Do we need to have a Faculty of Sciences? Or is it better to have a shopping mall at Vezneciler Campus? What is the value of Science? In this course we will discuss why do we need Science, how Science improves people’s lives and how to do it better.
- Why Science matters
- What is Science, and what is not
- How do we know what we know
- What cannot be known
- What is the relationship between Science and Technology
- How Technology changes Science
- What are the key elements of good world-class Science
- The role of ideas, models and abstractions
- The role of experiments, tools and instruments
- What makes a good scientific explanation
- How not to fool ourselves
- How to do science with high impact
Classes
Official classes are held each week on Fridays at 9:00 at the Meeting Room of the Molecular Biology and Genetics Department. Feel free to come.
Here you find the slides that have been used in classes.
- Class 1: Experiments, Scientific Impact and the Meaning of
Life. (Feb 23, 2018). [Slides].
Motivation of the course - Class 2: Where is the Truth?. (Mar 2,
2018). [Slides].
How do we know what we know - Class 3: The Scientific Method. (Mar 9,
2018). [Slides].
An operational definition of Science - Class 4: Introduction to Logic. (Mar 16,
2018). [Slides].
When a sentence is true or false - Class 5: Logic Arguments. (Mar 23, 2018).
[Slides].
What do we mean by ‘Logic Argument’? - Class 10: Probabilities as Logic. (May 4,
2018). [Slides].
Based on Jaynes’ Book - Class 11: Plausibility rules. (May 11,
2018). [Slides].
Based on Jaynes’ Book - Class 12: Probabilities. (May 18, 2018).
[Slides].
Based on Jaynes’ Book
Warning
There will be some math involved, but only the essential parts, including:
- Logic, Set Theory (two sides of the same coin)
- Concepts of Probabilities and Statistics
- Networks and Graphs (for molecular biology)