Francoeur E.

• École de Technologie Supérieure

Au Québec, l’offre de manuels de base adéquats pour l’enseignement du développement durable dans les programmes degénie (1 er cycle) est actuellement très limitée et incomplète. Cet article discute de la possibilité de mettre sur pied une collaboration interinstitutionnelle afin de produire un manuel libre pour combler cette lacune.

The École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS), as are all engineering schools and faculties in Canada, is at work adapting its programs to comply with new CEAB Accreditation Criteria and Procedures.The recently defined twelve CEAB attributes define the knowledge, skills and attitudes that all engineers must possess in order to practice their trade. The...

There are serious problems in the adoption of information technology (IT) for teaching in engineering. Professors hesitate to use IT for teaching: they are not familiar with the technologies, and know little about the theories and practices around their use. The research is part of an initiative undertaken by a group of early IT adopters to build a...

Prions are proteins generally characterized by the ability to exist in two different forms or more precisely two different three-dimensional structures, one of them possibly causing disease when it aggregates. The prion hypothesis, as formulated by Stanley Prusiner, states that this aggregation causes specific neurological diseases such as bovine s...

In the mid-1960s, a group of scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, led by Cyrus Levinthal, took hold of one of the early interactive graphics terminals and used it to visualize, study and model the structure of proteins and nucleic acids. From this encounter between cutting-edge computer technology and molecular biology emerged the c...

Since the development of structural theory and stereochemistry in the mid to late 19th century, to understand a molecular compound, to account for its physical and chemical properties, has been very much a matter of knowing and understanding its structure. The notion of molecules as discrete three-dimensional structures, a theoretical construct dev...

Taking a critical stance towards the notions of dematerialization and inscription, this paper considers the role of physical molecular models in chemical research, specifically in the development of structural concepts and in the articulation of chemists' knowledge of molecular structures. The main argument, illustrated through specific historical...

Since the inception of the modern atomic theory, chemists have used physical models to represent the structure of molecules. The goal of this paper is to bring molecular modelling into focus as a constitutive yet overlooked element of chemical practices. It begins with a short technical introduction to molecular models, and then moves into a partic...

L’article analyse le deroulement, aux Etats-Unis entre 1982 et 1990, de la controverse entourant la regulation des largages d’organismes genetiquement modifies (OGM) dans l’environnement. Plus precisement, il se donne comme objet l’interaction entre trois ordres de pratiques : i) les evenements suscites par des acteurs collectifs se presentant comm...

This thesis offers a detailed socio-historical exploration of the practice of molecular modelling in chemistry and allied disciplines. This exploration leads to observations and conclusions that are of relevance to the sociology of science in general and to the issue of representation in scientific practice, in particular. After a general introduct...