LibGuides: Theory of Knowledge: Natural Sciences

Connecting with the Core

Is there a single scientific method? When should we be skeptical of scientific findings?

Nutrition Science's most preposterous result
"Once you start contemplating all the ways that cultural biases can seep into science, it doesn’t stop at dairy-based desserts."

A Paper That Says Science Should Be Impartial Was Rejected by Major Journals. You Can’t Make This Up.
“What’s being advocated are philosophies that are explicitly anti-scientific,” Anna Krylov, a chemistry professor at the University of Southern California and one of the paper’s authors, told me. “They deny that objective truth exists.”

In Defense of Merit in Science
the original article that inspired the above opinion piece

Is new scientific knowledge built incrementally or through sudden insight?

How do we decide among conflicting theories? How do scientists try to protect against error in scientific research

What does it mean for science to be Falsifiable?
" We are inclined to seek out evidence which supports rather than challenges our existing opinions, a well-known phenomenon that is often referred to as confirmation bias. Science fights against this cognitive tendency by encouraging individual scientists to think critically about their own work and for the broader community to be skeptical of each other."
The IDea that a Scientfic Theory can be Falsified is a Myth.
article from Scientific American

What counts as evidence in the natural sciences? Is science a religion for Ross?

What are the limits of scientific methods and the knowledge it creates?

Can we ever claim scientific certainty? How can scientific knowledge change over time?

Is scientific knowledge more valuable than other knowledge?

What makes knowledge valid? Is there good and bad science?

What is lost or gained when we use one area of knowledge to explain another?

Why you should (mostly) trust what science tells you
Why should we trust scientific findings?
Politics of the Periodic Table
Who gets credit, and why?
Truth, Reality and the Role of Science
Has science motivated new philosophical questions?
Keep Science Irrational
Is the scientific method the only measure of scientific truth?
The Dark Side of Crispr
Should scientific research be subject to ethical constraints, or is the pursuit of all scientific knowledge intrinsically worthwhile
Science is Deeply Imaginative
What is the role of imagination and intuition in the creation of hypotheses in the natural sciences?
Whales communicate and change their culture
PodCast: The Library of Alexandria
Should knowledge be free? How much does knowledge cost? While that sounds like an abstract question, the answer is surprisingly specific: $3,096,988,440.00. That’s how much the business of publishing scientific and academic research is worth. Examine the politics and ethics behind Sci-Hub, a search engine that breaks the paywall on many academic articles.