Professor Krystyna Chojnicka from the Department of History of Political and Legal Doctrines, Jagiellonian University, talks about respect for female lawyers, the true role of a Byzantine princess, and how a theatrical performance sparked her interest in Russian legal doctrine.

We talk to Prof. Magda Konarska from the Centre of New Technologies at the University of Warsaw about the “spliceosome,” the ongoing need for basic research and the importance of diversity in science.

We talk to Prof. Małgorzata Kossowska from the Institute of Psychology at the Jagiellonian University about whether women are appreciated, the significance of openness and tolerance, and what makes a terrorist.

We talked to Prof. Elżbieta Frąckowiak, Vice President of the Polish Academy of Sciences, about relative sizes of “fishes” and “ponds” and the height of glass ceilings in the research world.

The presence of women in science, methods of supporting them in pursuing careers in science, and the Polish Young Academy’s plans are discussed by Dr. Anna Ajduk of the University of Warsaw, who is chair of the Polish Young Academy, and its three deputy chairs – Assoc. Prof. Nicole Dołowy-Rybińska from the PAS Institute of Slavic Studies, Assoc. Prof. Monika Kędra from the PAS Institute of Oceanology, and Assoc. Prof. Monika Kwoka of the Silesian University of Technology.

Prof. Maria Anna Ciemerych- -Litwinienko and Asst. Prof. Edyta Brzóska-Wójtowicz from the Faculty of Biology at the University of Warsaw discuss the position of women in science.

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.

In the paper the phenomenon of big data is presented. I pay my special attention to the relation of this phenomenon to research work in experimental sciences. I search for answers to two questions. First, do the research methods proposed within the paradigm big data can be applied in experimental sciences? Second, does applying the research methods subject to the big data paradigm lead, in consequence, to a new understanding of science?

I investigate Husserl’s long-term research on revealing/constructing a proper idea of science. For Husserl this idea was of tremendous importance: it had to be the basis of forming a (the) proper philosophy (phenomenology), that is, a philosophy which was to be an exact science, a new and higher form of science. According to Husserl, the idea of science is not a free project of individual researchers, scientific communities, but the very essence of science—changeless, universal, nontransformable, non-culturally and socially loaded, ahistorical, and non-relativized to scientific praxis. It was attempt to determine a new status of philosophy which led Husserl’s to the consideration of a universal idea of science.

I investigate the idea of science elaborated by Edmund Husserl in his later works, first of all, in Cartesian Meditations and the Crisis of European Sciences. The first part of this investigation has been published in the paper: Edmunda Husserla idea nauki i projekt fenomenologii jako nauki ścisłej [Edmund Husserl’s Idea of Science and the Project of Phenomenology as a Strict Science], Filozofia i nauka. Studia filozoficzne i interdyscyplinarne, 2019, 7 (2), pp. 247–264. Husserl claims that the transformation of philosophy into a strict science, which is the basic aim of his intellectual enterprise, is connected with a reform of all the positive sciences. Positive science is closely related to philosophy—both they have a common grounding and ideal. The paper also compares Husserl’s project of philosophy as a fundamental science with the today trends in philosophy and the plurality of its schools, attitudes, fields of problems and methods.

In pursuing any kind of scientific activity, we pose a certain problems, and seek solution of them by various methods; as a result, we form our own judgements on the matter to which the given problem pertained, and finally make public this judgement, which is a solution of the problem posed, in conjunction with the relevant evidence. Freedom to pursue science thus requires freedom in each of the four fields mentioned above; that is the individual pursuing scientific activity must enjoy freedom to choose problems, freedom to choose a method, i.e., the means whereby he/she solves his/her problems, freedom of thought, and freedom of speech. Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz (1890–1963), a philosopher of science analyses here all these four “freedoms”, as well as considers both the extent to which each of them is indispensable to the successful advance of science and the extent to which a limitation on them can be justified on other grounds.

In 2014 the Jagiellonian University celebrated its 650th anniversary. The description of the university’s history on the jubilee website, however, makes no mention of the first female students – even though it was the first Polish university to welcome women.

Sylwia Bedyńska, PhD, from the Institute of General Psychology at the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, explains how negative stereotypes affect gifted women and their education choices.

Prof. Mario Molina, a Nobel Prize winner, talks about his experience in making the harmful effects of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) known to scientists, the general public, manufacturers and politicians.