February 9, 2009
Category: The Rightful Place Project
By now, you're probably aware of the Rightful Place Project, which is collecting text, images, audio, and video from scientists, engineers, and others involved in conversations about science in response to the question, What is science's rightful place?
I'm still thinking about my own response to this question. To help me think, I consulted with the Free-Ride offspring, and we recorded the audio of our conversation. If you don't feel like downloading the MP3, the transcript of our conversation is below.
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Posted by Erin Johnson at 12:24 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 29, 2009
Category: The Rightful Place Project
In his post-inauguration speech, President Obama spoke of restoring science to it's "rightful place". Seed's new 'Rightful Place' project asks the obvious follow-up: what is the rightful place of science? The fact that Seed's initiative talks of 'reviving science in America' almost takes as a given that scientific thinking, and a respect for scientific results, should be a central plank of enlightened government. To the extent that Obama seems to be a fully-paid up member of what one of his predecessor's minions once contemptuously referred to as the "reality-based community", the new President seems to agree, and I can't deny that I find this encouraging. But in some ways, I'm not convinced that we're actually asking the right question here. I feel that it's not so much a matter of us putting science in its rightful place, but letting science put us in ours, by forcing us to acknowledge some unpalatable truths about our world - and ourselves.
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Posted by Erin Johnson at 12:08 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: The Rightful Place Project
Perhaps you have noticed our newly redesigned front page, and on that page, a link to the Rightful Place Project. In his inaugural address, President Obama promised to restore science to its "rightful place". Seed Media Group is starting a dialog in response, asking the question "What is science's rightful place?", through Seed Magazine and ScienceBlogs. Our benevolent overlordz have asked us to offer our thoughts in response to this question.
You'll see at the Rightful Place page that you can submit your own thoughts on this question, and there is a link to the Rightful Place blog to read what other people have said. I am particularly fond of Isis's contribution.
In thinking about my own answer, I decided to ask a few non-scientist acquaintances what they thought about the question.
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Posted by Erin Johnson at 11:55 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: The Rightful Place Project
The rightful place of science is moving, never staying in one place, ever dancing and watching, on the always shifting sociopolitical landscape.
A team of white coated eggheads can solve any problem with enough science. We need to get rid of the Jews, and we don't have enough bullets, so let's get the eggheads to figure out a way to do that. We need to take the Americans out of the Pacific, but we have insufficient resources but a lot of pilots. Let's get the engineers to come up with a one-way airplane. We need to get rid of the Nazis and Imperialist Japanese, and we hear the Eggheads have a bomb that will do just that. So let's set them up in a project called Manhattan, which will be so amazing at solving this one problem that forever forward we will refer to similar projects as "Manhattan Projects."
Later, we get better toasters, improved power stations, and automatic waffle irons, as a side effect of the science and engineering. When the war is over. But we look back and see that the scientists turned out to be a bit of a problem. The Industrial Revolution and its concomitant realizations of how the Universe Works have resulted in the H-bomb. Ooops.
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Posted by Erin Johnson at 11:52 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 28, 2009
Category: The Rightful Place Project
If you've browsed the redesigned front page of ScienceBlogs, you'll see that our benevolent ScienceBlogs Overlords at Seed Magazine have started a project that they have so humbly termed The Rightful Place Project: Reviving Science in America, which is described thusly:
In his first speech as President-elect last November, Barack Obama reminded us of the promise of "a world connected by our own science and imagination." He recently stated, "promoting science isn't just about providing Resources--it's about protecting free and open inquiry... It's about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when it's inconvenient -- especially when it's inconvenient." And in his inaugural address on January 20, President Obama cemented his commitment to this ethos and culture by vowing to "restore science to its rightful place."
At Seed Media Group, we are firmly committed to President Obama's vision and will work to make it a reality. To this end, we have launched a new initiative we're calling The Rightful Place Project. We are inviting a national discussion around the President's idea of a "rightful place" for science.
All this project involves, at least from a blog perspective, is answering a deceptively simple-sounding question: What is science's rightful place?
