil Potti" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anil_Potti" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:24:05.826585+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +"A Genomic Approach to Colon Cancer Risk Stratification Yields Biologic Insights into Therapeutic Opportunities" +This article was published by PNAS. Gene expressions could allow the researchers to see if tumours are uniform throughout. This could also be used with Colon Cancer. They also can help predict how a person will respond to treatment and improve prognosis. The authors said they wanted to retract this article because "…we have been unable to reproduce certain key experiments described in the paper regarding validation and use of the colon cancer prognostic signature. This includes the validation performed with dataset E-MEXP-1224, as reported in Fig. 2A, as well as the generation of prognostic scores for colon cancer cell lines, as reported in Fig. 4…" +"Validation of Gene Signatures that Predict the Response of Breast Cancer to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy" +This article was published in Lancet Oncology. This study involved patients with oestrogen-receptor-negative breast cancer. The researchers wanted to confirm their previous studies of gene-expression signatures in predicting the effects of chemotherapeutic drugs. The article was retracted because the validity of the results was beginning to be questioned and because predictions were made off of the Nature Medicine article that was retracted. +"Genomic Signatures to Guide the Use of Chemotherapeutics" +This article was published in Nature Medicine. Gene expression signatures were developed with in vitro drug sensitivity data and Affymetrix microarray data. These were used to help predict response and sensitivity to chemotherapeutic drugs as well as corresponding drugs. This article was retracted after being corrected because many key experiments could not be reproduced. +"Gene Expression Signatures, Clinicopathological Features, and Individualized Therapy in Breast Cancer" +This article was published in JAMA (Journal of American Medicine Association). The patients had early-stage breast carcinoma. The study's main point was to find if gene expression signatures could refine breast cancer prognosis. This article talks about cancer, genomic technology, and chemotherapy and radiation. This article was retracted because a large part of the article was based on another article that Potti had written and had published in Nature Medicine. The article in Nature Medicine had been retracted because of failure to reproduce results. +"Pharmacogenomic Strategies Provide a Rational Approach to the Treatment of Cisplatin-Resistant Patients with Advanced Cancer" +This article was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Usually, platinum-based chemotherapy is used to treat non-small cell lung cancer, but how patients respond is highly variable. This article also talks about predicting how individuals will respond to cisplatin and pemetrexed. This article was retracted because experiments could not be reproduced. +"Gene-expression Patterns Predict Phenotypes of Immune-mediated Thrombosis" +This article was published in the journal Blood. Venous thromboembolism (VTE) affects about 3 in 1000 Americans. Out of the three, 10% have aPLAs. This study consisted of 129 patients. Out of those 129, 57 had APS and VTE, 32 had VTE without aPLA, 32 had aPLA, and 8 were healthy. Gene-expression profiles identify and predict individuals with APS from patients with VTE without aPLA. It is important to be able to predict APS and venous thrombosis because it will help with the management of the disease. This article was retracted because the other authors were unable to reproduce the data Potti cited. +"A Genomic Strategy to Refine Prognosis in Early-Stage Non–Small-Cell Lung Cancer" +This article was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The patients of this study were in stage IB, II, or IIIA of non-small cell lung cancer. Many patients receive surgery, but the risk of relapse is high. Others receive toxic chemotherapy unnecessarily. This study used gene-expressions to evaluate what form of treatment would be best. This article was retracted by the authors because they could not reproduce the results from the article. +"An Integrated Approach to the Prediction of Chemotherapeutic Response in Patients with Breast Cancer" +This article was published in PLOS One. It is important for cancer patients to receive the most effective treatment while also hopefully having the best quality of life possible. The researchers developed mRNA and microRNA profiles. They tested the mRNA profiles on 133 breast cancer patients. These breast cancer patients had been treated with TFAC chemotherapy treatment. This article was retracted as some of the information used in it derived from the Nature Medicine article which had been retracted. As that article had been retracted, it was felt that this article should be, as well. +"An Integrated Genomic-Based Approach to Individualized Treatment of Patients With Advanced-Stage Ovarian Cancer" +This paper was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in February 2007. The research studied ovarian cancer patient responses to platinum-based therapy. This marks the latest in a series of about 13 expected Potti retractions, with another 13 expected partial retractions. +"Characterizing the Clinical Relevance of an Embryonic Stem Cell Phenotype in Lung Adenocarcinoma" +This paper was published in Clinical Cancer Research on 15 December 2009. The study purportedly found a common gene expression pattern between lung adenocarcinomas and normal human embryonic stem cells that was associated with a shorter survival of patients with the lung cancer. On 21 February 2012, the manuscript was retracted. The retraction statement was signed by all authors and indicated "that clinical information from a data set ... available at the time of the signature development, was incorrect". Further, that statement indicated that "Drs. Anil Potti and Marvaretta Stevenson take full responsibility for this error". +"Upregulated Oncogenic Pathways in Patients Exposed to Tobacco Smoke May Provide a Novel Approach to Lung Cancer Chemoprevention" +Published in the journal Chest, this paper was retracted in 2012 with the retraction notice stating, "The authors relied on the results reported by Potti, and they were not aware of the errors subsequently reported." + +=== Paper under suspicion === +"Age- and Sex-Specific Genomic Profiles in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer" +This paper was published in the Journal of the American Medicine Association (JAMA). This study, conducted at Duke University from July 2008 until June 2009, investigated age and gender influence on response to cancer by studying the genes of 787 non-small cell lung cancer patients. The article is under review but has not been retracted as of February 2012. + +== See also == +List of scientific misconduct incidents + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Pernkopf-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Pernkopf-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ea8742179 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Pernkopf-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ +--- +title: "Eduard Pernkopf" +chunk: 1/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Pernkopf" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:24:03.438676+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Eduard Pernkopf (24 November 1888 – 17 April 1955) was an Austrian professor of anatomy who later served as rector of the University of Vienna, his alma mater. He is best known for his seven-volume anatomical atlas, Topographische Anatomie des Menschen (translated as Atlas of Topographical and Applied Human Anatomy; often colloquially known as the Pernkopf Atlas or just Pernkopf), prepared by Pernkopf and four artists over a 20-year period. While it is considered a scientific and artistic masterpiece, with many of its color plates reprinted in other publications and textbooks, it has been in recent years found that Pernkopf and the artists working for him, all of them ardent Nazis, used executed political prisoners as their subjects. + +== Early life == +Pernkopf was born in 1888 in the Lower Austria village of Rappottenstein. The youngest of three sons, he seemed to be considering a career in music upon his completion of the Gymnasium in Horn. However, the death of his father, the village's doctor, in 1903 led him to pursue medicine instead, as his father's death caused the family considerable hardship that a career as a physician was more likely to reverse. +He began his studies at the University of Vienna's medical school in 1907. During his time there he became a member of the Student Academic Fraternity of Germany, a student group with a strong German nationalist persuasion. As a student he had worked under Ferdinand Hochstetter, director of the university's anatomy institute. Hochstetter became his mentor and one of his strongest influences. In 1912 he received his medical degree. +For the next eight years he taught anatomy at various institutions in Austria. He served in the military as a physician for a year during World War I. In 1920 he returned to Vienna to work as one of Hochstetter's assistants, lecturing to first- and second-year students about the cardiovascular and peripheral nervous systems. + +== Career and political activity == + +Back in Vienna he rose quickly in the academic ranks. In 1926 he earned the title of associate professor, with a promotion to full professor two years later. Five years after that, in 1933, he formally succeeded his teacher Ferdinand Hochstetter as the anatomical institute's director. At the ceremony installing him in that position, he acknowledged Hochstetter's tutelage by dropping to his knees in front of the older man and kissing him on the hand. +Also in 1933, he joined the Nazi Party's foreign organization. The following year he became a member of the Sturmabteilung, better known as the SA, Storm Troopers or "brownshirts". In 1938 he was promoted again, becoming dean of the medical school. This occurred at about the same time as the Anschluss, Germany's annexation of Austria into the Third Reich. +In his new position, in a supportive political environment, Pernkopf put his Nazi beliefs into action. He required medical faculty to declare their ethnic lineage as either "Aryan" or "non-Aryan" and swear loyalty to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. He forwarded a list of those who