All posts by admin

Allergy, Software

Data security nightmare

A Mozilla Foundation analysis

The car brands we researched are terrible at privacy and security Why are cars we researched so bad at privacy? And how did they fall so far below our standards? Let us count the ways […] We reviewed 25 car brands in our research and we handed out 25 “dings” for how those companies collect and use data and personal information. That’s right: every car brand we looked at collects more personal data than necessary and uses that information for a reason other than to operate your vehicle and manage their relationship with you.

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 07.11.2025
Joke

The dark factor

It seems that my dark factor is below average…

https://www.darkfactor.org defines the score as “the general tendency to maximize one’s individual utility — disregarding, accepting, or malevolently provoking disutility for others —, accompanied by beliefs that serve as justifications.”

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 07.11.2025
Philosophy

Science is great but scientists are still people

Time to read again the famous Kornberg article

In parlous times, some truths need to be remembered and repeated. When science is under attack from many quarters, we need to be reminded of the distinctions between the extraordinary power of science and the fallibility of those who practice it. We are aware of prodigious feats in the arts, law, and religion that endure for ages. Yet none of these disciplines offer individuals, as science does, the opportunity to contribute to a progressive understanding of nature. In persuading the public to support scientists in their attempts to achieve a more rational and effective understand-ing of ourselves and of the world about us, we must be clear in distinguishing the uniqueness of science as a practice from the human qualities of its practitioners.

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 07.11.2025
Philosophy

FOGD

Die DFG hat etwas Neues (FAZ)

„FOGD“, also „Forschungsorientierte Gleichstellungs- und Diversitätsstandards“. Man ist auf den regenbogenbunten Zug der Diversity aufgesprungen. Wir zitieren, in Bezug auf FOGD, von den Internetseiten der DFG: „In den Blick zu nehmen sind […] Diversitätsdimensionen, wie Geschlecht und geschlechtliche Identität, sexuelle Orientierung, Alter, ethnische Herkunft und Nationalität, soziale Herkunft (beispielsweise unter folgenden Aspekten: ökonomische Situation, Herkunft aus nicht-akademischer Familie, Migrationsgeschichte), Religion und Weltanschauung, Behinderung oder chronische/langwierige Erkrankung. Auch das Zusammenkommen mehrerer Unterschiedsdimensionen in einer Person (Intersektionalität und seine Bedeutung) sollte berücksichtigt werden.“

Nun sind also nach Saad , Jäger und Florin, auch Pfeilschifter und Wicht an dem Thema angelangt

Das Diversitätsmanagement schlägt um in eine neue Totalität, nämlich den hobbesschen bellum omnium contra omnes, den Kampf um das jeweils schlagkräftigste (Opfer-)Narrativ und um die Macht über die Konstruktion der dazugehörigen Sachverhalte

wobei die Inhalte sekundär sind.

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 07.11.2025
Genetics, Philosophy

I never read the introduction of an article

I never read the introduction of an article, seldom the discussion section, but I always scan the methods and sometimes (if the methods warrant it) also the tables and figures. It seems that I am not alone here.

The survey indicated that individuals at different career stages valued different sections of scientific papers, and skill in reading the results section develops slowly over the course of an academic career.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0189753

So why do we still write papers with an introduction that is longer than 1 sentence?

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 07.11.2025
Philosophy

Way too many meta-analyses

It is no secret – there are way too many meta-analyses while  original research is missing [blog, paper, paper, paper, paper,  journal, journal). Books are about the method are also abundant. Sure, armchair research can be done without getting dirty.

Narrative reviews are much less appreciated nowadays although most of the current “systematic reviews” are basically useless as they are frequently written by “new kids on the block” and not by experienced scientists.

If the  current pace continues, we will soon have more reviews than original studies… As another author put it forward it is a “bloated mushroom of evidence”.

 

CC-BY-NC Science Surf accessed 07.11.2025