Directly interacting particles are considered in the multitime formalism of predictive relativistic mechanics. When the equations of motion leave a phase-space volume invariant, it turns out that the phase average of any first integral, covariantly defined as a flux across a 7n-dimensional surface, is conserved. The Hamiltonian case is discussed, a class of simple models is exhibited, and a tentative definition of equilibrium is proposed.

We here use our nonperturbative, cluster decomposable relativistic scattering formalism to calculate photon–spinor scattering, including the related particle–antiparticle annihilation amplitude. We start from a three-body system in which the unitary pair interactions contain the kinematic possibility of single quantum exchange and the symmetry properties needed to identify and substitute antiparticles for particles. We extract from it a unitary two-particle amplitude for quantum–particle scattering. We verify that we have done this correctly by showing that our calculated photon–spinor (...) amplitude reduces in the weak coupling limit to the usual lowest order, manifestly covariant (QED) result with the correct normalization. That we are able to successfully do this directly demonstrates that renormalizability need not be a fundamental requirement for all physically viable models. (shrink)

The success of particle detection in high energy physics colliders critically depends on the criteria for selecting a small number of interactions from an overwhelming number that occur in the detector. It also depends on the selection of the exact data to be analyzed and the techniques of analysis. The introduction of automation into the detection process has traded the direct involvement of the physicist at each stage of selection and analysis for the efficient handling of vast (...) amounts of data. This tradeoff, in combination with the organizational changes in laboratories of increasing size and complexity, has resulted in automated and semi-automated systems of detection. Various aspects of the semi-automated regime were greatly diminished in more generic automated systems, but turned out to be essential to a number of surprising discoveries of anomalous processes that led to theoretical breakthroughs, notably the establishment of the Standard Model of particle physics. The automated systems are much more efficient in confirming specific hypothesis in narrow energy domains than in performing broad exploratory searches. Thus, in the main, detection processes relying excessively on automation are more likely to miss potential anomalies and impede potential theoretical advances. I suggest that putting substantially more effort into the study of electron–positron colliders and increasing its funding could minimize the likelihood of missing potential anomalies, because detection in such an environment can be handled by the semi-automated regime—unlike detection in hadron colliders. Despite virtually unavoidable excessive reliance on automated detection in hadron colliders, their development has been deemed a priority because they can operate at currently highest energy levels. I suggest, however, that a focus on collisions at the highest achievable energy levels diverts funds from searches for potential anomalies overlooked due to tradeoffs at the previous energy thresholds. I also note that even in the same collision environment, different research strategies will opt for different tradeoffs and thus achieve different experimental outcomes. Finally, I briefly discuss current searches for anomalous process in the context of the previous analysis. (shrink)

The particle internal clock conjectured by de Broglie in 1924 was investigated in a channeling experiment using a beam of ∼80 MeV electrons aligned along the 〈110〉 direction of a 1 μm thick silicon crystal. Some of the electrons undergo a rosette motion, in which they interact with a single atomic row. When the electron energy is finely varied, the rate of electron transmission at 0° shows a 8% dip within 0.5% of the resonance energy, 80.874 MeV, for which (...) the frequency of atomic collisions matches the electron’s internal clock frequency. A model is presented to show the compatibility of our data with the de Broglie hypothesis. (shrink)

"Elements of Neutron Interaction Theory" is a first-year textbook for graduate students in nuclear engineering, dealing with the interactions of neutrons, photons, and charged particles with nuclei, atoms, and electrons. The aim of the book is to present, as simply as possible, those aspects of neutron interaction theory which follow directly from conservation laws and elementary quantum mechanics. It is intended to be understood by anyone who has obtained the equivalent of a bachelor's degree in physics, chemistry, or one (...) of the engineering disciplines. No mathematical background beyond differential equations and elementary vector analysis and no physics background beyond elementary modern physics is assumed. (shrink)