refused the latter to the university administration, who dismissed them from their jobs. This amounted to 77 percent of the faculty, including three Nobel laureates. All of the Jewish faculty were removed this way, making Pernkopf the first Austrian medical school dean to do so. +Four days after becoming dean, he gave a speech to the medical faculty advocating Nazi racial hygiene theories and policies and urging his fellow physicians to implement them in their teaching and practice. They should "[promote] those whose heredity is more valuable and whose biological constitution due to heredity gives the promise of healthy offspring [and prevent] offspring to those who are racially inferior and of those who do not belong." More specifically, he said, the latter could be accomplished by "the exclusion of those who are racially inferior from the propagation of their offspring by means of sterilization and other means," language that has been seen as anticipating both the Nazi euthanasia programs and the Holocaust, the systematic extermination of European Jews and Roma. As he had begun his speech with "Heil Hitler!" and a Nazi salute, praising Hitler as "a son of Austria who had to leave Austria in order to bring it back into the family of German-speaking nations", he returned to that theme in his conclusion: + + To him who is the proclaimer of National Socialist thought and the new way of looking at the world and in whom the legend of history has blossomed and has awakened and who has the heroic spirit within him, the greatest son of our homeland, we wish to give our gratitude and also to say that we doctors with our whole life and our whole soul gladly wish to serve him. So may our call express only what each of us feels from the bottom of his heart; Adolf Hitler, Sieg Heil!, Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Pernkopf-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Pernkopf-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d6e6942ae --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Pernkopf-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,20 @@ +--- +title: "Eduard Pernkopf" +chunk: 2/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Pernkopf" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:24:03.438676+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Atlas == +At the time he was first hired as Hochstetter's assistant, he began putting together an informal dissection manual for students. He kept expanding it, and it became popular with the rest of the university instructors and the Austrian medical community. As he attained his full professorship he was offered a contract to expand it into a publishable book, and he eagerly accepted. He was to deliver three volumes. +Pernkopf began his atlas in 1933. He worked 18-hour days dissecting corpses, teaching classes and discharging his administrative responsibilities while a team of artists created the images that would eventually be in the atlas. His days began at 5 a.m., when he left notes in shorthand for his wife to type. These became the descriptive text that accompanied the images. +At the beginning four artists—Erich Lepier, Ludwig Schrott, Karl Endtresser and Franz Batke—worked with Pernkopf. Lepier, Pernkopf's first hire, had largely learned on his own after having to cut short his architectural studies at what is now Vienna University of Technology due to the death of his father, a circumstance similar to that which had shaped Pernkopf's career choice. The other three all had some degree of formal training. Outside of these four, some other artists, mostly family members such as Schrott's father and Batke's wife, contributed some pictures during the atlas's early years. + +Pernkopf instructed them to paint the organs they saw in as much detail as possible, to make them look like living tissue in print. This was enabled by a special treatment of the paper used for watercolor images that allowed greater detail than that type of paint normally did. The only deviation from this high level of realism was the use of color, where Pernkopf instructed them to use brighter hues than those found in real cadavers so that a reader would better learn to recognize and distinguish key anatomical landmarks. +Like Pernkopf, the four artists were also members of the Nazi Party and committed to its goals. They signaled this through the use of Nazi symbols in their work for the atlas. In his signature, Lepier frequently used the "r" at the end of his name as the basis for a swastika, and Endtrasser likewise used two Sig runes, the lightning-bolt insignia of the Schutzstaffel (SS), for the "ss" in his name. For illustrations he made in 1944, Batke similarly dated them by stylizing the two "4"'s as Sig Runes. +The first volume of the atlas was published in 1937. It was large enough that it required two books, one devoted to anatomy in general and the other covering more specifically the chest and pectoral limbs. Four years later, in 1941, the second volume, likewise requiring two books, came out. It covered the abdomen, pelvis and pelvic limbs. +That year the war intervened. With the exception of Lepier, ineligible for service because of his severe varicose veins, all the artists entered military service. Lepier nevertheless volunteered as an air raid warden, as did Batke when he returned home after being wounded and receiving the Iron Cross on the Eastern front. These duties interrupted their artistic work. +A two-volume edition of the Atlas was published in five languages. The first American edition was published in 1963. A European scientific publisher, Elsevier, holds the copyright, but discontinued printing the Atlas on moral grounds. The volumes can still be obtained on eBay and Amazon, and are found in private collections. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Pernkopf-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Pernkopf-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7360d9e97 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Pernkopf-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ +--- +title: "Eduard Pernkopf" +chunk: 3/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Pernkopf" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:24:03.438676+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Later life == +In 1943, Pernkopf reached the pinnacle of the academic career ladder when he was named the University of Vienna's rector, its highest official. He continued to serve in those positions until World War II ended two years later, with the surrender of Germany, including Austria. His fortunes changed radically as a result. +Two days after the surrender, he was dismissed from his post as head of the university's anatomical institute. Fearing that he might suffer legal or political repercussions for his previous Nazi party membership and prewar actions, he went on what he claimed was a vacation to Strobl in the state of Salzburg. However, he was arrested by American military authorities in August 1945, and by May 1946 he had been terminated from all his remaining positions with the university. +He was held at the Allied prisoner of war (POW) camp in Glasenbach for three years. Although he was ultimately never charged with any crimes, he was required to do regular hard labor throughout his imprisonment. The experience left him drained and exhausted when he returned to Vienna after his release, hoping to continue his work on the atlas. +His former facilities at the university were unavailable to him since the anatomical institute had been bombed during the war. Hans Hoff, a Jewish physician who had left the Vienna faculty in 1938, gave him two rooms at the school's neurological institute. Pernkopf was reunited with his original artists, some of whom had also been held in POW camps, as well as some new ones, and resumed his earlier demanding schedule. They continued working in the small space Hoff gave them. There was some tension among them as the three who had served felt Lepier, with whom they had never been close personally to begin with, had had a much easier time of it during the war than they had, a bitterness aggravated by the Third Reich's defeat by the Allies. He worked by himself while Pernkopf resumed his prewar schedule despite the privations he had endured. +They were joined by two new painters. Wilhelm Dietz, older than the others, contributed paintings of the neck and pharynx during his two years on the project. Elfie von Siber painted facial muscles. The third volume, covering the head and neck, was released in 1952. +At the time of his death, Pernkopf was hard at work on the fourth volume. Two of his former colleagues, Alexander Pickler and Werner Platzer, completed it for its 1960 publication. A few years later, the publisher brought out a condensed two-volume set with all the color plates, removing most of Pernkopf's explanatory text (and, later, airbrushing out the Nazi symbols Lepier and the others added to their signatures). Since little translation was necessary, this was the version of the atlas which medical students and physicians elsewhere in the world came to know and revere. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Pernkopf-3.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Pernkopf-3.