The importance of stupidity in scientific research. Sometimes fully realizing the infinite scope of our stupidity is the most liberating thing. This is a cool essay about the importance of productive stupidity.
Tag Archives: research
Replication studies: Bad copy. Many published experiments end up not entirely reproducible. Journals and academic publications can skew toward the eye-catching and implausible. This chart was particularly fascinating.
Locked in the Ivory Tower: Why JSTOR Imprisons Academic Research. The proscriptive part of the article is shallow, but the process of how an article gets published is fascinating. If you’re looking for an area of higher education ripe for disruption I’m not sure it gets much better than this.
Innovation Starvation. We’re struggling to get big stuff done in the world and Neal Stephenson has some ideas as to why that may be. Interesting thoughts as to what context allows a society to take risks and strive to accomplish the difficult.
Disrupting College
It’s taken a while but I got around to reading the Center for American Progress report, Disrupting College. It was a really fascinating read, highly recommend it. One quote particularly stood out. While describing the disruption that occurred in the computer industry the authors characterize the… Continue reading →
Openness, Socialism, and Capitalism. Open knowledge in education is far from a socialist idea. Instead, it fits well with the root ideals behind capitalism. If you are the one paying for research and innovation then you darn well ought to be able to share in the products that are created. Buy one get one.
Science Proves You’re Stupid. Terrific article about the human brain. Wonderful little nuggets like “The feeling of knowing is just that, a sensation.”
Tracking a whale via Flickr
Interesting story from the Boston Globe about a researcher who stumbled across a record whale migration via Flickr. Turns out the whale traveled more than 6,000 miles between photographs. Found via the Atlantic’s Science and Technology blog.