Classifying science and technology: Two problems with the UNESCO system

Interdisciplinary Science Reviews

Volumn 32, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 315-319

  Martínez Frías, Jesús ^a,b   Hochberg, David ^a,c  

^a CSIC   (Spain)

^b CENTRO DE ASTROBIOLOGÍA CSIC INTA   (Spain)

^c CAB   (Spain)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY;

SOCIAL SCIENCES;

EID: 36749036238     PISSN: 03080188     EISSN: 17432790     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1179/030801807X183605     Document Type: Article

References (18)

1. 'Problems encountered in the development of a standard international methodology of science statistics', UNESCO/CS/0666.SS-80/5, 1966.
2. 'Proposed International Standard Nomenclature for Fields of Science and Technology', UNESCO/NS/ ROU/257 rev.1, 1988.
3. Drawn from the homepage of the Planetary Geology Group at the Arizona State University (http://europa.la.asu.edu), this is in our opinion probably the best available characterisation of the field. Arizona State University is one of the most significant institutions in the world in this area, and the place where Eugene Shoemaker first coined the term 'astrogeology', in 1961. The Arizona definition is in broad agreement with the scientific guidelines of the USGS Astrogeology Research Program (http:// astrogeology.usgs.gov).
4. The journals in question are (with number of citations in brackets): Journal of Geophysical Research (all parts) (102 065), Geophysical Research Letters (30 488), Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta (28 126), Earth and Planetary Science Letters (20 325), Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors (3967), Advanced Space Research (3830), Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics (3081), Meteoritics and Planetary Science (2436), Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Science (1973), Global and Planetary Change (1735). The search period was January 1978-January 2007.
5. C. S. Cockell: 'Astrobiology - a new opportunity for interdisciplinary thinking', Space Policy, 2002, 18, 263-266;
6. B. S. Blumberg: 'The NASA Astrobiology Institute: early history and organization', Astrobiology, 2003, 3, 463-470;
7. D. Morrison: "The NASA Astrobiology Program', Astrobiology, 2001, 1, 3-13.
8. L.J. Lafleur: 'Astrobiology', Astronomical Society of the Pacific Leaflets, 1941, (143), 333.
9. G. A. Tikhov: Astrobiology; 1953, Moscow, Molodaya Gvardia Publishing House (in Russian).
10. See also D. Briot, J. Schneider and L. Arnold: 'G. A. Tikhov and the beginnings of astrobiology', in Extrasolar Planets: Today and Tomorrow, (ed. J.-P. Beaulieu, A. Lecavelier des Etangs and C. Terquem), 219; 2004, San Francisco, CA, Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
11. G. A. Soffen: 'Astrobiology from exobiology: Viking and the current Mars probes', Acta Astronautica, 1997, 41, 609-611.
12. For an excellent summary of the terminological and conceptual confusion between 'astrobiology' and 'exobiology', see C. S. Cockell: '" Astrobiology" and the ethics of new science', Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 2001, 26, 90-96.
13. See http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov/roadmap.
14. See, for example, K. W. Plaxco and M. Gross: Astrobiology: A Brief Introduction; 2006, Baltimore, MD, Johns Hopkins University Press;
15. I. Gilmour and M. A. Sephton (ed.): An Introduction to Astrobiology; 2004, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press;
16. J. Lunine: Astrobiology: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach; 2004, San Francisco, CA, Benjamin Cummings;
17. G. Horneck and C. Baumstark-Khan: Astrobiology: The Quest for the Conditions of Life; 2001, Berlin, Springer-Verlag.
18. J. Martínez-Frías and M. Hamdi: 'UNCSTD: "geoperspective" of a multidisciplinary commission', Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 2002, 27, 83-86.