03 MAR 2014 by ideonexus
Why Carl Sagan Could Explain Things So Well
The adult Sagan always sounded like the smartest person in the room, but in the papers we encounter this interesting note in a 1981 file, right after “Cosmos” hit it big: “I think I’m able to explain things because understanding wasn’t entirely easy for me. Some things that the most brilliant students were able to see instantly I had to work to understand. I can remember what I had to do to figure it out. The very brilliant ones figure it out so fast they never see the mechanics of ...Folksonomies: understanding explanation
Folksonomies: understanding explanation
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notesBecause understanding did not come easy for him.
06 JAN 2013 by ideonexus
There's No Such Thing as a "One-Handed Scientist"
The rub, of course, is that everybody else thinks that science should provide the answers. Remember the Concorde? Back in the early 1970s, Congress was debating supersonic transport, trying to decide whether such aircraft would represent a danger when flown over the United States. Would their big engines flying high in the sky cut a hole in the ozone and let in solar radiation? Would the plane make sonic booms as it flew over people’s neighborhoods? And so on.
Senator Edmund Muskie (D-ME) ... 1 notes
notesScientists must consider all the evidence and factor nuance into their positions. This is illustrated with an interesting historical anecdote about a Congressional review concerning the safety of the Concord jet.
28 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Neuroxing
Have you tried neuroxing papers? It's a very easy and cheap process. You hold the page in front of your eyes and you let it go through there into the brain. It's much better than xeroxing. 1 notes
notesA quote from Sydney Brenner. Better than xeroxing because you copy the paper into your brain.
02 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Humphry Davy Accepts and Award from France While England ...
Some people say I ought not to accept this prize; and there have been foolish paragraphs in the papers to that effect; but if the two countries or governments are at war, the men of science are not. That would, indeed, be a civil war of the worst description: we should rather, through the instrumentality of men of science, soften the asperities of national hostility. 1 notes
notesHe says that while their countries may be at war, their men of science are not.
20 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Taxonomies are Not Arbitrary, but Factual
Mayr lived exactly 100 years, producing a stream of books and papers
up to the day of his death. Among these was his 1963 classic, Animal
Species and Evolution, the very book that made me want to study evolution.
In it Mayr recounted a striking fact. When he totaled up the names
that the natives of New Guinea’s Arfak Mountains applied to local birds,
he found that they recognized 136 different types. Western zoologists,
using traditional methods of taxonomy, recognized 137 species. In other... 1 notes
notesExample of the natives of an island having nearly the same number of classifications of birds as the taxonomists who studies the species.
10 AUG 2011 by ideonexus
Watson's Perception of Pauling's Rhetorical Flare in His ...
By the time I was back to Copenhagen, the journal containing Linus' article had arrived from the States. I quickly read it and immediately reread it. Most of the language was above me, and so I could only get a general impression of his argument. I had no way of judging whether it made sense. The only thing I was sure of was that it was written with style. A few days later the next issue of the journal arrived, this time containing seven more Pauling articles. Again the language was dazzling ... 1 notes
notesWatson makes a clever and critical note about Pauling's use of style over substance in his published papers.
