The Matter of Facts

The Matter of Facts PDF

Author: Gareth Leng

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2020-03-18

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 026235828X

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How biases, the desire for a good narrative, reliance on citation metrics, and other problems undermine confidence in modern science. Modern science is built on experimental evidence, yet scientists are often very selective in deciding what evidence to use and tend to disagree about how to interpret it. In The Matter of Facts, Gareth and Rhodri Leng explore how scientists produce and use evidence. They do so to contextualize an array of problems confronting modern science that have raised concerns about its reliability: the widespread use of inappropriate statistical tests, a shortage of replication studies, and a bias in both publishing and citing “positive” results. Before these problems can be addressed meaningfully, the authors argue, we must understand what makes science work and what leads it astray. The myth of science is that scientists constantly challenge their own thinking. But in reality, all scientists are in the business of persuading other scientists of the importance of their own ideas, and they do so by combining reason with rhetoric. Often, they look for evidence that will support their ideas, not for evidence that might contradict them; often, they present evidence in a way that makes it appear to be supportive; and often, they ignore inconvenient evidence. In a series of essays focusing on controversies, disputes, and discoveries, the authors vividly portray science as a human activity, driven by passion as well as by reason. By analyzing the fluidity of scientific concepts and the dynamic and unpredictable development of scientific fields, the authors paint a picture of modern science and the pressures it faces.

Making 20th Century Science

Making 20th Century Science PDF

Author: Stephen G. Brush

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2015-03-16

Total Pages: 504

ISBN-13: 0199978514

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Historically, the scientific method has been said to require proposing a theory, making a prediction of something not already known, testing the prediction, and giving up the theory (or substantially changing it) if it fails the test. A theory that leads to several successful predictions is more likely to be accepted than one that only explains what is already known but not understood. This process is widely treated as the conventional method of achieving scientific progress, and was used throughout the twentieth century as the standard route to discovery and experimentation. But does science really work this way? In Making 20th Century Science, Stephen G. Brush discusses this question, as it relates to the development of science throughout the last century. Answering this question requires both a philosophically and historically scientific approach, and Brush blends the two in order to take a close look at how scientific methodology has developed. Several cases from the history of modern physical and biological science are examined, including Mendeleev's Periodic Law, Kekule's structure for benzene, the light-quantum hypothesis, quantum mechanics, chromosome theory, and natural selection. In general it is found that theories are accepted for a combination of successful predictions and better explanations of old facts. Making 20th Century Science is a large-scale historical look at the implementation of the scientific method, and how scientific theories come to be accepted.

Research Ethics

Research Ethics PDF

Author: Deni Elliott

Publisher: UPNE

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 9780874517972

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This reader provides a thorough overview of the ethical dilemmas confronting contemporary research scientists. Original material, reprints, and cases on topics such as relationships with colleagues, institutional responsibility, conflict of interest, experimentation with animals and humans, and methodologies for ethically conducting, reporting, and funding research clarify difficult questions for students and professionals alike. The collection supports efforts, in response to increasingly stringent federal mandates, to include ethics instruction in research training.

The Science of Animal Welfare

The Science of Animal Welfare PDF

Author: Marian Stamp Dawkins

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021-01-28

Total Pages: 151

ISBN-13: 0192588761

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What is animal welfare? Why has it proved so difficult to find a definition that everyone can agree on? This concise and accessible guide is for anyone who is interested in animals and who has wondered how we can assess their welfare scientifically. It defines animal welfare as 'health and animals having what they want', a definition that can be easily understood by scientists and non-scientists alike, expresses in simple words what underlies many existing definitions, and shows what evidence we need to collect to improve animal welfare in practice. Above all, it puts the animal's own point of view at the heart of an assessment of its welfare. But, can we really understand what animals want? A consistent theme running through the book is that not only is it possible to establish what animals want, but that this information is vital in helping us to make sense of the long and often confusing list of welfare measures that are now in use such as 'stress' and 'feel good hormones', expressive sounds and gestures, natural behaviour, cognitive bias, and stereotypies. Defining welfare as 'health and what animals want' allows us to distinguish between measures that are simply what an animal does when it is alert, aroused, or active and those measures that genuinely allow us to distinguish between situations the animals themselves see as positive or negative. Sentience (conscious feelings of pleasure, pain, and suffering) is for many people the essence of what is meant by welfare, but studying consciousness is notoriously difficult, particularly in non-human species. These difficulties are discussed in the context of our current - and as yet incomplete - knowledge of human and animal consciousness. Finally, the book highlights some key ideas in the relationship between animal welfare science and animal ethics and shows how closely the well-being of humans is linked to that of other animals. The Science of Animal Welfare is an ideal companion for undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in animal behaviour and welfare, as well as for professional researchers, practitioners and animal welfare consultants. At the same time, it is easily understandable to non-scientists and anyone without prior knowledge but with an interest in animals and the rapidly evolving science of animal welfare.

