Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae on Suomalaisen Tiedeakatemian monitieteinen julkaisusarja. Sarjan ensimmäinen numero näki päivänvalon marraskuussa 2022. Jatkossa lehti ilmestyy journal.fi-alustalla avoimena verkkojulkaisuna kaksi kertaa vuodessa. Julkaisu edistää tieteidenvälistä vuoropuhelua ja välittää tietoa ajankohtaisista tieteellisistä kysymyksistä ja uusista haasteista. Sarja suuntautuu laajalle yleisölle: Suomalaisen Tiedeakatemian jäsenistön, heidän ulkomaisten kollegoidensa ja eri alojen tutkijoiden ohella kohderyhmänä ovat kaikki tieteestä ja tutkimuksesta kiinnostuneet. Annales on vertaisarvoitu, monitieteinen ja monikielinen. Sarja valottaa tieteen ja sen tekemisen luonnetta maailman ymmärtämisessä. ISSN-tunnukset: ISSN 2953-9048 (print) ISSN 2954-1050 (online)
Pääsihteeriltä: Monitieteistä tutkimusta näkyväksi
Uudesti syntynyt ”Tiedeakatemian Annaali”, kuten ensimmäistä vuoden 1908 sarjaa kutsuttiin, toteuttaa tiedeakatemioiden perustehtävää: mielenkiintoisten, korkeatasoisten tutkimusten esittelyä. Annales on vertaisarvoitu, monitieteinen ja monikielinen. Se tullaan julkaisemaan pääosin niin sanottuna näköispainoksena verkossa, aluksi kaksi numeroa vuodessa. Julkaisu tulee saamaan rinnalleen digitaalisen, julkaisutavaltaan ja sisällöltään monimuotoisen, työnimellä AASF+ kulkevan version. AASF+ mahdollistaa perinteistä julkaisurytmiä nopeamman sisällön julkaisemisen esimerkiksi keskusteluina tai blogina. Se myös laajentaa lehden lukijakuntaa. Ajankohtainen tiede- ja tutkimusorientoitunut reagointi maailman tapahtumiin tullee osaksi AASF+ -sisältöjä. Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae on osa Suomalaisen Tiedeakatemian pyrkimyksiä rakentaa yhteisöllisyyttä, tukea monitieteisyyttä ja edistää tieteen vaikuttavuutta. Annales on vahva panoksemme Suomessa harjoitettavan tieteen näkyväksi tekemiseen ja yhteiskunnalliseen keskusteluun.
Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae (AASF) on Suomalaisen Tiedeakatemian julkaisusarja, jonka pitkä historia ulottuu Tiedeakatemian perustamiseen saakka. Tiedeakatemian yleisten tavoitteiden mukaisesti se haluaa edistää tieteidenvälistä vuoropuhelua ja välittää valistuneelle lukijakunnalle tietoa ajankohtaisista tieteellisen tutkimuksen kysymyksistä ja uusista haasteista. AASF:n myötä Suomalaisen Tiedeakatemian julkaisutoiminta palaa juurilleen ja ottaa samalla tähän aikaan sopivan muodon: se on monitieteinen, verkossa ilmestyvä aikakauslehti. AASF:n ensimmäiseen numeroon on koottu artikkeleita vuosina 2020 ja 2021 hyväksytyiltä uusilta Suomalaisen Tiedeakatemian jäseniltä. Näitä riittää seuraavaankin numeroon, mutta myös aiemmin valitut jäsenet, tänä vuonna valitut ja muut eturivin tutkijat voivat tarjota julkaisuun tekstejä, joissa he kertovat oman tutkimusalansa ajankohtaisista aiheista ja omista kiinnostuksen kohteistaan.
Miten edustuksellinen demokratiamme on muuttumassa? Digitaalisen käsitehistorian näkökulma
Recent concerns about representative democracy being in crisis should be related to longer-term histories of ‘representation’ and ‘democracy’. Conceptual history analyses diachronic change and synchronic contestability of such key terms. Digital history can help understand evolvement in tensions over popular representation and representatives' changing perceptions on their parliamentary role. N-gram analyses and visualizations of relative word frequencies reveal long-term patterns and justify selections for qualitative analysis. Contextualising close reading shows how representative democracy has been increasingly complemented with participatory and direct democracy in the UK parliament, for instance, since the 2000s. These observations lead to questions on parallel developments in other European countries.
