Lecture 2: WHAT IS SCIENCE and RESEARCH ETHICS
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What is Science and Research Ethics Lecture 2: WHAT IS SCIENCE AND Johan Bijnens RESEARCH ETHICS Introduction Careers What do we Johan Bijnens do? Papers etc Cargo Cult Lund University Science What is science? [email protected] http://thep.lu.se/~bijnens Introduction to PhD studies in astronomy and theoretical physics 1/38 What is Science? What is Science and Research Ethics What is science? Johan Bijnens What does a scientist do? Introduction Some remarks about careers and some other subjects Careers What do we What is science do? Discussion so ask questions Papers etc Cargo Cult Idea: make you aware of some things rather than a full Science course What is science? Very general definition: like to understand and find out how things work 2/38 A typical scientist career What is Science and Research Getting interested in Science & Technology Ethics Undergraduate degree: bachelor, master, magister, Johan Bijnens Diplom,. Introduction PhD studies (= you are here Careers What do we Postdoc 1,2,. do? Assistant professor (4-6 year job) Papers etc Cargo Cult Associate professor (lecturer) Science What is Professor science? really big boss stage But also: research engineer, positions at laboratories/research institutes, R&D in business/government 3/38 A typical career What is Science and At your stage this looks like the most natural route Research Ethics Need to do good research but also Johan Bijnens is the field popular or not retirements Introduction expanding/shrinking of research area Careers What do we do? And do not forget: Papers etc Cargo Cult There are many other career options (We (seniors) have Science chosen this path so tend to think of it as THE option) What is science? Local job market is small: highly specialized luck plays a nonnegligible role (economy up or down) Work for opportunities: no applications ) no job offers all our students have found jobs (but it might take a while) 4/38 What do we do in astronomy/theoretical physics? What is Data Science and Consequences Research Observations Ethics Johan Bijnens Introduction Models Calculations Careers Theories Simulations What do we do? Where you usually are Papers etc Goal: understanding how things work Cargo Cult Science Also science: What is Finding out how to calculate something science? Developing a measurement method guessing (inspired) models We spend most of our time in details of the various steps (not very grand I know) 5/38 What do we do? What is Science and Research Ethics Johan Bijnens Learn what others do Introduction Try a few things Careers What do we Get ideas (usually after trying a lot of things) do? =)work them out as much as you can Papers etc Cargo Cult Obviously a cycle Science What is Finally some results: now what? science? 6/38 Paper and presentations What is Science and Research Ethics Johan Bijnens have some good results Must make others aware of it Introduction Careers presentation at conferences What do we the PAPER itself: preprint+electronic archives do? submitted, refereed, published Papers etc letters, review papers, proceedings,. Cargo Cult Blogs, press releases,. Science What is Just sending a good paper is usually not enough (do YOU science? read all new papers?) 7/38 What happens with a paper? What is Science and Research Choose a journal: Ethics more general or more specialized Johan Bijnens type: letter or standard article letter: shorter but faster publication (less relevant now Introduction with archives) Careers What do we standard paper: longer, so more space to explain things do? It gets to one (or more editors) Papers etc Is it right for the journal? Cargo Cult Science If yes select referee(s) What is look at the references to get some thought about possible science? referees report arrives; editor decides: accept, changes required or reject Sometimes a few cycles 8/38 Why publishing and peer review? What is Science and Research Ethics Johan Bijnens Journals serve several purposes: dissemination, quality control and long term archiving Introduction Long term archiving is an unsolved problem Careers What do we paper lives much longer than electronic servers do? many more paper copies exist (in libraries,. ), publishers Papers etc disappear Cargo Cult Science Dissemination: in our fields done by the archives What is Quality control is the main remaining purpose (and the science? journals keep up the minimum level in the archives) 9/38 Quality control What is Refereeing checks: Science and Research plausibility, not correctness Ethics fairness (what he didn't cite me!) Johan Bijnens is it actually understandable enough new results to be worth publishing Introduction Note when you read a report: Careers takes lots of UNPAID time What do we do? not