08 JUL 2016 by ideonexus
Age-Related Decline in Strength as Decline Neurons
“What we have here is (a) failure to communicate,” said the Captain in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke. This line rings true today as it relates to the failure of physiologists to communicate the mechanisms of muscle strength to the geriatrics community, where the lack of muscle strength observed in older adults holds high clinical significance. Similarly, there is a relative under recognition in the scientific community for the potential role of the brain’s failure to communicate with ske... 1 
notes
notesAs the neurons controlling muscle fibers die off, those muscles grow weaker. Possibly exercising muscles might keep signals going to those neurons and keep them alive, staving off age-related cognitive decline.
09 NOV 2015 by ideonexus
Non-English Languages Lack the Words for Talking About Te...
By the early 19th century, just three—French, English, and German—accounted for the bulk of scientists’ communication and published research; by the second half of the 20th century, only English remained dominant as the U.S. strengthened its place in the world, and its influence in the global scientific community has continued to increase ever since.
As a consequence, the scientific vocabularies of many languages have failed to keep pace with new developments and discoveries. In many l...Folksonomies: culture technology
Folksonomies: culture technology
1 notes
notes24 FEB 2014 by ideonexus
MMO Players Use the Scientific Process
In MMOs, individuals collaborate to solve complex problems within the virtual world, such as figuring out what combination of individual skills, proficiencies, and equipment are necessary to conquer an in-game boss dragon in the example above. As part of developing efficient and effective solutions, players are customarily expected to research various game strategies and tactics by consulting on- and offline manuals, databases, and discussions, as well as by using such knowledge as the basis ... 1 notes
notesThey hypothesize, collaborate, experiment and test their ideas in the virtual worlds to learn how they work.
24 FEB 2014 by ideonexus
The Problem of Scientific Literacy
In 1905, at a gathering of the world’s greatest minds in the physical sciences, Henri Poincare´ reflected on the rapid progress of scientific inquiry and the means through which the scientific community at the turn of the twentieth century and beyond would refine our understanding of the world. In his historical address, Poincare´ warned against the seduction of reducing science to a domain of seeming facts, stating, "Science is built up of facts, as a house is built of stones; but an acc...Folksonomies: education scientific literacy
Folksonomies: education scientific literacy
1 notes
notesWe are failing students by treating science as a collection of facts rather than a method of thought.
22 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Science is Culture, Not Just Methods
The fruitful pursuit of scientific truth and its application, once discovered, is not just a matter of talented individuals well trained in foreign universities and supplied with the equipment they desire. These are very important, but the cultivation of science is a collective undertaking [written as 'understanding'! and success in it depends on an appropriate social structurc. This social structure is the scientific community and its specialised institutions. 1 notes
notesThe research and application are important, but the communal nature of discovery and understanding are crucial.
19 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Specialization is Differentiation
The proliferation of subcults is most evident in the world of work. Many subcults spring up
around occupational specialties. Thus, as the society moves toward greater specialization, it
generates more and more subcultural variety.
The scientific community, for example, is splitting into finer and finer fragments. It is
criss-crossed with formal organizations and associations whose specialized journals,
conferences and meetings are rapidly multiplying in number. But these "open" distinctions
... 1 notes
notesToffler explores the phenomenon of specialization in the sciences, producing subcults and subsubcults.
13 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Bayes' Theorem Means Scientific Consensus Should Converge
One property of Bayes’s theorem, in fact, is that our beliefs should converge toward one another—and toward the truth—as we are presented with more evidence over time. In figure 8-8, I’ve worked out an example wherein three investors are trying to determine whether they are in a bull market or a bear market. They start out with very different beliefs about this—one of them is optimistic, and believes there’s a 90 percent chance of a bull market from the outset, while another one i... 1 notes
notesAs more and more tests are carried out, scientific opinions should converge around the truth.
24 MAR 2013 by ideonexus
Television is Not a Passive Medium
Ever since viewing screens entered the home, many observers have worried that they put our brains into a stupor. An early strain of research claimed that when we watch television, our brains mostly exhibit slow alpha waves—indicating a low level of arousal, similar to when we are daydreaming. These findings have been largely discarded by the scientific community, but the myth persists that watching television is the mental equivalent of, as one Web site put it, “staring at a blank wall....Folksonomies: parenting television
Folksonomies: parenting television
1 notes
notesOur brains enter a state similar to that of reading a book when watching TV. Children are able to make sense of TV and are actively engaged with it.
13 APR 2012 by ideonexus
What It Means to be a Scientist
In reality, scientists are just people like you and me. Most of us don't wear lab coats (I don't) or work with bubbling beakers or sparking van de Graf generators (unless they are chemists or physicists who actually work with that equipment). Most scientists are not geniuses either. It is true that, on average, scientists tend to be better educated than the typical person on the street, but that education is a necessity to learn all the information that allows a scientist to make discoveries....Folksonomies: scientific virtues scientific method
Folksonomies: scientific virtues scientific method
1 It's not about how they dress or their education, but their adherence to the scientific method.
03 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
How Peer Review Hurts Science
In my considered opinion the peer review system, in which proposals rather than proposers are reviewed, is the greatest disaster visited upon the scientific community in this century. No group of peers would have approved my building the 72-inch bubble chamber. Even Ernest Lawrence told me he thought I was making a big mistake. He supported me because he knew my track record was good. I believe that U.S. science could recover from the stultifying effects of decades of misguided peer reviewing...Folksonomies: peer review
Folksonomies: peer review
An interesting argument that the peer review process hurts science because ideas are evaluated by themselves, while the track record of the scientist should be considered.
