Vol 86, No 5 (2016)

The elaboration of Russia’s power development concepts that envisaged doubled and even tripled power production by 2030 in accordance with an order of the Russian Federation was already under way several years ago. Today these concepts are undergoing revision. In the context of the sharp decline in industrial production, the illusion has arisen that the situation with power supply is relatively satisfactory: production capacities exceed demand by more than 20%. However, this is achieved due to the exploitation of expired and outdated equipment. The wear and tear of fixed assets in power production exceeds the critical mark of 60%. The main negative trends in the development of the Russian energy industry are analyzed, and a number of measures to resolve the existing situation are proposed.

The Russian segment of scientific journals, which is largely associated with the Russian Academy of Sciences, is considered within the global informational and analytical resources Scopus and Web of Science and the respective bases of statistical data Scimago and Journal Citation Reports. Special attention is paid to analysis of the indicators of Russian journals in foreign informational resources, as well as to problems of the thematic attribution and clustering of journals proceeding from the subject categories of Scopus and Web of Science, the OECD rubricators, and the State Rubricator of Scientific and Technical Information (SRSTI). A question is posed concerning the assessment and ranking of journals using bibliometric indicators that constitute the basis for making administrative decisions on the development of Russian scientific periodicals.

Departmental statistics on foreign students training as specialists at Russian higher educational institutions, which have been collected by the Center for Sociological Research at the Russian Ministry of Education and Science since 2002, as well as the results of mass sociological surveys of training and living costs in Russia among foreign students, are analyzed.

The main problems of the use of water resources in Russia against the backdrop of global climate warming are considered. An especially complex situation is developing in the southern part of European Russia and in western Siberia, which are experiencing a deficit of water resources. Possible trends in improving water availability in the regions are determined, as are ways of their implementation, taking into account recent achievements in science.

The current century has seen the discovery of a new trend in science, infectious symbiology, which studies ambiguous interactions between microbes and humans (from peaceful contacts to direct antagonism). What underlies these interrelations? What do such different outcomes depend on? These are important questions for Homo sapiens because, only after having deciphered the mechanisms of these outcomes (from health to disease), will we become able to control them. Here one naturally recalls I.P. Pavlov, who held that “explanation is not the goal of science. The goal of science is power.” However, to rule this world, humans need knowledge. Although the problems of infectious pathology remain the same, we should take a fresh look at them and use this knowledge to preserve our own health. The material proposed here is a new look at old problems and at the opening prospects.