Science uncut - the Robb Lectures

Science uncut - the Robb Lectures

03 August 2016

Science should be about questions, inquiry and revision, not facts, certainty and dogma, according to visiting neuroscientist, Professor Stuart Firestein from Colombia University.

Professor Firestein will give this year’s Robb Lecture series at the University of Auckland in August.

His three public talks on the nature of scientific practice are intended to “dispel the common, but incorrect view of science as the 400 year long accumulation of an impregnable mountain of facts, largely unavailable to all but the initiated”.

“We will replace this narrative with an approach to science that emphasizes questions over facts, inquiry over certainty and revision over dogma,” he says. “This dynamic science is accessible to all who have a genuine interest in a particularly successful way of knowing about the world.”

Dr Firestein is the former Chair of Columbia University's Department of Biological Sciences where his laboratory studies the vertebrate olfactory system, possibly the best chemical detector on the face of the planet.

He is also dedicated to promoting the accessibility of science to a public audience and serves as an advisor for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s program for the Public Understanding of Science. Recently he was awarded the 2011 Lenfest Distinguished Columbia Faculty Award for excellence in scholarship and teaching.

His three lectures in mid-August are entitled ‘Ignorance and Uncertainty – what makes science go’, and ‘Failure and Doubt – why science is so successful’, and ‘Pluralism – science maturing’.

“Science, and its product technology, are deeply woven into every part of our modern lives,” he says. “Indeed we think of ourselves as modern in large part because of the sophistication of our science and technology, but less and less of that science seems accessible to fewer and fewer of the world’s citizens.”

“The sheer mountain of facts that have accumulated seems impregnable to all, but the very few willing to dedicate an enormous effort and immense time,” says Dr Firestein. “This view is a distortion of a dysfunctional educational system that emphasizes a kind of bulimic approach to science (memorise and regurgitate facts) and its enduring effect on our relationship to science.”

“Can we fix this state of affairs and allow a wider participation in what is arguably the greatest adventure of our species? We’ll do our best in these three short lectures,” he says.

For more on the content and timing of the lectures, go to:
https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/news-events-and-notices/events/events-2016/08/sir-douglas-robb-lectures-2016.html

Dr Stuart Firestein – Short Biography

Dr Firestein is the former Chair of Columbia University's Department of Biological Sciences where his colleagues and he study the vertebrate olfactory system, possibly the best chemical detector on the face of the planet.

He performed his graduate studies at UC Berkeley in Neuroscience and was a Post Doctoral Fellow at Yale University where he became an Assistant Professor in 1992. Moving to Columbia in 1993 he established his laboratory devoted to understanding olfaction as a model system for brain studies.

His laboratory published the first experimental evidence demonstrating that the recently cloned family of receptors expressed in olfactory sensory neurons were indeed odor receptors.

He has published more than 100 papers in scientific journals, including several highly cited reviews. His laboratory seeks to answer that fundamental human question: How do I smell?

Dedicated to promoting the accessibility of science to a public audience Firestein serves as an advisor for the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s program for the Public Understanding of Science.

He is on the SAB of the popular science magazine, Nautilus, and on the Board of directors of the Imagine Science Film Festival.

Recently he was awarded the 2011 Lenfest Distinguished Columbia Faculty Award for excellence in scholarship and teaching.

He is a Fellow of the AAAS, an Alfred Sloan Fellow and a Guggenheim Fellow. He is the author of two books on the workings of science for a general audience: Ignorance, How it drives Science (OUP, 2012) and Failure: Why Science is So Successful, (2015). They have been translated into 10 languages.

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