Tag: science

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Super fast spin

For all players of table tennis, tennis, pocket billards or football, the secrets of achieving a fast spin on the ball is interesting. The bouncing of a ball changes inherent with the speed of the spin.
The maths and physics of such movements are well understood, the empirical phenomenon of super fast spin still draws large audiences. The earth is typically spinning about once every 24 hours, hardly noticeable for us living on it. Seen from space this changes already and it makes for marvellous views on the blue planet. The NSF Vera C. Rubin project has made available the first few images of super fast spinning asteroids. The 2025 MN 45 asteroid is such a fast spinning one. The asteroid has a rotation period of about 2 minutes only, with a size of about 700 meters as diameter.
Collisions with such a super fast spinning asteroid, made out of very hard material as otherwise it would have disintegrated already, is likely to cause substantial damage in space. It is not threatening us, but satellites or rockets on their way to planet Mars in space would certainly be knocked out due to any collision. For the time being, we may just admire the splendid images of space, spins and the occasional collisions. (Image: Link to source NSF Vera Rubin 2026, NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA)

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Myths debunked

There has been careful research on the use, or not, of color in classical Greek sculpture. More than 40 years of research have documented that what was long believed as monochrome sculptures, have in fact been very colorful specimen. The collection and researchers linked to the “Liebieghaus Sculpture Collection” can be inspected with experimental versions of the colors of the classical Greek time. “Gods in Color”, an exhibition by the Liebieghaus, provides a view of the rich colors of classic statues like the “archer” using the chemicals of the time to produce more or less durable or resistant colors. See also the archaic Greek Sphinks at The Met Museum.
Brinkmann and Koch-Brinkmann have spent close to 50 years on this research and attempts to convince the public of the “monochrome myth” of Greek sculptures. Research alone did not convince people, they seemed to need to see the colorful versions eye to eye to believe. The broader social science interest is to realise how much time it can take to re-establish scientific facts once they have been “eradicated” previously. (Image: Statuettes of classic Greek actors, lower row, BNF Paris)  

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Fukushima Commemoration

The date of 2021-3-11 is marked by an event that according to science should not have been realistically expected by anybody. The probability of a meltdown of a nuclear reactor due to an earthquake and tsunami in Fukushima were simply beyond a “normal” statistical probability. And yet, it did happen. The consequences are still visible and the nuclear waste has to be dumped somewhere and lots of contaminated water has to be dealt with as well. 90.000 persons had to evacuate the area. Many of them have no interest in returning to the devastated area. Moreover, the psychological damage to the perceived security causes continuous trauma. The psychiatrist Ryoji Arizuka, interviewed for the French newspaper Liberation, reports that victims find it easier to cope with the “natural disasters” of the exceptional earthquake (9.0 on Richter scale) and the tsunami than with the man-made disaster of the meltdown of the nuclear reactor. Whereas the former disasters can be attributed to external forces, the latter example of a the explosion of the reactor is due to a failure to estimate the risk (technical, human and political) of an explosion properly by engineers and subsequently by politicians.
The commemoration of Fukushima by its governor Masao Uchibori in 2026 is a reminder that more risky technological progress comes potentially with higher costs to society as well. These “risks for societies” will have to carried by some selected regions. Solidarity with people who carry disproportionate amounts of risk should be “addressed” right from the beginning of the decision to use a risky technology, as an attempt to “internalise” the likely costs to society, eventually. Perceived cheap technology turns out to be very costly using different probabilities of associated even unlikely risks. (Image: Global stone project). 

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Retrieval-augmented AI

As a scientist it is in our DNA to cite other scholar’s work with precision. As a university professor your job is to check the quality of citations, kinds of citations and accuracy as a regular part of your job, also as supervisor of junior scientists. In 2026, the use of up-to-date AI (Asai et al. 2026, OpenScholar AI) allows not only to summarise large bodies of scientific literature, but also to cite references and even quotes from the paper(s). Literature reviews used to take months to compile. AI can speed up the process enormously. The citations can be ordered following an own logic or an AI-suggested logic.
It has become much harder to evaluate the degree of innovation of a candidate for a scientific degree. Tools like retrieval-augmented Language Models enhance the scientific potential of generative AI since they extract more or less short citations directly from the original source just next to the original based on a simple query of author and approximate subject (see screenshot below of own previous publication).
The good news is: (1) referral to previous research and citations should become faster with improved tools for verification. (2) You will find papers written by yourself that you no longer have in your own archive.
The bad news is: (1)self-citations of researchers might become more feasible, although this problem is conditional on a researcher’s seniority. (2) so far, Language models prioritise specific languages (although not necessarily) and differentiate names with “foreign” characters e.g. “ö,ä,é” and do not double check “close neighbours” of them like “o, oe, a, ae, ue, e, ê, è” leading to a “character based normalisation bias“.
It is, of course, rather easy to point out deficiencies of the search, sorting and inclusion algorithm if you know already about the complete picture of a data set. 

