Thomas: The Apostle of Scientists

Richard Dawkins suggests that the way “doubting Thomas” demanded evidence for Jesus’ resurrection should endear him to scientists. A close reading of Chapter 20 of John’s Gospel suggests that Thomas’ confession of Jesus’ divinity does indeed resonate with how scientists make progress, but not because he demanded evidence. Rather, the similarity lies in the way he went beyond the immediate evidence to reach a bold conclusion, the implications of which took a lifetime to work out. A comparison with the way J. J. Thomson discovered the first sub-atomic particle, the electron, shows that this is also how breakthroughs in science happen.     

Humans as professional interactants with elephants in a global commons

All current versions of ethics for human interaction with animals are based on theories originally developed for relationships between humans or for human understanding of the environment. The perceived analogies between relationships among humans those theories were designed for and the relationships between human and animals have led to specifically revised and adapted theories for ethical interaction between humans and animals. In this essay I propose two further analogies that I develop into one core argument to cover specific issues in human–animal relationships not yet adequately addressed. First I adapt the ethical theory designed for use between human professionals and their clients for analogous use in the power relationship between humans and animals; second I similarly adapt the ethical theory designed for interactions between humans and the global environment. I use elephants as example of an animal species and they stand as proxy for all similar animal species. The overall argument justifies moral duties for humanity to protect both species and the global biosphere as home for all living organisms.     

Science as a Matter of Honour: How Accused Scientists Deal with Scientific Fraud in Japan

Practices related to research misconduct seem to have been multiplied in recent years. Many cases of scientific fraud have been exposed publicly, and journals and academic institutions have deployed different measures worldwide in this regard. However, the influence of specific social and cultural environments on scientific fraud may vary from society to society. This article analyzes how scientists in Japan deal with accusations of scientific fraud. For such a purpose, a series of scientific fraud cases that took place in Japan has been reconstructed through diverse sources. Thus, by analyzing those cases, the social basis of scientific fraud and the most relevant aspects of Japanese cultural values and traditions, as well as the concept of honour which is deeply involved in the way Japanese scientists react when they are accused of and publicly exposed in scientific fraud situations is examined.     

Personal Characteristics that Distinguish Creative Scientists from Less Creative Scientists

What are the personal characteristics that distinguish the creative scientist from the less creative scientist? This study used the concept of implicit theory in a four‐part study of scientists and graduate students in science. In the first part, we collected 1382 adjective words that describe the personal characteristics of the creative scientist from 354 scientists. In the second part of the study, 542 additional scientists assessed these adjectives. We determined that the personal characteristics of the creative scientist fit into four factors: personality, thinking ability, research ability, and uniqueness. In the third part of the study, we found that the concepts of thinking ability and uniqueness would positively predict 221 graduate students' self‐perceived creativity, and research ability would positively predict their creative motivation. The last part of the study involved having 283 creative scientists and 264 less creative scientists from 30 research institutions rated by three colleagues on the above four factors. A logistic regression found that thinking ability was best able to identify creative scientists while personality best predicted less creative scientists.     

Facing the Pariah of Science: The Frankenstein Myth as a Social and Ethical Reference for Scientists

Science and Engineering Ethics - Since its first publication in 1818, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus has transcended genres and cultures to become a foundational myth...     

Alienation Among Research Scientists

Abstract

Institutional researchers face many organizational barriers to creativity, and many feel alienated from the organization. The present study examined (a) the relationship between psychological climate and feelings of alienation and (b) the extent to which individual disposition toward delaying gratification moderates the relationship between climate and alienation. Hierarchical moderated multiple regression analysis on data collected from 76 workers at a United States Department of Defense research and development laboratory indicated that, although climate may have been important in the development of alienation among individuals with a long-delay orientation, it was virtually irrelevant to those with a short-delay orientation.     

宗教裁判所为什么迫害自然科学家

在科学史上,许多著名的科学家如伽利略、布鲁诺、塞尔维特等一批著名的自然科学家都惨遭“宗教裁判所”的审判,伽利略受到了侮辱,布鲁诺受到了“火刑”,他们在那样的时代,为了科学的进步都付出了昂贵的代价,甚至是生命的代价在他们所处的时代,他们为什么会不顾个人的安危来从事并没有任何功利性的科学事业呢?要想了解宗教裁判所为什么迫害自然科学家     

