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How the Search for Beauty Drives Scientific Enquiry
We surveyed thousands of scientists in four countries and learned just how important beauty is to them.
Post-empirical Science is an Oxymoron, and It is Dangerous - Jim Baggott | Aeon Essays
Post-empirical Science is an Oxymoron, and It is Dangerous - Jim Baggott | Aeon Essays
Theoretical physicists who say the multiverse exists set a dangerous precedent: science based on zero empirical evidence.
The Blind Spot of Science is the Neglect of Lived Experience - Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser & Evan Thompson | Aeon Essays
Scholarly Publishing Is Broken. Here’s How to Fix It
Imagine using version control to track the process of research in real time. Peer review becomes a community-governed process, where the quality of engagement becomes the hallmark of individual reputations. All research outputs can be published and credited with not an 'impact factor' in sight.
Why Schools Should Not Teach General Critical-Thinking Skills
Students need to be given real and significant things from the world to think with and about if teachers want to influence how they do that thinking.
Against Metrics: How Measuring Performance by Numbers Backfires
Contrary to commonsense belief, attempts to measure productivity through performance metrics discourage initiative, innovation and risk-taking. The entrepreneurial element of human nature is stifled by metric fixation.
Why Hiring the ‘Best’ People Produces the Least Creative Results
If you want to explore things you haven’t explored, having people who look just like you and think just like you is not the best way. We must see the forest, thinks Scott Page collegiate professor of complex systems, and author of the book book "The Diversity Bonus".
Is 'Grassroots' Citizen Science a Front for Big Business?
It might style itself as a grassroots movement but citizen science is little more than a cheap land-grab by big business.
Science Is Broken
Perverse incentives and the misuse of quantitative metrics have undermined the integrity of scientific research.
Does Science Need Mavericks or Are They Part of the Problem?
Staid and conformist, science risks losing its creative spark. Does it need more mavericks, or are they part of the problem?
How a Polymath Transformed Our Understanding of Information
It took a polymath to pin down the true nature of ‘information’. His answer was both a revelation and a return.
Science Funding Is a Gamble So Let's Give out Money by Lottery
Would it be better to do away with the search for excellence, and to fund science by lottery?
Most of the Time, Innovators Don't Move Fast and Break Things
If we abandon the cult of the Great White Innovator, we will understand the history of technology in a much deeper way.
How economists rode maths to become our era’s astrologers
By fetishising mathematical models, economists turned economics into a highly paid pseudoscience