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1000+ entries

From time to time it is useful to review whether a project is still on track or has developed biases, which may run for some time without reviews. Just like the United Nations Strategic Development Goals (SDGs) have been set 1bout 10 years ago, I do scan my own publishing project whether I still cover the SDGs in a larger spread. The goals need monitoring and I shall redo my own review as well.
As the number of blog entries on a daily basis has reached 1000+ entries, a review becomes a bit of a statistical exercise. As a kind of anniversary reward, a publication of more collections beyond the AI-reader or the Paris Olympics 2024 reader should be fun. However, there is so much work with checking and updating links, that the e-book, pdf and epub publications have become a time-consuming effort.
The search function implemented on this digital publication format is so fast and powerful that I am myself delighted again and again about the digging up of previous entries, concepts and evidence retained.
Time is a treasure and a value in its own right. Test it!

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Defense strategies

Technological developments of drones, aircrafts, rockets and satellites take a lot of time. In order to produce not only prototypes, but ready-to-use weapons, it needs advanced engineering competencies and capacities as well. The arrival of hypersonic rockets, that fly at the speed of 5 Mach necessitate a rethinking of defense strategies to be able to react in ever shorter time spells to external threats. The European Defence Fund intends to spend almost 3 billion € over 7 years to prepare our defense strategies in the EU for the next generation of lethal weapons.
On 2026-3-4 the Iran-regime made use of such a fast rocket, but it was possible to intercept its flight just in time by NATO-allies. Yes, unfortunately “rocket science” is back on the research agenda. In fact, this research has been ongoing across the world, just a bit more below the public radar.
Missions to the moon or mars have been intensified in recent years. This is not surprising or spectacular fact. For some it is surprising, that the number of countries (for example India) which are active in rocket science is increasing and spreading further across the globe. The multipolarity of the international political arena seems more evident in 2026-3.

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Construction Deconstruction

The application of dialectic thinking invites us to explore the idea of construction at the same time as destruction. The sequential form reminds us that on most construction, deconstruction will follow eventually. This is obvious in case of the life cycle of human bodies or the animal world. On a more aggregate level, empires have been constructed and sometimes centuries later, they have been deconstructed again. Deconstruction may also take form transformation. In such cases major features remain the same, but the new entity is sufficiently transformed to give it a new name. Often it might also be a kind of synthesis of previous generations or cycles of construction and deconstruction. We enter potentially into the field of genetic evolution or genetic engineering. In any case, dialectic thinking is present in many fields of studies. Well worth to explore the potentials as well as limitations of the basic scientific concept. 

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Book as Entry

Libraries are full of books. But there is much more to a library than just books. However, many users of libraries focus on the “classic” origin of libraries as large and more or less exquisite collections of books. Therefore, it is a decent tradition to think of libraries and most of all books as a kind of “memory of the world”. Judith Schalansky writes texts and conceives books. Authors are used to choose typescripts from a huge potential choice. Going through the history of book production, can inform about the diversity of appearances of texts in book form. The panel discussion at the Stabi West in the presence of Schalansky and about Schalansky raised awareness to the point that there can be many more than just one entry into a book. However, we are so used to read front to back, that it is even hard to think about more entries. Images, typescripts and typesetting or the kind of binding, all may serve as facilitators for more ways of handling a book. 