Pre-Suasion

Pre-Suasion PDF

Author: Robert Cialdini

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2016-09-06

Total Pages: 469

ISBN-13: 1501109812

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The acclaimed New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller from Robert Cialdini—“the foremost expert on effective persuasion” (Harvard Business Review)—explains how it’s not necessarily the message itself that changes minds, but the key moment before you deliver that message. What separates effective communicators from truly successful persuaders? With the same rigorous scientific research and accessibility that made his Influence an iconic bestseller, Robert Cialdini explains how to prepare people to be receptive to a message before they experience it. Optimal persuasion is achieved only through optimal pre-suasion. In other words, to change “minds” a pre-suader must also change “states of mind.” Named a “Best Business Books of 2016” by the Financial Times, and “compelling” by The Wall Street Journal, Cialdini’s Pre-Suasion draws on his extensive experience as the most cited social psychologist of our time and explains the techniques a person should implement to become a master persuader. Altering a listener’s attitudes, beliefs, or experiences isn’t necessary, says Cialdini—all that’s required is for a communicator to redirect the audience’s focus of attention before a relevant action. From studies on advertising imagery to treating opiate addiction, from the annual letters of Berkshire Hathaway to the annals of history, Cialdini outlines the specific techniques you can use on online marketing campaigns and even effective wartime propaganda. He illustrates how the artful diversion of attention leads to successful pre-suasion and gets your targeted audience primed and ready to say, “Yes.” His book is “an essential tool for anyone serious about science based business strategies…and is destined to be an instant classic. It belongs on the shelf of anyone in business, from the CEO to the newest salesperson” (Forbes).

Creating Scientists

Creating Scientists PDF

Author: Christopher Moore

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-11-22

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 1315298570

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Learn how to shift from teaching science content to teaching a more hands-on, inquiry-based approach, as required by the new Next Generation Science Standards. This practical book provides a clear, research verified framework for building lessons that teach scientific process and practice abilities, such as gathering and making sense of data, constructing explanations, designing experiments, and communicating information. Creating Scientists features reproducible, immediately deployable tools and handouts that you can use in the classroom to assess your students’ learning within the domains for the NGSS or any standards framework with focus on the integration of science practice with content. This book is an invaluable resource for educators seeking to build a "community of practice," where students discover ideas through well-taught, hands-on, authentic science experiences that foster an innate love for learning how the world works.

Perspectives on Conceptual Change

Perspectives on Conceptual Change PDF

Author: Barbara J. Guzzetti

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-12-16

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 1135454582

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Perspectives on Conceptual Change presents case study excerpts illustrating the influence on and processes of students' conceptual change, and analyses of these cases from multiple theoretical frameworks. Researchers in reading education have been investigating conceptual change and the effects of students' prior knowledge on their learning for more than a decade. During this time, this research had been changing from the general and cognitive--average effects of interventions on groups of students--to the specific and personal--individuals' reactions to and conceptual change with text structures. Studies in this area have begun to focus on the social, contextual, and affective influences on conceptual change. These studies have potential to be informed by other discourses. Hence, this book shows the results of sharing data--in the form of case study excerpts--with researchers representing varying perspectives of analyses. Instances of learning are examined from cross disciplinary views. Case study authors in turn respond to the case analyses. The result is a text that provides multiple insights into understanding the learning process and the conditions that impact learning.

The Political Sciences

The Political Sciences PDF

Author: Hugh Stretton

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-04-15

Total Pages: 413

ISBN-13: 1135025851

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Social science is a social activity as well as a method of discovery. The researchers’ values and politics colour their work and so do their choices of scientific method. This book is about both – the technical effects of values and the political effects of technique. The author reports what social scientists and historians actually do. He sorts out the scientific from the political content in a wide range of old and new work in history, sociology, political science and economics. The overall work is a detailed political and technical criticism of the ‘scientistic’ programme which would have researchers select for such qualities as objectivity, uniformity, and generality, cumulation and professional unanimity.