Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world.
Louis Pasteur (1822 – 1895)
Jul 272016
Jul 092016
I am among those who think that science has great beauty. A scientist in his laboratory is not only a technician: he is also a child placed before natural phenomena which impress him like a fairy tale.
Marie Curie (1867 – 1934)
Jul 222015
Experimenter’s or expectation bias: The tendency for experimenters to believe, certify, and publish data that agree with their expectations for the outcome of an experiment, and to disbelieve, discard, or downgrade the corresponding weightings for data that appear to conflict with those expectations.
Wikipedia. A must read & impliment list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases
Jun 142015
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ (I found it!) but ‘That’s funny …’
Isaac Asimov (1920 – 1992)
Mar 302015
Most churches make people feel guilty about natural human inclinations, making them feel dependent on the church for forgiveness. Religion focuses on unresolved human problems of insecurity, shame, fear, and wish fulfillment, and offers hope for a better life in the next world. Science offers people the tools of reason and knowledge to help build self-reliance and free people from mythology and simple wish fulfillment
Feb 012015
Education is what, when, and why to do things. Training is how to do it.
In science, if you know what you are doing, you should not be doing it. In engineering, if you do not know what you are doing, you should not be doing it.
Richard Hamming: The Art of Doing Science and Engineering (1997)
Nov 102014
Nobody thinks 100% outside – or inside the box. Deepening of our understanding is based on the balance of insight and knowledge. Science has some inertia. Religion is inertia.
Nov 102014
Nobody thinks 100% outside – or inside the box. Deepening of our understanding is based on the balance of insight and knowledge. Science has some inertia. Religion is inertia.
Nov 102014
Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind since I have resolved at all risks to do this.
Thomas Henry Huxley, Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley – Volume 1
Oct 082014
I think it is safe to say I am a Highly Sensitive Person and a High Sensation Seeker (HSP/HSS).
There is an article on possible jobs for Highly Sensitive people and this is what my experience tells me:
Being happy and employed mostly depends on who you work with. I’ve been a scientist for quite a few years and was very content with my job as I had wonderful understanding colleagues. I didn’t like lots of things going on in the big scientific world outside our lab: competition, need to promote your work again and again, disregard for geeks, force of the establishment,.
Now the circumstances have changed and I am a self employed artist. It often feels wonderful but there are problems, too, e.g. no friendly colleagues with similar background and interest around me. Being empathic I can’t really make friends online. So it feels lonely quite often. I still have to promote myself – even more so as there is no wise boss to help me. Being also a HSS I don’t do repetative “consistent” work for which artists are often praised.
What job is best for you depends on circumstances and you ability to adapt to them. I don’t think there is direct link between personality and profession. Any group of people working on any project would benefit to some degree from being made of people with different ways of thinking and points of view. Ones who can work together without fighting – or other tragedies.
And of course we need all kinds of artists, writers, film makers, etc.
Oct 082014
I think it is safe to say I am a Highly Sensitive Person and a High Sensation Seeker (HSP/HSS).
There is an article on possible jobs for Highly Sensitive people and this is what my experience tells me:
Being happy and employed mostly depends on who you work with. I’ve been a scientist for quite a few years and was very content with my job as I had wonderful understanding colleagues. I didn’t like lots of things going on in the big scientific world outside our lab: competition, need to promote your work again and again, disregard for geeks, force of the establishment,.
Now the circumstances have changed and I am a self employed artist. It often feels wonderful but there are problems, too, e.g. no friendly colleagues with similar background and interest around me. Being empathic I can’t really make friends online. So it feels lonely quite often. I still have to promote myself – even more so as there is no wise boss to help me. Being also a HSS I don’t do repetative “consistent” work for which artists are often praised.
What job is best for you depends on circumstances and you ability to adapt to them. I don’t think there is direct link between personality and profession. Any group of people working on any project would benefit to some degree from being made of people with different ways of thinking and points of view. Ones who can work together without fighting – or other tragedies.
And of course we need all kinds of artists, writers, film makers, etc.
Oct 062014
You can’t have a good quality sci-fi story with mistakes like this. The Moon turned to be an “iron chicken” screaming and flapping its wings in the vacuum of space! Plus quite a few other ridiculous details including the wrong age of the Moon. How this is supposed to teach our kids to like science?
Moral dilemmas are very important but even they became so repetitive! By the way, our kids already left the audience despite most of us admiring Peter Capaldi as the new Doctor and Jenna Coleman as his assistant. The parents will be leaving soon too if the series won’t improve. And they could improve.
I am sure there is plenty of excellent new writers ready to take over and recreate the series which would inspire both young and old. Pose completely new important and controversial problems. Tell us about Earth history or new discoveries in physics – realistically, please. We really need something fresh and different, not just endless repetition of themes from previous episodes plus deep disregard of modern science.