always a real expert Papers etc report often sloppily written after spending lots of time Cargo Cult reading the manuscript Science Anonymous: What is editors can be known (should be senior scientists) science? referees should not be: too easy to be influenced, especially if fairly junior and paper by someone very senior Disadvantage: no obvious benefit of doing a good refereeing job Similar remarks apply to reviewing of applications 10/38 Cargo Cult Science What is Cargo Cult Science Science and Research Richard Feynman Ethics From a Caltech commencement address given in 1974 Johan Bijnens (what is a commencement) Also in Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Introduction Careers What do we During the Middle Ages there were all kinds of crazy ideas, such do? as that a piece of of rhinoceros horn would increase potency. Papers etc Then a method was discovered for separating the ideas{which Cargo Cult Science was to try one to see if it worked, and if it didn't work, to What is eliminate it. (Scientific rational revolution) This method science? became organized, of course, into science. And it developed very well, so that we are now in the scientific age. It is such a scientific age, in fact, that we have difficulty in understanding how witch doctors could ever have existed, when nothing that they proposed ever really worked{or very little of it did. 11/38 Cargo Cult Science What is But even today I meet lots of people who sooner or later get Science and Research me into a conversation about UFO's, or astrology, or some Ethics form of mysticism, expanded consciousness, new types of Johan Bijnens awareness, ESP, and so forth. And I've concluded that it's not Introduction a scientific world. (Unfortunately still quite true) Careers Most people believe so many wonderful things that I decided to What do we investigate why they did. And what has been referred to as my do? Papers etc curiosity for investigation has landed me in a difficulty where I Cargo Cult found so much junk that I'm overwhelmed. First I started out Science by investigating various ideas of mysticism and mystic What is science? experiences. I went into isolation tanks and got many hours of hallucinations, so I know something about that. Then I went to Esalen, which is a hotbed of this kind of thought (it's a wonderful place; you should go visit there). Then I became overwhelmed. I didn't realize how MUCH there was. 12/38 Cargo Cult Science At Esalen there are some large baths fed by hot springs situated on a ledge about thirty feet above the What is ocean. One of my most pleasurable experiences has been to sit in one of those baths and watch the waves Science and crashing onto the rocky slope below, to gaze into the clear blue sky above, and to study a beautiful nude as Research she quietly appears and settles into the bath with me. Ethics One time I sat down in a bath where there was a beatiful girl sitting with a guy who didn't seem to know Johan Bijnens her. Right away I began thinking, "Gee! How am I gonna get started talking to this beautiful nude woman?" I'm trying to figure out what to say, when the guy says to her, "I'm, uh, studying massage. Could I practice on you?" "Sure," she says. They get out of the bath and she lies down on a massage table nearby. I think to Introduction myself, "What a nifty line! I can never think of anything like that!" He starts to rub her big toe. "I think I feel it," he says. "I feel a kind of dent{is that the pituitary?" I blurt out, "You're a helluva long way from the Careers pituitary, man!" They looked at me, horrified–I had blown my cover{and said, "It's reflexology!” I quickly What do we closed my eyes and appeared to be meditating. do? That's just an example of the kind of things that overwhelm me. I also looked into extrasensory perception, and PSI phenomena, and the latest craze there was Uri Geller, a man who is supposed to be able to bend Papers etc keys by rubbing them with his finger. So I went to his hotel room, on his invitation, to see a demonstration of both mindreading and bending keys. He didn't do any mindreading that succeeded; nobody can read my Cargo Cult mind, I guess. And my boy held a key and Geller rubbed it, and nothing happened. Then he told us it works Science better under water, and so you can picture all of us standing in the bathroom with the water turned on and the key under it, and him rubbing the key with his finger. Nothing happened. So I was unable to investigate What is that phenomenon. science? But then I began to think, what else is there that we believe? (And I thought then about the witch doctors, and how easy it would have been to check on them by noticing that nothing really worked.) So I found things that even more people believe, such as that we have some knowledge of how to educate.