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5b310d07e --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Pernkopf-3.md @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +--- +title: "Eduard Pernkopf" +chunk: 4/4 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Pernkopf" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:24:03.438676+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Controversial legacy and debate over continued use == +In 1995, Pernkopf and his atlas became the focus of a controversy in scientific ethics, following the publication of a paper by German researcher Edzard Ernst, who had recently been chair of rehabilitative medicine at the University of Vienna, which outlined the Nazi takeover of the university and highlighted the human experimentation that followed, including the role of Pernkopf himself. The medical school at the university, which had formerly had difficulty finding cadavers for dissection, received a regular supply after 1933. In 1996, Howard Israel, an oral surgeon at Columbia University, revealed that the subject bodies may have in some cases been those of executed political prisoners, LGBT men and women, Roma, and Jews. Sabine Hildebrandt, a Michigan anatomy professor and German native who has researched Pernkopf and other Nazi-era anatomists, has suggested that 26% of the bodies supplied to the university were execution victims. Looking at older copies in the archives, Israel discovered various Nazi symbols in the artists' signatures, which had been removed from more widely circulated later versions. Since then, physicians have discussed whether it is ethical to use the atlas, as it resulted from Nazi medical research. +With the help of other parties, Israel directed a request to the University of Vienna to investigate the issue. This resulted in the 1997 establishment of the Senatorial Project of the University of Vienna titled "Studies in Anatomical Science in Vienna from 1938 to 1945". The project confirmed that at least 1,377 bodies of executed persons were delivered to the university during the Nazi era and that their use cannot be excluded from at least 800 images in the atlas. As a result, the atlas' publisher directed that an insert noting this possibility be mailed to all libraries holding the book, and stopped printing new copies. +Some readers have wondered if the bodies shown in cutaway may have been Jewish inmates at concentration camps, since they appear gaunt and have shaved heads or close-cropped haircuts. Israel asked the Simon Wiesenthal Center if this might have been the case. Wiesenthal himself answered that it was unlikely, since during the Third Reich, the Vienna Landsgericht, or district court, passed death sentences solely on "non-Jewish Austrian patriots, communists and other enemies of the Nazis". Further, it has long been standard practice to shave the heads of cadavers prior to dissection. +Scientists and bioethicists have debated whether it is acceptable to continue to use the atlas for instructional purposes in light of its possible provenance. Opponents have asserted that any use of the atlas makes the user complicit in Nazi crimes and that modern technology, such as the Visible Human Project (based on the tomographic dissection of a man executed in the United States), will make the atlas redundant, if it has not done so already. Proponents have countered that the knowledge gained from the atlas can be ethically separated from its origins and that in some cases, it cannot easily be replaced by modern technology or other atlases. "[Pernkopf's] atlas is still one of the very best in terms of accuracy, showing levels of detail concerning fascia and neurovascular structures that are of direct relevance for the actual dissection process," says Hildebrandt. +Further, proponents have said that paintings in the atlas are artistic masterpieces regardless of the politics of the artists. Finally, forcing it out of circulation would be no less an act of censorship than that perpetrated by Hitler's regime when it publicly burned books shortly after assuming power. +Some of the scientists who were involved in bringing the activities of Pernkopf and other Nazi-era anatomists to light have advocated for the atlas' continued use. "[They] can remind us of suffering not only in the past but in the present, that we may be more compassionate physicians, more compassionate citizens of the world," says Garrett Riggs, a Florida neurologist and medical historian. "[A] ban could not atone the great evil committed by human beings on other human beings," Hildebrandt argues. "Rather, it is up to a new human generation to glean good from this murky history by continuing to use Pernkopf's atlas in a rational, historically conscious manner." +On the other hand, "There can be no doubt that Pernkopf, as head of the anatomy institute, was instrumental in the procurement of the bodies of the victims of Nazi terror for dissection, and ultimately, for the creation of his Atlas," argues Pieter Carstens, a professor of public law at the University of Pretoria. "In this sense he was an indirect perpetrator in the execution of the victims, but a direct perpetrator in the subsequent processing and pillaging of the bodies." Following the theories of bioethicist Charles A. Foster, he sees the anatomist's fundamental crime as a violation of his subjects' dignity. He concludes: + + How can something so beautiful at the same time be so utterly despicable? Herein lies the paradox of the Pernkopf Atlas, as a legacy of the Third Reich: the fact that Pernkopf and his illustrators, by embracing Nazi ideology and benefiting from the atrocities committed, created a Nazi anatomy atlas in which irreconcilable opposites were forcibly reconciled. Beautiful anatomical drawings were created, but this was only made possible by the unethical and unlawful procurement of the anatomical remains of murdered victims of an evil Nazi regime–thus beauty and evil were fused. This fusion not only perverts and diminishes the status and content of the Pernkopf Atlas, but also explains why it should be rejected. +[It] should be permitted to show its duplicitous face only rarely and then for very good reason in the teaching of history, medical ethics and medical law so that its lessons will be learned and its history never repeated. + +== See also == +Ernest April +August Hirt +Hermann Stieve +Josef Mengele + +== References == + +== Further reading == +Holubar, Karl, "The Pernkopf Story: The Austrian Perspective of 1998, 60 Years after It All Began", Perspectives in Biology and Medicine - Volume 43, Number 3, Spring 2000, pp. 382–388, doi:10.1353/pbm.2000.0020 + +== External links == +The Pernkopf Project \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_&_Technology-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_&_Technology-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..0b5e636bf --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_&_Technology-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,22 @@ +--- +title: "Philosophy & Technology" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_&_Technology" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:24:04.657750+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Philosophy & Technology is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering philosophy of technology. It is published by Springer Science+Business Media and the editor-in-chief is Luciano Floridi (University of Oxford). Besides regular issues, the journal publishes occasional special issues and topical collections on particular philosophical topics. + + +== Abstracting and indexing == +The journal is abstracted and indexed in EBSCO databases, PhilPapers, ProQuest databases, and Scopus. + + +== References == + + +== External links == +Official website \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pugwash_Conferences_on_Science_and_World_Affairs-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pugwash_Conferences_on_Science_and_World_Affairs-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9ee4b2181 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pugwash_Conferences_on_Science_and_World_Affairs-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,33 @@ +--- +title: "Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pugwash_Conferences_on_Science_and_World_Affairs" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:24:07.269000+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs is an international organization that brings together scholars and public figures to work toward reducing the danger of armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats. It was founded in 1957 by Joseph Rotblat and Bertrand Russell in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Canada, following the release of the Russell–Einstein Manifesto in 1955. +Rotblat and the Pugwash Conference jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 for their efforts on nuclear disarmament. International Student/Young Pugwash groups have existed since founder Cyrus Eaton's death in 1979. + +== Origin of the Pugwash Conferences == +The Russell–Einstein Manifesto, released July 9, 1955, called for a conference for scientists to assess the dangers of weapons of mass destruction (then only considered to be nuclear weapons). Cyrus Eaton, an industrialist and philanthropist, offered on July 13 to finance and host the conference in the town of his birth, Pugwash, Nova Scotia. This was not taken up at the time because a meeting was planned for India, at the invitation of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. With the outbreak of the Suez Crisis the Indian conference was postponed. Aristotle Onassis offered to finance a meeting in Monaco instead, but this was rejected. Eaton's former invitation was taken up. +The first conference was held at what became known as Thinkers' Lodge in July 1957 in Pugwash, Nova Scotia. Twenty-two scientists attended the first conference: + +seven from the United States: David F. Cavers, Paul M. Doty, Hermann J. Muller, Eugene Rabinowitch, Walter Selove, Leó Szilárd, Victor Frederick Weisskopf +three from the Soviet Union: Alexander M. Kuzin (Александр М. Кузин), Dmitri Skobeltsyn, Alexander V. Topchiev (Александр В. Топчиев) +three from Japan: Iwao Ogawa, Shinichiro Tomonaga, Hideki Yukawa +two from the UK: Cecil F. Powell, Joseph Rotblat +two from Canada: Brock Chisholm, John S. Foster +one each from Australia (Mark Oliphant), Austria (Hans Thirring), China (Zhou Peiyuan), France (Antoine M. B. Lacassagne), and Poland (Marian Danysz). +Cyrus Eaton, Eric Burhop, Ruth Adams, Anne Kinder Jones, and Vladimir Pavlichenko also were present. Many others were unable to attend, including co-founder Bertrand Russell, for health reasons. From the Soviet Union, Mikhail Ilyich Bruk (Russian: Михаил Ильич Брук; 1923 Moscow – 2009 Jurmala) attended as an English-Russian technical translator. Later, Armand Hammer stated, "Mike's KGB." + +== Organizational structure == + +Pugwash's "main objective is the elimination of all weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical and biological) and of war as a social institution to settle international disputes. To that extent, peaceful resolution of conflicts through dialogue and mutual understanding is an essential part of Pugwash activities, that is particularly relevant when and where nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction are deployed or could be used." +"The various Pugwash activities (general conferences, workshops, study groups, consultations and special projects) provide a channel of communication between scientists, scholars, and individuals experienced in government, diplomacy, and the military for in-depth discussion and analysis of the problems and opportunities at the intersection of science and world affairs. To ensure a free and frank exchange of views, conducive to the emergence of original ideas and an effective communication between different or antagonistic governments, countries and groups, Pugwash meetings as a rule are held in private. This is the main modus operandi of Pugwash. In addition to influencing governments by the transmission of the results of these discussions and meetings, Pugwash also may seek to make an impact on the scientific community and on public opinion through the holding of special types of meetings and through its publications." +Officers include the president and secretary-general. Formal governance is provided by the Pugwash Council, which serves for five years. There is also an executive committee that assists the secretary-general. Hussain al-Shahristani is the current president. Karen Hallberg is the current Secretary General. +The four Pugwash offices, in Rome (international secretariat), London, Geneva, and Washington D.C., provide support for Pugwash activities and serve as liaisons to the United Nations and other international organizations. +There are approximately fifty national Pugwash groups, organized as independent entities and often supported or administered by national academies of science. +The International Student/Young Pugwash groups work with, but are independent from, the international Pugwash group. