Richard Feynman has a quirky voice, adeptly captured by this book. I hope that someday I’ll have a quarter as many good stories as he seems to have. One thing that I truly admire about him is that he is completely open and is always up for a new experience or adventure. My favorite isRead More
Tag: Science
What’s the role of “ignorance” in science?
Stuart Firestein was the guest speaker at this month’s Secret Science Club. His area of research is neuroscience and the olfactory system, but at this talk he discussed his ideas on ignorance and how it is important for driving scientific research. Ignorance, according to Firestein, is what drives science because discoveries do not happen asRead More
The controversy over H5N1 research
Prominent researchers gathered on Feb. 2nd, 2012 for a panel discussion, sponsored by the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), to discuss the moratorium on H5N1 research. Should researchers publish their studies? Would it be a threat to security if the wrong people were able to use their findings? As much as academia may thinkRead More
The non-PhD route
What does it mean, to be a PhD? It’s different in different places, of course. There have been several articles published on this topic, for me most notably in Nature and the Economist. The idea of doing some research that I’m extremely interested in is still very appealing to me. It’s just that…I don’t wantRead More
Flourescent coral makes for really cool living scientific art
If I were ever to have a video as a desktop background, one of these would probably be it! (But I probably never would because it would use up too much electricity to keep it going.) Take a look: ‘Preener’ from MORPHOLOGIC on Vimeo. ‘Corynactis viridis’ from MORPHOLOGIC on Vimeo. These videos are from Morphologic,Read More
What is the Study of Science and Religion?
Image credit: Flickr user Colin Purrington (This image created by Axis of Evo is not exactly what this entry is about, but it is an interesting use of a scientific technique to map out religions of the world.) I wasn’t so sure what to expect when I went to the first lecture of the EarthRead More