Copyright (c) 2023 Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Quantum-Chemical Approach to Nuclear Magnetic Resonance of Paramagnetic Systems
Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a central method for investigating the microscopic structure and dynamics of molecules and materials, with numerous applications in science, technology, and medicine. Computational modelling is indispensable in NMR research due to the indirect nature of NMR information and the rich physical phenomenology behind its observables. While NMR is conventionally used to study diamagnetic systems, paramagnetic NMR (pNMR) of electronically open-shell systems is rapidly gaining importance. This inaugural article concerns the methodology and application of computational molecular science to the observables pNMR, including current challenges and outlook for the future.
In recent years, there has been lively discussion in Finland on why the country does not have more young and fast-growing companies. These debates usually lack historical perspective. Entrepreneurship has always existed in Finland. Yet, the operational environment, values, gender roles and social structures have had an impact throughout history on who is willing and able to establish a company. These factors also influence the ability and willingness of new companies to grow. History can provide us with insights into why the Finnish economy has certain weaknesses, for example a lack of economic and social diversity and a shortage of old and successful middle-sized companies as well as younger high-growth companies. The most successful startup period in Finland was 1850–1914. Many of the companies founded during that time grew quite large. Since then, it has been more difficult for the country to replicate this early success.
Plant genetic resources for food and agriculture: novel materials for adapting to changing environmental conditions
Many present crop plants are in danger of failing due to extreme conditions induced by climate change. This along with a rapidly growing world population threatens global food security. In this paper, I provide an overview of different plant genetic resources, of possibilities to broaden their base by including crop wild relative species and other underutilized sources, and of conservation and characterization needs and tools. The increased environmental variability implies that we will need access to an even wider range of plant genetic resources than used today for breeding new crop varieties, which contain useful traits, such as pest and disease resistances and ability to withstand drought or extreme temperatures.
Legal maxims written in Latin are a constant in European and American legal cultures, where they have great authority due to perceived antiquity and origins in Roman law. However, sometimes these maxims are actually fairly recent, neologisms that only purport to be ancient. The purpose of this article is to explore one such maxim, pacta sunt servanda, agreements have to be upheld, and the cultural, political and legal connotations and contemporary significances that the phrase has. Through the convoluted history of the maxim pacta sunt servanda, the article explores the role of tradition and history in the making and legimitizing rules.
It is a fact that we change our minds many times during our lives. However, changing our minds can potentially call our cognitive processes into question. How do we know if the change is for the better? In the worst case, our fickleness calls into question our own ability to evaluate the foundations of our worldviews. However, it is not justified to claim that worldviews have no truth value. Although comparing worldviews is difficult, it is still natural to assume that there can be a meaningful public debate about their foundations. However, this requires a public and open communal process that broadly manifests intellectual virtues and tolerance as it is common for humans to disagree about many things, which may even appear obvious to some.
The Social Brain Hypothesis Thirty Years On: Some Philosophical Pitfalls of Deconstructing Dunbar’s Number
The social brain hypothesis was proposed 30 years ago as an explanation for the fact that primates have much larger brains than all other animals. The claim was that primates live in unusually complex societies, and hence need a large ‘computer’ to manage the relationships involved. The core evidence subsequently provided in support of this claim was a simple statistical relationship between the social group size characteristic of a species and the size of its brain, with humans fitting into this pattern. However, testing evolutionary hypotheses raises some challenging philosophical and statistical issues that are often overlooked, and great care is needed to ensure that we test the hypothesis we think we are testing. Here, I examine some of these challenges and illustrate the traps they can create for the unwary.
AASF:n toinen numero tarjoaa mielenkiintoisen kokoelman kirjoituksia eri tieteenaloilta. Monessa artikkelissa tarkastellaan tieteellisen tiedon kehitystä eri aikaskaaloilla ja sitä, miten tutkimustiedon ja yhteiskunnan kehityslinjat ovat kietoutuneet toisiinsa.
Preventing Spontaneous Preterm Birth: Insights from Genomics
Mortality and morbidity due to infants being born preterm remains one of the greatest health burdens facing society. Many factors influence the risk for spontaneous preterm birth, both genetic and environmental. To date, generally effective interventions to prevent preterm birth have not been identified. In this paper, we discuss the impact of preterm birth and the challenges that have limited insights so far. New advances in genomics, systems biology, and population/personalized medicine show promise in overcoming previous barriers and leading to new insights and preventive treatments.
Analytical chemistry is an interdisciplinary field of science related to many practical applications, such as clinical diagnostics, environmental monitoring and industrial process analysis. Over the last 50 years, chemical analytics has evolved from centralized laboratory measurements towards on-line and distributed analysis, including wearable chemical sensors for personal health monitoring. In this article I wish to reflect upon these developments in analytical chemistry, illustrated by examples from my own research. The text provides a glimpse of analytical chemistry from my personal perspective.
