90 | David Kaiser on Science, Money, and Power

90 | David Kaiser on Science, Money, and Power

Science costs money. And for a brief, glorious period between the start of the Manhattan Project in 1939 and the cancellation of the Superconducting Super Collider in 1993, physics was awash in it, largely sustained by the Cold War. Things are now different, as physics — and science more broadly — has entered a funding crunch. David Kaiser, who is both a working physicist and an historian of science, talks with me about the fraught relationship between scientists and their funding sources throughout history, from Galileo and his patrons to the current rise of private foundations. It's an interesting listen for anyone who wonders about the messy reality of how science gets done.

Support Mindscape on Patreon.

David Kaiser received a Ph.D. in physics, and a separate Ph.D. in history of science, from Harvard University. He is currently Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science in MIT's Program in Science, Technology, and Society, Professor of Physics in MIT's Department of Physics, and also Associate Dean for Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC) in MIT's Schwarzman College of Computing. He has been awarded the Davis Prize and Pfizer Prize from the History of Science Society, was named a Mac Vicar Faculty Fellow for undergraduate teaching at MIT, and received the Perkins Award for excellence in mentoring graduate students. His book Quantum Legacies: Dispatches from an Uncertain World is available April 3.


Avsnitt(419)

95 | Liam Kofi Bright on Knowledge, Truth, and Science

95 | Liam Kofi Bright on Knowledge, Truth, and Science

Everybody talks about the truth, but nobody does anything about it. And to be honest, how we talk about truth — what it is, and how to get there — can be a little sloppy at times. Philosophy to the re...

4 Maj 20201h 35min

94 | Stuart Russell on Making Artificial Intelligence Compatible with Humans

94 | Stuart Russell on Making Artificial Intelligence Compatible with Humans

Artificial intelligence has made great strides of late, in areas as diverse as playing Go and recognizing pictures of dogs. We still seem to be a ways away from AI that is "intelligent" in the human s...

27 Apr 20201h 27min

93 | Rae Wynn-Grant on Bears, Humans, and Other Predators

93 | Rae Wynn-Grant on Bears, Humans, and Other Predators

Human beings have a strange fascination with dangerous, predatory animals — bears, lions, wolves, sharks, and more. The top of the food chain is an interesting and precarious place to live; while you ...

20 Apr 20201h 2min

92 | Kevin Hand on Life Elsewhere in the Solar System

92 | Kevin Hand on Life Elsewhere in the Solar System

It's hard doing science when you only have one data point, especially when that data point is subject to an enormous selection bias. That's the situation faced by people studying the nature and preval...

13 Apr 20201h 56min

91 | Scott Barry Kaufman on the Psychology of Transcendence

91 | Scott Barry Kaufman on the Psychology of Transcendence

If one of the ambitious goals of philosophy is to determine the meaning of life, one of the ambitious goals of psychology is to tell us how to achieve it. An influential work in this direction was Abr...

6 Apr 20201h 19min

89 | Lera Boroditsky on Language, Thought, Space, and Time

89 | Lera Boroditsky on Language, Thought, Space, and Time

What direction does time point in? None, really, although some people might subconsciously put the past on the left and the future on the right, or the past behind themselves and the future in front, ...

23 Mars 20201h 28min

Tara Smith on Coronavirus, Pandemics, and What We Can Do

Tara Smith on Coronavirus, Pandemics, and What We Can Do

This is a special episode of Mindscape, thrown together quickly. Many thanks to Tara Smith for joining me on short notice. Tara is an epidemiologist, and a great person to talk to about the novel coro...

18 Mars 20201h 20min

Populärt inom Vetenskap

p3-dystopia
svd-nyhetsartiklar
dumma-manniskor
kapitalet-en-podd-om-ekonomi
allt-du-velat-veta
doden-hjarnan-kemisten
rss-ufo-bortom-rimligt-tvivel-2
rss-vetenskapsradion-2
rss-vetenskapsradion
det-morka-psyket
bildningspodden
sexet
medicinvetarna
paranormalt-med-caroline-giertz
rss-spraket
har-vi-akt-till-mars-an
rss-experimentet
dumforklarat
barnpsykologerna
rss-tidsmaskinen