TOK Teacher
There’s a constant conflict between social scientists and the reporters who cover them. It’s derived from “a fundamental tension between the media’s desire for novelty and the scientific method,” as Sanjay Srivastava, who researches personality at the University of Oregon, tells me.
“Our minds, cobbled together over millenniums by that lazy craftsman, evolution, are riddled with bad mental habits. We routinely procrastinate, make poor investments, waste time, fumble important decisions, avoid problems and rationalize our unproductive behaviors, like checking Facebook instead of working. These ‘‘cognitive errors’’ ripple through our lives, CFAR argues, and underpin much of our modern malaise: Because we waste time on Facebook, we end up feeling harried; when we want to eat better or get to the gym more, we don’t, but then feel frustrated and guilty.”
Physicist Werner Heisenberg said, “When I meet God, I am going to ask him two questions: why relativity? And why turbulence? I really believe he will have an answer for the first.” As difficult as turbulence is to understand mathematically, we can use art to depict the way it looks. Natalya St. Clair illustrates how Van Gogh captured this deep mystery of movement, fluid and light in his work.
“A free society best functions with a free press (and free citizens) that seek to expose, understand, explain what’s really happening in its darkest corners. But for good reason, there isn’t a public interest defence for everything. For instance, journalists have asked me if weapons and assassinations are also available on the dark net. I’m sure they are, but I’m not willing to try to find out. There’s a strong public interest in knowing, I think, but I’m not prepared to risk it. ”
“Waterboarding is sometimes described as giving victims the sensation of drowning. Those who have been subjected to the technique say it’s no facsimile. Six years ago, the late Christopher Hitchens voluntarily subjected himself to waterboarding so that he might report what it’s like. “You feel that you are drowning because you are drowning”, hewrote, “or, rather, being drowned, albeit slowly and under controlled conditions and at the mercy (or otherwise) of those who are applying the pressure”. Mr Hitchens lasted only seconds before he ended the session: “Unable to determine whether I was breathing in or out, and flooded more with sheer panic than with mere water, I triggered the pre-arranged signal and felt the unbelievable relief of being pulled upright and having the soaking and stifling layers pulled off me”, he wrote. “Believe me, it’s torture”.”
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2016/02/republicans-and-waterboarding
“Poland has long sought to eliminate the misleading phrase from historical and newspaper accounts since it suggests the country, which was occupied by Nazi Germany during the second world war, was responsible for concentration camps on its territory.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/13/poland-plans-ban-phrase-polish-death-camps?CMP=twt_gu
This is an interesting article which highlights the relationship between theoretical and experimental physics. Theories are proposed that make certain predictions, as Einstein’s Theory of Relativity did, but the available experimental know how and technology of his day made some of his predictions impossible to confirm or deny. As time has gone on, certain predictions Einstein made have come to have experimental, observable evidence to support them. One of those predictions about the existence of gravitation waves, made over a hundred years ago, now has some evidence to support the prediction.
“More generally, it means that a century of innovation, testing, questioning and plain hard work after Einstein imagined it on paper, scientists have finally tapped into the deepest register of physical reality, where the weirdest and wildest implications of Einstein’s universe become manifest.”
More on this recent discovery along with a discussion of the value of such scientific discovery.
“Too often people ask, what’s the use of science like this, if it doesn’t produce faster cars or better toasters. But people rarely ask the same question about a Picasso painting or a Mozart symphony. Such pinnacles of human creativity change our perspective of our place in the universe. Science, like art, music and literature, has the capacity to amaze and excite, dazzle and bewilder. I would argue that it is that aspect of science — its cultural contribution, its humanity — that is perhaps its most important feature.”
Other predictions Einstein made that were later proven correct.
http://discovermagazine.com/2015/april/12-putting-relativity-to-the-test
And a great video from the Tonight Show explaining what all this is about.
“Belief in moral-watching, all-knowing, punitive gods might have helped human societies grow far beyond small, close-knit groups, a new study shows. Researchers who ran an experiment with a total of 591 people in eight different small-scale societies around the world found that people who believed their deity of choice knew about their misdeeds and would punish them were more likely to play fairly in a game where money was on the line.”
Great for examples for the human sciences.
“The Hidden Brain project helps curious people understand the world – and themselves. Using science and storytelling, Hidden Brain reveals the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, the biases that shape our choices, and the triggers that direct the course of our relationships.”
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