Religious institutions and faith communities should recognize and acknowledge the nature of sacred texts as constantly changing and renewing resources, and societies should recognize and acknowledge human ways of committing to sacred texts and their claims. We call for an understanding of the processes by which certain texts became and become to be distinguished as special or sacred and of the consequences of such commitments. This article explores Jewish/Judean manuscript culture at the turn of the era when ideas of sacred texts started to be formed; this offers possibilities of reflection of modern processes. Sacred texts are not only conceptualized as divine speech or divinely inspired writings. Our investigation offers three areas of study needed to analyse the functioning of sacred texts in the past and the present: the material mediation of texts, the role of the community and its ritual life, and changes in content and interpretation.
Muistijälkien kirjoittaminen aivojen kovalevylle unen aikana takkuilee Alzheimerin taudissa
”Why do we need to sleep?” is still a question with no unambiguous answer. New findings from brain research suggest that one important function of sleep is to enable the transfer of temporary memories from deep brain structures to long-term storage in the cerebral cortex. This article describes from step to step how this process is thought to occur at the level of a single neuron and neural networks. The transfer of episodic memories from the hippocampus in the medial temporal lobe to the cerebral cortex explains a well-known paradox: an elderly person with Alzheimer’s disease can remember even small details of decade-old events but fails to remember what happened only a few hours ago. Transfer of the memory engram particularly during sleep and typical sleep fragmentation at early stages of Alzheimer’s disease can at least partly account for the poor memory of recent events. A better understanding of the underlying factors and mechanisms can help us develop new treatments to strengthen the weak parts in this chain of events and thereby enhance remembering of new events.
Oikeusvaltio ja oikeusvarmuus Euroopan unionissa
In this article the EU concepts of rule of law and legal certainty are studied from the perspective of legal theory and EU law. The rule of law and legal certainty are both underlying principles of Western societies. They are neither defined in any paragraph of national laws nor in international treaties. Both are principles, which comprise various more precise principles from the perspective of their scope of application. The rule of law is both normative and legal cultural principle, which illustrates the legal system of an active civil society in the European context. Legal certainty, in turn, relates especially to the demand of predictability in legal decision-making, which is one of the elements of the rule of law as well. Both the rule of law and the principle of legal certainty have formal and substantive meaning, which can be illustrated by referring to the Article 2 TEU according to which the rule of law requires liberal democracy and the protection of human rights.
Femtometreistä valovuosiin: neutronitähdet eksoottisen aineen laboratoriona
The Standard Model of particle physics describes the basic properties and interactions of all known elementary particles at an astonishingly good level, and predictions derived from it have time and again been experimentally verified. One of its parts, namely the theory of the strong nuclear interaction, Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), has however proven to be computationally extremely demanding. In particular, the properties of matter described by QCD are at the moment still largely unknown in the limit of high baryon density. Very recently, the study of dense QCD matter has taken important steps forward owing largely to new observational data originating from a distant but very effective laboratory: neutron stars. The cores of these extremely compact stars contain the densest form of matter in our present-day Universe, and the properties of this matter are reflected on the measurable macroscopic properties of the stars themselves. In this review article, I will introduce this active field of research, placing particular emphasis on recent efforts to discover an entirely new phase of matter - cold and dense quark matter - inside the cores of the most massive neutron stars.
Economic Degrowth and the Collapse of Institutional Order: Theory and Propositions
Integrating insights from new institutional economics and studies on the collapse of past empires, we sketch a process model that links economic degrowth to the collapse of institutional orders. Our thought experiment starts from emphasizing the importance of institutions and enforcement mechanisms in maintaining a sufficient level of economic activity to sustain public costs. We flip this established logic and elucidate the negative role of economic degrowth in the weakening of the public sector’s ability to enforce institutional rules. Internal and external shocks further shake the stability of the institutional order and, at some point, individuals’ belief in institutional rules and norms weakens, resulting in system-wide collapse of the institutional order. We use historical literature on the collapse of Roman Empire as an “experimental prototype” (Meyer, Gaba, & Colwell, 2005: 471) to inspire and illustrate our thought experiment.