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Social time

What does the „social“ have to do with time. Well, time is a perfect case of a social construction or a fundamentally social construct. The definition of time as „Greenwich mean time“ is nothing but a useful socio-political statement to synchronize time across the world, or previously an imperium. Points in time, as shown on a clock(s), can be helpful to synchronize human behavior. We might want to show up on the same point in time to start or end work. Of course there are thousands of ways in which such synchronization might go awfully wrong. This makes for splendid drama and movies have a long history to capture our attention on this matter. Social expectations, a social, psychological, and even a biological concept in extreme cases (Pavlov effect) make many of us to get a bit itchy, if time is getting short to meet other persons or an expected event is going to happen. A lot of social pressure is transmitted through the ticking away of time. The mechanism to internalize social patterns (for example prayer), via time and the clock, is quite powerful and has been used in movies throughout the history of the cinema. Even the individual endpoint in time is in almost all cases a shared social experience and turns into a kind of socially relevant time. (Take your time to watch The Clock by Christian Marclay).

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Metabolic harm

At the beginning of the 21st century the lack of physical activity for large parts of society has become a major risk of and cause of metabolic harm. We have become used to a sedentary lifestyle and the digital access to distractions and information have encouraged further immobility. Alex Broom et al. (2025) stress the importance to include social and governmental interventions into the many existing medical, pharmacological and technological interventions. The authors advocate a rather holistic approach to really make a difference. The obesity trends cause metabolic harm of an  unprecedented size. We have to rethink mobility patterns and other behavioral changes into our daily routines to bring back more stimulation to our metabolic system.

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Good or bad

We have been taught by Shakespeare “to be or not to be, that is the question”. In political science we have pondered the question in a slightly augmented form. “to be good or bad, that is our question”. The basic image of women and men in society has been a subject throughout the history of ideas. For those who believe in the good nature of mankind, they tend to find reasons to believe that eventually mankind will find a way towards a peaceful cohabitation on our planet (there is no planet B yet for humans). On the other hand, each outbreak of violence and war are considered as a confirmation that mankind will always recur to some form of violence, even after extensive periods of peaceful cohabitation. According to the evidence presented by Meller, Michel, van Schaik, referring back to Kant, trade between people and nations is likely to prevent more violent relationships (p. 330). One of the major conclusions over the long term view of mankind is, that the periods of war have been far shorter and more rare than a focus on the last 3000 years seems to suggest. Maybe, “to be good or bad” is just a question of demographics of being too many at the same time in the same place.  Population growth and population density might be a powerful driver of “being good or bad”.  (Image: Delacroix, Last words of Marc Aurel)

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Reverse causality

Reverse causality is a beast, which empirically minded scientist fear almost like death. However, many processes we study are running not only in one direction. In most cases, causality is tested with, or assuming, a unidirectional model of causality in mind. But some processes have not only a set of multiple causes to take into consideration, but some processes might be reversible or run in a rather complex manner, which are difficult to quantify. Mind captioning is a technique in neuroscience, where easy language is used to describe an image perceived in a person’s mind. Such thinking aloud data is based on thousands of brain scans, where people watched videos or images (study link).
In my own journey into the working of my mind I play around with different directions of causality. Sometimes the text is the origin and the image follows in a selection of a telling illustrations, but occasionally the reverse causality is at work. The image is the starting point and gets the mental process going. It is a rather complex process which is not easy to approximate with the help of algorithmic thinking. Reverse causality has many surprises to offer. As scientists we have a hard time to come to grips with it. (Inspiration Link) 

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Dynamic Equilibrium

The notion of a dynamic equilibrium is applied in several scientific disciplines. The search of the world wide web takes us first to the application in chemistry. The dynamic equilibrium denotes the state when reactants and products are continuously converted. Fascinating as a process, there are videos where you can watch the process evolve. Applications in economic or social theory are also common even if the time scales to observe such processes of dynamic equilibrium usually take longer to evolve than in chemistry of bubbles. In physics we ponder about dynamic equilibria in Newton’s view of gravitational forces between planets and the celestial system. With a more down to earth approach we might just admire the dynamic equilibrium of an artist on a rope, before we dive into the complex challenges of the new balance of power in international politics of the multipolar world. 

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Deep reading

Rembrandt depicted in the 17th century not only the university professor Sylvius, but the reader and presenter based on his readings as well as professional experience. The combination of studies in medicine and philosophy have confronted the lifelong reader with lots of unresolved issues at that time. Nevertheless, he seems ready to argue with his profession, students public or the public. His hand is shown with an outreaching gesture. The scientist is not depicted in the reading pose next to lots of other books in the background or in a library. The image chosen by Rembrandt stresses the discourse and discussion as part of the scientific or research and teaching process. (Image BNF, 2025 exhibition “L’Europe partagé”). 

