Deciphering regeneration through non-model animals: A century of experiments on cephalopod mollusks and an outlook at the future.

The advent of marine stations in the last quarter of the 19th Century has given biologists the possibility of observing and experimenting upon myriad marine organisms. Among them, cephalopod mollusks have attracted great attention from the onset, thanks to their remarkable adaptability to captivity and a great number of biologically unique features including a sophisticate behavioral repertoire, remarkable body patterning capacities under direct neural control and the complexity of nervous system rivalling vertebrates. Surprisingly, the capacity to regenerate tissues and complex structures, such as appendages, albeit been known for centuries, has been understudied over the decades.

E Pluribus Octo - Building Consensus on Standards of Care and Experimentation in Cephalopod Research; a Historical Outlook.

The Directive 2010/63/EU "on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes" originally induced some concern among cephalopod researchers, because of the inclusion of cephalopod mollusks as the only invertebrates among the protected species. Here we reflect on the challenges and issues raised by the Directive on cephalopod science, and discuss some of the arguments that elicited discussion within the scientific community, to facilitate the implementation of the Directive 2010/63/EU in the scientific research context. A short overview of the aims of the COST Action FA1301 "CephsAction," serves as a paradigmatic instance of a pragmatic and progressive approach adopted to respond to novel legislative concerns through community-building and expansion of the historical horizon.

The Obvious in a Nutshell: Science, Medicine, Knowledge, and History.

The scope and mission of the history of science have been constant objects of reflection and debate within the profession. Recently, Lorraine Daston has called for a shift of focus: from the history of science to the history of knowledge. Such a move is an attempt at broadening the field and ridding it of the contradictions deriving from its modernist myth of origin and principle of demarcation.

One, no-one and a hundred thousand brains: J.C. Eccles, J.Z. Young and the establishment of the neurosciences (1930s-1960s).

Contemporary neurosciences have grown beyond the limits of a natural science. To its most vocal advocates, the study of the human brain can provide nothing short of the basis for a new science of man-the link between the "natural" and "human" sciences-as a simple consequence of the growing mass of facts relating to this most marvelous organ, accumulated in the last four decades. This straightforward picture of the growing import of the neurosciences simplifies and obscures the myriad different interpretations and images of "the brain" that have inspired the development of the neurosciences.

Clever Hans and his effects: Karl Krall and the origins of experimental parapsychology in Germany.

Shortly before the outbreak of World War I, the so-called Elberfeld horses, the counting and speaking animals, were among the most debated subjects of the newborn comparative psychology. Yet, they have left little trace in the historiography of this discipline, mostly as an appendix of the more famous Clever Hans. Their story is generally told as the prelude to the triumph of reductionistic experimental psychology.

[An illustrious unknown. Giuseppe Levi among science, anti-fascism and Nobel Prizes].

The anatomist Giuseppe Levi (1872-1965) is unanimously considered one of the major figures of Italian biomedical sciences in the 20th century. His fame, however, is mainly derived from having nurtured three Nobel Prize winners, namely Salvador E. Luria, Rita Levi Montalcini and Renato Dulbecco.

Southern genes. Genetics and its institutions in the Italian South, 1930s-1970s.

The paper examines the historical vicissitudes of Genetics and Medical Genetics in the "Mezzogiorno", focussing on the emergence of local traditions and their mingling with international trends. The development of these disciplines took place in a peculiar mix of politics and science that lead to a rapid growth in the '50s and the '60s, followed by an harsh crisis. Though important and enduring results were attained, Italian genetics community failed to maintain the status reached in the two preceding decades, and quickly moved to the periphery of international networks.

[Genetics and international cooperation. Giuseppe Montalenti and modern biology].

Giuseppe Montalenti (1904-1991) belongs to the generation of scientists that--through scientific and political efforts--have contributed to the rebuilding of Italian and European science after WWII. In this essay I will briefly encompass his contribution to the science of Genetics as a researcher, as an academic and as a science administrator, especially focusing on his valuable contributions to the field of Human Population Genetics in the 1950s and 1960s and on his role in the promotion of projects of international cooperation (viz. the International Biological Program of the ICSU, 1965-1974).

Nobel laureates at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn: phenomenology and paths to discovery in neuroscience.

The practice of science usually involves more than a solitary genius in a solitary room, coping with the problem of her/his life. From the second half of the 19th century onwards, scientific research, especially in the field of the Natural Sciences, has grown into a more and more complex practice, which often entangles very special needs, in terms of research objects, techniques, sources, and perspectives. A few special places, such as the Stazione Zoologica di Napoli, have represented in this period the focal points of an ever growing international scientific network, promoting independent research, exchange and diffusion of novel practices and techniques and unrestricted confrontation.