Acid sulfate soils: A challenge for environmental sustainability
Acid sulfate (AS) soils contain sulfidic compounds formed in anaerobic conditions. In aerobic conditions, they will oxidize to sulfuric acid, which commonly lowers the pH to 3 – 4. These soils cover approximately 10,000 km2 in Finland, mainly on the western coast, and over 170,000 km2 globally. Acidity and the metals dissolved from the soil matrix and leached out of the soil are serious threats to aquatic biota. Initially, AS soils were regarded as an exclusively agricultural problem, but since the 1970s nearly all studies of AS soils have been environmentally motivated. Awareness of these soils has also risen in forestry, peat mining, and in engineering projects. Liming and water management are the key methods toward the sustainable use of these soils.
The Death and Afterlife of Literary Genres
This paper explores the death and afterlife of literary genres. We ask what steps the final phase of the literary life cycle of genres, after the assumed stages of rise and peak, might include and whether that process is irreversible. The traditional biological and evolutionary models of literary history are challenged by the metaphorical understanding of generic death. We consider the differences between natural and literary forms of death, and then explore the literary transience of one specific genre, Arthurian romance, by bearing in mind that literature is a tradition-sustaining form that can return like a ghost to life again.
Copyright (c) 2025 Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
AASF:n vuoden 2024 toisessa numerossa on sekä tuttua että uutta. Tuttuun tapaan numerossa on artikkeleita eri tieteenaloilta, niin tunnetuilta huippututkijoilta kuin tällä kertaa erityisen ilahduttavasti myös nuorilta tutkijoilta Nuorten Tiedeakatemiasta. Tässä numerossa on toisena uutuutena osasto ”Keskustelua”, minkä toivomme innostavan kommentointiin ja uusiin keskustelunavauksiin.
Copyright (c) 2024 Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Onko suomen kielen sanasto poikkeuksellisen omaperäistä?
Lauri Hakulinen kirjoittaa tunnetussa oppikirjassaan Suomen kielen rakenne ja kehitys, että suomen kielen sanasto on etymologiselta koostumukseltaan poikkeuksellisen omaperäistä. Vain viidesosa tai vähemmän on osoitettavissa lainaksi muista kielistä. Koska luonnollisen kielen sanasto on avoin systeemi, sitä voi analysoida vain otostutkimuksen perusteella. Jos tutkimuksen kohteeksi otetaan keskeisimpään sanastoon sisältyvät sanavartalot, saadaan tulokseksi, että vartaloista noin puolet on lainoja. Vastaavanlaisia tuloksia on saatu myös sukukielistä. Näin ollen ei ole mitään syytä pitää suomen kielen sanastoa etymologiselta rakenteeltaan mitenkään poikkeuksellisena.
The Ad Hoc Assembly of the ECSC parliamentarians drafted a constitution for the planned European Political Community in 1953. The Draft Treaty, preceded by intense parliamentary-style debates in the Assembly, proposed a supranational parliamentary government. French National Assembly rejected the Draft in 1954. My debate analysis in the book At the Origins of Parlamentary Europe. Supranational parliamentary government in debates of the Ad Hoc Assembly for the European Political Community in 1952–1953 (2024) indicates, nonetheless that the proposed supranational parliamentary government was a major political novelty and that a parliamentary route for the European integration could have been possible.
perustuslakiluonnos Euroopan poliittiselle yhteisölle
ylikansallinen parlamentaarinen hallitus
Ilmakehän pienhiukkasten muodostumisen merkitys ilmastolle ja ilmanlaadulle
Atmospheric CO2 concentrations are increasing. However, the total effect of ecosystems on climate is more complex than just the carbon balance. Ecosystems have a key role in aerosol formation in the atmosphere, which significantly contributes to the radiative balance. Without aerosols, there are no clouds or rain, and aerosols reflect part of the incoming solar radiation back to space, cooling the atmosphere. We established the SMEAR stations 25 years ago, to provide open comprehensive data. We would need similar comprehensive observations from different ecosystems globally, both for properly understanding the full climate forcing and for solving the global environmental challenges.
Akateeminen johtajuus etenee murroksesta toiseen
This article explores the disruptions that occur throughout an academic leader’s career and the self-management skills necessary to navigate these transitions. Academic leadership in universities is unique, often involving the challenge of leading independent, critically thinking individuals who may resist being led. Additionally, the individualistic nature of academic merit systems can sometimes complicate the leadership of collaborative efforts. Focusing on the early stages of leadership, particularly the transition from researcher to group leader and beyond, we examine the characteristics of academic leadership at different career phases. Using Bolman and Deal’s (2017) framework, we analyze academic leadership from multiple perspectives: organizational, human resources, political and symbolic. We hope this article sparks further discussion on academic leadership and provides early career researchers with insights to better prepare for evolving leadership roles.