Using conversation analysis as its research method, this article investigates the interactional function of the particle ba in Mandarin Chinese conversation. It is argued that ba is frequently employed by its speakers to adjust deontic gradients in action sequences of directives in mundane conversation besides its function of adjusting epistemic gradients in certain action sequences. The present study claims that the agent and beneficiary of future action can only distinguish one category of directive actions from another, but each category (...) still constitutes several member actions which contrast with one another in terms of social power. The member actions of each category form a continuum, one end of which is the action with the highest level of social power and the other end of which is the action with the lowest level of social power. There exists a normative relation between each member action of a category and the speaker’s deontic status in the real world. The particle ba is a practice of minutely adjusting the speaker’s deontic stance from a higher position to a lower one. (shrink)

The Aharonov–Bohm phase shift in a particle interference pattern when electrons pass a long solenoid is identical in form with the optical interference pattern shift when a piece of retarding glass is introduced into one path of a two-beam optical interference pattern. The particle interference-pattern deflection is a relativistic effect of order $$1/c^{2}$$, though this relativity aspect is rarely mentioned in the literature. Here we give a thorough analysis of the classical electromagnetic aspects of the interaction between a (...) solenoid or toroid and a charged particle. We point out the magnetic Lorentz force which the solenoid or toroid experiences due to a passing charge. Although analysis in the rest frame of the solenoid or toroid will involve back Faraday fields on the charge, the analysis in the inertial frame in which the charge is initially at rest involves forces due to only electric fields where forces are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. The classical analysis is made using the Darwin Lagrangian. We point out that the classical analysis suggests an angular deflection independent of Planck’s constant $$\hbar $$, where the deflection magnitude is identical with that given by the traditional quantum analysis, but where the deflection direction is unambiguous. (shrink)

In the past, a few researchers have presented arguments indicating that a statistical equilibrium state of classical charged particles necessarily demands the existence of a temperature-independent, incident classical electromagnetic random radiation. Indeed, when classical electromagnetic zero-point radiation is included in the analysis of problems with macroscopic boundaries, or in the analysis of charged particles in linear force fields, then good agreement with nature is obtained. In general, however, this agreement has not been found to hold for charged particles bound in (...) nonlinear force fields. The point is raised here that this disagreement arising for nonlinear force fields may be a premature conclusion on this classical theory for describing atomic systems, because past calculations have not directed strict attention to electromagnetic interactions between charges. This point is illustrated here by examining the classical hydrogen atom and showing that this problem has still not been adequately solved. (shrink)

Neuropsychological research on the neural basis of behaviour generally posits that brain mechanisms will ultimately suffice to explain all psychologically described phenomena. This assumption stems from the idea that the brain is made up entirely of material particles and fields, and that all causal mechanisms relevant to neuroscience can therefore be formulated solely in terms of properties of these elements. Thus, terms having intrinsic mentalistic and/or experiential content (e.g. ‘feeling’, ‘knowing’ and ‘effort’) are not included as primary causal factors. This (...) theoretical restriction is motivated primarily by ideas about the natural world that have been known to be fundamentally incorrect for more than three-quarters of a century. Contemporary basic physical theory differs profoundly from classic physics on the important matter of how the consciousness of human agents enters into the structure of empirical phenomena. The new principles contradict the older idea that local mechanical processes alone can account for the structure of all observed empirical data. Contemporary physical theory brings directly and irreducibly into the overall causal structure certain psychologically described choices made by human agents about how they will act. This key development in basic physical theory is applicable to neuroscience, and it provides neuroscientists and psychologists with an alternative conceptual framework for describing neural processes. Indeed, owing to certain structural features of ion channels critical to synaptic function, contemporary physical theory must in principle be used when analysing human brain dynamics. The new framework, unlike its classic-physics-based predecessor, is erected directly upon, and is compatible with, the prevailing principles of physics. It is able to represent more adequately than classic concepts the neuroplastic mechanisms relevant to the growing number of empirical studies of the capacity of directed attention and mental effort to systematically alter brain function.. (shrink)