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pugwash_Conferences_on_Science_and_World_Affairs-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pugwash_Conferences_on_Science_and_World_Affairs-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..ca24504b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pugwash_Conferences_on_Science_and_World_Affairs-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,37 @@ +--- +title: "Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pugwash_Conferences_on_Science_and_World_Affairs" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:24:07.269000+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Contributions to international security == +Pugwash's first fifteen years coincided with the Berlin Crisis, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, and the Vietnam War. Pugwash played a useful role in opening communication channels during a time of otherwise-strained official and unofficial relations. In 1965, addressing a meeting at UNESCO House in Paris, Robert Oppenheimer gave his tribute to Albert Einstein for the Pugwash movement. Oppenheimer confidently asserted: "I know it to be true that it [averting the disaster of the arms race] had an essential part to play in the Treaty of Moscow, the limited test-ban treaty, which is a tentative, but to me very precious, declaration that reason might still prevail." +It provided background work to the Partial Test Ban Treaty (1963), the Non-Proliferation Treaty (1968), the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (1972), the Biological Weapons Convention (1972), and the Chemical Weapons Convention (1993). Former US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara has credited a backchannel Pugwash initiative (code named PENNSYLVANIA) with laying the groundwork for the negotiations that ended the Vietnam War. Mikhail Gorbachev admitted the influence of the organisation on him when he was leader of the Soviet Union. In addition, Pugwash has been credited with being a groundbreaking and innovative "transnational" organization and a leading example of the effectiveness of Track II diplomacy. +During the Cold War, it was claimed that the Pugwash Conference became a front conference for the Soviet Union, whose agents often managed to weaken Pugwash critique of USSR and instead concentrate on blaming the United States and the West. In 1980, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence received a report that the Pugwash Conference was used by Soviet delegates to promote Soviet propaganda. Joseph Rotblat said in his 1998 Bertrand Russell Peace Lecture that there were a few participants in the conferences from the Soviet Union "who were obviously sent to push the party line, but the majority were genuine scientists and behaved as such". +Following the end of the Cold War, the traditional Pugwash focus on decreasing the salience of nuclear weapons and promoting a world free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction addresses the following issue areas: + +Nuclear stability, nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation: 1. Traditional Nuclear Disarmament, US-Russia nuclear disarmament, nuclear weapons in Europe; 2. Nuclear weapons and nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, Israeli nuclear weapons, Iranian nuclear program, proposal for a Middle Eastern zone free of weapons of mass destruction, Arab attitudes towards nuclear weapons and nuclear proliferation; 3. India and Pakistan nuclear relations, the effects of US India nuclear deal; 4. North Korea. +Regional security in regions where nuclear weapons exist or risks of nuclear proliferation are significant: 1. Middle East—general issues, the impact of the Palestinian problem and its relevance in the Arab world, the consequences of the so-called Arab spring and the growth of the Islamic movements and parties, Arab-Iranian, Arab-Israeli and Iran-Israeli relations; 2. South-Central Asia—traditional antagonism between India and Pakistan, the role of terrorist attacks in the worsening of such antagonism, US-Pakistani relations in general. The role of radical movements in Pakistan, reconciliation and peace in Afghanistan, talking to the Taliban (is it possible and how should be done?), Pakistani-Afghan relations. +The Pugwash movement has also been concerned with environmental issues and as a result of its 1988 meeting in Dagomys it issued the Dagomys Declaration on Environmental Degradation (). + +== Nobel Peace Prize == +In 1995, fifty years after the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, and forty years after the signing of the Russell–Einstein Manifesto, the Pugwash Conferences and Joseph Rotblat were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly "for their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms." The Norwegian Nobel committee hoped that awarding the prize to Rotblat and Pugwash would "encourage world leaders to intensify their efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons." In his acceptance speech, Rotblat quoted a key phrase from the Manifesto: "Remember your humanity." + +== International Foundation for Science == +From the 1965 Pugwash conference came a recommendation to establish the International Foundation for Science "in order to address the stultifying conditions under which younger faculty members in the universities of developing countries were attempting to do research". The organization gives grants to early-career scientists in low-income countries for work on local water resources and biology. + +== Secretaries General == + Joseph Rotblat : 1957–1973 + Bernard Feld : 1973–1978 + Martin M. Kaplan : 1978–1989 + Francesco Calogero : 1989–1997 + George Rathjens : 1997–2002 + Paolo Cotta-Ramusino : 2002–2024 + Karen Hallberg : 2024– + +== Pugwash Presidents == +As of 2024, 14 individuals have served as Presidents of the Pugwash Conferences. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pugwash_Conferences_on_Science_and_World_Affairs-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pugwash_Conferences_on_Science_and_World_Affairs-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..e772b3a4d --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pugwash_Conferences_on_Science_and_World_Affairs-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,102 @@ +--- +title: "Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pugwash_Conferences_on_Science_and_World_Affairs" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:24:07.269000+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Earl (Bertrand) Russell, 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature, a founder of the movement, was its natural head in its initial years. The formal office of the presidency was established at the Quinquennial Conference in Ronneby, in 1967. The president's role was to "preside over the Annual Pugwash Conferences and, in addition, between Conferences, to offer his counsel and advice to the members of the Continuing Committee and the Secretary-General, and thereby assist them in the execution of the activities of the Movement." +Sir John Cockcroft, joint recipient of the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics for pioneering work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles, was elected as the first president in 1967, though he died suddenly ten days later. +Lord Florey, who shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for extraction of penicillin, was then invited to become president, though he also died within weeks. At that point the Continuing Committee decided to have a rotating presidency for a term of one year, to have that office held by a distinguished person in the country where the annual conference would be held each year. +Francis Perrin (1968), had worked with Frederic Joliot's team to establish in 1939 the possibility of nuclear chain reactions and nuclear energy production. +Mikhail Millionshchikov (1969), an eminent physicist who later became Speaker of the Russian Parliament. +Eugene Rabinowitch (1970), American biophysicist who worked on the Manhattan Project and was co-author with Leo Szilard of the Franck Report and co-founder in 1945 of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. In September 1970, the Continuing Committee switched back to the initial idea of a permanent office of president, with a five-year term. +Hannes Alfvén (1970–1975), recipient of the 1970 Nobel in Physics for work on his theory of magnetohydrodynamics. +Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1976–1988), recipient of the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her determinations by X-ray techniques of the structures of important biochemical substances. +Sir Joseph Rotblat (1988–1997), physicist, one of the founders of the Pugwash Movement, co-recipient of the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize. +Sir Michael Atiyah (1997–2002), a mathematician, was awarded the 1966 Fields Medal, for his work in developing K-theory. +Prof. M.S. Swaminathan (2002–2007), agricultural scientist, one of the pioneers of the Green Revolution and recipient of the World Food Prize and the UNESCO Gandhi Prize. +Amb. Jayantha Dhanapla (2007–2017), former Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs at the United Nations (1998–2003), and former Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the US (1995–1997) and to the UN Office in Geneva (1984–1987) +Amb. Sergio Duarte (2017–2024), former UN Undersecretary for Disarmament Affairs