One of my favorite TED Talks.
“What does real scientific work look like? As neuroscientist Stuart Firestein jokes: It looks a lot less like the scientific method and a lot more like “farting around … in the dark.” In this witty talk, Firestein gets to the heart of science as it is really practiced and suggests that we should value what we don’t know — or “high-quality ignorance” — just as much as what we know.”
Interesting discussion on the definitions of science and the distinctions between what we would consider natural sciences and the human sciences.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/11/30/anthroscience
What is the value of eyewitness testimony? What are its limitations?
“We humans seem to be born with a number line in our head. But a May 30 study in Science suggests it may look less like an evenly segmented ruler and more like a logarithmic slide rule on which the distance between two numbers represents their ratio (when divided) rather than their difference (when subtracted).”
“Whether you love ’em or hate ’em, chances are you rely on numbers every day of your life. Where do they come from, and what do they really do for us? This hour: stories of how numbers confuse us, connect us, and even reveal secrets about us.”
Interesting research into whether making one basketball shot makes you any more likely to hit your next one. The first two links summarize the fallacy and the third one questions it. Interesting way of using math to help us know and understand something too large to keep track of or understand simply by our memory.
How does math help us understand the world around us? How do we reconcile mathematical knowledge that contradicts our intuitive knowledge?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-markman-phd/having-a-hot-hand-increas_b_3721296.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot-hand_fallacy
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304071004579409071015745370
A nice collection of biases in our judgment that are illusions that lead us to false conclusions and false knowledge.
http://www.businessinsider.com/behavioral-biases-2012-12#clustering-illusion-8
“Our brains are terrible at assessing modern risks. Here’s how to think straight about dangers in your midst.”
https://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200712/10-ways-we-get-the-odds-wrong
Here is a handout I made based on this article:
Our culture has a base 10 system and uses digits and place holders. We have been exposed to this system our whole lives and find it hard to imagine any other way. The truth is that our system is based on choices we have made rather than by some inherent quality of numbers or math. Different cultures have invented math and numbers in different ways. Take a look at the link below to get a sense of the Mayan system which was a base 20 system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_numerals
Here is a handout I made based on this topic:
Interesting case of a tribe whose language doesn’t have any numbers past four. What effect would this have? Why would a language evolve this way?
“Two recent studies of Amazonian Indians reported in the journal Science, take a crucially different view. These studies, far from maintaining that number words are convenient, propose they are actually necessary.”
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2004/oct/21/research.highereducation1
Here is a handout I made based on this topic:
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