Neuropsychological research on the neural basis of behaviour generally posits that brain mechanisms will ultimately suffice to explain all psychologically described phenomena. This assumption stems from the idea that the brain is made up entirely of material particles and fields, and that all causal mechanisms relevant to neuroscience can therefore be formulated solely in terms of properties of these elements. Thus, terms having intrinsic mentalistic and/or experiential content (e.g. ‘feeling’, ‘knowing’ and ‘effort’) are not included as primary causal factors. This (...) theoretical restriction is motivated primarily by ideas about the natural world that have been known to be fundamentally incorrect for more than three-quarters of a century. Contemporary basic physical theory differs profoundly from classic physics on the important matter of how the consciousness of human agents enters into the structure of empirical phenomena. The new principles contradict the older idea that local mechanical processes alone can account for the structure of all observed empirical data. Contemporary physical theory brings directly and irreducibly into the overall causal structure certain psychologically described choices made by human agents about how they will act. This key development in basic physical theory is applicable to neuroscience, and it provides neuroscientists and psychologists with an alternative conceptual framework for describing neural processes. Indeed, owing to certain structural features of ion channels critical to synaptic function, contemporary physical theory must in principle be used when analysing human brain dynamics. The new framework, unlike its classic-physics-based predecessor, is erected directly upon, and is compatible with, the prevailing principles of physics. It is able to represent more adequately than classic concepts the neuroplastic mechanisms relevant to the growing number of empirical studies of the capacity of directed attention and mental effort to systematically alter brain function.. (shrink)

A coordinate-free formulation is established for (semi) classical particle-field interactions. The exterior language of spacetime chains and De-Rham currents enables the description to include extended strings and membranes besides point particles. Treating physical fields in terms of sections of particular bundles, a unified account of interactions is presented in terms of an intrinsic action principle on a bundle of jets over spacetime. The theory is illustrated by considering the specific model of point particles with intrinsic spin covariantly (...) coupled to theU(1) andSL(2, C) connections describing the electromagnetic and gravitational fields, respectively. The notion of dual spin is examined in this context and coupled equations for this particle-field system are explicitly derived in a local chart. Attention is drawn to the global implications of the theory. (shrink)

The main topics of this second part of a two-part essay are some consequences of the phenomenon of vacuum polarization as the most important physical manifestation of modular localization. Besides philosophically unexpected consequences, it has led to a new constructive “outside-inwards approach” in which the pointlike fields and the compactly localized operator algebras which they generate only appear from intersecting much simpler algebras localized in noncompact wedge regions whose generators have extremely mild almost free field behavior. -/- Another consequence of (...) vacuum polarization presented in this essay is the localization entropy near a causal horizon which follows a logarithmically modified area law in which a dimensionless area (the area divided by the square of dR where dR is the thickness of a light-sheet) appears. There are arguments that this logarithmically modified area law corresponds to the volume law of the standard heat bath thermal behavior. We also explain the symmetry enhancing effect of holographic projections onto the causal horizon of a region and show that the resulting infinite dimensional symmetry groups contain the Bondi–Metzner–Sachs group. This essay is the second part of a partitioned longer paper. (shrink)

Using the example of classical electrodynamics, I argue that the concept of fields as mediators of particle interactions is fundamentally flawed and reflects a misguided attempt to retrieve Newtonian concepts in relativistic theories. This leads to various physical and metaphysical problems that are discussed in detail. In particular, I emphasize that physics has not found a satisfying solution to the self-interaction problem in the context of the classical field theory. To demonstrate the superiority of a pure particle (...) ontology, I defend the direct interaction theory of Wheeler and Feynman against recent criticism and argue that it provides the most cogent formulation of classical electrodynamics. (shrink)

This paper starts from a nonlinear fermion field equation of motion with a strongly coupled self-interaction. Nonperturbative quark solutions of the equation of motion are constructed in terms of a Reggeized infinite component free spinor field. Such a field carries a family of strongly interacting unstable compounds lying on a Regge locus in the analytically continued quark spin. Such a quark field is naturally confined and also possesses the property of asymptotic freedom. Furthermore, the particular field self-regularizes the interactions (...) and naturally breaks the chiral invariance of the equation of motion. We show why and how the existence of such a strongly coupled solution and its particle-family, wave duality forces a change in the field equation of motion such that it conserves C, P, T, although its individual interaction terms are of V-A and thus C, P nonconserving type. (shrink)

