Progress Is a Very Important Idea

There's a bit of a theme when it comes to Stuart Firestein’s books, with titles like “Failure: Why Science Is So Successful,” and “Ignorance: How It Drives Science.”

Stuart Firestein is Professor of Biological Sciences at Columbia University where he and his colleagues study the vertebrate olfactory system. He says his lab is dedicated to answering that fundamental human question: How do I smell?

In this episode, Stuart tells us about his lab, what it means to succeed in science, failure vs. error, and if there is a science of serendipity.

Episode Quotes:

On teaching science

When I go to a conference or a meeting, fellow scientists, we don't talk about what we know, we talk about what we don't know, what we'd like to know. And so I thought, well, maybe that's what we should start teaching these kids a little bit of the, what we don't know, because that's really where, the cool science is. That's really where science happens. 

Failure is interesting

I like to see experiments succeed now and again, but they're often more interesting when they don't quite succeed the way you think they would. 

On experiments & failure 

An experiment that's not replicated is often conflated with fraud, and those are two different things.

Show Links:

Resources:

• Principles of Neural Science (Principles of Neural Science (Kandel)) 5th Edition
• António Egas Moniz (1874–1955): Lobotomy pioneer and Nobel laureate - PMC

Guest Profile:

• Faculty Profile at Columbia University
• Faculty Profile at Santa Fe Institute
• Stuart Firestein’s Website
• Stuart Firestein on LinkedIn
• Stuart Firestein on TEDTalk

His Work:

• Stuart Firestein on Google Scholar
• Firestein Lab
• Failure: Why Science Is So Successful
• Ignorance: How It Drives Science

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