Vol 87, No 2 (2017)

The significance of the genetic resources of plants, animals, poultry, and useful and harmful microorganisms can hardly be overestimated. Living organisms, carrying a specific set of genes of their own, guarantee life on the Earth. In Russia, the genetic resources of grains, fodder, fruit, and vegetable crops; cattle; sheep; horses; and poultry have been collected for many hundred years due to monastery lands, estates of progressive landowners, exchange of animals between governorates, and imports of cattle and horses. Gradually, the best samples were concentrated in scientific organizations and experimental enterprises and were used to obtain high indicators of productivity.

As a result of recent basic research by teams of research institutions of the Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations (FASO Russia) in coordination with institutes of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and regional pedigree enterprises, new breeding forms in cattle raising, hog farming, sheep farming, horse breeding, fishery, and poultry farming have been created and assimilated. Traditional breeds that ensure import substitution of genetic resources of animals necessary to intensify meat and dairy production have been improved. In recent decades, more than 40 new and improved breeding forms of animals have been created, providing for about two-thirds of the total gain of livestock products per year.

Activity within the food and manufacturing industries is based on factors that affect the state of the food market and improve the quality of life. A subject of inquiry for scientists who work in this sphere is systems of transforming plant and animal raw materials into foods. In the course of production, the nutrition and energy value of foods, their safety for humans and the environment, and consumer properties are controlled. The success of studies is determined by the multidisciplinary approach, perfectly interfacing different scientific trends—medicine, biology, physics, chemistry, agriculture, etc.

The role of basic science in qualitative improvement of the national defense potential is considered. The exceptional strategic importance of the results obtained during basic research for military security and the necessity to expand their practical application for these purposes are shown. The authors propose to increase the efficiency of the organizational mechanism of control of defense-oriented basic research and discuss possible consequences of the reorganization of the Russian Academy of Sciences in terms of Russia’s defense potential.

Many new developments in laser medical equipment, as well as laser diagnostic technologies and treatment, are based on the results of basic research conducted at the Prokhorov Institute of General Physics, RAS. The introduction of these results into the clinical practice of Russian health care and their use in ophthalmology, neurosurgery, urology, cosmetology, dermatology, photodynamic therapy, autofluorescence and photodynamic diagnostics, and minimally invasive diagnostics of exhaled air are considered.

The latest results of anthropological studies of bone remains from the earliest Upper Paleolithic burial discovered on Russian territory, the Markina Gora site (Kostenki 14), are described. Multivariate statistical methods and parallel studies of the buried skull structure and dentition established that their morphological characteristics undoubtedly belonged to the Caucasian complex. In combination with paleogenetic data, the findings contradict the earlier hypothesis of the southern origin of the Kostenki 14 individual and its similarity to the population of the Australo-Melanesian region.

The authors discuss possible causes of the variable polyrhythmicity of processes in nature and society, particularly in geophysics. It may be caused by desynchronization or resynchronization of processes that manifest themselves as a result of a shock impact on the geological environment, for example, in the form of an earthquake. Medical parameters are considered for which de- and resynchronization of rhythmic processes in the human organism are known, as well as geophysical processes, including underground noise of tidal origin and the seismicity of the Moon.

A brief history of reserve management and study in Russia is presented; the background of modern ideas of reserves that established various approaches to the formation of a network of specially protected natural territories is analyzed. The author holds to the classical ideas of reserves, which were formulated by domestic scientists V.V. Dokuchaev, I.P. Borodin, G.A. Kozhevnikov, and V.P. and A.P. Semenov-Tyan-Shanskii, and insists on the necessity to retain their status as “inviolable territories of virgin nature taken under protection for ever and ever.” This article is dedicated to the Year of Specially Protected Natural Territories of Russia (2017), announced by a decree of the Russian President. The author calls for a moratorium on the withdrawal of conservation territories for economic and recreational and tourist purposes.

The question about the influence of unrealized options of the past on the present is considered. In this context, the notion counterfactual challenge of the past is formulated. By the example of two stably reproduced alternative scenarios (the surrender of Leningrad in the years of the Great Patriotic War and the autonomous existence of “the Island of Crimea” in 1920–1970), the author shows the necessity to respond to such challenges using scientific assessments and public consultation on the propriety of one scenario or another. Long-term negative consequences of ignoring such challenges and methods to neutralize them are shown.

The problem of the effectiveness of external sanctions as an instrument of pressure on three states that have adhered to but have abandoned the course of self-reliance is considered. The constructive base of this study is the idea of a conservative project that finds its imperative in reindustrialization. It is shown that the experience of new Russia has yielded the worst results, while China has demonstrated the best outcomes. Iran falls in between.