Along the lines of a previous work, the geometrical structure of Hibert bundles describing extended quantum free particles is repeated with Galilei external and internal independent symmetries. Then, in order to introduce the interaction, this structure is extended by replacing configuration and momentum spaces by the socelled spaces of trajectories and extended velocity boosts, respectively. These provide representations giving the probability amplitudes for the particle to follow certain trajectories. The interaction can be introduced in the transformation law from functions (...) on the space of trajectories (free dynamics) to functions on spacetime (intracting dynamics). This transformation law, which makes use of a universal distribution, is seen as a functional in our work according to a quantum functional theory which generalizes the ideas of de Broglie. Intertwining of induced representations gives the free propagator in the space of trajectories and, henceforth, the propagator with interaction in space-time for the extended particle. (shrink)

Most philosophical discussion of the particle concept that is afforded by quantum field theory has focused on free systems. This paper is devoted to a systematic investigation of whether the particle concept for free systems can be extended to interacting systems. The possible methods of accomplishing this are considered and all are found unsatisfactory. Therefore, an interacting system cannot be interpreted in terms of particles. As a consequence, quantum field theory does not support the inclusion of particles in (...) our ontology. In contrast to much of the recent discussion on the particle concept derived from quantum field theory, this argument does not rely on the assumption that a particulate entity be localizable. (shrink)

This essay touches on a number of topics in philosophy of quantum field theory from the point of view of the LSZ asymptotic approach to scattering theory. First, particle/field duality is seen to be a property of free field theory and not of interacting QFT. Second, it is demonstrated how LSZ side-steps the implications of Haag's theorem. Finally, a recent argument due to Redhead, Malament and Arageorgis against the concept of localized particle states is addressed. Briefly, the argument (...) observes that the Reeh-Schlieder theorem entails that correlations between spacelike separated vacuum expectation values of local field operators are always present, and this, according to the above authors, dictates against the notion of a localized particle state. I claim that this moral is excessive and that a coherent notion of localized particles is given by the LSZ approach. The underlying moral to be drawn from this analysis is that questions concerning the ontology of interacting QFT cannot be appropriately addressed if one restricts oneself to the free theory. (shrink)

This paper comments on Gallagher’s recently published direct perception proposal about social cognition [Gallagher, S.. Direct perception in the intersubjective context. Consciousness and Cognition, 17, 535–543]. I show that direct perception is in danger of being appropriated by the very cognitivist accounts criticised by Gallagher. Then I argue that the experiential directness of perception in social situations can be understood only in the context of the role of the interaction process in social cognition. I elaborate on the (...) role of social interaction with a discussion of participatory sense-making to show that direct perception, rather than being a perception enriched by mainly individual capacities, can be best understood as an interactional phenomenon. (shrink)

We argue that the asymmetry between diverging and converging electromagnetic waves is just one of many asymmetries in observed phenomena that can be explained by a past hypothesis and statistical postulate (together assigning probabilities to different states of matter and field in the early universe). The arrow of electromagnetic radiation is thus absorbed into a broader account of temporal asymmetries in nature. We give an accessible introduction to the problem of explaining the arrow of radiation and compare our preferred strategy (...) for explaining the arrow to three alternatives: (i) modifying the laws of electromagnetism by adding a radiation condition requiring that electromagnetic fields always be attributable to past sources, (ii) removing electromagnetic fields and having particles interact directly with one another through retarded action-at-a-distance, (iii) adopting the Wheeler-Feynman approach and having particles interact directly through half-retarded half-advanced action-at-a-distance. In addition to the asymmetry between diverging and converging waves, we also consider the related asymmetry of radiation reaction. (shrink)

"Research directions on interaction. This article proposes to consider interaction as a concept and an object of study based on pragmatics and textual linguistics, according to three approaches: discursive genres (Kerbrat-Orecchioni, 1990, 1992), place relationships (Vion, 1992), dialogism and polyphony (Bakhtine, 1970, 1984 and Ducrot, 1980, 1984). These approaches are illustrated by the analysis of several interaction situations: a political debate organised on Romanian television during the 2004 election campaign, two extracts from literary works Les Parents terribles by Jean Cocteau (...) and La chute by Albert Camus, and a forum in the newspaper Le Figaro (09/2009). Keywords: interaction, communicational trope, place relationships, dialogism, polyphony. ". (shrink)

