The message of the Bible is that we are created to relate to the world around us. The thrill of the scientist is that the natural world is exciting to discover. And that drives the processes of science.Read more…
Science in Review: Have You Tried Turning Science Off And Turning It Back On Again?
[I]sn’t science supposed to be objective, not to mention correct? If [a] study really is that flawed, how did it get published in such a prestigious journal? If it is valid, why isn’t its validity objectively clear to all scientists?Read more…
Science Corner: Lab Girl
As the piece notes, Jahren is not typical of scientists who get book deals, but her experience is probably more typical of what a scientific career will look like than those of Nobel laureates.Read more…
Finding Common Ground: Christians, Scientists, and History of Science
It often seems like science and our faith are in constant conflict. Christians and scientists are often at war, attacking each other’s views. However, in the history and philosophy of science, Christians and scientists can find substantial common ground.Read more…
Science Reader Question: What’s a Few Minutes Between Friends?
Did we spend our time well? Are we managing it as efficiently as possible? But if we measure our worth with time, what happens if not everyone agrees on the same measurement?Read more…
Science Reader Question: Time and Forgiveness
Effects follow causes; we must live in the future with all the intended and unintended results of our choices. We call this sequence of unrepeatable moments time. In other words, time is that feature of the universe which makes forgiveness necessary.Read more…
Science in Review: “Prediction is hard, especially about the future”
Statistical models, like those used to predict the weather, deal with uncertainty. This runs counter to our expectations for mathematics. Factor in a reliance on probabilities, which are deeply unintuitive, and it’s no wonder we find these models hard to understand. Nevertheless, they can actually be quite useful.Read more…
Science Reader Question: The Human Touch
Humans and statistical models both make errors sometimes. But we understand the human errors because we make the same kinds of mistakes, while statistical models can be wrong in surprising ways. Perhaps we think those errors are worse simply because they are different.Read more…
Science Reader Question: So You’d Like to Win a $1.5B Jackpot
We need to resist the urge to wonder “What are the odds this one specific person would have predicted this one drawing?!?!?” Instead, we should ask the statistical question: “Have enough predictions been made about enough lotteries to get positive results?”Read more…
Science Reader Question: Never Quote Me the Odds!
What distinguishes statistical modeling from New Age predictions? Plenty, but maybe not exactly what you’d intuit.Read more…
Science Reader Question: And You Are… ?
Andy responds to the question, “I’d love to know more about your career journey. Are you working in academia or do you have what is currently called an alt-ac (alternative to academia) career? How did you get there?”Read more…
Science Corner: Where’s the (Roast) Beef?
We are embodied creatures; we may be able to transcend our biology, but we are still intricately entwined with it.Read more…
Science Corner: A Bridge Too Far
Analogies are like bridges; they help people get from wherever they are to somewhere new, often spanning a conceptual gap that might otherwise be much harder to cross. But what happens when the analogy morphs into fact?Read more…
Science Corner: You’ve Got A Lot of Nerve(s)!
My favorite recent story is the sequencing of the octopus genome. . . . Speaking of learning, I’d like to learn more about my readers so I can better serve you. I’ve created the following survey, and I’d greatly appreciate it if you’d complete it. As an extra incentive, we are offering prizes to 5 randomly selected respondents.Read more…
Science Corner: Entertaining Lies and Real Truth
It’s not exactly science news, but this item on the role of fiction in engaging the scientific imagination really caught the eye of this science fiction fan. I’m familiar with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Flatland, both of which encode interesting mathematicsRead more…
Science Corner: Behold the Brontosaurus
So many of us have had a dinosaur phase at some point, and chances are if you did you learned that the Brontosaurus is a creature that never existed. That factoid is often used to separate the proto-paleontologists from theRead more…
Science Corner: Dancing in the Sunshine
The second law of thermodynamics gets trotted out all the time, especially in conversations about evolutionary biology. Less familiar are principles of maximum entropy production, which deal specifically with systems that are not in equilibrium (everything the same temperature). Most ofRead more…
Science Corner: Back to the Present
You don’t need a DeLorean to see that this year is going to bring a lot of Back to the Future references and time travel talk. It’s fitting, then, that physicists have actually succeeded in constructing a quantum time machine. Well, sortRead more…
Science Corner: All the Brilliant Ladies
It is both conventional wisdom and a statistical reality that gender representation is not equal in all STEM (science, technology, engineering & mathematics) disciplines. When I enrolled at Carnegie Mellon, a school known for its STEM programs, nearly twenty (!)Read more…
Science Corner: It’s in the Cards
The game of heads-up limit Texas Hold ’em poker has effectively been solved. As I understand it, solving a game means identifying the best move to make in any given situation. Other games, like tic-tac-toe and checkers, have been solvedRead more…
Science In Review — Christmas Craft
At a neighborhood Christmas party, I had a lively and stimulating conversation about some of the technical elements of filmmaking–editing, cinematography, action choreography, and the like. . . . Now, if you’ve made it this far, you’re possibly wondering why I’m talking so much about art in a column nominally about science. I think it helps to illuminate how I think about magic, and how that relates to miracles. . . .Read more…
Science Corner — Let There Be Peace Between Man and Virus
“I’d like to share a revelation that I’ve had during my time here,” Agent Smith tells Morpheus in The Matrix. “It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you’re not actually mammals. …Read more…
Science Corner: Which bird gets the LEGO worm?
The tiny worm Caenorhabditis elegans has been a boon to science. Adult worms have a consistent number of cells, and we have been able to work out where each one comes from during the developmental process. They also have aRead more…
Science Corner: Problem? What Problem?
You know how Wile E. Coyote can run in midair, as long as he doesn’t realize he has gone past the edge of the cliff? We’ve probably all had a moment when we’ve hoped a problem would go away ifRead more…