Anyone can play, but, because I happen to have been part of the ScienceBlogs Collective for nearly three years now and I am nothing if not a loyal Borg--I mean ScienceBlogger--I thought I'd give it a whirl. I will admit one thing, though. I didn't answer this right away because I wasn't sure I wanted to. For one thing, any ideas for responses that I came up with sounded relentlessly pretentious. Yes, I realize that many will ask the question, " So what? Who would be able to tell the difference?" Suffice it to say that I would. Another reason I may have procrastinated is because I hate going along with the crowd (well, too much). Finally, I wasn't really sure what I could say that others hadn't already said better in the few days I dithered.
But, hey, this is Orac we're talking about. When dozens of bloggers write about a story before me, does that stop me? Hell, no! (Well, actually, sometimes it does.) Blogging is nothing if not a self-indulgent process, and obviously I have become the quintessential blogger. (Just look at the long, self-indulgent prelude to this post.) In any case, it takes an enormous ego to think that anyone gives a rodent's posterior about what one writes day after day, and fortunately (or unfortunately) you, my loyal readers, have rewarded that ego with awards and nominations for awards; so you're stuck with my pontifications indefinitely. Just think of the last two or three paragraphs as just one more self-indulgent (but hopefully sufficiently amusing that you haven't already stopped reading) passage that I'll edit out if I ever turn my blog into a book.
On to the answer to the great question of Life, the Universe, and Everything! (And this time it's not forty-two.)
Read on »
Posted by Erin Johnson at 11:13 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: The Rightful Place Project
If you've been browsing the new, redesigned, fancy-pants ScienceBlogs front page lately, you may have noticed the announcement for The Rightful Place Project. In his inaugural address, President Obama vowed to restore "science to its rightful place." In response, The Seed Media Group, through SeedMagazine and ScienceBlogs, are looking to begin a dialog about how to do this by asking for responses to the following question:
What is science's rightful place?
Earlier in the week, Dr. Isis and the rest of the Sciencebloggers received an email from the highest of high overlordz telling us inviting us to answer the question.
So last night Dr. Isis drew a bath, poured some wine, put on a little Aretha, and slipped under the bubbles to think about her answer to the question. She left the lid of her laptop open so that she could look at The Rightful Place Project's site while she carefully crafted what would surely be a witty and thoughtful response. Sixty minutes later I realized that I had nothing but pruny fingers and "Ain't No Way" stuck in my head to show for my efforts.
Figure 1: The only result of Dr. Isis's thinking bath. Sorry it didn't turn out better, President Obama. I really am.
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Posted by Erin Johnson at 11:02 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 27, 2009
Category: The Rightful Place Project
Last week, President Obama stated in his inaugural address that he would "restore science to its rightful place." ScienceBlogs has been quick to capitalise on his words by launching a new initiative called The Rightful Place Project. As an opening salvo, the Project is asking writers, bloggers and scientists from all over the world to answer this innocuous question:
What is science's rightful place?
Many of the others have had their say, and here's my take.
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Posted by Erin Johnson at 10:42 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: The Rightful Place Project
Our Benevolent Seed Overlords ask "What is science's rightful place?" which refers to a line from Obama's inaugural address where he vowed to "restore science to its rightful place."
Since ScienceBlogling Jake discussed the importance of basing policy on evidence--as well as correctly recognizing that the method we use to solve problems does not shed much light on whether we should address those problems in the first place--I want to bring up one problem that science faces: it is, to a great extent, elitist.
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Posted by Erin Johnson at 10:40 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
January 26, 2009
Category: The Rightful Place Project
It came as an email. Then it was on the Seed Bloggers Forum. Now it's on my frigging Facebook - they really want me to answer this:
In his first speech as President-elect last November, Barack Obama reminded us of the promise of "a world connected by our own science and imagination." And on Tuesday, in his inaugural address, President Obama cemented his commitment to a new ethos and culture by vowing to "restore science to its rightful place."
At Seed, we are firmly committed to President Obama's vision and want to help make it a reality. We begin today by asking you, our friends and colleagues in science, and outside science, to respond to the President's idea of a "rightful place" for science. What is science's rightful place?
Asseverations below the fold...
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Posted by Erin Johnson at 1:48 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