and a retired career diplomat from Brazil +Dr. Hussain al-Shahristani (2024- ), is an Iraqi scientist and politician. + +== Pugwashites == +The Pugwash Conference itself does not have formal membership (although national organisations do). All participants take part in their individual capacities and not as representatives of any organization, institution or government. Anyone who has attended a meeting is considered a "Pugwashite". There are more than 3,500 "Pugwashites" worldwide. + +=== Pugwash Council for the 2007–2012 Quinquennium === +Amb. Jayantha Dhanapala (president), former UN under-secretary-general +Prof. Paolo Cotta-Ramusino (secretary general), Professor of Theoretical Physics, University of Milano (Italy) +Amb. (ret.) Ochieng Adala, former permanent representative of Kenya to the United Nations in New York +Amb. Sergey Batsanov, director, Geneva Pugwash, former representative of the USSR/Russia to CD +Dr. Adele Buckley, former VP of tech, Ontario Centre for Enviro Tech Advancement +Prof. Francesco Calogero (former secretary general), professor, theoretical physics, University of Rome "La Sapienza" +Dr. Lynn Eden, Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University +Prof. John Finney, emeritus professor of physics, University College London +Prof. Galia Golan-Gild, professor of government, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya, Israel +Prof. Karen Hallberg, professor of physics, Fellow, Argentine Natl Council, Science & Tech +Dr. Peter Jones, former senior policy advisor, Sec & Intell Secretariat, Ottawa (PM's Department) +Gen. (ret.) Dr. Mohamed Kadry Said, head of the Military Studies Unit, Al-Ahram Center +Dr. Mustafa Kibaroglu, chair of international relations, Okan University Tuzla, Turkey +Mr. Cliff Kupchan, director of Europe and Asia of the Eurasia Group, Washington, D.C. +Mr. Sverre Lodgaard, former director, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs +Prof. Saideh Lotfian (council chair), assoc professor, political science, University of Tehran +Dr. Riad Malki, min. of foreign affairs, min. of information, Palestinian National Authority +Amb. Miguel Marin-Bosch, former deputy foreign minister of Mexico +Gen. (ret.) Talat Masood, former secretary, Defence Production Division, MOD +Prof. Amitabh Mattoo, professor of international relations and member, National Knowledge Commission +Dr. Steven Miller (chair of executive committee), International Security Program of the Belfer Center, Harvard University +Prof. Götz Neuneck, Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy (IFSH), Hamburg +Dr. Alexander Nikitin, director of the Center for Political and International Studies +Mr. Niu Qiang, secretary general, Chinese People's Association for Peace and Disarmament +Gen. Pan Zhengqiang, deputy chair, China Foundation of International Studies +Acad. Yuri Ryzhov, president, International Engineering University, Moscow +Prof. Ivo Slaus, former member of the Croatian Parliament +Dr. Mark Byung-Moon Suh, chair, Corea Trust Fund +Prof. Takao Takahara, professor of international politics and peace research, Faculty of International Studies, Meiji Gakuin University, Japan +Dr. Bob van der Zwaan, senior scientific researcher, Energy Research Center of The Netherlands + +=== Other Pugwashites === + +== Legacy == +As the birthplace of the Pugwash movement, the Thinkers' Lodge was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2008. + +== Jubilee Pugwash Conference Astana == +The Jubilee 62nd Pugwash Conference devoted to nuclear disarmament was held in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, in 2017. The conference celebrated the 60th anniversary of the first Pugwash Conference, held in Pugwash, Nova Scotia in 1957. The theme of the conference was "Confronting New Nuclear Dangers." The conference agenda focused on strengthening the nuclear test ban and combating terrorism. +The Astana conference working groups included: + +Nuclear disarmament and the UN negotiation process to prohibit nuclear weapons +Nuclear non-proliferation, civilian nuclear energy and energy security +Regional Security: Europe and NATO +Regional Security: Middle East +Regional Security: South Asia (Afghanistan, Pakistan, India) +Regional Security: Northeast Asia +Emerging new technologies and security issues (Cyber Security, AI, Robot) + +== See also == + +== Notes == + +== References == + +=== Books === + +== External links == + +Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs +Russia: Russian Pugwash Committee +Canada: Canadian Pugwash Group -see: April 2007 YouTube video of Canadian Pugwash on YouTube +France: Association Française pour le Mouvement Pugwash +The First Pugwash Conference. +Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs on Nobelprize.org +Profile of Joseph Rotblat +The Early Days of Pugwash, by Joseph Rotblat in Physics Today, June 2001. +Pugwash And The International Treaties On Chemical And Biological Warfare, by J.P. Perry Robinson. +Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs (Rome, through 1996 only) +The Dagomys Declaration on Environmental Degradation. +J. Rotblat, Scientists in the Quest for Peace: A history of the Pugwash Conferences, MIT Press,1972. + +=== Archival collections === +Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs records, 1958-1981, Niels Bohr Library & Archives \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_reality-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_reality-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..5aea72c88 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_reality-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Right to reality" +chunk: 1/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_reality" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:24:10.893465+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +The right to reality refers to the right to consume organic content as opposed to content created by artificial intelligence, or more broadly speaking, to experience life and the world as they are, not through simulations and simulacra. It was once defined as "the latest in a series of novel rights set forth in response to a sizable jump in technology". +A right to reality can also refer to the right to consume real news in opposition to fake news, as well as the right to receive information when in a news desert. + +== Proposed definitions == +A 2024 article by Digital Frontier describes Newcastle University Law scholar Lilian Edwards as an early proponent of the right to reality, an idea she came across during a 2019 lecture at the Turing Institute, when an attendee asked her if the younger generation were "getting easier with the idea of unreality" while not "knowing what canonical reality is", and that made her reflect on the possibility of "reality" being a human right, much like privacy or freedom of speech. +In an article for a 2025 special edition of Stanford Social Innovation Review Brasil, Brazilian proponent Eduardo Saron defined the right to reality as "the right to a non-distorted and authentic perception of reality"; he later elaborates that it is "the possibility to live with density, bond and acting, in contrast with those who, deprived of these anchors, are pushed into isolation, insecurity and precarious shelter in the virtual world" and also saw it as a potential human right. +In an article for Folha de S.Paulo, he also defined it as the right to "experience what cannot be reduced to data or anticipated by statistical models. The right to err, vacillate, improvise. To exist outside of the script." He further advocated for the expansion of our capacity to analyze and question what we see instead of just absorbing it. According to him, the right to reality would contemplate the idea of 'neurorights' proposed by some researchers. +Saron goes on to explain that generative AI will foster what he calls "synthetic inequality", according to which a part of the population will experience reality in person, as it is, while others will have their experiences more and more mediated by screens, data and simulations. Saron believes that while it seems there's a process towards universal access to the digital world, it could be an illusive and simulated one for many. This could be specially problematic for children, as some would grow up exploring the world with their five senses while others would have their lives mostly filtered by screens. Drawing inspiration from Italian philosopher Luciano Floridi's onlife concept, he believes people lacking discernment, agency or critical capacity are excluded from reality. +He compares the relationship of humans and AI with the concept of Simulacra and Simulation by French philosopher Jean Baudrillard and defends living in a reliable world and preserving subjective experiences as principles to be ensured, specially because the stimuli that the human brain processes in order to build one's perception of reality can be manipulated with mis- and disinformation. The philosophical questions raised by the film The Matrix also permeate Saron's reasoning, including the allegory of the cave, with Saron stating that the cave is no longer rocky, but algorithmic. + +== Possible justifications for a right to reality == +Lawfare senior editor and AI Innovation and Law specialist Kevin Frazier analyzed in a 2023 article that the role of social media platforms as marketplaces of ideas would grow in the following years and that they would probably be full of AI-altered content that users would not be able to distinguish from "organic" content, since the former is increasingly similar to the latter. Indeed, a 2022 report by Europol estimated that 90% of online material would be produced by AI by 2026, while Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies's Timothy Shoup predicted in the same year that 99%-99.9% of content would be generated by robots by 2025-2030 in case LLMs soar. +Frazier also mentioned a study according to which efforts to help users in detection of artificial content would often backfire and even increase skepticism about the nature of content. Edwards said in September 2024 that people are facing increasing difficulty in telling what's real from what's fake since the rise of political deepfakes. +In an article for Folha de S.Paulo, Eduardo Saron mentions one study by IA Pearl-Censuswide according to which 41% of Generation Z trust AI more than humans and 56% of millennials feel more comfortable asking questions to AIs instead of co-workers. In another study by Microsoft-Carnegie Mellon University, the rise in AI trust could be related to a decrease in critical thinking. + +The right to reality may come also as a broader response to AI-related issues, since simply labeling AI content as such may not be enough to tackle broader problems such as diminishing trust in institutions and political processes. