Vol 86, No 4 (2016)

This article formulates the task of creating a constitutional reform theory that would make it possible to build up scientifically substantiated forecasts of how the constitutional–legal picture of the world will be developing. The necessity to systematize the experience of constitutional reforms; to reveal the causes, methods, and procedures of their implementation; and to classify and establish essential characteristics of the newest constitutional transformations in the context of the increased influence of globalization processes on national law systems and the large-scale economic, political, and other transformations is proved. The author identifies key criteria that make it possible to consider constitutional changes as constitutional reform and reveals the dialectics of the relation of constitutional reform and constitutional sustainability and stability. Special attention is paid to assessing constitutional reform from the point of view of legality and legitimacy. A wide approach is proposed to the definition of constitutional reform as not only a legal but also sociopolitical process, which requires applying methods and means of various branches of knowledge.

Being insignificantly different in distance from the Sun, the main terrestrial planets—Venus, the Earth, and Mars—fall, with due account for inaccuracies, within the so-called habitable zone, i.e., the range of distances from a parent star within which water on the planets can exist in the liquid state. Most likely, in the process of their formation, the three planets received approximately the same share of water. However, only the Earth’s climate is suitable for the development of life. How did it happen that Mars became cold and water on it froze, while the absolutely dry surface of Venus is red hot, exceeding 460°C? Was this always the situation? Climate changes on Mars and Venus from the beginning of the planets' independent existence to the present day are considered, and parallels are drawn with the changing climate of the Earth. The article also discusses how the particularities of the early climate of Mars are related to its inhabitation, as well as the likelihood of discovering biological activity on that planet. Some of the results presented in this article were obtained using Russian instruments installed on the artificial satellites Mars Express and Venus Express.

Space exploration is an advanced task affecting the interests of humankind in general; consequently, this activity calls for wide international cooperation. However, such examples are rather few thus far. All the more interesting is the experience of Russian–French interaction in biomedical space research. The article published below discusses the history of the joint studies and their results with their unquestionable scientific and applied significance.

Analyzing the results of bibliometric analysis of more than 175 000 domestic articles indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection over 2010–2014, the authors identified an increase both in the number of articles prepared at the Russian Academy of Sciences and in the number of articles associated with the higher education sector. It is shown that the growth of the scientific productivity of higher educational institutions, especially 15 universities within the Project 5-100, is largely due to their strengthened scientific collaboration with the Russian Academy of Sciences. This article reflects general trends in the development of the global and domestic practice of assessing scientific activity and science-based decisions made to finance various scientists and research teams. The authors fully share the opinion and principles of the founders of the Leiden Manifesto and call on science administrators to use bibliometric indicators as tools of information support for expert procedures.

The growing role of natural gas and, consequently, gas chemistry in the economy of the 21st century requires the formation of new gas chemical processes, more flexible in relation to raw materials and end products and profitable even for fine chemicals. Basic research and development conducted at the RAS Institute of Problems of Chemical Physics jointly with the Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics, RAS, could become the basis for the creation of a new generation of gas chemical technologies.

By a case study of several regions that belong to the Nonblack Soil Zone of Russia, the authors analyze physical, agrochemical, and spatial characteristics of lands withdrawn from agriculture. Prospects for setting up agroforestry farms on such lands are considered. Generalized data on the condition, growth, and productivity of forest crops (Scots pines) planted on lands with long-term agricultural use are given.

This article is dedicated to discussion of the recently published two volumes of selected works by the outstanding Russian philosopher V.S. Stepin. The authors consider several subjects that appear to be central both for Stepin’s creative work and for vectors in the development of contemporary philosophy. They are all associated one way or another with the problems of change in scientific rationality and characteristics of the contemporary stage in the development of science. The qualitatively new interrelationship between the subject and object of postnonclassical ontoepistemology of the turbulent world of complexity occupies a special place in this context.