Issue 45

Mindboggling: Preliminaries to a science of the mind   by Roy Harris.  Do you have a mind?  Answers to this question have divided Western thinkers for centuries, and still do.  Mindboggling sets out to identify a nucleus of basic issues about the mind, and present the main arguments for and against in each case.  Targeted to a lay readership, each chapter discusses a different theory, myth or idea about the mind.  Anticipate wails from theorists whose theories have been given short shrift.  Mindboggling is available from Amazon (including Kindle), from Bookshops or direct from Publishers.

 

Science on Television by Bienvenido León.

The book is a clear and systematic guide to the narrative and rhetorical techniques used by science documentary filmmakers. The book is priced at £18.50, but for direct orders we are offering a 20% discount.  The book is also available on Amazon Kindle.

 

Motivating Science is a collection of articles from the first five years of The Pantaneto Forum.  We are offering a 20% discount for direct orders.  The book is also available on Amazon Kindle.

 

Editorial

 

For many scientists the successful completion of a Ph. D. is followed either by a post-doc position or a move to industry.  The choice, though, between academia and industry is not straightforward for many new Ph. D.’s.  In “Ten simple Rules for Choosing between Industry and Academia”, David Searls sets out clearly and analytically the pros and cons of choice of future career path and, even for those whose future is firmly set in their minds, Searls’s rules provide a checklist for ensuring that the right decisions are made.

 

What exactly is “Human Dignity” and how is it related to science?  This is one of those elusive concepts which is better understood in its denial than its affirmation.  In “Human Dignity as a Criterion for Science Policy,” Timothy Caulfield and Audrey Chapman explore the cultural and political aspects of human dignity as it is applied to ethical issues in science.

 

Staying with the concept of ethical issues driving science debates, John Cairns Jr. tackles the problem of a lack of cohesion amongst interdisciplinary teams.  He takes the example of environmental sustainability and analyzes the formation and structure of interdisciplinary teams and how “interdisciplinary study is still far more difficult than it need be.”

 

The proceedings of the Science Matters conference, which we reported in Issue 28, October 2007, have been published and are available from the publishers – World Scientific.

 

Nigel Sanitt Editor

ISSN 1741-1572

Contents

Articles

Ten Simple Rules for Choosing between Industry and Academia, David B. Searls

Human Dignity as a Criterion for Science Policy, Timothy Caulfield and Audrey Chapman

Ethics in science and environmental politics: issues for interdisciplinary teams, John Cairns, Jr.

Conference Report

The Third biennial Science Matters (SciMat) conference “All about Science” Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal, November 21-23, 2011