I am a blogging researcher: Motivations for blogging in a scholarly context
Sara Kjellberg
The number of scholarly blogs on the Web is increasing. In this article, a group of researchers are asked to describe the functions that their blogs serve for them as researchers. The results show that their blogging is motivated by the possibility to share knowledge, that the blog aids creativity, and that it provides a feeling of being connected in their work as researchers. Continue reading Blogs aids creativity
Tag Archives: science
Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst
While science does not produce such big waves at the moment, I spent some time last week at ourlocal surf spot here in Munich while sorting out this weekend about 2,000 shots. For those of you, who have never heard about the Eisbach here is the video trailer of the new movie Continue reading Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst
Coordinates of truth and hypothesis-generating research
An interesting piece published in Science finds that
The accuracy and predictability of a hypothesis depend on the validity of the inputs used to generate and test it. Because problems are typically complex and information regarding their solution is limited, the solution is more likely to be found if the information base is greater. This rationale is a driving force behind systems biology, which attempts to define biological complexity from a systemic perspective using information technology … High-profile journals publish systems biology studies, including the human genome sequence, but most papers focus on hypothesis-driven investigations.
The most remarkable point here is the fact that there are still more people who believe in an underlying truth. This reminds me to the philosopher Continue reading Coordinates of truth and hypothesis-generating research
Two new bioinformatics services
The first one is Anno-J, an excellent way to show your own annotation track that has some benefits compared to Ensembl or the Genome Browser.
The second one Continue reading Two new bioinformatics services
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence
I have just discovered that the book of Helmut Kiene”Komplementäre Methodenlehre der klinischen Forschung. Cognition-based Medicine. Berlin – Heidelberg – New York: Springer; 2001, 193 S. ISBN 3-540-41022-8 is now being online available as PDF – a must read for all clinical researchers.
Addendum 26 Feb 2021
Sorry for the title that involuntarily replicated a title from paper published already 14 years before https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7647644/
Stagnancy at terrific speed or the impact of impact
Besides another critical review of the impact game this month in LJ, I found a ever more devastating paper at the University of Konstanz – click for the Babelfish translation. Continue reading Stagnancy at terrific speed or the impact of impact
Pray tell us what you do
I already suspect that science has more to do with believes than religion. However, only very recently I came across this paper (when working on eosinophils) that stretches this view to its limits: “Eosinophil cells, pray tell us what you do!” Or is that a new incarnation of Spinoza’s God in Nature?
Mission accomplished
… also for some people in the field the main paradigma in science. To cite Wikipedia
Bush’s assertion — and the sign itself — became controversial after guerilla warfare in Iraq increased during the Iraqi insurgency. The vast majority of casualties, among both coalition (approximately 98.3% as of October 2008) and Iraqi combatants, and among Iraqi civilians, have occurred after the speech. Due to this fact, “Mission Accomplished” is now a winged word for uncompleted operations with an unclear ending.
goodbye GB!
Déjà vu extended
Given my interest in strange phenomena leading to science misperception I wonder why I didn’t find this site earlier as it tells you also everything about Déjà Vu, Déjà Vécu, Déjà Visité, L’esprit de l’Escalier (comeback when it is too late), Capgras delusion (replaced friend), Fregoli delusion (same person appears in different bodies) and prosopagnosia (unable to recognize faces also known as myopia…). Yea, yea.
A protestantic view of science
The 2006 document on perspectives of the German Protestant Church (EKD) briefly touches also the relation to science on p. 44 Continue reading A protestantic view of science
If pigs could fly
is a book that I am currently reading. There is also a brief German/English account how this sentence came into life. What the hell did you expect when reading the title??
Something like “winners don’t punish”? A smart letter in this week’s Nature with the 3 options of Cooperation(C) – Defection (D) and Punishment (P)?
"nice people" player 1: C C C C player 2: C C C C top payoff! "punish and perish" player 1: C P P P P player 2: C D D D D extremely bad! "turning the other cheek" player 1: C C C C C player 2: D D C C C payoff still positive!
we should have known this earlier…
Addendum
link to an earlier post here on “tit for tat”
link to “vengeance is ours” at Edge
link to “sermon on the mount”
Bias against negative studies
We probably all agree that a publication bias against negative studies will severely distorts our opinion. To repeat an earlier Nature letter
Why negatives should be viewed as positives … This filtering of results undoubtedly biases the information available to scientists (see, for example “Null and void” Nature 422, 554–555; 2003). And communication is at the heart of science.
Here is an email that I received from the editor Continue reading Bias against negative studies
Just Science Week
The Just Science 2008 will start next week – and here is my last chance to say something non scientific: Science is a method, that has certain prerequisites, works under certain conditions while using techniques with strengths and limitations and is leading to certain conclusions evident to some but not all humans. Needless to say that from a protestant / Lutheran view that there are other ways to explain a phenomenon while providing even extra dimensions like giving an ethical justification.
Haldane / When I am dead / 1928: I am not myself a materialist, because, if materialism is true, it seems to me that we cannot know that it is true. If my opinions are the results of a chemical processes going on in my brain, they are determined by the laws of chemistry, not those of logic.
More at the recent immersion blog post…
Science of the surf
Don´t confuse me with Science of the Surf Continue reading Science of the surf
Science skills
Theodor Fontane is characterizing Adolf Menzel:
Gaben, wer hätte sie nicht.
Talent, Spielzeug für Kinder.
Erst der Ernst macht den Mann,
Erst der Fleiß das Genie.Skills, everyone has quids.
Talents, toys of the kids.
Seriousness makes a man,
dilligence the genius span.
sorry for my translation ;-)