SOCI 325: Sociology of science Agenda 1. Administrative 2. - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
SOCI 325: Sociology of science Agenda 1. Administrative 2. Studying scientists Theme 2: Scientific research and laboratories is social 3. Reading discussion 1 Administrative Notes & Perusall scoring feedback Check your scores
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Theme 2: Scientific research is social
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⦙ Check your scores on Perusall 1 point = full credit ⦙ No exact threshold for full credit, but 7–15 annotations is a good, rough target:
https://soci325.netlify.com/perusall.html
⦙ Try to respond to (almost) all of the questions.
It is harder to get full credit with only a few responses.
⦙ Avoid terse, bullet-point style.
Use full sentences and fully describe your your ideas.
⦙ Refer directly to the text.
Use quotes and page numbers (if possible), and refer to the structure of the argument.
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⦙ Scientists’ personalities, goals, history, ego, and ideology alter scientific practice. ⦙ The questions one asks, the methods
comes up with are influenced by individual traits
⦙ The respect of colleagues, the power
expectations, and ‘star’ power change the course of science. ⦙ Who gets credit; who is forgotten?
Rosalind Franklin, pioneer in the discovery
credit in her lifetime.
Photo by MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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⦙ Creating images, making and tuning equipment, refining techniques, … ⦙ Scientist must learn to, e.g. make visualizations for publication.
⦙ Scientists have skills, honing certain techniques. ⦙ They may keep methods secret to maintain a competitive edge.
Figure 1b from retracted article: Obokata, Haruko, Teruhiko Wakayama, Yoshiki Sasai, Koji Kojima, Martin P . Vacanti, Hitoshi Niwa, Masayuki Yamato, and Charles A. Vacanti. 2014. “Stimulus- Triggered Fate Conversion of Somatic Cells into Pluripotency.” Nature 505 (7485) (January): 641–647.
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⦙ Data rarely tell a clear story ⦙ Scientists must construct a narrative to to turn data into a finding
⦙ Narrative is often resolved through interaction of multiple scientists. ⦙ Different members of the same lab,
advocate for competing interpretations
Experimental data in quantum mechanics supports many competing interpretations (e.g. the “Copenhagen” and “many- worlds” interpretations).
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⦙ Prestige of publication venue influences impact of findings. ⦙ High-profile journals have incentive to make a ‘splash’.
⦙ Credit within scientific institutions awarded to first recognized finding. ⦙ Scientists feel push to finalize research quickly.
August 2016 issue of Nature.
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⦙ If you are not in a group, try to find one with less than 5 before forming a new group ⦙ Choose a new facilitator who will keep the discussion focussed and make sure everyone is able to participate. ⦙ Choose a new secretary who will take notes and summarize the group’s responses for submission. ⦙ Download today’s discussion questions (Microsoft Word format) from the link on the syllabus. You can type your answers directly in the document to upload to MyCourses.
https://soci325.netlify.com/discussion_questions/02.01.docx
⦙ Try to respond to (almost) all of the questions. ⦙ Avoid terse, bullet-point style. ⦙ Refer directly to the text.
Measuring Heads
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