1 / 15

SPU-22: The Unity of Science from the Big Bang to the Brontosaurus and Beyond

SPU-22: The Unity of Science from the Big Bang to the Brontosaurus and Beyond. Lecture 1 27 January 2014 Science Center Lecture Hall A. Course Guides (Living not Written).

tillie
Download Presentation

SPU-22: The Unity of Science from the Big Bang to the Brontosaurus and Beyond

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. SPU-22: The Unity of Science from the Big Bang to the Brontosaurus and Beyond Lecture 1 27 January 2014 Science Center Lecture Hall A

  2. Course Guides(Living not Written) Instructor: Irwin Shapiro (“Irwin” to all) Head Teaching Fellow: Josh Schroeder (astronomy) Teaching Fellow: Charlene Chan (biology) Teaching Fellow: Clinton Hansen (biology) See course web site (soon!) for contact information

  3. Lectures and Sections Lectures: Science Center, Lecture Hall A Mondays and Wednesdays at 10 Sections: Thursdays and/or Fridays. Labs may replace two sections.

  4. Philosophy and Related Aspects of Course Definition of Science - How Nature behaves - Our models of how Nature behaves What about why?

  5. Unity of Science One world One scientific method Intertwining of branches of science Needs for multi-disciplinary approaches Diffusion of tools Diffusion of scientists

  6. Nature’s Behavior Demos: fork and balls Consistency of behavior Problem of the past

  7. Models Purpose: Accurate predictions of unobserved phenomena Applicability and choices: Occam’s razor Language descriptions: Principle, law, rule, theory, hypothesis, speculation, and guess

  8. Organization Problem: Speech linear; fabric of science interwoven My solution (to provide perspective on advances): - Historical within major (and some minor) topics Many travels backwards and forwards in time: a feature not a bug - Detective story formats - Forays into sociology of science

  9. Other Features Overview Science-technology coupling Evidence the arbiter: Why believe what believe Role of mathematics (and help is available) Auxiliary concepts (“tools”) Demonstrations Jargon Issue

  10. Main Message Ask questions! Importance of probing questions: spark for most advances Paradox of answers

  11. Connection to Future Goal of general-education program: “to connect in an explicit way what students learn at Harvard to life beyond Harvard, and to help them understand and appreciate the complexities of the world and their role in it” Realization of goal in SPU-22: questions as key; science background and policy issues

  12. Course Book Creation Distribution Anonymous comments

  13. Slides and Study Guides Slides for lecture outlines (and diagrams) Study guides for exams

  14. Administrative Details Homework collaboration Term project Grading policy

  15. Lighthearted Postscript Scientists vs magicians

More Related