Browsing 20 - 30 results of 30 programs from project - Evidence: How Do We Know What We Know?
An interview with Mel Zucker, Professor of Geology, Skyline College, San Bruno, California.
In the early 1900s, German meteorologist Alfred Wegener suggested that the earth's continents were once a single landmass that had somehow split into pieces, drifting their separate ways. Geologists the world over called his idea preposterous. Decades later, their ridicule shifted to admiration as new tools developed by the military to map the ocean floors revealed the engine that drives the continents' movement. Geology professor Mel Zucker tells the story of this brilliant earth scientist and how, long after his death, science finally caught up with Wegener's crazy idea.
Project: Evidence: How Do We Know What We Know? | Browse All
Date: August 20, 2008
Format: Interview
Category: Popular Science
Subject(s): Geology/Earth Science An interview with science historian Richard Carrier.
It's not enough to know that a nutcracker works; a scientist needs to know why. Historian Richard Carrier recounts how, in ancient Greece, pondering the nutcracker led to the physics of levers. He describes how Aristotle and others shaped the beginnings of Western scientific thought: the notion that knowledge of the natural world relies on being able to question, test, reproduce and improve the accuracy of what's believed to be true. He explains why he sees science as a practice rooted in values, how it protects us from our own erroneous tendencies, and why questioning authority helps foster scientific thinking.
Project: Evidence: How Do We Know What We Know? | Browse All
Date: August 20, 2008
Format: Interview
Category: Everyday Science
Subject(s): Physics An interview with Isabel Hawkins, Co-director/Research Astronomer, UC Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory; Co-director, NASA Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum.
When astronomer Isabel Hawkins began exploring the astronomical work of Native Americans, their knowledge broadened
her view of the night sky. She's since discovered several scientists incorporating the work of native people, both modern and ancient, into their current-day research. Isabel describes how she sees science as a cultural construct, the value of learning from personal experience, and that evidence comes in many forms.
Project: Evidence: How Do We Know What We Know? | Browse All
Date: August 20, 2008
Format: Expedition
Category: History of Science
Subject(s): Astronomy/Space Science