Scientists Admitting to Plagiarism: A Meta-analysis of Surveys

We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of anonymous surveys asking scientists whether they ever committed various forms of plagiarism. From May to December 2011 we searched 35 bibliographic databases, five grey literature databases and hand searched nine journals for potentially relevant studies. We included surveys that asked scientists if, in a given recall period, they had committed or knew of a colleague who committed plagiarism, and from each survey extracted the proportion of those who reported at least one case. Studies that focused on academic (i.e. student) plagiarism were excluded. Literature searches returned 12,460 titles from which 17 relevant survey studies were identified. Meta-analysis of studies reporting committed (N = 7) and witnessed (N = 11) plagiarism yielded a pooled estimate of, respectively, 1.7 % (95 % CI 1.2–2.4) and 30 % (95 % CI 17–46). Basic methodological factors, including sample size, year of survey, delivery method and whether survey questions were explicit rather than indirect made a significant difference on survey results. Even after controlling for these methodological factors, between-study differences in admission rates were significantly above those expected by sampling error alone and remained largely unexplained. Despite several limitations of the data and of this meta-analysis, we draw three robust conclusions: (1) The rate at which scientists report knowing a colleague who committed plagiarism is higher than for data fabrication and falsification; (2) The rate at which scientists report knowing a colleague who committed plagiarism is correlated to that of fabrication and falsification; (3) The rate at which scientists admit having committed either form of misconduct (i.e. fabrication, falsification and plagiarism) in surveys has declined over time.     

科学家怎样建构模型

令人惊讶的是,科学家做什么和他们怎样思考一直是困难的考察课题。研究者们一贯利用笔记、谈话、日记、历史重构和同事的阐述来得到对认知过程的描述,它成为科学思考和建立模型的基础。运用这些方法,研究者们对科学中发生的事情已经完成了许多重要的说明。然而,过去的十年我们一直追踪不同的方法来考察科学家思考和推理的方式。我们已经考察过“有机地”发生在分子生物学和免疫学实验室集会上的思考和推理。我们已经做的是当科学家在自己的实验室思考和推理的时候,对他们进行录像和录音。然后我们逐字逐句地分析科学家们在明确地叙述理论、分析数据、设计实验和建立模型时所利用的思考和推理的类型。我们已经在美国、加拿大和意大利考察了最主要的实验室。在每个实验室我们工作了三个月到一年的时间,为每周一次的实验室集会录音,以会见和其他文件(如核准的建议、论文草稿)以及个别谈话补充集会内容。用这种方法,我们能够建立科学思维的认知基础的细致模型。尤其是,我们考察了现代科学中类比、意外发现和组合推理的作用。     

Discriminative Versus Reinforcing Properties of Schedules as Determinants of Schedule Insensitivity in Humans

The Psychological Record - Compliance with instructions to respond on response-independent schedules was studied to see if schedule insensitivity is determined by reinforcement of inappropriate...     

为什么有些科学家信仰宗教

在科学家与宗教的关系问题上,所说的科学家往往以自然科学家为主,他们常常是:哥白尼、布鲁诺、伽利略、牛顿、康德、达尔文等人。他们相关的宗教为基督教,他们主要生活在欧洲,他们所处的历史进程自欧洲的中世纪到19世纪。这一历史阶段,基督教由教权至上走向衰落。在基督教鼎盛时期,政权屈从于教权,教育权被宗教所把持。科学家在青少年时期接受教育,受控于宗教,要接受神学训导。在这样的时代背景下,科学家不信仰宗教是不可能的。他们全都是基督徒,也与他们出生于基督徒家庭密切相关。哥白尼10岁丧父,由舅父抚养,他舅父是一个教区的主教,他曾…     

科学家的道德责任

科学家的道德责任分为由他们的专业特点所决定的角色责任和作为普通人所共同具有的普遍责任.一种传统的观点认为,科学家追求真理和知识的自主性是不受任何限制的,因此他们的角色责任远胜过他们的普遍责任,他们不需要考虑他们的工作超出科学范围之外的后果是怎样的,因此应当免除他们考虑这一后果的普遍责任.     

科学家也是人

DNA双螺旋结构发现者之一、美国著名生物学家沃森的<基因·女郎·伽莫夫:发现双螺旋之后>一书,以亲身的经历和感受生动地描述了科学家之间微妙的合作和激烈的竞争,说明了科学是严肃而神圣的,科学家的生活却是丰富多彩的.     

Comparing Lives: Rush Rhees on Humans and Animals

In several posthumously published writings about the differences between humans and animals, Rush Rhees criticises the view that human lives are more important than (or superior to) animal lives. Rhees' views may seem to be in sympathy with more recent critiques of “speciesism.” However, the most commonly discussed anti‐speciesist moral frameworks – which take the capacity of sentience as the criterion of moral considerability – are inadequate. Rhees' remark that both humans and animals can be loved points towards a different way of accounting for the moral considerability of humans and animals that avoid the problems of the capacity‐based approaches.