Oct 062014
You can’t have a good quality sci-fi story with mistakes like this. The
Moon turned to be an “iron chicken” screaming and flapping its wings in
the vacuum of space! Plus quite a few other ridiculous details including the wrong age of the Moon. How this is supposed to teach our kids to like science?
Moral dilemmas are very important but even they became so repetitive! By the way, our kids already left the audience despite most of us admiring Peter Capaldi as the new Doctor and Jenna Coleman as his assistant. The parents will be leaving soon too if the series won’t improve. And they could improve.
I am sure there is plenty of excellent new writers ready to take over and recreate the series which would inspire both young and old. Pose completely new important and controversial problems. Tell us about Earth history or new discoveries in physics – realistically, please. We really need something fresh and different, not just endless repetition of themes from previous episodes plus deep disregard of modern science.
Oct 052014
From time to time I post something about where I would like to go in life. I don’t normally know how to get here.
I am a sort of an artist in a non – artist – friendly land. I have got my work in three “Local Art Galleries” but this somehow doesn’t feel right. What is their message? Something like: “Look here! We are creative and local. Buy unique arts and crafts with silly price tags! “
Is this what I want to achieve? Not quite.
Buyers either don’t care about their goods being unique or they don’t care about the price tags – but need works of famous artists. Could I be one? I doubt that. Do I want just to be a famous artist and earn money? It’s just not good enought…
When I close my eyes I could see us buying a piece of land somewhere nice (no I haven’t got any money). Building a beautiful semi-autonomous homestead. Turning it into an Art and Astronomy retreat / creativity centre. Gradually organizing an intentional community of people of various ages and many occupations around that center.
The aim of this model settlement would be no less than creating a better future for whole humanity based on “holy trinity” of science, creativity and humanity. It would be a true community of people helping each other, having common meals and fireside chats, free range kids running in the woods… Creating the new greenest ways of living, cherishing freedom of expression, creating new rituals and celebrations for the new age. But rather than having indiscriminatory multiculturalism, we need to bring from different ages and cultures ONLY something which helps us to build a better future. Many traditions and beliefs, no matter how dear somebody holds them, will have to fade away. Mental placebos may help to feel better for a while but it is a dishonest medicine and may backfire. Talking to plants won’t get rid the world of hunger.
It wouldn’t be all dreamers, there should be a healthy proportion of practical people exploring new technologies and ways of living. For example how to teach the word to appreciate unique and handmade. The truth is, we humans can’t move forward without proper science, without developing our creativity for solving problems and improving our lives and withoud developing our compassion and understanding for each other. This is where the “holy trinity” comes from.
Maybe there would be other growing communities joining the movement across the world. And this way it will get better.
Well, this is my dream and at the moment I don’t really want to settle for anything less…
Oct 052014
From time to time I post something about where I would like to go in life. I don’t normally know how to get here.
I am a sort of an artist in a non – artist – friendly land. I have got my work in three “Local Art Galleries” but this somehow doesn’t feel right. What is their message? Something like: “Look here! We are creative and local. Buy unique arts and crafts with silly price tags! “
Is this what I want to achieve? Not quite.
Buyers either don’t care about their goods being unique or they don’t care about the price tags – but need works of famous artists. Could I be one? I doubt that. Do I want just to be a famous artist and earn money? It’s just not good enought…
When I close my eyes I could see us buying a piece of land somewhere nice (no I haven’t got any money). Building a beautiful semi-autonomous homestead. Turning it into an Art and Astronomy retreat / creativity centre. Gradually organizing an intentional community of people of various ages and many occupations around that center.
The aim of this model settlement would be no less than creating a better future for whole humanity based on “holy trinity” of science, creativity and humanity. It would be a true community of people helping each other, having common meals and fireside chats, free range kids running in the woods… Creating the new greenest ways of living, cherishing freedom of expression, creating new rituals and celebrations for the new age. But rather than having indiscriminatory multiculturalism, we need to bring from different ages and cultures ONLY something which helps us to build a better future. Many traditions and beliefs, no matter how dear somebody holds them, will have to fade away. Mental placebos may help to feel better for a while but it is a dishonest medicine and may backfire. Talking to plants won’t get rid the world of hunger.
It wouldn’t be all dreamers, there should be a healthy proportion of practical people exploring new technologies and ways of living. For example how to teach the word to appreciate unique and handmade. The truth is, we humans can’t move forward without proper science, without developing our creativity for solving problems and improving our lives and withoud developing our compassion and understanding for each other. This is where the “holy trinity” comes from.
Maybe there would be other growing communities joining the movement across the world. And this way it will get better.
Well, this is my dream and at the moment I don’t really want to settle for anything less…
