May 2, 2024: Improve your thinking with these science-backed methods, the largest ecological experiment on Earth is about to begin, and meteorites in Antarctica are disappearing. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | Thinking to Save the World | Can "scientific thinking" save the world? Physicist Saul Perlmutter, philosopher John Campbell and psychologist Rob MacCoun teamed up in 2011 to start a new course at the University of California, Berkeley, on how to think like a scientist. They started training students to use scientific tools and techniques for solving problems, making decisions and distinguishing reality from fantasy. The course proved popular, drawing enough interest to run for more than a decade (and counting) while sparking multiple spin-offs at other universities and institutions (and a new book).
Why this matters: Our world is an uncertain and complex place, with cognitive biases and information overload all too easily clouding debates over high-stakes issues such as climate change, global pandemics, and the development and regulation of artificial intelligence. A flood of misinformation and often-conflicting "expert" advice makes it difficult to discern between what's real and not—and all the more vital.
What the experts say: "Science should be an enabler of individual power, not a threat to your freedom," says Campbell. And that's their goal in their new book Third Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense. "Third millennium thinking is about achieving that, allowing as many people as possible to be empowered—to empower themselves—by using scientific thinking." The top three habits of mind for thinking like a scientist are:
1. Acknowledge uncertainties within your beliefs.
2. Be curious and humble about what you don't know.
3. Engage with others who hold different beliefs.
--Lee Billings | | | Perhaps the most elaborate and expensive ecological experiment is about to launch in the Amazon rainforest. About 40 miles north of the city of Manaus, Brazil, scientists are constructing an elaborate monitoring site of six plots of rainforest. Tubing suspended from towering spires, some 30 feet high, will pour extra carbon dioxide into the patches of forest, and scientists will record the effect this has on the trees. The researchers are testing whether the extra CO2 actually primes the trees to absorb even more carbon from the atmosphere. Which would be good news for Earth. Why this matters: Amazon trees soak up more than a billion tons of carbon dioxide from the air every year and convert it into starches and sugars that grow trunks, branches and leaves. The carbon is sequestered for decades—or even centuries—slowing the advance of global warming. If increasing temperatures and drought caused by climate change slow or stop the forest's intake of carbon dioxide, that CO2 will build up faster in the atmosphere and worsen the climate emergency. Researchers hope the Amazon experiment will show if the trees are instead thriving from the extra carbon dioxide. Listen to our three-episode podcast about this experiment.
What the experts say: "That's the important thing this experiment will bring about: how the forest may be resilient to this future increase in temperature and CO2," says David Lapola, a climate scientist at Brazil's State University of Campinas, and one of the project leaders. Certain climate models predict that future local regional climates might not sustain a forest anymore. | | | Patrick Vanier/Scientific American | | | • Warm temperatures are causing Antarctic meteorites to sink through melting snow, and out of scientists' reach. | 3 min read | | | • Basketball, baseball, tennis and soccer leagues are starting to use AI to help referee games. | 5 min read | | | • Collapsing sheets of spacetime could explain dark matter and why the universe "hums." | 8 min read | | | • There is nothing new about student protests on college campuses. "And yet every generation of administrators fumbles in dealing with student activists," writes Brayden King, a sociologist and the Max McGraw Chair of Management and Environment at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. Repression of protests by force adds fuel to the fire. "Administrators who act with restraint and give protests time and space to engage, and listen to others, are more likely to find themselves in a place where productive dialogue can take place on campus," he says. | 5 min read | | | Science is not just test tubes in a lab, or rainforest tree-growth data, or even the collisions of subatomic particles in a giant concrete particle collider. Science is primarily a way of thinking. In its purest form, the scientific method is a way to prove oneself wrong, by whittling away as many possible explanations of a phenomenon until you feel confident in what's left. And doing it again. The inherent humility in this process is contrary to human nature in many ways. And yet humans, with their creativity, spontaneity and individualistic minds are wonderfully suited to the procedures of science. | I'm happy to think scientifically with you every day! Send your thoughts to: newsletters@sciam.com. I read all your notes and respond to many. See you tomorrow. | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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