Skip to main content

Slow science/publishing and educational system

By
Guys, I don't know if you already know about the ''Slow science movement'' or not, well this is a wiki definition for it:
Slow science is part of the broader slow movement. It is based on the belief that science should be a slow, steady, methodical process, and that scientists should not be expected to provide "quick fixes" to society's problems. Slow science supports curiosity-driven scientific research and opposes performance targets.

 I'm personally interested in it if you remember Gabriel once we had a discussion on the waste of energy and resources to produce junk science and the fact that scientists are losing balance on looking into science. 
Sometimes people do not know why they publish and for the sake of what?! it's become a tradition or kinda religion. 
I'm most agreed with the directed scientific activities, slowly going ahead and touching the problem, whenever you can swallow the problem without having a glass of water after it and it does not block in your lung, then you may find nice and brilliant ways to solve it. 
I start from myself, I didn't have any idea what is a vortex beam but when I started my course I launched a project to produce it!! 
In Hayes's book of electron microscopy, there is a famous picture of a Rhinosaurus and I just refer to it:

 ‘‘when we see this image we laugh’’ (because we understand its true nature in 3D) ‘‘but when we see equivalent (but more misleading) images in the TEM, we publish!’’
and here are two links of many about slow science if anyone interested: 

 http://slow-science.org/
http://www.nature.com/news/long-term-research-slow-science-1.12623

Comments

  1. Gabriel J. Gil PérezMarch 14, 2017 at 3:58 PM

    I'm totally with you on this enterprise of doing slow-science, Erfan. I would like to take a deeper look to the movement through the webpages you posted. The manifesto is great!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gabriel J. Gil PérezMarch 14, 2017 at 4:13 PM

    I have found the following TEDx on the slow science: https://youtu.be/bXGFEdxzzco

    I haven't seen it yet, though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gabriel J. Gil PérezMarch 15, 2017 at 12:32 AM

      I confirm now, the conference is quite nice at explaining the basics of the movement. The talk takes place in Padova, by the way.

      Delete
    2. UnknownMarch 15, 2017 at 2:21 AM

      I'm gonna watch it now :) TED always is nice

      Delete
  3. CláudiaMarch 15, 2017 at 1:13 AM

    To tell you the truth, I think that it is somehow inevitable that science is done like this do to the increasing number of people that are participating in the scientific enterprise.

    https://thewinnower.com/papers/the-rising-trend-in-authorship

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownMarch 15, 2017 at 2:39 AM

      Yes millions of researchers are involved nowadays for the sience, but how many of them do science? some can not do anything but research, some has got the inertia on it and can't change their direction, some people love it, some were jobless so they start a PhD (at least is paied) etc...so the quality isn't in the level that should be. most of the people they play with the data of the basebone articles, they change some puntuations and publish it.
      as example look at the titles of article they seem like these:
      *I have bought 2 apples with and an orange
      * I've got 3 apples and two oranges
      * we've got one killo of both!
      * ah yes babe, we bought a camion of oranges because we proofed they are more applicable
      * why neither apples nor oranges are good and we should immigrate to Cucumbers?
      * a mix of apple and orange juice passing close to one killo of cucumbers
      .
      .
      .
      well if I continue I can write such titles till tomorrow, so it can remain also as an open stupid discussion like massimo bottura for our future meetings.

      Delete
    2. UnknownMarch 15, 2017 at 2:48 AM

      It doesn't mean that I am not one of those people...I am a member of this system..and I do not claim that just papers with influence on science should be published. I mean there are many useless publications that even without them we will be ok.

      Delete
    3. Gabriel J. Gil PérezMarch 15, 2017 at 7:05 AM

      Hahaha! The titles are very funny, but it is actually like that. And indeed, even though we want to participate in this way of doing science, it would require the support of very top level scientist (e.g., some Nobel prize recipent) to re-direct the course of scientific inquiry to other more slow-paced -but also more fundamental- issues. Not by stimulating any change in the actual science subjects, but by changing the conditions in which science as a human activity is carried out these days, by suggesting a less fancy figure of merit for sensing the quality of scientific publications, and by questioning the need of a quota of articles in a CV to estimate the activity of any scientist. Federico and I talk about it this morning, this comment is the result of our joined opinions. By the way, Federico, are you there...?

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Of Beauty and Consolation

By
Van de Schoonheid en de Troost or Of Beauty and Consolation is Dutch TV program hosted by Wim Kayzer and broadcasted in 2000. There are several reasons for me to recomend this tv series. First of all I like the title very much. The title is in itself consoling, says that there is somewhere or somehow the possibility of consolation (that for some reason I feel the need). The second reason is the music of the beginning of each episode. Then, of course, the interviews themselves, since they are long enough and free enough to allow these brilliant people to show a little bit of their work, of their personality, of their idiosyncrasies. And probably the nicest thing of the series is the diversity of the people interviewed, scientists, writers, philosophers, painters, some incredibly shy, some the opposite, some believe in ghosts, most don't, all in all an interesting catalog of the human species. The tv series ends with a show in which they gather many of the guests to discuss the...
2 comments
Read more

Omar Khayyam; an outstanding intellectual

By
Omar Khayyam was a Persian mathematician, philosopher, poet and astronomer born in 1048 in Nishapur (modern day Iran). He obtained his early education from a scholar named Sheikh Mohammad Mansuri and later from one of the most renowned scholars of khorasan province. Mathematical Works Khayyam’s most famous works include his highly influential mathematical treatise called ‘Treatise on Demonstration of Problems of Algebra’ which he completed in 1070. This treatise highlighted the basic algebraic principles that were ultimately shifted to Europe. He laid the foundation of the Pascal’s triangle with his work on triangular array of binomial coefficients. In 1077 another major work was written by Khayyam namely ‘Sharh ma ashkala min musadarat kitab Uqlidis’ meaning ‘Explanations of the Difficulties in the Postulates of Euclid ’. It was published in English as “On the Difficulties of Euclid’s Definitions. In this book he contributed to non-euclidean geometry even though this was no...
2 comments
Read more