Natural Sciences
TOK would like you to show/STRESS HOW the relationship between nat and human sci is:
reciprocal, synergistic, symbiotic, collaborative, a positive tension, balancing, a reinforcing systems of checks and balances (and methodologies and attempts to operationalize their concepts)
Pg 46; The Age of the Unthinkable
This isn’t an easy challenge, but Levin was quick to point out that it was exactly the sort of evolution that science itself had made in recent years. The economist Brian Arthur framed the problem this way: “The story of the sciences in the 20th century is one of a steady loss of certainty. Much of what was real and machine-like and objective and deterministic at the start of the century, by the mid-century was a phantom, unpredictable, subjective and indeterminate.” Of course, during that same time, science had made more progress than it had in all of human history. It wasn’t just Werner Heisenberg injecting uncertainty into quantum physics. It was Alfred Tarski brining unpredictability to mathematics, Kurt Godel bringing incompleteness to logic, Benoit Mandelbrot doing the same for fluid dynamics and Gregory Chaitin for information theory. They all proved that once you made the leap to a new model – if it was the right model – then accepting uncertainty and indeterminacy allowed you to make sense of parts of the world you have never understood before. Problems that seemed unapproachable by old methods became explainable: radioactivity, antimatter, the movement of light. “Sometimes in science,” Levin said to men, “we find that we have reached the end of the bookshelf. Then it is time to write new books.”
Articles/TOK Stuff of Usefulness
Can Juries Rely on Forensic Experts? | The Real CSI | FRONTLINE | PBS
'One of the Greatest Discoveries in the History of Science' Hasn't Been Peer-Reviewed—Does It Matter? - Megan Garber - The Atlantic
Science and Its Skeptics - The New Yorker
Indonesian 'hobbit' challenges evolutionary theory
Watch a Short (and Fun) History of Dark Matter - Scientific American
The Skull - Radiolab - good podcast on how theories get revised with evidence
Watson: How we discovered DNA
Solving the puzzle of the periodic table
Uri Alon: Why truly innovative science demands a leap into the unknown
Jill Tarter: Join the SETI search - "fringe" science; an interesting knowledge community/case study in pursuits of knowledge
Can Juries Rely on Forensic Experts? | The Real CSI | FRONTLINE | PBS
'One of the Greatest Discoveries in the History of Science' Hasn't Been Peer-Reviewed—Does It Matter? - Megan Garber - The Atlantic
Science and Its Skeptics - The New Yorker
Indonesian 'hobbit' challenges evolutionary theory
Watch a Short (and Fun) History of Dark Matter - Scientific American
The Skull - Radiolab - good podcast on how theories get revised with evidence
Watson: How we discovered DNA
Solving the puzzle of the periodic table
Uri Alon: Why truly innovative science demands a leap into the unknown
Jill Tarter: Join the SETI search - "fringe" science; an interesting knowledge community/case study in pursuits of knowledge
Scientists Often Skip A Simple Test That Could Verify Their Work http://n.pr/1FUMG21
6 Graphs That Showed Landmark Discoveries—but Were Later Debunked
The Data That Threatened to Break Physics http://nautil.us/issue/24/error/the-data-that-threatened-to-break-physics …
Human Biases in the sciences = The Trouble With Scientists http://nautil.us/issue/24/error/the-trouble-with-scientists …
Does science always need empirical evidence? http://nyti.ms/1McyS77
A Top Medical School Revamps Requirements To Lure English Majors http://n.pr/1R0EnJr
Solving the puzzle of the periodic table - Eric Rosado http://ed.ted.com/lessons/solving-the-puzzle-of-the-periodic-table-eric-rosado …?
Check out TED-Ed's awesome interactive periodic table, with videos for every one of the 118 elements! http://ed.ted.com/periodic-videos
TOK problems in research/science study methods: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/not-all-scientific-studies-are-created-equal-david-h-schwartz …
Hopped-up Large Hadron Collider poised to venture into the realm of exotic physics http://ow.ly/KliIq
Periodic table scaled to show relative abundance of each element. Retro-genius. http://bit.ly/Kn60Jt
Can Scientific Belief Go Too Far? http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2014/10/29/359885601/can-scientific-belief-go-too-far
Mistaken Identities Plague Lab Work With Human Cells http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/12/09/368491013/mistaken-identities-plague-lab-work-with-human-cells
From Ancient DNA, a Clearer Picture of Europeans Today http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/30/science/from-ancient-dna-a-clearer-picture-of-europeans-today.html
How A Tilt Toward Safety Stopped A Scientist's Virus Research http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/11/07/361219361/how-a-tilt-toward-safety-stopped-a-scientists-virus-research
The Original Natural Born Killers http://nautil.us/issue/17/big-bangs/the-original-natural-born-killers
6 Graphs That Showed Landmark Discoveries—but Were Later Debunked
The Data That Threatened to Break Physics http://nautil.us/issue/24/error/the-data-that-threatened-to-break-physics …
Human Biases in the sciences = The Trouble With Scientists http://nautil.us/issue/24/error/the-trouble-with-scientists …
Does science always need empirical evidence? http://nyti.ms/1McyS77
A Top Medical School Revamps Requirements To Lure English Majors http://n.pr/1R0EnJr
Solving the puzzle of the periodic table - Eric Rosado http://ed.ted.com/lessons/solving-the-puzzle-of-the-periodic-table-eric-rosado …?
Check out TED-Ed's awesome interactive periodic table, with videos for every one of the 118 elements! http://ed.ted.com/periodic-videos
TOK problems in research/science study methods: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/not-all-scientific-studies-are-created-equal-david-h-schwartz …
Hopped-up Large Hadron Collider poised to venture into the realm of exotic physics http://ow.ly/KliIq
Periodic table scaled to show relative abundance of each element. Retro-genius. http://bit.ly/Kn60Jt
Can Scientific Belief Go Too Far? http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2014/10/29/359885601/can-scientific-belief-go-too-far
Mistaken Identities Plague Lab Work With Human Cells http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/12/09/368491013/mistaken-identities-plague-lab-work-with-human-cells
From Ancient DNA, a Clearer Picture of Europeans Today http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/30/science/from-ancient-dna-a-clearer-picture-of-europeans-today.html
How A Tilt Toward Safety Stopped A Scientist's Virus Research http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/11/07/361219361/how-a-tilt-toward-safety-stopped-a-scientists-virus-research
The Original Natural Born Killers http://nautil.us/issue/17/big-bangs/the-original-natural-born-killers