by Marty Coleman | Apr 15, 2013 | Nikki Giovanni, What Science Is - 2013 |
I went down to Dallas this past weekend and bought 5 new quote books. I an going to take a quote from each one over the next 5 days. Today’s is from ‘Language Is a Place of Struggle – Great Quotes by People of Color, Edited by Tram Nguyen.
Facts
I often think about how much people depend on facts and statistics. It’s 3 hours driving to Wichita so we better leave by 1 if we are going to get there by 4. I ran my last 10k in 55:54, a personal record and the first time under 56 minutes. One of those facts is neutral, not a lot of interpretation to it. The other, the one about my run, is also a fact, but it has some emotional or psychological meaning to me, and perhaps to others who hear it.
Unfacts
But what about facts that aren’t facts at all? For example, Rebekah Evans (my daughter) wrote an article in her blog ‘The Cellular Scale’ titled, ‘Do small men think like big women?‘. It’s a great read about flawed science, gender bias and ‘facts’ that aren’t. It’s about the Corpus Callosum, a part of the brain that connects the right and left hemisphere. It’s been said for many decades that women’s are bigger than men’s and that as a result women have a more unified brain, can multitask better, etc.
But the truth is that is not true. Later studies showed that it isn’t based on male or female, but on the actual size of the brain. The larger the brain, the less proportion of the brain the corpus collosum is, leading to the wrong assumption it had something to do with women or men. Check it out and see how a ‘fact’ can be delivered and believed by many people due to many reasons not attached to the veracity of the truth. In this example it lead right into already existing gender bias.
What do you believe, not because it is true, based on facts, but because it feeds into a need to control yourself or others, or fits a bias you have?
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Drawing and Commentary by Marty Coleman, factual.
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Quote by Nikki Giovanni, 1943 – not dead yet, African-American writer and activist
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 12, 2013 | What Science Is - 2013 |
My neuroscientist daughter, Rebekah, is visiting this week. I am doing a series on science to honor her. She writes an awesome blog called ‘The Cellular Scale‘ that will open your eyes about the amazing world of brain research. I hope you check it out.
The Difference
That’s the difference to me. Both are creative, both are rooted in curiosity and love of exploration. They just go about it different ways.
Science, Creativity and Courage
Science finds hidden treasures that were there all along. It takes creativity and courage. It can be in plain sight but if you are not looking and thinking creatively, you won’t find it. And if you look for something others say isn’t even there, then you have to have courage to pursue the hunt. The scientist has to withstand peer pressure to pursue in a well worn direction, not in a new area that has no history to it.
Art, Creativity and Courage
Art creates treasures, finding them inside the artist’s own brain. The artist also needs creativity and courage. Without creativity the artist is always derivative, a copier machine. The artist needs courage because there will always be someone, often times plenty of someones, who say what you are pursuing, what you are creating, isn’t worth the time and effort. Whether it’s drawing a naked person or photographing the odd angles of a building, someone will say it’s a waste of time. The artist has to have courage to continue pursuing their passion and vision.
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Drawing, Quote and commentary by Marty Coleman
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Morning Haiku
While the cat is on my lap,
I read baseball beaning news,
After I stretched my unlimber parts.
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 9, 2013 | Emerson Pugh, What Science Is - 2013 |
Brain Mapping
The President recently proposed a ‘brain mapping’ research initiative. I think it sounds like a great idea but it would really be better described as not drawing a map of the brain but creating a key to the map of the brain. Why is that? You think the human genome was tough to catalog? Try doing that for 85+ billion neurons and 100 trillion or so synapses. In other words, there is a lot of ground to cover.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t get started on it, it just means it will take a while. And a lot of money.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote by Emerson Pugh, American Physicist, 1929 – not dead yet
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by Marty Coleman | Apr 8, 2013 | Marty Coleman, What Science Is - 2013 |
My eldest daughter, pregnant with my first grandchild, is coming to visit this week. She is almost finished getting her Ph.D. in Neuroscience so I thought I would do a few drawings about science this week in honor of her.
Late to the Party
I never had a huge interest in science growing up. But the 20 year influence of my ex-father in law, who was an engineer and had a huge knowledge of many scientific principles and Rebekah starting in on her studies of the brain, I found myself reading more and more books and articles on science over the years.
Leaving the Other Party
It coincided with a great dissatisfaction and frustration with religious stubbornness about science. Evolution, cosmology, climatology, biology, neurology…you name it and it seemed that religion was dragging it’s intellectual heels in accepting what was being learned about life and the universe. The fear that the discoveries of science could steal away power or faith or something else seemed to lead to a desperation of denial that I have found to be unacceptable for me to condone.
When Comfort Leads the Way
I have figured out a bit of the reason why that is. It seems to me that it is due to comfort being more important than truth. You might think it is the opposite, since religion often stands on ‘truth’ as a pillar of the faith. There is talk of sacrifice and bowing the the will of God and all sorts of other supposedly uncomfortable efforts we are told need to be made to get in line with God and his truth. But the truth is that truth is not really pursued. What is pursued is comfort (which can also be seen as peace and happiness). I am not talking about material comfort per se, though that is a big part of American life so is pursued by religious believers just as it is by non-believers. I am talking about comfort of intellect. The religious believer is more concerned with the assurance of happiness and peace than truth. It might not be happiness and peace in this life, but it is critical to believe so one can have peace and happiness in eternal life. Whether or not the theological construct they have believed makes any rational sense, is true, is not nearly as important as if it is just believable enough to allow for a feeling of peace and happiness. In other words, comfort.
When Truth Leads the Way
Here is my feeling about it. Science, in all its messy and human pursuit of truth, actually gives me a much more genuine feeling of peace and happiness than theology does. It does so because I trust it. I don’t mean I trust any one scientific discovery. I mean I trust the process of truth seeking that comes with science. I believe it is moving towards truth and won’t be stopped. Religion and theology meanwhile already has been stopped. It has it’s definitions and it isn’t interested in having those changed. I can’t trust a process that is stopped like that.
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Science Trivia Question of the Day
The fixed point on which a lever moves is called:
- Fulcrum
- Anchor
- Pivot
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman
Quote is by Marty Coleman, adapted from one by Le Bon
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