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_reality-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_reality-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..6472982ed --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_reality-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +title: "Right to reality" +chunk: 2/2 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_reality" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:24:10.893465+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Applications == +Frazier advocated in his article for a system of classification of internet content (similar to nutrition labels) that would inform users of the degree to which AI has or has not been used to create said content while also allowing users to even filter content according to their own preferences. He also wrote that the application of a right to reality "would not require the removal of any content nor discrimination based on the viewpoints asserted by that content" but would be "a disclosure requirement". He mentioned Lawrence Lessig's anticipation of the rise of AI-detection tools and that those would become prevalent in the media market. +Edwards supports the labeling of AI-generated content with methods such as watermarkings as proposed by the C2PA and the European Union's AI Act. However, Edwards herself and Fazier admit it may not be enough. +Speaking to Digital Frontier, Frazier said that "even the labelling of a right can have a big impact on the ability of people to advocate for the provision of that right" and compared the advocacy for it to citizens' assemblies. +Saron concedes both that there's no such thing as an "absolute reality", since according to him reality is always filtered by subjective, social and symbolic layers, and that the digital world can also create new realities or amplify existing ones. +The right to reality could take years to translate into actual legal developments, much like the right to privacy is still discussed over a hundred years after the publishing of "The Right to Privacy" or the right to repair, which emerged in the 20th century and was only incorporated in EU and US legislation in the 2020s. + +== Limitations == +Frazier analyses that a "right to reality" in the United States could conflict with the First Amendment. While, according to him, the U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted the Amendment as a guarantee of "an uninhibited marketplace of ideas in which truth will ultimately prevail", said marketplaces, such as social media platforms, will be overrun with AI content to the point that such guarantee is jeopardized if the right to reality is not taken into consideration. +On the other hand, he argues that because social media platforms are not yet seen as public forums by First Amendment jurisprudence, nor as state actors by the Court, "the right to reality may not find a legal home in the U.S. Constitution". +Lilian Edwards pondered that because most of the relevant social media platforms are hosted in the US, UK & Europe-based regulations and legislation are made harder. + +== Criticism == +Brazilian educational researcher Rafael Parente, while agreeing with most of Eduardo Saron's thoughts, believes that the right to reality should be expanded to the right to a "worthy hybrid reality", where human and machine would not be separate, but fairly integrated. Regarding Saron's "synthetic inequality" theory, Parente sees it as an opportunity for "expanded equity" instead, in that marginalized children would have access to the same study paths of students from more affluent regions, while teachers would have real experiences in real schools with assistance from virtual tutors. + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_ethics-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_ethics-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d929400f0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_ethics-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +--- +title: "Robot ethics" +chunk: 1/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_ethics" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:24:12.612544+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Robot ethics, sometimes known as "roboethics", concerns ethical problems that occur with robots, such as whether robots pose a threat to humans in the long or short run, whether some uses of robots are problematic (such as in healthcare or as "killer robots" in war), and how robots should be designed such that they act "ethically" (this last concern is also called machine ethics). Alternatively, roboethics refers specifically to the ethics of human behavior towards robots, as robots become increasingly advanced. +Robot ethics is a sub-field of the ethics of technology. It is closely related to legal and socio-economic concerns. Serious academic discussions about robot ethics started around 2000, and involve several disciplines, mainly robotics, computer science, artificial intelligence, philosophy, ethics, theology, biology, physiology, cognitive science, neurosciences, law, sociology, psychology, and industrial design. + +== History and events == + +One of the first publications directly addressing and setting the foundation for robot ethics was "Runaround", a science fiction short story written by Isaac Asimov in 1942, which featured his well-known Three Laws of Robotics. These three laws were continuously altered by Asimov, and a fourth – or "zeroth" – law was eventually added to precede the first three, in the context of his science fiction works. The short term "roboethics" was most likely coined by Gianmarco Veruggio. +Roboethics was also highlighted in 2004 with the First International Symposium on Roboethics. In discussions with students and non-specialists, Gianmarco Veruggio and Fiorella Operto thought that a good debate could push people to take an active part in the education of public opinion, make them comprehend the positive uses of the new technology, and prevent its abuse. Anthropologist Daniela Cerqui identified three main ethical positions emerging from the two days of debate: those who see robotics as purely technical and disclaim ethical responsibility, those interested in short-term ethical questions (such as compliance with existing conventions), and those interested in long-term ethical questions (including the digital divide). + +Some other important events include: + +2004: the Fukuoka World Robot Declaration. +2017: in the Future Investment Summit in Riyadh, a robot named Sophia (and referred to with female pronouns) is granted Saudi Arabian citizenship, becoming the first robot ever to have a nationality. This attracts controversy due to legal ambiguity, for instance over whether Sophia can vote or marry, or whether a deliberate system shutdown is to be considered murder. Additionally, news outlets contrasted it with the limited rights that Saudi women have. +2017: The European Parliament passed a resolution addressed to the European Commission concerning Civil Law Rules on Robotics. +Computer scientist Virginia Dignum noted in a March 2018 issue of Ethics and Information Technology that the general societal attitude toward artificial intelligence (AI) has, in the modern era, shifted away from viewing AI as a tool and toward viewing it as an intelligent "team-mate". In the same article, she assessed that, with respect to AI, ethical thinkers have three goals, each of which she argues can be achieved in the modern era with careful thought and implementation. The three ethical goals are as follows: + +Ethics by Design (the technical/algorithmic integration of ethical reasoning capabilities as part of the behavior of artificial autonomous system, see machine ethics); +Ethics in Design (the regulatory and engineering methods that support the analysis and evaluation of the ethical implications of AI systems as these integrate or replace traditional social structures); and +Ethics for Design (the codes of conduct, standards and certification processes that ensure the integrity of developers and users as they research, design, construct, employ and manage artificial intelligent systems, see § Law below). + +== In popular culture == + +Roboethics as a science or philosophical topic has been a common theme in science fiction literature and films. One film that could be argued to be ingrained in pop culture that depicts the dystopian future use of robotic AI is The Matrix, depicting a future where humans and conscious sentient AI struggle for control of planet Earth, resulting in the destruction of most of the human race. An animated film based on The Matrix, the Animatrix, focused heavily on the potential ethical issues and insecurities between humans and robots. The movie is broken into short stories. Animatrix's animated shorts are also named after Isaac Asimov's fictional stories. +Another facet of roboethics is specifically concerned with the treatment of robots by humans, and has been explored in numerous films and television shows. One such example is Star Trek: The Next Generation, which has a humanoid android, named Data, as one of its main characters. For the most part, he is trusted with mission-critical work, but his ability to fit in with the other living beings is often in question. More recently, the movie Ex Machina and the TV show Westworld have taken on these ethical questions quite directly by depicting hyper-realistic robots that humans treat as inconsequential commodities. The questions surrounding the treatment of engineered beings has also been key component of Blade Runner for over 50 years. Films like Her have even distilled the human relationship with robots even further by removing the physical aspect and focusing on emotions. +Although not a part of roboethics per se, the ethical behavior of robots themselves has also been a joining issue in roboethics in popular culture. The Terminator series focuses on robots run by a conscious AI program with no restraint on the termination of its enemies. This series has the same archetype as The Matrix series, where robots have taken control. Another famous pop culture case of AI with defective morality is HAL 9000 in the Space Odyssey series, where HAL (a computer with advanced AI capabilities who monitors and assists humans on a spacecraft) kills humans on board to ensure the success of the assigned mission after his own life is threatened. \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_ethics-1.