25 JUL 2013 by ideonexus

 Science and Everyday Life Cannot be Separated

You frequently state, and in your letter you imply, that I have developed a completely one-sided outlook and look at everything in terms of science. Obviously my method of thought and reasoning is influenced by a scientific training – if that were not so my scientific training will have been a waste and a failure. But you look at science (or at least talk of it) as some sort of demoralizing invention of man, something apart from real life, and which must be cautiously guarded and kept separat...
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A good passage from Rosalind Franklin covering science and spirituality.

26 APR 2012 by ideonexus

 Science Cannot have Creeds

Religious creeds are a great obstacle to any full sympathy between the outlook of the scientist and the outlook which religion is so often supposed to require ... The spirit of seeking which animates us refuses to regard any kind of creed as its goal. It would be a shock to come across a university where it was the practice of the students to recite adherence to Newton's laws of motion, to Maxwell's equations and to the electromagnetic theory of light. We should not deplore it the less if our...
Folksonomies: science religion
Folksonomies: science religion
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We should not force students to blindly recite laws and theorems because that would reduce it to religion.

28 MAY 2011 by ideonexus

 Science is Self-Isolating

Still, it is undeniable that the troubling disconnect between the i scientific community and society stems partly from the nature of scientific training today, and from scientific culture generally. ). some ways science has become self-isolating. The habits of specialization that have ensured so many research successes have also made it harder to connect outside the laboratory and the ivory tower. As a result, the scientific community simultaneously generates ever more valuable knowledge and ...
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The nature of science is quiet isolation; therefore, its memes are less capable of venturing into other minds.

30 MAR 2011 by ideonexus

 CITOKATE

This is, in fact the critical discovery of science. That we often perceive what we expect or want to perceive, often at variance with what is objectively true. The Cro Magnon genius of trumping objective evidence with subjective belief. The original and only true form of magic.How has science dealt with this quandary? By encouraging open enquiry and vigorous reciprocal accountability. And by enticing younger researchers to take risks and challenge portions of the edifice that may be weak, wit...
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An acronym that expresses an important scientific principle: "Criticism Is The Only Known Antidote To Error"