Tag Archives: Anecdotal Evidence

Creative destruction for Canada’s fundamental science

After receiving an ‘invitation’ from the Canadian Science Policy Centre, I wrote an opinion piece, drawing on my submission for the public consultation on Canada’s fundamental science research. It seems the invitation was more of a ‘call’ for submissions and my piece did not end up being selected for inclusion on the website. So rather than waste the piece, here it is,

Creative destruction for Canada’s fundamental science

At a time when we are dealing with the consequences of our sins and virtues, fundamental science, at heart, an exercise in imagination, can seem a waste of precious time. Pollution and climate change (sins: ill-considered uses of technology) and food security and water requirements (virtues: efforts to improve health and save more lives) would seem to demand solutions not the flights of fancy associated with basic science. After all, what does the ‘big bang’ have to do with potable water?

It’s not an unfair question despite the impatience some might feel when answering it by citing a number of practical applications which are the result of all that ‘fanciful’ or ‘blue sky’ science. The beauty and importance of the question is that it will always be asked and can never be definitively answered, rendering it a near constant goad or insurance against complacency.

In many ways Canada’s review of fundamental science (deadline for comments was Sept. 30, 2016) is not just an examination of the current funding schemes but an opportunity to introduce more ‘goads’ or ‘anti-complacency’ measures into Canada’s fundamental science efforts for a kind of ‘creative destruction’.

Introduced by economist Joseph Schumpeter, the concept is derived from Karl Marx’s work but these days is associated with disruptive, painful, and regenerative innovation of all kinds and Canadian fundamental science needs more ‘creative destruction’. There’s at least one movement in this direction (found both in Canada and internationally) which takes us beyond uncomfortable, confrontative questions and occasional funding reviews—the integration of arts and humanities as an attempt at ‘creative destruction’ of the science endeavour.

At one point in the early 2000s, Canada developed a programme where the National Research Council could get joint funding with the Canada Council for the Arts for artists to work with their scientists. It was abandoned a few years later, as a failure. But, since then, several informal attempts at combining arts, sciences, and humanities have sprung up.

For example, Curiosity Collider (founded in 2015) hosts artists and scientists presenting their art/science pieces at various events in Vancouver. Beakerhead has mashed up science, engineering, arts, and entertainment in a festival founded and held in Calgary since 2013. Toronto’s ArtSci Salon hosts events and installations for local, national, and international collaborations of artists and scientists. And, getting back to Vancouver, Anecdotal Evidence is a science storytelling series which has been appearing sporadically since 2015.

There is a tendency to dismiss these types of collaboration as a form of science outreach designed to amuse or entertain but they can be much more than that. Illustrators have taught botanists a thing or two about plants. Markus Buehler at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has used his understanding of music to explore material science (spider’s webs). Domenico Vicinanza has sonified data from space vehicle, Voyager 1, to produce a symphony, which is also a highly compressed means of communicating data.

C. P. Snow’s ‘The Two Cultures’ (lecture and book) covered much of the same territory in 1959 noting the idea that the arts and sciences (and humanities) can and should be linked in some fashion was not new. For centuries the sciences were referred to as Natural Philosophy (humanities), albeit only chemistry and physics were considered sciences, and many universities have or had faculties of arts and sciences or colleges of arts and science (e.g., the University of Saskatchewan still has such a college).

The current art/sci or sci-art movement can be seen as more than an attempt to resuscitate a ‘golden’ period from the past. It could be a means of embedding a continuous state of regeneration or ‘creative destruction’ for fundamental science in Canada.

Et al: The Ultimate Bar Science Night on Sept. 20, 2016 (Vancouver, Canada)

A national Science Literacy Week in Canada ran in 2014 and again in 2015 (see my Sept. 18, 2015 posting about its inception and the 2015 events; scroll down about 70% of the way). This year Science Literacy Week (check out the link as there more events in British Columbia and in the rest of Canada) is running from Sept. 19 – 25, 2016 and Vancouver will see a joint event involving Curiosity Collider, Anecdotal Evidence, Café Scientifique, and Nerd Nite. Here’s more from the Et al: The Ultimate Bar Science Night event webpage,

Et al: The Ultimate Bar Science Night

Anecdotal Evidence + Cafe Scientifique + Curiosity Collider + Nerd Nite

You like science? You like drinking while sciencing? In Vancouver there are many options to get educated and inspired through science, art, and culture in a casual bar setting outside of universities. There’s Nerd Nite which focuses on nerdy lectures in the Fox Cabaret,  Anecdotal Evidence a science based storytelling show, Curiosity Collider which creates events that bring together artists and scientists, as well as Cafe Scientifique the long running  series which focuses on one single speaker to engage in discussions while at the bar.

September 20th [2016] at the Fox Cabaret, all four institutions will team for the ultimate bar science night, Et al. This show is one night only, and not to be missed, and plus it’s Science Literacy Week to boot!

Featuring:

Jennifer Gardy:  Senior Scientist at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control and occasional host of CBC’s The Nature of Things.

Cheryl Wellington: Professor, Neuroscience at the University of British Columbia; Bellydancer. Performer for Neural Constellations – Exploring Connectivity.

Sarah Louadi: Graduate Student, Experimental Medicine at the University of British Columbia; Dancer. Performer for Neural Constellations – Exploring Connectivity.

Stacey Hrushowey: Graduate Student at Simon Fraser University, Salmon Researcher.

More speakers soon to be announced!

When
Where
Fox Cabaret – 2321 Main Street, Vancouver, BC V5T – View Map

Two of the listed guests also performed at the Curiosity Collider’s Aug. 18, 2016 event at the Planetarium/H.R. MacMillan Space Centre (see my Aug. 5, 2016 posting about the event titled ‘Neural Constellations’). Unexpectedly all of the announced performers are women, which is unusual in the sciences. I expect the gender balance will equalize as more performers are announced.

Curiosity Collider and Café Scientifique are mentioned here regularly while Anecdotal Evidence was featured in a July 7, 2015 posting, which also notes Curiosity Collider’s first events. Nerd Nite Vancouver is new to me and this blog.

You can purchase tickets here (click on the Tickets button on the right of your screen). The pricing scheme is designed to allow people to pay what they can:

Early Nerds et al: $10.00 + tax

Et al Patron: $15 + tax

Superstar Et al: $20 + tax

If you have more cash to spare and love science, $15 allows them to recover the costs for the event and $20 gives the organizers some extra, presumably, for future events.