Nauka

2018 amendment of the act on the Polish Institute of National Remembrance that was passed by the Polish Sejm in January 2018 raised a vibrant public debate about Polish-Jewish relations. In this article, we try to trace the dynamics of this debate and assess its consequences for contemporary Polish-Jewish relations and present-day representations of the relations between Poles and Jews during the German occupation in 1939–1945. To this end, we present the analysis of social media content, data from search engines, as well as the results of two nationwide polls conducted at the beginning of 2018. These studies indicate that the debate on amendment of the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance has increased the expression of antisemitic prejudice in the media and on the internet, increased the presence of defective codes of memory, and at the same time polarized the Polish debate about the behavior of Poles during the Holocaust. The results of these analyzes are discussed in the context of earlier debates on the Polish-Jewish relations during Nazi occupation, referring to the category of “secondary antisemitism” that receives growing support in current social sciences.

The aim of the text is to describe some use of literary studies for the studies of history. First of all the recent evolution of the literary studies is outlined, with special stress on expansion of the notion of the subject. It is not any more limited to a human actor, but can be applied to an animal or even an inanimate object. The notion of discursive practice is introduced as a one of the principal key notions of contemporary literary studies. Then few application of literary analysis of discourse for history is enumerated, such as: expanding the scope of historical sources so as to include literary works and other piece of art; critical analysis of historiographical discourse as a text; a new approach to traditional historical sources consisting in treating them as autonomic texts of culture deserving interpretative activity in themselves.

The article is a part of materials regarding current problems of Polish science and higher education. It provides an in-depth analysis of the Act on degrees and academic titles as well as several other laws which introduce the so-called Ph.D. implementation in Poland. These laws were adopted by the Sejm of the Republic of Poland in April 2017. The author focuses on several problems, discussing them in separate chapters. The article also tries to predict the far-reaching results of the new rules. At the same time, the author proposes specific solutions that should be included in the future in the Act on degrees and academic titles, or in the Act of industrial property. They should eliminate the negative effects of conflicts between the provisions of various legal acts.

In 2015 Supreme Audit Office published the report concerned the quality of doctoral studies in Poland. Result of the conducted audit is alarming: “there are serious doubts both about quality and effectiveness of mass doctoral education” (SAO 2015). The text presents an overview of university regulations concerned the evaluation of annual achievements of PhD students (in the area of social sciences) and indicates its potentially negative consequences for the quality of their academic activity. The article refers to two terms – “running for points” and “parametric game”– introduced by Emanuel Kulczycki to describe consequences of economization of research evaluation system, i.e. measuring academic activities and turning them into points-based rewards.

Scientific output analysis in Poland takes place in many ways: by use both central and local databases. The article discusses the contents and bibliometric functions of the most important bibliographic databases, i.e. “People of science”, Polish Scientific Bibliography and employeers local registration system Expertus. The authors evaluate these tools from the perspective of the ability to make comparisons of the effectivity of individual researchers as well as to stimulate the development of scientific careers. As alternative solution relative to the analytical spectrum of all external tools, the authors present own application that allows visualization of scientific achievements. According authors’ observation, the Scientific Visualiser can enrich the individual information space of the contemporary scientist. Dedicated application certainly facilitates the evaluation of the publication activity, increases an awareness of updating of the bibliographic data, helps in discovering the relationship between the research fields, inspires to broaden intelectual horizons and cooperation networks. From another side, it can also be a tool supporting administration activities, such as: employees evaluation, promotion proceedings, accreditation, experts selection, distribution of funds.

Cells of a multicellular organism are genetically identical but differ in structure and function. This heterogeneity is created by several epigenetic mechanisms during the development of the organism. The epigenetic changes- including DNA methylation, histone post-translational modifications, chromatin remodeling and RNA interference have all been shown to control chromatin structure and regulate a plethora of cellular and organismal processes. There is a strong evidence that epigenetics play a crucial role in the development of diseases such as cancer, schizophrenia or metabolic disorders. The epigenetic regulation underlie memory formation or adaptation to external stimuli. The extent to which environmental effects can provoke epigenetic responses represents an exciting area of future research. Here we review the current knowledge about the epigenetic mechanisms and their relation to the human health and disease.

The Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, one of the largest nonacademic biological research centres in Poland, celebrates its 100th anniversary. The Institute was established in 1918 by the Scientific Society of Warsaw. In 1945, after World War II, it was re-established in Łódź and in 1952 incorporated into the newly founded Polish Academy of Sciences. During the period of 1953–1955 a newly erected building at 3 Pasteur Street in Warsaw became the home of the Nencki Institute. Today, the Nencki Institute strives for excellence in basic research in the broad sense of biological sciences. Neurosciences and biological and molecular basic of civilization diseases represent two main research areas of the Institute in the context of the society needs to improve the quality of life. One of the strategic activities of the Institute is investments in bio- imaging.This has recently resulted in inclusion of the Institute in the EUROBIOIMAGING project of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI). An excellent example of a synergy of basic and innovative studies is the Neurobiology Centre established at the Nencki Institute in 2010–2013 as part of a strategic project entitled the CePT. Additionally, the Nencki Institute trains nearly 200 PhD students under various programmes, including the H2020.

The article is a modified Polish version of my Director’s report published in the “Annual Report 2017–March 2018” of the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw (www.iimcb.gov.pl). After 20 years of being in charge of the Institute and a few months before the end of my final term as its director, I summarize our achievements, failures, lost opportunities and recall how it all began. I also give the names of people who formed organizing team of the Institute in the nineties, names of the first International Advisory Board members and names of the Institutes’ directors who will be in charge of it since July 2018.

This review compiles the pioneers of biological sciences who have been born and educated on the territories, which has got political independence as Poland state in 1918. Their work and passing knowledge to the next generations had a great impact not only on the progress in science but also on a newly formed Polish society. Many of these contributions laid foundations for chemistry, physics, biochemistry, genetics and other biological sciences.

The report encompasses the activity of the Committee on Ethics in Science in the year 2016.

Professor Piotr Pierański, an outstanding Polish physicists, excellent researcher and brilliant lecturer, passed away on the 23rd February 2018. The article quotes some recollections of his numerous friends and coworkers wordwide.