More Subtle Aspects of “What is Science?”
Dr. Doug Duncan
University of Colorado
Not agreed to by many practicing scientists; good debate topics:
David Gelertner (Yale): “Women are…less prone to the intense, cutthroat aggressiveness which usually marks the successful research scientist”
Riccardo Giaconni: “Make yourself the master of your subfield, and make it clear that it is yours alone.”
Meg Urry: “In other words, pee around the boundaries.”
The 1992 and 2002 “Women in Astronomy” meetings: “What leads to excellent science?” Cooperation or competition?
The trouble with “It is Trivial” and “Theories of Everything” – how they turn people off to science.
Hubert Reeves, “Malicorne – Earthly reflections of an astrophysicist.” – good book by “the French Carl Sagan,” delightful and much more modest than the “Theories of Everything” people.
The STATUS of women in astronomy newsletter, and the very informative listserve.
“Talking About Leaving – Why Undergraduates Leave the Sciences” Seymour & Hewitt. 600 hours of interviews and thoughtful analysis give the answers.
“There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.”
– Mark Twain (1835 – 1910)