Karry Mullis talk on TED.com

Karry Mullis, noble prize in chemistry 1993, delivered this amazing talk on TED 2002. It’s been recently added to TED.com collection.

He starts by explaining the foundation and rationale of scientific method and then shows the social nature of science. The final part is especially interesting when he refers to two papers on science which refute global warming.

I think this is the best talk I have ever listened to on this website. Higlhy recommended.

Daniel Lemire on science policy

A second academic blog post on science policy today. This time, it’s Daniel Lemire, a Canadian computer scientist. I remember reading in this book that science itself is probably the least studied phenomena of our time.

James Boyle on Science Policy

Nice article in Financial Times by James Boyle. This paragraph was especially interesting to me.

Where are those links for the scientific literature? Citations are one kind of link; the hyperlink is simply a footnote that actually takes you to the desired reference. But where is the dense web of links generated by working scientists in many disciplines, using semantic web technology and simple cross reference electronically to tie together literature, datasets and experimental results into a real World Wide Web for science? The answer is, we cannot create such a web until scientific articles come out from behind the publishers’ firewalls. What might happen if we could build it? We do not know. Think of the speed of innovation that the open Web has unleashed. Then imagine that transformative efficiency applied to science and technology rather than selling books or flirting on social networks. This bill would forbid us from building the World Wide Web for science, even for the research that taxpayers have funded. And that is truly a tragedy.