Cool read.
The Science of Stretch | The Scientist Magazine®.
The Science of Stretch | The Scientist Magazine®
Cool read.
Author Archives: jbrittholbrook
What does it take to be ‘liked’ by scientists?
Scientists don’t like me. Or, at least, they don’t show any evidence of liking what I have to say about NSF’s Broader Impacts Merit Review Criterion. Last week, I blogged this ScienceInsider interview (here and on the CSID blog) with an unnamed congressional aide connected with Rep. Lamar Smith and his efforts to add “an extra layer of accountability” to NSF’s Merit Review Process.
I also left a couple of comments in the comments section under the article itself. It’s possible for readers of ScienceInsider to press buttons to indicate their agreement — or not — with comments. The site then tracks the number of likes or dislikes (expressed by pressing up or down carrots), displays them with each comment, and moves those comments with the most likes up to the top.
Guess whose comments are dead last in line?
Here are the two most-liked comments:
lollardy • 3 days ago Studying dairy production in China is a very poor choice for an example of what constitutes a bad grant. It has direct relevance to something most people in America consume every day. It could reduce cost for millions, increase food safety, improve the quality or nutrient density of a commonly consumed item, etc. Every time I hear a story on Fox about a “wasteful” study, I can usually think of ten ways it could benefit people and industry here. Somehow I think the time would be better spent putting in an “additional layer” to cover pentagon spending.
Kenneth DeBacker • 4 days ago A lot of smoke is being blown by Rep. Lamar Smith’s aide. The aide’s answers are slick and cover’s the real intent of the bill- to politicize the sciences through selective funding or defunding of areas of study Republicans do not like. The most egregious example would be the ban on studying gun violence in America.
Each of them has received twelve likes.
I suppose if I were simply to say that Congress is out to politicize science or that Smith is out of his depth or that scientists should be left alone to pursue research however they wish, scientists might like that. But I’m willing to give Smith the benefit of the doubt, at this point. My contention is that he (or his aide) doesn’t yet understand the revisions to NSF’s Merit Review Process. If he did, then I think he’d see that accountability is already built into the process. I think Smith should not introduce the High Quality Research Act, but instead should seek to monitor how scientists respond to the new Broader Impacts Criterion.
But there’s a real problem with what I’m suggesting. And it’s not that Smith is a Republican out to get science. The problem is that scientists themselves don’t understand the Broader Impacts Criterion. They don’t understand that this is their last, best hope to preserve their academic autonomy while meeting accountability demands. And they don’t want to hear it, either.
To see my comments on the ScienceInsider interview, simply follow this link and scroll to the bottom of the page.
Pressure Builds on Congress to Kill NSF Bill – ScienceInsider
The letter from former NSF Directors and Chairs of NSB is on point:
The NSF, the National Science Board, and the Congress have regularly examined the merit review process and adjusted it, periodically, after widespread consultation with all parties concerned. One of the more recent changes was to elevate the importance of assessing the broader impacts of the proposed project on a par with assessing the scientific and technical merit. We believe this approach serves to strengthen the merit-based decision making process the Foundation uses for individual research projects.
Pressure Builds on Congress to Kill NSF Bill – ScienceInsider.
What Representative Lamar Smith Is Really Trying to Do at NSF – ScienceInsider
Fascinating. Comments are also worth reading.
What Representative Lamar Smith Is Really Trying to Do at NSF – ScienceInsider.
The cicada and David Bowie – not such strange bedfellows | Environment | guardian.co.uk
Hystrix cristata by Steven Traver
Are you kidding?! Awesome.You’re quilling me.
Petaurus breviceps by Sarah Werning.
From what has to be one of the coolest sites ever: http://phylopic.org/.
Do multi-year contracts, sans tenure, prevent academic freedom?
Florida Polytechnic U. to offer multi-year contracts, not tenure, to faculty | Inside Higher Ed.
Reading this, it’s interesting to see some of the views about the connection between tenure and academic freedom. Which conception do most share of what constitutes academic freedom? I’d say it’s the negative sense of freedom from interference.
My question would be not what are we free from, but what are we free for, if we have tenure? The problem with so many tenured professors is not that they face interference, but that they do so little with tenure. Too many see tenure as a laissez faire policy, but then they act to lazy to do anything interesting once they get it.
I note, also, the idea that top quality faculty will not go to FPU. What this reveals is a deep-seated prejudice against folks not on the tenure track.
Dawn of the Intelligent Machines?
Good read via Andy Miah. Singularly good … or is it?
(The second of two posts distilled from a talk given at the 2011 Wrexham Science Festival. The first part, ‘The Singularity is Coming … Or Is It?‘, appears separately. However, both have a common thread and share some material.)
It seems that the next few decades may give us something really remarkable: truly intelligent computers; that, before the 21st century is a half, maybe a third, old, we could be living with machines capable of genuine, independent thought. Apparently, this is not science fiction or the ‘artificial intelligence’ of the 20th century but real intelligence. So many questions … Can that really happen? Will it? How? What does it mean? What will that world be like? What do we have to look forward to? Or to fear? How do we get from here to there … and do we want to? How does today’s AI technology develop…
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jbrittholbrook 