Background and purpose: The functional understanding and examination of competitive anxiety responses as temporal events that unfold as time-to-competition moves closer has emerged as a topical research area within the domains of sport psychology. However, little is known from an inclusive and interaction oriented perspective. Using the multidimensional anxiety theory as a framework, the present study examined the temporal patterning of competitive anxiety, focusing on the dimensions of intensity, direction, and frequency of intrusions in athletes across gender and skill level. (...) Methods: Elite and semi-elite Table Tennis athletes from the Ghanaian league (N= 90) completed a modified version of Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2) with the inclusion of the directional and frequency of intrusion scales at three temporal phases (7 days, two days and 1 hour) prior to a competitive fixture. Results: MANOVA repeated measures with follow-up analyses revealed significant interactions for between-subjects factors on all anxiety dimensions (intensity, direction and frequency). Notably, elite (international) female athletes were less cognitively anxious, showed more facilitative interpretation towards somatic anxiety symptoms and experienced less frequency of somatic anxiety symptoms than their male counterparts. However, both elite groups displayed appreciable level of self-confidence. For time-to-event effects, both cognitive and somatic anxiety intensity fluctuated whereas self-confidence showed a steady rise as competition neared. Somatic anxiety debilitative interpretation slightly improved 1 hour before competition whereas cognitive anxiety frequencies also increased progressively during the entire preparatory phase. Conclusions: Findings suggest a more dynamic image of elite athletes’ pre-competitive anxiety responses than suggested by former studies, potentially influenced by cultural differences. The use of psychological skills interventions that require effective structure, content, and timing in a composite manner is suggested. (shrink)

This article considers how two different question designs as positive polar questions and wh-questions occurring in different interactional contexts set up a sequence in which a direct complaint is produced in third position as the result of an interactional achievement. Positive polar questions are employed to establish immediately a common ground of understandability between caller and call-taker. Wh-questions are used as challenges and speakers subsequently provide explicit grounds for the challenges in third turns, due to the interpretation of the (...) question given by their recipients. (shrink)

This work has two objectives. The first is to begin a mathematical formalism appropriate to treating particles which only interact with each otherindirectly due to hypothesized memory effects in a stochastic medium. More specifically we treat a situation in which a sequence of particles consecutively passes through a region (e.g., a measuring apparatus) in such a way that one particle leaves the region before the next one enters. We want to study a situation in which a particle may (...) interact with other particles that previously passed through the system via disturbances made in the region by these previous particles.Second, we apply the type of stochastic process appearing in this context to the stochastic interpretation of quantum mechanics to obtain a modified version of this interpretation. This version is free of many of the criticisms made against the stochastic interpretation of quantum mechanics. (shrink)

Direction of the embyro's head rotation is determined by asymmetrical expression of several genes (such as shh, Nodal, lefty, and FGF8) in Hensen's node. This genetically determined head-turning bias provides a base for light-aligned population lateralization in chicks, in which the direction of the lateralization is determined by genetic factors and the degree of the lateralization is determined by environmental factors.

By exploring the hypothesis of magnetic monopoles, we consider the existence of electric fields produced by magnetic current densities. Then, we consider a uniformly rotating frame with the purpose of searching for effects of rotation on the interaction of axial electric fields with the magnetic quadrupole moment of a neutral particle. Our analysis is made through the WKB approximation. Therefore, by applying the WKB approximation, we search for bound state solutions to the Schrödinger equation in two particular cases.