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_ethics-1.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8c06e3d23 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_ethics-1.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: "Robot ethics" +chunk: 2/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_ethics" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:24:12.612544+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Killer robots == +Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS), often called "killer robots", are theoretically able to target and fire without human supervision or interference. In 2014, the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) held two meetings. The first was the Meeting of Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems. This meeting was about the special mandate on LAWS and intrigued intense discussion. National delegations and many non-governmental organizations(NGOs) expressed their opinions on the matter. +Numerous NGOs and certain states such as Pakistan and Cuba are calling for a preventive prohibition of LAWS. They proposed opinions based on deontological and consequentialist reasoning. On the deontological side, certain philosophers such as Peter Asaro and Robert Sparrow, most NGOs, and the Vatican argue that granting too much rights to machine violates human dignity, and that people have the "right not to be killed by a machine". To support their standpoint, they repeatedly cite the Martens Clause. +At the end of the meeting, the most important consequentialist objection was that LAWS wouldn't be able to respect international humanitarian law (IHL), as believed by NGOs, many researchers, and several states (Pakistan, Austria, Egypt, Mexico). +According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), "there is no doubt that the development and use of autonomous weapon systems in armed conflict is governed by international humanitarian law." States recognize this: those who participated in the first UN Expert Meeting in May 2014 recognized respect for IHL as an essential condition for the implementation of LAWS. With diverse predictions, certain states believe LAWS will be unable to meet this criterion, while others underline the difficulty of adjudicating at this stage without knowing the weapons' future capabilities (Japan, Australia). All insisted equally on the ex-ante verification of the systems' conformity to IHL before they are put into service, in virtue of article of the first additional protocol to the Geneva Conventions. + +=== Degree of human control === +Three classifications of the degree of human control of autonomous weapon systems were laid out by Bonnie Docherty in a 2012 Human Rights Watch report. + +human-in-the-loop: a human must instigate the action of the weapon (in other words not fully autonomous) +human-on-the-loop: a human may abort an action +human-out-of-the-loop: no human action is involved + +== Sex robots == +In 2015, the Campaign Against Sex Robots (CASR) was launched to draw attention to the sexual relationship of humans with machines. The campaign claims that sex robots are potentially harmful and will contribute to inequalities in society, and that an organized approach and ethical response against the development of sex robots is necessary. +In the article Should We Campaign Against Sex Robots?, published by the MIT Press, researchers pointed some flaws on this campaign and did not support a ban on sex robots completely. Firstly, they argued that the particular claims advanced by the CASR were "unpersuasive", partly because of a lack of clarity about the campaign's aims and partly because of substantive defects in the main ethical objections put forward by campaign's founders. Secondly, they argued that it would be very difficult to endorse a general campaign against sex robots unless one embraced a highly conservative attitude towards the ethics of sex. Drawing upon the example of the campaign to stop killer robots, they thought that there were no inherently bad properties of sex robots that give rise to similarly serious levels of concern, the harm caused by sex robots being speculative and indirect. Nonetheless, the article concedes that there are legitimate concerns that can be raised about the development of sex robots. + +== Law == +With contemporary technological issues emerging as society pushes on, one topic that requires thorough thought is robot ethics concerning the law. Academics have been debating the process of how a government could go about creating legislation with robot ethics and law. +A pair of scholars that have been asking these questions are Neil M. Richards Professor of Law at Washington University School of Law as well as, William D. Smart Associate Professor of Computer Science at McKelvey School of Engineering. In their paper "How Should the Law Think About Robots?" they make four main claims concerning robot ethics and law. The groundwork of their argument lies on the definition of robot as "non-biological autonomous agents that we think captures the essence of the regulatory and technological challenges that robots present, and which could usefully be the basis of regulation." Second, the pair explores the future advanced capacities of robots within around a decades time. Their third claim argues a relation between the legal issues robot ethics and law experiences with the legal experiences of cyber-law. Meaning that robot ethics laws can look towards cyber-law for guidance. The "lesson" learned from cyber-law being the importance of the metaphors we understand emerging issues in technology as. This is based on if we get the metaphor wrong for example, the legislation surrounding the emerging technological issue is most likely wrong. The fourth claim they argue against is a metaphor that the pair defines as "The Android Fallacy". They argue against the android fallacy which claims humans and non-biological entities are "just like people". \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_ethics-2.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_ethics-2.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..8a5509ee0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_ethics-2.md @@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ +--- +title: "Robot ethics" +chunk: 3/3 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_ethics" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:24:12.612544+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +== Empirical research == +There is mixed evidence as to whether people judge robot behavior similarly to humans or not. Some evidence indicates that people view bad behavior negatively and good behavior positively regardless of whether the agent of the behavior is a human or a robot; however, robots receive less credit for good behavior and more blame for bad behavior. Other evidence suggests that malevolent behavior by robots is seen as more morally wrong than benevolent behavior is seen as morally right; malevolent robot behavior is seen as more intentional than benevolent behavior. In general, people's moral judgments of both robots and humans are based on the same justifications and concepts but people have different moral expectations when judging humans and robots. Research has also found that when people try to interpret and understand how robots decide to behave in a particular way, they may see robots as using rules of thumb (advance the self, do what is right, advance others, do what is logical, and do what is normal). + +== See also == +Ethics of artificial intelligence +Plug & Pray – 2010 film by Jens Schanze +Union of Concerned Scientists – U.S.-based nonprofit organization + +== References == + +== Further reading == +Levy, David (2007). Love and Sex with Robots. Harper. ISBN 978-0-06-135975-0. +Richards, Neil M.; Smart, William D. (2013). "How should the law think about robots?". In Calo, Ryan (ed.). Robot law. doi:10.4337/9781783476732. ISBN 978-1-78347-673-2. +Jeangène Vilmer, Jean-Baptiste (2015-03-23). "Terminator Ethics: Should We Ban "Killer Robots"?". Politique Etrangère. +Danaher, John; Earp, Brian D.; Sandberg, Anders (2017). "Should we campaign against sex robots?". Robot Sex: Social and Ethical Implications. +Lin, Patrick; Abney, Keith; Bekey, George A. (2012). Robot Ethics: The Ethical and Social Implications of Robotics. MIT Press. +Tzafestas, Spyros G. (2016). Roboethics A Navigating Overview. Berlin: Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-21713-0. + +== External links == +PhilPapers - the standard bibliography on roboethics is on +Ethics + Emerging Sciences Group +IEEE Technical Committee on Roboethics \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientists_against_Nuclear_Arms-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientists_against_Nuclear_Arms-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..31339f6a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientists_against_Nuclear_Arms-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: "Scientists against Nuclear Arms" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientists_against_Nuclear_Arms" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:24:13.895006+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Scientists against Nuclear Arms (SANA) was formed in 1981 by the physicist and peace activist Mike Pentz together with Steven Rose, both academics at the Open University, to oppose nuclear arms. +SANA was one of the forerunner organisations of Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR). + + +== See also == +Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament +Anti-nuclear movement +Anti-war +European Nuclear Disarmament +Independent Nuclear Disarmament Election Committee +International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons +Nuclear disarmament +Nuclear-Free Future Award +Nuclear Information Service +Nuclear proliferation +Peace movement + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientists_for_Global_Responsibility-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientists_for_Global_Responsibility-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b15f43109 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientists_for_Global_Responsibility-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,27 @@ +--- +title: "Scientists for Global Responsibility" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientists_for_Global_Responsibility" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:24:15.068729+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR) in the United Kingdom promotes the