How the domestic aesthetics of Instagram repackage QAnon for the masses When I showed some of these Instagram accounts to Sophie Bishop, a lecturer in digital humanities at King’s College London, she identified in all of them a “very recognizable,” feminine-coded aesthetic. “It’s aspirational, and then it’s also authentic enough to allow for relatability,” she […]
There should never be heroes in science
Some scientists make their careers by criticising other’s research. But who watches the watchmen? …those self-critical, self-correcting principles of science simply don’t allow for hero-worship. Even the strongest critics of science need themselves to be criticised; those who raise the biggest questions about the way we do research need themselves to be questioned. Healthy science […]
Speaking truth to power – there’s no such thing as neutral
There is no such thing as neutral. There is no position, no placeholder, that doesn’t carry with it some subjectivity based on our experiences in the world. “We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” if someone says it’s raining, and someone else says we’re […]
Honesty is majority policy in lost wallet experiment
Public more likely to return wallet containing larger sum of money, global study finds Here’s a moral dilemma: if you find a wallet stuffed with bank notes, do you pocket the cash or track down the owner to return it? We can each speak for ourselves, but now a team of economists have put the […]
Getting it right
Truth is neither absolute nor timeless. But the pursuit of truth remains at the heart of the scientific endeavour But philosophers of science, over the past half-century, have turned against the representation of science as a ceaseless forward march toward truth. It is just not how science works, how it moves through history. It flies […]