Science Everythingelse

Ingroup-Outgroupthinking

•  Ingroupfavouri9sm•  Outgroupderoga9on•  Withingroupsocialinfluence•  Outgrouphomogenisa9on•  Grouppolarisa9on

HenriTajel

-Reducesinsecurityandfearoftheunknown

Science Everythingelse

SuperhumanlycleverSub-humanlyrobo9c

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Boffins People

•  Nicetothinkyouaresuperhumanlyclever

•  Manybenefitstothinkingyouareen9relylogicalandra9onal

-ScienceistheinexorablemarchtoTheTruth-WalkinastraightlinetoTheAnswer

•  Theunwashedmasseswillnotunderstand

-Theyarenotsuperhumanlyclever-Theyaretotallyirra9onal

TheScien9stInGroup-Reducinginsecurityandfearoftheunknown

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Thisisascien9st Thisisnotscience

Scienceisamethodoffindingthingsout

•  Makesomeobserva9ons•  Becomecurious/wanttosolveaproblem•  Formulateahypothesis•  Testthehypothesis•  Rejectorfailtorejectthehypothesis•  Comeupwithanewhypothesisand/oranewtest…..

Scienceisamethodoffindingthingsout

•  Itiscodifiedthought-marshalling

•  Anyonecandoit

•  Youdonothavetobesuperhuman

Youalsodon’thavetobearobot…..

Sciencerequirescrea9vityandimagina9on

•  Tocomeupwiththebesthypothesesandthebesttestsforthemyouneedcrea9vityandimagina9on

•  Progressdependsonbeingrepeatedlywrong

•  Successinvolvesmodelsoftheworldwithever-increasingexplanatoryandpredic9vepower

•  Itdoesnotinvolve“TheTruth”

TheScience-In-Groupsecurityblanket

•  Iamsuperhumanlyclever•  Iamonaninexorable

marchtoTheTruth

•  IwilldefinitelygettoTheAnswer

•  Iamusingpurera9onallogic

•  Nooneelsewillunderstandmygenius

Whatgoodscienceisreallyabout

•  Iwillbeconsistentlyandrepeatedlywrong

•  Iambuildingmodelswithexplanatoryandpredic9vepower

•  Anythingcouldhappen

•  Iammakingstuffupwhichwill

thenbeprovedwrong

•  Discussionswithallkindsofpeoplewillbeuseful,especiallyiftheydisagreewithme

Ingroup-Outgroupthinking•  Ingroupfavouri9sm•  Outgroupderoga9on•  Withingroupsocialinfluence•  Outgrouphomogenisa9on•  Grouppolarisa9on

-Reducesinsecurityandfearoftheunknown

BUTthisisfundamentallyan9-scien9fic…-Engendersbiasandclosedmindedness-Itlocksoutchallengeandcrea9vity

•  Idon’tneedtobesuperhumanlyclever-Iamallowed,evensupposed,tobewrong

•  Idon’tneedtofightagainstmyhumanity-Crea9vityandimagina9onareessen9al-Themodelsthatemergewillhaveexplanatoryandpredic9vepower

•  Discussionswithallkindsofpeoplewillhelp

TheScien9stAllGroup

Science Everythingelse

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Super-humanlycleverSub-humanlyrobo9c

Boffins People

•  IamnotEinsteinsoIdon’thavetoengagewithscience

•  Boffinsarechangingtheworldtoofastandtheyseemtobewronghalfthe9me

•  Ihavenoagencytomakemylifebe[er

•  IprefertobelievethisnicepersonwhothinksIamright

TheEveryoneelseInGroup-Reducinginsecurityandfearoftheunknown

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•  Makesomeobserva9ons•  Becomecurious/wanttosolveaproblem•  Formulateahypothesis•  Testthehypothesis•  Rejectorrefinethehypothesis•  Testthenewhypothesis………

TheEverything-else-In-Groupsecurityblanket

•  IamnotEinsteinsoIdon’thavetoengagewithscience

•  UnreliableBoffinsarechanging

theworldtoofast

•  Ihavenoagencytomakemylifebe[er

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What’spossible

•  ScienceisamethodIuseallthe9me

•  Scien9stsarepeopletoo•  Ihaveeffec9vetoolsto

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Clinton

Thisishowsciencewillsavetheworld

The ABCs of Flower DevelopmentAn ideal flower has a typical structure. You can see it nicely in Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress).The flower has 4 whorls, each with one set of a specific organ.

What organ appears in what whorl is controlled by the ac-tivity of specific gene families- called the A,B, and C genes. Their activity alone or in com-bination leads to specific organs being made.

If you imagine these gene activi-ties in a spatial way- you can see how they give rise to the typical flower!

But most flowers look very dif-ferent from this ideal flower: nature has amazing variety to ac-comodate many pollination strat-egies.

A

B

C

B

A

C

BBC

C B

AAA

AA BB

Build a standard ABC model out of legos. Build a flower that matches that pattern. Now take one of the genes away. What would your flower look like then?