John Scales Avery

Avery, Scales John

Avery, Scales John

Fellow, World Academy of Art & Science

Job Title: 

Fellow, World Academy of Art & Science

John Scales Avery was born in 1933 in Lebanon, where his father was Professor of Anatomy at the American University of Beirut. He received his training in theoretical physics and theoretical chemistry at M.I.T., the University of Chicago and the University of London. He is the author of numerous books and articles, both on scientific topics and on broader social questions. In 1969 he founded the Journal of Bioenergetics and Biomembranes, and he served as its Managing Editor until 1980. He also served as Technical Advisor to the World Health Organization between 1988 and 1997, and as Chairman of the Danish National Group of Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs between 1990 and the present.

ARTICLES BY THIS AUTHOR

The Future of International Law
Get Full Text in PDF With law shall our land be built up, but with lawlessness laid waste.” – Njal’s Saga, Iceland, c 1270. Abstract After the invention of agriculture, roughly 10,000 years ago, humans began to live in progressively larger groups, which were sometimes multi-ethnic. In order to make towns, cities and finally nations function without excessive injustice and violence, both ethical and legal systems were needed. Today, in an era of global economic interdependence...
Remember your Humanity
Get Full Text in PDF Abstract 2015 marks the 60th anniversary of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto. This document resulted from the great concern of both scientists and the general public caused by the explosion of a 15 megaton fission-fusion-fission bomb at Bikini Atoll. Fallout from the explosion caused death and serious illness of crew members on a Japanese fishing boat 130 kilometers distant from Bikini. Even today, the Bikini tests continue to cause cancer and birth defects on the equally-...
Institutional and Cultural Inertia
Get Full Text in PDF Abstract Today we are faced with multiple interrelated crises, for example the threat of catastrophic climate change or equally catastrophic thermonuclear war, and the threat of widespread famine. These threats to human existence and to the biosphere demand a prompt and rational response; but because of institutional and cultural inertia, we are failing to take the steps that are necessary to avoid disaster. 1. The Scope of the Crisis Is the threat of catastrophic climate...
The Urgent Need for Renewable Energy
Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The transition to 100% renewable energy must take place within about a century because fossil fuels will become too rare and expensive to burn. But scientists warn that if the transition does not happen much faster than that, there is a danger that we may reach a tipping point beyond which feedback loops could take over and produce a catastrophic increase in global temperature. 1. Geological Extinction Events and Runaway Climate Change The melting of Arctic sea ice...
The Evolution of Cooperation
Get Full Text in PDF Abstract The success of humans as a species is due to our genius for cooperation. Cultural evolution, a new form of evolution, in which information is passed between generations in the form of linguistic symbols rather than genetically, has been the key to human success. Cultural evolution depends on the sharing of knowledge, and humans have developed remarkable linguistic and cooperative abilities. At the same time, human nature also has a darker side inherited from our...