On Quantity and Quality in Human Knowledge.

Any discipline of human knowledge is characterized by three fundamental elements: the complexity of its content, the method used for its elaboration, and the language used for its expression. This article argues that any method for making knowledge is a particular combination of three main components that we can call (a) science, (b) art, and (c) revelation. The right combination depends on the complexity of the slice of reality that we wish to understand in each case.

On the Existence and Uniqueness of the Scientific Method.

The ultimate utility of science is widely agreed upon: the comprehension of reality. But there is much controversy about what scientific understanding actually means, and how we should proceed in order to gain new scientific understanding. Is there a method for acquiring new scientific knowledge? Is this method unique and universal? There has been no shortage of proposals, but neither has there been a shortage of skeptics about these proposals.

The "total" museum, a tool for social change.

Science museums encourage not only scientific knowledge and methodology, but also people's opinion about scientific issues. This has been the main concern of Barcelona's Museo de Ciência de la Fundación "la Caixa" throughout its twenty years of existence. According to the author of the present article, the goals of "total museology" comply with the new trend some museums have been following.

Spirochete and protist symbionts of a termite (Mastotermes electrodominicus) in Miocene amber.

Extraordinary preservation in amber of the Miocene termite Mastotermes electrodominicus has led to the discovery of fossil symbiotic microbes. Spirochete bacteria and wood-digesting protists were identified in the intestinal tissue of the insect. Fossil wood (xylem: developing vessel-element cells, fibers, pit connections), protists (most likely xylophagic amitochondriates), an endospore (probably of the filamentous intestinal bacterium Arthromitus = Bacillus), and large spirochetes were seen in thin section by light and transmission electron microscopy.