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Nachimir

The ASTOUNDING thread of science!

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I have no idea what any of you are talking about.

 

Science is cool and it's cool that people are into science.

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I have no idea what any of you are talking about.

Science is cool and it's cool that people are into science.

When I talk about the fetishization of science, I'm talking about i) enthusiastic interest in the results of science without any in the process, ii) an unshakeable belief in scientific progress as always positive and positivist, and iii) a willingness to put other human needs second to the advancement of science.

All these are deleterious beliefs, but more so when all present together. I don't remember who, but didn't someone here argue that working to end homelessness was pointless because there were no perfect solutions and the Singularity would fix everything one way or another when it rolled around? That's what I mean by the fetishization of science, in addition to the weird totems that Merus is talking about, like the entire internet celebrating the seventy-third day of the year as Pi Day.

I'm not saying a love of "science" isn't a good thing. It's just not always a good thing.

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Oh man Pi Day, I forgot about Pi Day. Pi Day is terrible.

 

What I find fascinating and valuable about science is that it's carved out a series of questions for which we assume there is an answer, and we should be able to make predictions based on that answer. There's an entire structure that does an end-run around our tendency as humans to take what we first believe and sanctify it, because as a scientist you're trained to question your assumptions and allow your precious ideas to fall based on whether or not they describe the world in an accurate way. It's not perfect by any means, but it's a system that has done us a great service.

 

I think that's why I get my hackles up when people sanctify science in the same way. Science isn't your friend. It will break your heart.

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I responded with a careful explanation of the development of social orders, sacral kingship, agnatic kinship, and chivalry as fundamentally Christian processes that are used in Game of Thrones without their most important antecedent.

 .

This sounds really interesting! Is it up somewhere I could look at it?

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Well this thread officially sucks. Ruined forever.

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I'd argue that portal is very aware that doing things because science is incredibly stupid

I think it's a bit tongue in cheek for people to take away the lesson that it's stupid, particular when Aperture invents some amazingly useful things. Really, it rather enforces the idea that you just throw shit at a wall and see what sticks and that's how you science.

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It's a video game, and on top of that a rather funny video game. I don't think anyone's looking at Portal and thinking, "Oh, that's how they do it!" I mean Portal 2 even has a long-running joke about stupid grade school science fair projects about potatoes.

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I wouldn't point to Portal as a bad example at all since it's so unserious, I was just saying I wouldn't point to it as a good example.

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I was just piping in in general, not specifically at you.

I think this whole issue with people casually loving science is pretty... silly. I don't have anything constructive to say I guess. ):

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You're right, Twig. This is the worst thread now. I'm sorry.

 

This sounds really interesting! Is it up somewhere I could look at it?

 

Eh, it's a private message on Facebook, I'm at work, and I've only got my phone right now at home. All my arguments were based off of stuff I just read recently for my dissertation, like Lansing's The Florentine Magnates: Lineage and Faction in a Medieval Commune, Bernhardt's Itinerant Kingship and Royal Monasteries in Early Medieval Germany, c.936-1075, and Skinner's Family Power in Southern Italy: The Duchy of Gaeta and its Neighbours, 850-1139. I'm replacing my graphics card when I get off work and after that's settled, I'll see about sending it your way.

 

Actually, doing a quick Google search, Canning's got a new survey on these exact issues that really looks quite competent, A History of Medieval Political Thought, 300-1450. We've got a copy in our stacks, I might go grab one and then defer to him if it's any good.

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So I promised that I'd bring something in here that's outstanding/astounding science that isn't physics. Here's my contribution: http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/v11/n6/full/nmeth.2935.html

 

Yeah, reading this is a bit dry, but the paper had my whole lab in a uproar recently. The take home message is that rodents get stressed when handled by men. However it's not just men being rough, it's their smell. Women wearing tshirts that men wore overnight (that must have smelled loverly) induced the same stress. Men who wore tshirts smelling of women didn't generate the response. 

The reason I find it fascinating is because a lot of the work done on animals is done by mixed teams. I know I've split my animal work with a woman and that could lead to some serious variability in the final data. 

 

Basically, biology is way more interesting than physics. 

 

 

Also, anyone who tries to memorise pi is insane. All you need to know is that it's right there on your calculator. 

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Basically, biology is way more interesting than physics. 

How dare you.

 

I like both equally!

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TODAY I LEARNED THAT MY WHOLE LIFE IS A LIE.

 

http://askabiologist.asu.edu/explore/true-bugs

 

"Bugs" are a specific subset of "insects". I've lived for 27 years knowing that "bug" was just a general term for icky crawly things. What am I supposed to do now?

 

ps this means other people post better and actual science news thanks

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I'm resurrecting this dead thread to continue my vendetta against I Fucking Love Science. This time, it's image-based!

 

CLQZRhtWIAAjf6S.jpg

 

Maybe I just should have posted it to the Comical Picture thread...

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That is indeed ridiculous. To even things out, here's

 Now, as a caveat, the video doesn't really show the fact that this thing only works on tracks, because it's using frozen superconductors which "lock" into place above a magnet. Still, though - Back to the Future 2 didn't lie to us.

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Then is that hoverboard (or the track to be specific) safe for say, people with medical pins or pacers?  Or am I a dummy and thinking of magnet in too basic of a sense?

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I'm pretty sure the magnetic field around the track and the board is quite small and tight, so there wouldn't be any danger there. I'm not positive though. I do wonder, though, how they refill the liquid nitrogen.

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Hmm thats cool. Its made by Lexus?? They made a skatepark entirely for this thing?? Are people supposed to go buy these? I don't quite get it. The whole campaign is so weird to me.. 

 

Oh wait I just rewatched it and a Lexus car drives under the guy doing the air. Now I get it. 

 

Huh 

My cynical side was just set ablaze.

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Yeah, I have no idea what this is supposed to mean as a commercial product and as an ad campaign it's kind of silly. I just think quantum levitation is cool to look at.

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That video does an amazing job of hiding the fact that it's on a track. On the one hand it's certainly cool and probably required some nontrivial technology to implement, but it feels so manipulative to me.

I think the clearest way to see through the deception is to realize that if the hoverboards actually worked the way they imply they do, they wouldn't be using this ad to sell Lexus (Lexi? Lexopuses?), they would be using it to sell hoverboards.

Maybe I'm being too hard on this, since advertising is manipulative basically by definition. How do other people feel about that?

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Since it's an advert exaggeration (hiding of rails to make the tech look more advanced than it is) that doesn't actually deal with the product in question (rather, the focus is on the maker), I'm like,

 

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

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I'm less bothered by that simply because Lexus links to several other videos that show how the thing works and the tracks are obvious there.

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