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Social Anthropology

Dina Dreyfus, married several years to Claude Lévi-Strauss, has shared with Claude the long anthropological expedition to Brazil in the 1930s. They jointly studied the social organization of indigenous people across Brazil. Their abundant notes of field studies have now been digitized and the BNF is making this accessible.
Additionally, an exhibition on these field studies reveals the close collaboration of both partners. Returning to France in 1939 meant that soon after the return due to their Jewish decent had to interrupt their academic careers in France and some notebooks were lost during the Nazi occupation of France. After the war both separated and Claude Lévi-Strauss embarked on the drafting of the structuralist theory, Dina became influential in the field of the philosophy of education and teaching philosophy herself.
Besides all these lasting achievements, the exhibition shows the typewriter which had accompanied them for many years. The German language layout is quite remarkable as this asked for an additional mental versatility in putting their thoughts and experiences into the form of a manuscript. According to Claude Lévi-Strauss the use of this technical device allowed him to detach himself emotionally from his analytical work.
(Image: Exhibit: typewriter Claude Lévi-Strauss, BNF 2025-10)

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Sponge Mofs

Many people might have come across “SpongeBob” as a TV-series. Well, in 2025 it is time for an update. The Nobel Committee has awarded the Chemistry prize not to SpongeBob, but the research linked to the sponge-like Mofs, i.e. metal-organic frameworks to Kitagawa, Robson, Yaghi. These Mofs have in fact properties  similar to a sponge or cages in some applications. They consist of porous materials, which have large surface areas in relation to their apparent volume. Due to the modelling of network structures the surface of a grid can be expanded drastically.
Due to the application of such modelling techniques, the combinations of materials/organics and, thereby, the applications to modern technological challenges have increased tremendously. The exponential growth of research papers based on these foundations largely justify this honourable award. Not only the potential of carbon capture, but also the storage capacity of batteries as well as medical applications might benefit from this basic research and findings, eventually.
Playing around with a sponge, doing your dishes – also for men, or watching Spongebob might be considered differently from now on. Maybe, just start with a virtual visit of the Nobel museum for further inspiration.

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Passing barriers

In quantum physics the real trick is not the rebound of electrons like the rebound of droplets, but the passing of electrons of an insulating barrier. The experiment of the ”Josephson junction” has set a precedent to research the surprising macro-effect of “quantum tunnelling”. The 2025 Nobel Prize has been awarded to Clarke, Devoret and Martinis who observed these effects on a macroscopic scale. The applications in the most advanced quantum computers of today shows the enormous potential of this demonstration in pushing computing speed boundaries. The international competition to develop such, ever faster computers, based on quantum physics, is running on high development speed. In combination with the artificial intelligence (AI) developments, these types of combined machines are likely to outpace the development of human-based intelligence. It becomes even more important to define the limits for those machines by us. Subsequently, we shall have to make sure that such combined machines stick to the rules, we define(d).

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Marc Aurel Book 7

In paragraph 63 Marc Aurel refers to Plato as one of his sources: “No soul”, says Plato, “likes to be robbed of truth” ( and continues himself) “– and the same holds of justice, moderation, kindness, and all such virtues. Essential that you should keep this constantly in your mind: this will make you more gentle to all.” The remarkable reasoning is to transform the own generalized experience into a behavioural recommendation. It may be argued that Marc Aurel starts from a kind of Aristotelian empirical study of persons in different life domains to derive an empirical fact. Based on this he develops a more Plato inspired “idealistic picture of mankind”. He is very much preoccupied with the philosophical question, how is a good life for all possible. In a previous paragraph (55) he outlined his 3 guiding fundamentals: (1) “The main principles in a man’s constitution is the social; (2)… resistance to the promptings of the flesh, like impulses; (3) judgement unhurried and undeceived”.
With such a claim for a “rational constitution” of man, he puts himself into the footsteps of previous philosophers of the ancient Greek tradition and, therefore, his writing in Greek rather than Latin is also a homage to this philosophical heritage.
(Image: parts of Installation by Fujiko Nakaya in Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin 2025)

