Move over, Nintendo Switch 2--there's a new video game sheriff in town. Sure, the graphics are pretty rudimentary, and the controls are idiosyncratic. But how can you not be charmed by seals playing a video game--for science! Check out the link for a brief video clip. The "game" models features of a swim at various depths, and the seals interact in a way that indicates they understand what direction of travel is implied by the simulation. The results provide scientists insights into what cues seals use to navigate. … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Of Barks & Bytes
funding
Hear Francis Collins at ASA 2018 ($300 Travel Scholarships Available)
Would you like to hear Francis Collins? Connect with ESN in person? Go to a faith/science conference on the beautiful grounds of Gordon College, near Boston? All three are possible this July! Student registration is free, and student scholarships for half off lodging and meals are available. And if you're a grad student or postdoc, you might even get $300 towards travel costs. The American Scientific Affiliation faith/science conference is coming up July 27-30 near Boston. … [Read more...] about Hear Francis Collins at ASA 2018 ($300 Travel Scholarships Available)
Science Corner: Universal Science Income
Paying for science is not always as exciting as the science itself, unless we're using science to figure out how to pay for it. (Just don't get caught in a recursive loop.) And so we have a proposal for a new economic model for science funding along with some simulation studies to demonstrate how it would play out under different conditions. The current system involves a lot of time spent on writing grants, most of which are unsuccessful, and on reviewing those grants, creating expensive overhead even under the best … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Universal Science Income
Science Corner: Out with the Old?
Photo by opensourceway The challenges of getting funding and being published are perennially of interest, particularly to emerging scholars. I imagine this examination of the current status quo will therefore be popular. But for an article on science funding, it seems to have a disconnect between its data and conclusions. … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Out with the Old?
A Mission to the University: Part 2 of Engaging the University
Part 2 of Vinoth Ramachandra's Engaging the University (21:22) is packed. After exploring the broad topics of funding's push toward instrumentalism, the fragmentation of campus academic life by global communication, and the lack of "any coherent master narrative for a central point of reference . . . to evaluate the relationship of . . . parcels of knowledge to other parcels or to weigh their relative importance," Ramachandra considers three challenges which Christians face in engaging the … [Read more...] about A Mission to the University: Part 2 of Engaging the University