Submitted by Nicholas C. Darnton (inactive)
on Sunday, 9/13/2009, at 1:56 PM
Please read the following articles / editorials:- The Large-scale Structure of Scientific Method, a philosopher's view of the oversimplification of "the scientific method" in textbooks. The first three sections give an overview of many of the issues we will be discussing this semester. The last two sections propose a solution, though whether it is a practical solution is not so clear to me.
- Nature editorial on the changing nature of 'omics research.
- Economist article about the future of experimental astronomy.
In class I handed out a survey of topics included in introductions to the scientific method in high school and college textbooks. It came from James Blachowicz, How Science Textbooks Treat Scientific Method: A Philosopher's Perspective. I don't recommend reading the whole article unless you're particularly gripped by the philosophy of science as it's pretty dense and esoteric.
The cartoon is from xkcd, one of my favorite geeky science comics. It's often NSFW so don't read it if you're easily shocked.