Barut showed us how it is possible to get a Poincaré invariant n-body equation with a single time. Starting from the Barut equation for n-free particles, we show how to generalize it when they interact through Dirac oscillators with different frequencies. We then particularize the problem to n=2 and consider the particle-antiparticle system whose frequencies are respectively ω and −ω. We indicate how the resulting equation can be solved by perturbation theory, though the spectrum and its comparison with that (...) of the mesons will be given in another publication. (shrink)

Electromagnetism is usually understood as a theory describing how charged particles and eletromagnetic fields interact. In this paper I argue that a double ontology comprising both particles and fields is problematic. Either we should think of electromagnetism as a theory about charged particles directly interacting with each other, or as theory of fields whose local interactions are manifested as field quanta, called "particles." From a purely theoretical point of view the choice between a particle and a field interpretation (...) does not matter much when it concerns classical electromagnetism; both interpretations are possible and, as shown by Quine, there is a general method for translating a theory about one kind of objects into a theory assuming another kind of objects, provided these theories are empirically equivalent. From an empiricist point of view, however, the particle interpretation is the choice, since some particles are directly observable. Testable predictions of electromagnetism are predictions of the motion of charged bodies, in theory represented as particles, so this must be the empiricists' choice of ontology. In quantum electrodynamics one is however forced to chose a field ontology, since a particle ontology for this theory is impossible. So called "quantum particles" are field quanta, which cannot be treated as individuals making up a domain of quantification. There is thus a tension regarding ontology between classical and quantum electrodynamics. But this tension is nothing else than the much debated measurement problem of quantum mechanics. (shrink)

: The purpose of this paper and its sister paper (Farrell and Hooker, b) is to present, evaluate and elaborate a proposed new model for the process of scientific development: self-directed anticipative learning (SDAL). The vehicle for its evaluation is a new analysis of a well-known historical episode: the development of ape-language research. In this first paper we outline five prominent features of SDAL that will need to be realized in applying SDAL to science: 1) interactive exploration of possibility space; (...) 2) self-directedness; 3) localization of success and error; 4) Synergistic increase in learning capacity; and 5) continuity of SDAL process across scientific change. In this paper we examine the first three features of SDAL in relation to the early history of ape-language research. We show that this history is readily explicated as a self-directed, ever-finer, delineation of possibility space that enables the localization of both success and error. Paper II examines the last two features against this history. (shrink)

It is time that we in organization sciencesdevelop and implement a new mental model forcause and effect relationships. The dominantmodel in research dates at least to the 1700sand no longer serves the full purposes of thesocial science research problems of the21st century. Traditionally, research is``essentially concerned with two-variableproblems, linear causal trains, one cause andone effect, or with few variables at the most''(von Bertalanffy, 1968, p. 12). However, theliterature is replete with examples ofphenomena in which the traditional cause andeffect construct does (...) not allow for greaterunderstanding and insight into the phenomena. Different conceptions of cause and effectrelationships have been developed includingproducer/product relationships (Ackoff 1981),design causality (Argyris and Schon, 1996), andfour classes of causal models (Schwartz andOgilvy, 1979). Of interest here is thepossibility of mutual causality, ``theassumption that the relationship between two(or more) phenomena is heavily influenced bythe presence of feedback loops that areinstantaneous, or nearly so'' (Dent, 1999). Maturana's (1998, Maturana and Varela, 1987)work on a new epistemology and ontologyprovides a foundation for the alternative modelof cause and effect proposed here. Thisinteraction model includes the dynamics of thetraditional X and Y, but adds the structure ofX (A), the structure of Y (B), the environment(E), and time (T). (shrink)

The Wheeler-Feynman (WF) relativistic theory of interacting point particles, generalized by acceptance of an arbitrary spacelike interaction, is shown to possess a privileged status, reminiscent of the “central force” interactions occurring in Newtonian mechanics. This scheme is shown to be isomorphic to the classical one of the statics of interacting flexible current-carrying wires obeying the Ampère-Laplace (AL) formulas: to the tensionT (T 2 =const) of the wire corresponds the momentum-energy pi (pipi=−c2m2) of the particle; to the Laplace linear (...) force density −iH×dr corresponds the Lorentz force QHij drj; to the Laplace potential ir−1 dr corresponds the WF potential Qδ(r2) dri, etc. Among the differences, there is self-action in the AL scheme and no self-action in the WF scheme. A stationary energy principle in the AL scheme is isomorphic to Fokker's stationary action principle in the WF scheme. (shrink)