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Marc Aurel Book 2-5

There are several translations of Marc Aurel. In the Shakespeare English translation from the Greek original of the Meditations a passage (Book 5 paragraph XXIII) describes or idealises humans as a “reasonable and sociable creature, regulated and directed.” The same short quote of this paragraph in the English translation by Martin Hammond (Penguin Classics p.43) reads: “…my wish is to follow the nature of a rational and social being.” Of course, both translations are pretty similar at first glance, but the difference of “reasonable” versus “rational” and “sociable” versus social” mark very important differences that had and have different impacts throughout the following centuries up to today. As in many other instances going back to the original version in Greek (book link) might clarify the issue, however, the entry barrier is access to the bilingual version and use of an ancient Greek dictionary.
With almost 2000 years of advances in rational approaches and its tools like mathematics, the scope of the rational is huge and the behavioural turn in the social sciences demonstrates the limitations of human’s use of rationality (λογικός) in decision-making. Reasonable seems to come closer in today’s “post-enlightenment” world.
There is also quite a divergent connotation in the simply “sociable” (κοινωνικός) being or the “social” being, which has a wider scope attached to it. Hence, lets be aware of the implicit interpretations of translations. For a start the parallel reading of translation and original (Link) might enhance our understanding and spur even new translations and interpretations, which speak with the classic originals to today’s audiences (with or without AI).
A witty joinder of both previous translations is “And my will is the will of a reasonable and social being”. (Link Book V, paragraph 29 bottom).
From the Greek to French in book V (Link)  with an even broader understanding of the social as “la société universelle”.

(Image: Camille Claudel 1905: “Persée et la Gorgone, Lucile Audouy collection Paris, exhibited in Berlin 2025, Alte Nationalgalerie)

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AI Podcasting Me

Content producers have lots of tools at their disposal to get their content across to very different audiences. For some time the traditional media of newspapers, radio and TV were the prime outlets for content distribution. Social media have changed this to many more senders of content than before.
In the 21st century, AI allows to automate media productions. In a trial run I just used Google’s NetbookLM to generate 3 podcasts based on my own writings on AI over more than a year by now. The result is available and using artificial voices it is possible to broadcast yourself without revealing your own personal voice. I am not done with the evaluation of the outcome(s) yet, but the first impression is an interesting other form to spread content.
More tests are necessary to check for hallucinations as well.
Here are the links to my virtual podcasts:
AI, intimacy and insecurity

AI, Society and the Human Spirit

AI and the Human Mosaic: Navigating Our Interconnected Future

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Mind Map Me

AI tools are great to assist learners in the task to get more structure into larger documents or books. It is up to the teachers or lecturers to use the tools themselves to pre-structure content they want other persons to learn. Mind maps are useful to summarise larger content and offer a tree-like structure to a text moving from the general to more specific content and then into details by at the same time not loosing sight of the overall structure of the content. Basics can be provided by Google’s NotebookLM and you may rework this basic structure yourself linking the mind map to the detailed content. Learning may start with a comprehensive mind map at the beginning to move on to details. Alternative versions of a mind map are equally feasible to come up with new combinations of subjects. This can be done using the tags of the blog entries in addition to the categories and fast search keywords.
It is a fascinating way to mind map yourself based on longer texts written by yourself. This clarifies a bit what potential readers or learners are likely to retain from reading your document(s) or blog entries.
Its worth trying, as others will most likely use these tools from now onwards anyway, whether we like it or not.
Image: Google NotebookLM Mind Map of my AI blog entries 2025-9-9.

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Own AI related entries

The digital drafting of blog posts facilitates the publishing of volumes based on a selection of entries. Pdf-files, or EPUB formats are quite common. The choice of a flipbook is more suitable for larger screens of tablets or notebooks. It also serves as a rapid stock taking of entries and missing topics to cover a broader field. In some fields AI is not yet popular, for example in agentic home applications, whereas in other fields text, translation or image production AI has grown into a threat to professional fields. Even computer languages are a major field of application with substantial negative employment effects.
Hence, enjoy the latest comments on AI towards the end of my latest Flipbook.
Just click here.

