Abstract From the Latin vagus, meaning wanderer or vagrant, the vagus nerve – also known as the vagal nerve – is the tenth cranial nerve. The vagus nerve is a pair of nerves that acts as a key connector of brain, heart, lungs, and abdominal organs. It is the main component of the parasympathetic nervous […]

Abstract When the history of raw silk is traced by following the thread of commodity formation and trade, our capacity to fully grasp the interactions among the insects, plants, and humans responsible for silk-making can become limited. The enormous economic significance of export-bound raw silk manufactured and directly traded from Japan mainly to US American […]

Abstract In many scientific fields, post-publication surveys of the literature find that peer reviewers routinely overlook methodological flaws and statistical errors, avoid reporting suspected instances of fraud, and commonly reach a level of agreement barely exceeding what would be expected by chance. Other studies expose the extent of gender bias in peer review, and questionable […]

Abstract: What if,  at the 1927 Solvay conference, the causal interpretation of quantum mechanics had received a more sympathetic hearing?  What if Charles Darwin had died on the Beagle voyage and so had never lived to write On the Origin of Species?  What if the Oxford biologist W. F. R. Weldon hadn’t died of pneumonia […]