Old-age pensions are the most widespread social security programmes around the world. While many case studies have focused on the historical origins of old-age pensions, global and comparative studies are limited mainly due to missing data. To address this shortcoming, this article introduces the novel PENLEG dataset (Pension Legislation around the World, 1880–2010), which comprises data on: (1) the timing of the first pension introductions; (2) the pension design; (3) the mode of financing; (4) eligibility criteria; (5) benefit generosity and (6) coverage rates for all independent countries. Additionally, the article describes global pension patterns and highlights case evidence. It shows that economic development strategies, political incentives to bind citizens to the state, administrative reasons as well as colonial legacies and the Soviet model of social security have strongly affected the origins of old-age pensions.

Behavioural genetics is the study of the hereditary influence on behaviour, and can therefore be regarded as the intersection between behavioural sciences and genetics. As with most other fields of research it is difficult to exactly pinpoint when behavioural genetics started. In fact, one might say that the notion behavioural traits can be inherited may have appeared in human thought as early at 8000 BC, when the domestication of the dog began.

The scientific era of behavioural genetics is generally considered to start with Charles Darwin. In his famous book On the Origin of Species by Means of natural Selection, or the Preservation of favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, published in 1859 (and sold out the first day), he devoted an entire chapter on instinctive behavioural patterns. Some years later, in his book The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, he clearly stated that the difference between the mind of a human being and the mind of an animal ‘is certainly one of degree and not of kind’. Moreover he gave considerable thought that mental powers (and insanity) are heritable aspects.

The Nordic countries have traditionally cooperated in different legislative areas, although lately to a lesser extent. The experience with Nordic company law development illustrates particularly well the problems related to harmonisation. Although the difficulties were alleviated by the fact that the harmonisation programme took place on a small scale, with few countries involved and with large similarities in the cultural, social and political environment, many goals could not be achieved. The EU, with its current 28 Member States and their differences, in similar respects, has faced and will continue to face far greater problems. The Nordic countries, and knowledge of their history in this respect, can provide some guidelines for possible solutions regarding harmonisation.

Despite the cooperation in company law, the Scandinavian countries have adopted different regulatory strategies because of political and other factors. Significant differences can be seen in the extent and type of regulation used, but also between countries that use one law for regulating companies and those that use, or have used, separate laws for the regulation of private and public companies. Small company regulation is a highly topical issue in view of the Commission proposal for the SPE.

In conclusion, knowledge of the Nordic countries and their history in harmonisation and small company regulation can provide valuable information for possible solutions.

The early debate concerning the existence of several self-sustaining populations within the distributional limits of marine species centered on Atlantic herring in the northeastern Atlantic. Fr. Heincke convincingly resolved the controversy by extensive sampling of herring and sprat for the analysis of a large number of meristic and morphometric characters, and the development of new statistical methodology (including rudimentary multivariate statistics). He initially analysed the morphological variability at different parts of the life cycle of spring – and autumn – spawning herring aggregations off Kiel. This detailed study was accompanied by somewhat less-detailed sampling of herring and sprat from other locations in the Baltic Sea, North Sea, and Norwegian coastal waters. Heincke argued that a fundamental shift in both the species concept and the mechanism of speciation was required to account for the emerging empirical observations on marine fish. His observations and conclusions on the nature of geographic variability of fish species, even though revolutionary, were accepted rapidly. The influence of his studies on fisheries research, systematics, and evolutionary biology are evaluated. In addition, the contributions of J. Schmidt and J. Hjort to population thinking are briefly addressed. It is concluded that the studies by Heincke on herring populations, as well as having a major impact on subsequent developments in fisheries biology and management (in essence the definition of management units based on geographic populations or population complexes), also had an important impact on the biometricians (Weldon, Pearson) and the development of the evolutionary synthesis in the 1920s and 1930s (through Chetverikov, Dobzhansky, and Goldschmidt). Observations on geographic patterns in populations from terrestrial systems could be generalized to the oceans on the basis of Heincke's quantitative studies on herring and sprat (and the follow-up work on other fish species).

These early investigations on the very existence of marine populations by Heincke, Hjort and Schmidt are still pertinent to recruitment research and the studies underlying the definition of management units. An historical perspective may contribute to the resolution of present topical issues involving the regulation of populations.