Do you believe in God or science? We often conceive of religion and science as antagonistic. But reason has played a big role in the three major monotheistic religions. In an interview with fortytwomagazine, Peter Adamson, Professor of late ancient and Arabic philosophy at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, takes us back to a time when science entailed more than an inquiry into the physical world. He explains how we arrived at our modern-day assumption that religion and science are diametrically opposed to each other and suggests a third alternative to answer some of our biggest questions about existence. fortytwomagazine: Your primary fields of interest are late ancient and medieval philosophy. Bring us back! Which understanding of science did people have in those times?  Prof. Peter Adamson: For most of them, science would be defined in the terms of Aristotle’s philosophy. There, you have science when you demonstrate the truth. And then, there are various constraints on what a demonstration would involve. Obviously, the demonstration needs to start with true premises and lead to true conclusions. To avoid …

Language has the power to influence our perception of the world. Psycholinguist Dr. Sayaka Sato from the University of Fribourg explains how grammatical gender (“le, la” or “der, die, das”) influences our worldview and how we can use inclusive language to make people believe in themselves when choosing a profession.   fortytwomagazine: Dr. Sato, how does grammatical gender, such as “le”, “la” in French, affect our worldview?   Dr. Sayaka Sato: In our research we see that linguistical or grammatical markers influence how we unconsciously perceive visual information. We studied both English native speakers who don’t speak any other languages and French-English bilingual speakers in an English context. They were presented with pictures of objects that are stereotypically related to either women or men. For example a necktie or a necklace. They looked at one of the pictures, and afterwards they were shown an androgynous face alongside a female and male trait word (e.g., “charming” vs. “realistic”). The participants then had to decide which word best described the face. In theory, they don’t have to …

We believe in personal freedom, we believe in democracy, we believe in a free market, and some believe in gods or monsters. Our beliefs are what manifest our world view. When we express our take on something, we say “I believe that”. This is the predominant way we interpret and make sense of the world around us.

2021 was a big year for space: billionaires exploring a whole new tourist destination, several countries sending missions to Mars and a new telescope for humankind. Here’s what happened – in a nutshell.

Here is our November press review exploring the explosion of a star, financial benefits from climate action and what role space can play in CO2 monitoring.

Dr. Manfred Vogt erforscht die Entstehungsprozesse von Planeten und deren Bausteinen im frühen Sonnensystem. Im Interview gibt er uns einen Einblick in seine aktuelle Forschung.

While billionaires are blowing hundreds of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere by shooting tourists into space, Earth is absorbing more sunlight in the wake of global warming. Start-ups, meanwhile, are trying to make spaceflight greener. Read our new press review here.