The Bulletin of the Polish Academy of Sciences: Technical Sciences (Bull.Pol. Ac.: Tech.) is published bimonthly by the Division IV Engineering Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences, since the beginning of the existence of the PAS in 1952. The journal is peer‐reviewed and is published both in printed and electronic form. It is established for the publication of original high quality papers from multidisciplinary Engineering sciences with the following topics preferred: Artificial and Computational Intelligence, Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology, Civil Engineering, Control, Informatics and Robotics, Electronics, Telecommunication and Optoelectronics, Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Thermodynamics, Material Science and Nanotechnology, Power Systems and Power Electronics.
Journal Metrics: JCR Impact Factor 2018: 1.361, 5 Year Impact Factor: 1.323, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) 2017: 0.319, Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP) 2017: 1.005, CiteScore 2017: 1.27, The Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education 2017: 25 points.
Abbreviations/Acronym: Journal citation: Bull. Pol. Ac.: Tech., ISO: Bull. Pol. Acad. Sci.-Tech. Sci., JCR Abbrev: B POL ACAD SCI-TECH Acronym in the Editorial System: BPASTS.
No one could have expected that on the first day that LIGO detectors were running, scientists would register signals of gravitational waves. We discuss the watershed discovery confirming the general theory of relativity with Dr. Andrzej Królak from the PAS Institute of Mathematics and Dr. Michał Bejger from the PAS Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Centre, both members of the Virgo-POLGRAW group.
We talk to Dr. Bogdan Jaroszewicz, head of the Białowieża Geobotanical Station of the University of Warsaw, about how planned logging in the Białowieża Forest will damage not only the forest itself but also Poland’s image around the globe.
The role of mentors is waning: young Polish scientists, efficient at winning their own grants and proficient at English, are growing increasingly independent.
Prof. Mirosław Kofta, a psychologist from the University of Warsaw’s Faculty of Psychology and Institute for Social Studies, discusses political change in Poland, authoritarian personality, and civil society.
The pace of climate change observed since the beginning of the industrial era has prompted scientists to seriously consider whether human activity is to blame for global warming. On the geological timescale, however, climate change is certainly nothing new or exceptional – as is clear when one looks at the record of plant and animal fossils.
Prof. Anna Członkowska from the 2nd Department of Neurology at the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, a corresponding member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, discusses the definition of a stroke, new ways to help post-stroke patients recover, and reasons why time is of the essence.
Is it possible to revitalize Europe without external interference and a shift in the geopolitical situation outside the Continent? An answer to this question is here offered by Prof. Jan Zielonka, a political scientist analyzing change in Central and Eastern Europe and a lecturer at the European Studies Centre, St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford.
Dr. Artur Binda, a bariatric surgeon from the Orłowski Independent Public Teaching Hospital in Warsaw, discusses bariatric surgery procedures, frequently the only treatment for patients with life-threatening obesity.
In the world of Darwinian rivalry, where the fittest individuals take advantage of others, explaining acts of altruism poses one of the most fundamental problems in evolutionary biology. In a previous issue of Academia magazine (4/2015), Dr. Kinga Wysieńska-Di Carlo and Dr. Zbigniew Karpiński explored this issue from the perspective of sociologists; here it is viewed through the prism of mathematics.
We talk to Dr. Katarzyna Błachowiak-Samołyk, professor at the Department of Marine Ecology at the PAS Institute of Oceanology in Sopot, about the impact of human activity on life in the oceans.
Extraction of natural resources such as shale gas can disrupt the internal structure of rock, leading to the release of vast amounts of energy in the form of earthquakes. Is the risk of such human-induced quakes high in Poland? Scientists from the PAS Institute of Geophysics are trying to find the answer.
Geographical names reflect a complex intermingling of language, culture, history, and economics. The disappearance of names for small physiographical features, known only to small local communities, is driven in part by changes in economic activity – a process that may be observed in the micro-toponymy of the Hutsul region in Ukraine
People rarely consider where their tap water comes from, or how much of it is actually available. At the same time, it is people who are most often responsible for water pollution. Problems involving the contamination of water-supply areas in Poland are scrutinized by an “intervention team” of experts at the Polish Hydrogeological Survey.
Almost all matter in our Universe exists in the form of plasma. Although it’s not easy to generate on Earth, it has a vast range of applications in medicine, biotechnology, farming and industry.
Even whilst condemning the social consequences of verbal aggression, the media showcase the harshest such statements and thereby actually promote them.
“We can see that all the recent predictions of a better future for the world are largely misguided. It is no longer certain even that the Cold War is definitively a thing of the past,” says Jerzy Szacki, a historian of ideas and sociologist, a professor emeritus of the University of Warsaw, and an ordinary member of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
The Polish Academy of Sciences’ newly-created Bureau for Scientific Excellence will be focusing on helping researchers file ERC grant applications. The Academy has a big role to play here, because we pursue fundamental research and have certain advantages that other institutions do not – says Prof. Paweł Rowiński, Vice-President of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
The Garage of Complexity supports everyone who wants to take risks – the kind that can turn into something magnificent, push one’s academic career onto a new track, blaze a nonstandard trail.
They are a vital source of information about the glaciations that covered significant areas of Poland in the Pleistocene. They intrigue not only scientists, but also geotourists. So why do glacial erratics so frequently end up vandalized?
Some long forgotten. Others precariously preserved on traditional wax cylinders, vinyls, and tapes. Still others hard to even identify. Here, priceless old works of music regain something they lost long ago: having someone find a moment to given them a listen.
The more heavy-handed a government is, the more eagerly it interprets even the most delicate of criticisms as an unauthorized attempt to intervene in its internal affairs.