Several particles are not observed directly, but only through their decay products. We consider the possibility that they might be fakeons, i.e. fake particles, which mediate interactions but are not asymptotic states. A crucial role to determine the true nature of a particle is played by the imaginary parts of the one-loop radiative corrections, which are affected in nontrivial ways by the presence of fakeons in the loop. The knowledge we have today is sufficient to prove that most (...) non directly observed particles are true physical particles. However, in the case of the Higgs boson the possibility that it might be a fakeon remains open. The issue can be resolved by means of precision measurements in existing and future accelerators. (shrink)

C. S. Peirce defined the sign as a means to communicate a form or habit embodied in the object to the interpretant, thus constraining (through a sign) the behavior of an interpreter to a limited series of effects. This is part of the process of “semiotic scaffolding” in which sign relations interlock and reinforce one another, providing directionality to the process. In biological evolutionary studies canalization is defined as the adjustment of developmental pathways by natural selection to bring about a (...) uniform result despite genetic and environmental variations. Establishing parallelism between the two concepts allows the possibility of understanding how semiotic processes introduce information from the environment resulting in canalization (and assimilation), determining “fixed” pathways to elaborate signal repertoires for particular species adapted to particular environments sensed by particular organs. This kind of sign action can produce an “encapsulation” process of the sign meaning, further affecting the meaning-making process developing in the receiver, a process affecting signal usage by animals, constraining agency of biological systems’ behavior towards a definite sequence of events or signals and providing a certain orientation of the process (“semiotic canalization”). Therefore, we can also say that signs could potentially be built by senders (i.e. by the sign-vehicle) in a sort of pre-determined way and not extracted by the receiver from a “neutral” sender. Semiotic canalization is seen as a part of a more general process of scaffolding during development, acting mainly during some information exchanges between communicating subjects, providing adaptive responses to some standard communicative situations. (shrink)

Six years ago, the Singer lab published a landmark paper which described how individual mRNA particles cross the nuclear pore complex in mammalian tissue culture cells. This involved the simultaneous imaging of mRNAs, each labeled by a large number of tethered fluorescent proteins and fluorescently tagged nuclear pore components. Now two groups have applied this technique to the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Their results indicate that in the course of nuclear export, mRNAs likely engage complexes that are present on either (...) side of the pore and that these interactions are modulated by proteins present in the messenger ribonucleoprotein (mRNP) complex. These findings lend support to the notion that just before and/or after the completion of nuclear export, mRNPs undergo one or more maturation steps that prepare the packaged mRNAs for translation. These results represent new and exciting insights into the mechanism of mRNA nuclear export. (shrink)

We put forward a possible new interpretation and explanatory framework for quantum theory. The basic hypothesis underlying this new framework is that quantum particles are conceptual entities. More concretely, we propose that quantum particles interact with ordinary matter, nuclei, atoms, molecules, macroscopic material entities, measuring apparatuses, in a similar way to how human concepts interact with memory structures, human minds or artificial memories. We analyze the most characteristic aspects of quantum theory, i.e. entanglement and non-locality, interference and superposition, identity and (...) individuality in the light of this new interpretation, and we put forward a specific explanation and understanding of these aspects. The basic hypothesis of our framework gives rise in a natural way to a Heisenberg uncertainty principle which introduces an understanding of the general situation of ‘the one and the many’ in quantum physics. A specific view on macro and micro different from the common one follows from the basic hypothesis and leads to an analysis of Schrödinger’s Cat paradox and the measurement problem different from the existing ones. We reflect about the influence of this new quantum interpretation and explanatory framework on the global nature and evolutionary aspects of the world and human worldviews, and point out potential explanations for specific situations, such as the generation problem in particle physics, the confinement of quarks and the existence of dark matter. (shrink)

The consensus view among philosophers of physics is that relativistic quantum field theory does not describe particles. That is, according to QFT, particles are not fundamental entities. How is this negative conclusion compatible with the positive role that the particle notion plays in particle physics? The first part of this chapter lays out multiple lines of negative argument that all conclude that QFT cannot be given a particle interpretation. These arguments probe the properties of the `particles' in (...) standard formulations of QFT and the limited applicability of `particle' representations. The second part of the chapter surveys proposals for non-fundamental roles that the particle concept plays in particle physics. The conclusion suggests directions for future philosophical research. (shrink)