Volume XIX – Nature, evolution, culture
The volume includes some of the lectures and introductions to discussions presented at the interdisciplinary seminar of professor Jan Mozrzymas’s Studium Generale in the academic year 2013/2014 and some from 2015. Following the adopted seminar tradition of referring to important events and anniversaries, the volume touches upon the image of the Warsaw Uprising in the social space and memories from this period. The main themes of the volume are nature, evolution, and culture.
The section devoted to nature includes reflections on the Cosmos, the use of femtosecond lasers in biology and medicine, and new theories of pathogenesis and therapeutic possibilities in Alzheimer’s disease.
The section devoted to evolution begins with a discussion of reductionism in the life sciences. Genomes as dynamic biological structures are discussed. It also addresses the topic of intermediate forms, whether they exist, and are they necessary for relatedness, as well as the problem of self-organization, understood as a spontaneous ordering of material objects in nature.
The third part of the volume is devoted to selected issues of culture. It presents Zipf’s law connected with the expression of universality. It acquaints readers with the problems associated with the faithful translation of “Pan Tadeusz” by Adam Mickiewicz into German and then moves to show the relationship of monumental works of Egyptian architecture with tradition, faith, history, and geographical conditions. This part also introduces Jan Czochralski, who was a scientist and poet.