ChatGPT provides a summary of my AI-reader as follows:

From the uploaded text AI from a Social Science Perspective (Dr. Klaus Schoemann), social science concerns with AI focus on potentials and limitations of how AI interacts with society:

  • Labour and employment: AI impacts jobs, but adjustment processes are slow. For example, there’s a shortage of engineers and care workers, while robots are still limited to simple assistant tasks. This raises concerns about who benefits and who is left behind.
  • Bias and fairness: The book highlights issues of biased results in research and decision-making. When AI systems rely on incomplete or selective samples, results can be misleading — a challenge also familiar to social scientists.
  • Democracy and accountability: Journalists and scientists are framed as part of a “checks and balances” system. AI adds complexity here, as the fast spread of information without accountability can weaken democratic processes.
  • Human–machine relations: Topics like intimacy, housing, and memory are re-thought in the context of AI and digitalization, raising questions about privacy, social norms, and cultural heritage.
  • War and security: AI-driven technologies like drones change the nature of warfare, raising ethical and political questions.

On his blog, Schoemann also stresses the energy and resource costs of large AI models and how reinforcement learning offers a more efficient alternative. He warns that AI should be understood not just technically, but as part of an “all-electric society” where social sciences help assess risks, inequalities, and long-term consequences.

👉 In short: AI raises social science concerns about equity, bias, democracy, labour, cultural shifts, and global risks.

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Vacation Waves

One of the most popular choices for a vacation is in connection with waves. There seems to be something mystical or romantic related to waves, which touches many people irrespective of their background and across continents. This goes much beyond what we know about waves from physics or maths and this is already a fascinating scientific story in itself. Sailing adepts will be able to tell marvellous tales about waves, too. Coming back from a vacation near the sea or a lake, you surely may add another story to the already rich inventory of waves in art or literature. The imagery about waves started early as well, ever since sailors started to conquer the world.

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Paris Sorbonne

The history of the university on the left bank of “La Seine” dates back to 1257 when Robert de Sorbon an advisor to Louis IX was asked to create a unifying structure of several colleges which provided room and board already. The location on the left bank in Paris allowed these colleges to escape the religious doctrines and archbishop who dominated the right bank. The choice of the name of the advisor rather than the King was already showing early signs of independence which was cherished by generations of students and professors. The Colleges had individual names like “Collège des Bernardins” or “Collège de Navarre” and operated under the title of “La Sobonne”. The “Musée Histoire de Paris Carnavalet” shows an early design of the Collège de Navarre. Independent thinkers and writers were formed there who became very influential later on in their careers. Thomas d’Aquin was one of them.

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Scienceploitation

Science can be exploited to make unjustified profits from referring incorrectly to it. Social sciences, like economics may be used by banks to sell you products that refer to science only as part of their arguments if the science based inference fits their purpose. Scienceploitation is very common in the field of para-medicine and para-pharmaceutical products. Health promises sell. The time until an ineffective treatment reveals the unrealistic promise to be unachievable considerable profits have accumulated on the side of the selling company. Science has a hard time to counter the perils of scienceploitation. Advanced knowledge can be used and abused as any other method of convincing people to buy or subscribe to a product. The responsibility of the scientific community consists also in finding ever new ways to counter scienceploitation. AI will pose additional challenges as well as opportunities.  

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Bench the benchmarks

In the social sciences as well as in engineering it is common practice to use benchmarks as indicators of performance. Thereby, several countries or regions within a country are compared with respect to quantitative indicator. Let’s take employment ratios. A higher employment ratio, which includes many persons working few hours in part-time work, is different from a slightly lower employment ratio, but hardly any part-time employees.
The same rationale holds true for benchmarks of AI systems or the newer versions of agentic AI that are under construction in many fields. The paper by Yuxuan Zhu et al. (2025) proposes the ABC (agentic behavior checklist) for agentic AI developers. The reporting of benchmarks by such models should include (1) transparency and validity, (2) Mitigation efforts of limitations and (3) result interpretation using statistical significance measures and interpretation guidelines.
The aim of this research is to establish a good practice in establishing benchmarks in the field of agentic AI. The sets of criteria to test for is large and the focus of how the agentic AI treats, for example, statistical outliers much above or below the average i.e. (> 2 standard deviations from the average) assuming a normal distribution, is one case of application only.
We welcome the efforts to bench the benchmarks in the field of AI as is common practice in other sciences as well.