ethical practice and use of science, design and technology. SGR is affiliated to the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility (INES). It is an independent UK-based membership organisation of hundreds of natural scientists, social scientists, engineers, IT professionals and architects. In 2017 its partner organization ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) won the Nobel Peace Prize. ICAN have promoted a Kurzgesagt YouTube video endorsed by the International Committee of the Red Cross and Crescent (ICRC) showing the consequences of a single atomic weapon exploded over a city. +SGR's work is focused on four main issues: security and disarmament; climate change and energy, including nuclear power; who controls science and technology?; emerging technologies. The main areas of concern are arms and arms control, including military involvement in UK universities; effect of excessive greenhouse gas emissions on climate; the nature of war and reducing barbarity; topsoil and water shortages resulting from modern agricultural methods; depletion of species of fish due to over-fishing; continual spread of nuclear weapons, and reduction of occurrence of serious nuclear accidents. +In 2019 SGR launched the journal Responsible Science. SGR evaluates the risk of new science and new technological solutions to older science-based problems and threats, while recognizing the enormous contribution science, design and technology has made to civilisation and human well-being. +SGR promotes science, design and technology that contribute to peace, social justice and environmental sustainability. + + +== See also == +Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament +Scientists against Nuclear Arms, a forerunner of SGR + + +== References == + + +== External links == +SGR website +Scientists for Global Responsibility on Facebook \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Reuben-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Reuben-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9045e85d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Reuben-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,40 @@ +--- +title: "Scott Reuben" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Reuben" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:24:09.719687+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Scott S. Reuben (born 1958) is an American anesthesiologist who falsified data heralding the benefits of the Pfizer pain medication Celebrex while downplaying its negative side effects. +He was Professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts and chief of acute pain at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts from February 1991 until 2009 when he was sentenced to prison for healthcare fraud. Reuben was considered to be a prolific and influential researcher in pain management, and his purported findings altered the way millions of patients are treated for pain during and after orthopedic surgeries. Reuben has now admitted that he never conducted any of the clinical trials on which his conclusions were based "in what may be considered the longest-running and widest-ranging cases of academic fraud." Scientific American has called Reuben the medical equivalent of Bernie Madoff, the former NASDAQ chairman who was convicted of orchestrating a $65-billion Ponzi scheme. + + +== Background == +Reuben was educated at Columbia University. He graduated from medical school at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1985 and undertook his anesthesiology residency at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. +Reuben fell under suspicion when Baystate conducted a routine audit in May 2008 which revealed that Reuben had not been given approval for two studies that he intended to present during the hospital's research week. On March 10, 2009 a Baystate spokeswoman announced that Reuben admitted to fabricating many of the data underlying his research. Reuben never conducted the clinical trials that he wrote about in 21 journal articles dating from at least 1996. In some cases, he even invented the patients. Although Reuben often co-wrote papers with other researchers, Baystate found that the other researchers did not know about or participate in Reuben's studies, and their names were forged on documents. The hospital asked the journals to retract the studies, which reported favorable results from painkillers including Pfizer Inc.'s Bextra, Celebrex and Lyrica and Merck & Co. Inc.'s Vioxx. His studies also claimed Wyeth's antidepressant Effexor could be used as a painkiller. Pfizer gave Reuben five research grants between 2002 and 2007. He was a paid member of the company's speakers bureau, giving talks about Pfizer drugs to colleagues. Reuben also wrote to the Food and Drug Administration, urging the agency not to restrict the use of many of the painkillers he studied, citing his own data on their safety and effectiveness. +"Doctors have been using (his) findings very widely," said Steven Shafer, editor of Anesthesia and Analgesia, a scientific journal that published ten articles identified as containing fraudulent data. "His findings had a huge impact on the field." He also described Reuben's actions as the biggest case of fraud in the history of anesthesiology. Fellow editor Paul White believed that Reuben's fraudulent studies may have actually harmed patients due to the sale of "billions of dollars' worth of drugs" that caused slower recovery times. +Reuben's work had actually come under scrutiny as early as 2007, when several anesthesiologists noticed his studies never showed negative results. Greg Koski, former director of the Office for Human Research Protections, said the fraud was unusual because Reuben was able to carry it on for almost 13 years without being caught by the peer review process. +All of Reuben's 21 fraudulent articles, as well as the article abstracts, are documented in the magazine Healthcare Ledger. +Tufts has since cut ties with Reuben, and his Massachusetts medical license was permanently revoked after a period in which he voluntarily agreed not to practice. + + +== Sentencing == +On January 7, 2010 Reuben agreed to plead guilty to one count of health care fraud. Prosecutors alleged that Reuben obtained thousands of dollars in grants for research that he never performed. He formally pleaded guilty on February 21, 2010 before Judge Michael Ponsor. On May 24, Ponsor sentenced him to six months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, forfeit $50,000 to the government and make $360,000 in restitution to pharmaceutical companies. The plea deal effectively ended his career as a doctor; most states will not grant medical licenses to convicted felons. +On November 16, 2011 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an order permanently debarring Reuben from assisting in drug applications. + + +== Impact == +A 2009 review of systematic review articles used in evidence-based medicine found that while some reviews were no longer valid when the Reuben studies were removed, the conclusions in the majority of them remained unchanged. The review found that the key Reuben claims that needed to be re-examined were "the absence of detrimental effects of coxibs on bone healing after spine surgery, the beneficial long-term outcome after preemptive administration of coxibs including an allegedly decreased incidence of chronic pain after surgery, and the analgesic efficacy of ketorolac or clonidine when added to local anesthetics for intravenous regional anesthesia." +In 2010 the editorial in Anaesthesia argued that, + +Reuben's fabricated data may have had impact beyond systematic review conclusions because they addressed topical questions for which anaesthetists, surgeons, and patients seek answers, such as the utility of multimodal anaesthesia, or whether non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) influence bone healing ... Millions of people have had NSAIDs after fractures, trauma or orthopaedic surgery without problems of bone healing. The plausibility of a sizeable negative effect of NSAIDs on bone healing has to be questioned. + + +== See also == +List of scientific misconduct incidents + + +== References == \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_Pugwash_USA-0.md b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_Pugwash_USA-0.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000..710f1aeb7 --- /dev/null +++ b/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_Pugwash_USA-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,21 @@ +--- +title: "Student Pugwash USA" +chunk: 1/1 +source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_Pugwash_USA" +category: "reference" +tags: "science, encyclopedia" +date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:24:08.454732+00:00" +instance: "kb-cron" +--- + +Student Pugwash USA is the U.S. affiliate of International Student/Young Pugwash, and the US student affiliate of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, recipients of the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize. +As an educational nonprofit organization, SPUSA does not adopt advocacy positions on policy or political issues or candidates, but seeks to foment student leadership and incubate groups of committed activists who go on to take action separate from SPUSA activities. The organization posits that, in order to create effective social change, students must first understand the issues at stake, then contemplate their ethical and moral responsibility to themselves and to society as a whole. Its stated purpose is not to advance a particular ethical viewpoint regarding scientific and technological issues, but rather to encourage students to consider ethics when thinking about the role of science and technology in society. SPUSA is open to all viewpoints and approaches to these discussions, but with a firm commitment to accurate science and factual information. For example, early SPUSA panel debates were held regarding the causes of climate change, before there was consensus in the scientific community; afterwards, that debate was considered resolved and no longer appropriate, but events continue discussing which approaches to take in response to current information. + + +== Activities == +Activities have included regional, national and international conferences, speaker events at campuses through a national chapter network, and compilation of issue briefs on scientific and technical issues of social importance. + + +== See also == +Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs +International Student/Young Pugwash \ No newline at end of file