From respiratory supercomplexes to megacomplexes
Cellular energy is produced in mitochondria by respiratory enzymes in a process called oxidative phosphorylation. Respiratory enzymes are large proteins embedded in the inner mitochondrial membrane which can occur either as individual enzymes or organize into larger assemblies called super- and megacomplexes. Originally, supercomplex organization was not generally accepted, but nowadays, their existence is clear. However, the functional aspects are still in the dark. In this overview, we will briefly touch upon the history of super-complex research, the variation of the supercomplex compositions and shed light on the challenges of studying their functional aspects.
Vuorovaikutuskompetenssin rooli videovälitteisessä yhteistoiminnassa
Video-mediated interaction has been increasingly studied during the past decades. Empirical research that uses qualitative methods and draws on recorded data from authentic situations (e.g., workplace meetings and online classrooms) has shown that these environments are very complex and present challenges (e.g., in turn-taking) but also provide unique affordances for organizing interaction. Most recent research has highlighted participants’ situated conduct (i.e., talk, embodied actions, use of digital resources) and interactional competence as key for the smooth unfolding of interaction and accomplishment of collaborative activities. More research is still needed to substantiate context-specific practices.
In search of supporting a Sustainable Development Goal in Sub-Saharan Africa by training people to learn knowledge via reading
Recent advances in new technology (NT) have opened pathways to overcome learning obstacles and to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) via its 4th goal in the Sub-Saharan Africa, emphasizing the role of digital tools in literacy development. The need and value of support for literacy is most significant in the poor rural areas of the world. Here we explain how we began providing support in Zambia, specifically highlighting how it helped to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) among initially illiterate rural people. Access to the Internet is soon also possible in rural Africa, after big cities, which are already almost entirely covered. Thus, millions in Africa with minimal reading skills and compromised access to knowledge (beyond local village gossip) are now in a new situation. Realistic opportunities are available for both acquiring and obtaining information and elevating the mental capacity of not only individuals but also whole countries. Key Challenge: Enabling Full Literacy and essential knowledge for sustainable development for Rural Populations of Africa Keywords: full literacy, knowledge acquisition, digital learning games, artificial intelligence, Africa, sustainable development goals
Copyright (c) 2026 Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Revealing speech perception in the newborn brain with the means of mismatch negativity
One of the most demanding tasks of infants is to learn to speak. The efficiency of infants in this task, typically uttering their first words in a year, has puzzled scientists. The neural mismatch negativity (MMN) or mismatch response (MMR), elicited even in inattentive participants, has illuminated these processes. MMR studies have shown that already at birth, the principal adult-like auditory speech decoding abilities exist. This enables the neonatal brain to, for instance, categorize speech sounds and detect word boundaries, permitting efficient language acquisition. MMR studies have also illuminated perceptual deficits in newborns at risk for developmental disorders of language.
Lääketiedettä englanniksi yli 700 vuotta: latinan varjosta tieteen lingua francaksi
English medical writing across seven centuries Vernacular medical writing is discussed in a diachronic perspective with illustrations from original texts. Medieval texts of learned origin show features of scholasticism with references to authorities and absolute certainty, while remedybooks use simple language. In the early modern period observation replaced language as the source of knowledge. The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1665-) created the new style of writing in accordance with empiricism and a tentative mode of knowing. The eighteenth century brought increasing professionalism, institutionalization and specialized journals. The status of English as the lingua franca of science is fairly recent.
Paikkatiedot ja paikannus digitalisaation avaimina
Paikkatiedon ja tarkan paikantamisen rooli digitalisaation kehityksessä on kasvanut voimakkaasti. Tämä kehitys haastaa julkisen sektorin mukauttamaan paikkatietostrategiaansa varmistaakseen paikkatietojen tarkkuuden, ajantasaisuuden ja jakamisen sekä paikannuksen vastaamaan uusiin tarpeisiin, jotka johtuvat esimerkiksi älyliikenteen ja muiden sijaintiin perustuvien palveluiden kehityksestä, metsätalouden ja maatalouden digitalisaatiosta sekä globaalista finassitaloudesta. Lisäksi digitaaliset kaksoset, jotka mallintavat reaalimaailman prosesseja, kuten ilmastoa tai valtameriä, tarvitsevat reaaliaikaista tarkkaa paikkatietoa. Näitä uusia sovelluksia tehtäessä on tärkeää ymmärtää, kuinka voimme jakaa paikkatietoa tehokkaasti ja mitä vaatimuksia tämä asettaa paikkatietoa kuvaavalle metatiedolle.