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Pervasive waste

From time to time waste from so-called highly developed countries is making headlines and then it is forgotten again. Huge amounts of plastic waste gets shipped for example from the USA to Malaysia in containers regularly (NYT 2025-7-1). The dumping of waste in other countries where it is cheaper to waste the waste is a cynical practice. Not only is the potential for reuse and a circular economy disregard, the little control that is exercised how the waste is treated afterwards is neglected. Some might just end up in our oceans later on or find its way in our food chains. The recent discovery of lots of nuclear waste at 5000 m depth in the sea in another extreme example of this practice to dump waste affecting all of is when profits have been accumulated inn the hands of a few enterprises and states. Such external effects as they are called in economic theory are part of the standard economic thinking. The challenge is to detect such behavior, persecute or better prevent it. This calls on countries who produce the waste to check for the contamination potential and treat their own waste. Fukushima has lots of barrels of nuclear waste waiting. The pervasive nature of this waste will make it last for thousands of years. “Beggar thy neighbor” with your waste is a major default of our current economic and social model. It remains an unresolved puzzle why mankind continues to work towards its own extinction. (Image: Le grisou, Constantin Meunier, MRBAB, Brussels). 

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Contextual Vision

The attempt to define a sociology of vision has had a hard time to build on hard evidence that vision may depend on context or in a broader sense your visual heritage. A standard definition of context in vision highlights the areas around a focal point. The findings by Krupin et al. (2025) show through the comparison of persons from very different populations that our vision depends on our cultural background. It is the social background and upbringing in a specific cultural setting, which determines what we see in an image at first sight.  The so-called Coffer illusion test (Deregowski 2017) reveals what we see in an image spontaneously and maybe after some longer staring at the image or doing it repeatedly, we learn to see that there is more to see than our original impression. Depending on our cultural heritage we might focus unconsciously on rectangular or round shapes in a geometric image. This fundamental finding questions the view that there is only one universal kind of vision common to all humans. In fact, there is variance around what we see and thereby how we perceive an image. This research provides a justification to delve also into the field of a sociology of the visual. Because of the common term in informatics “WYSIWYG”, (what you see is what you get), we might  spend more efforts on research of how human vision is shaped over generations or according to social background. We know that in some images different people see different things. What appears as a splendid opportunity for some, is a very risky situation for others. Eyes are so closely wired to our brain that inscriptions of vision on the brain functioning are quite likely. The plasticity of this process over the life course remains a crucial topic to understand the process(es) of how a person’s social background shapes her/his vision.

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Global warming

The annual update of the global warming indicators (source: Earth system science data 2025-6) gives more reasons to worry about the future of our climate. The objective to limit global warming to +1.5°C, established at the Paris climate agreement in 2015, is no longer achievable. This is the hard evidence based on the global network of scientific data collections and their projections. Fossil fuels are a major cause, deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions as well (Forster et al. 2025). As a consequence, human-induced warming of average surface temperatures and flows of heat into oceans continue. The first consequences, we witness in many parts of the world already. France is particularly affected (Le Monde 2025-6-20, p.7). What used to be called “natural disasters” is better described as long-term consequences of human-induced global changes like global warming. About time to take our CO2 footprint even more seriously. The “All electric society” can reduce reliance on fossil fuels considerably, as of now.

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Fertility Fecundity

The scientific debate around changes in fertility has focused on social, economic and cultural factors to explain the drop in total fertility rates in OECD countries. The baby boom years of the 1950s and early 1960s had come to an end following the spread of new forms of birth control like contraception from the late 1960s onwards. The trend is very obvious and yet, the explanations of the trend might lack a more profound analysis of fecundity in addition to the socio-economic explanations. Shakkebaek et al. (2025) point for example to the little known effects of environmental (pollution) factors on the biological reproduction capability of humans (men and women).
Additionally, psycho-social factors like “the German Angst” fear about future developments in many social and economic fields might have direct effects, but also indirect effects on human biology. We know still very little about such feedback loops or feedback effects. We are more convinced, than we actually have hard evidence, that the BSP, SPB or PSB (B=Bio, S=Social, P=Psycho) spheres are interwoven, but an ambitious research agenda is called for to enlighten the issue. The big invisible elephant in the room might be environmental issues that enter into the fertility equations more than we have expected for many years. A nice working hypothesis for an ambitious and overdue research agenda.