The idea that 19th century scientific racism was just the product of some idiots fucking up the scientific process is a fundamentally wrong one which splits science off from society and assumes that any oppressive conclusions made in the realm of ‘science’ are purely isolated conclusions.
In reality the ideas of scientific racism (that some people are, a priori, better, due to their blood or their skull shape or their genes) were simply the transmission of ancient ideas about hierarchy into a new scientific language. The power of the blood and the existence of several difference species of human was a long standing concept, meaning that in a new period of scientific advancement the defenders of these ideas weren’t accidentally replicating oppressive ideas, they were influenced by their oppressive ideas and created an oppressive science.
This conclusion means that we aren’t able to simply separate ourselves from the bigoted science of the past, created by clearly mistaken analysis and bad science. We need to realize that oppressive attitudes are always going to bias supposedly ‘pure’ research, leading to people moving to racist, sexist, or homophobic conclusions, and leading to these conclusions not being criticized as they are seen as ‘apolitical’.
And it is still happening. Never forget that.
If you want a perfect example of this happening in the modern age, read A Troublesome Inheritance by Nicholas Wade. This 2014 book gets shelved in the science section and seems legitimate enough until you realize it is using that same objective, scientific-sounding language to justify the author’s racist beliefs. Yet he insists on his own objectivity throughout, and it’s those darn soft-science anthropologists that are the ones too afraid of the truth.
Better yet, read this article on it and skip exposing yourself to that bile completely.
Creepy or adorable? Researchers at Harvard University have demonstrated the first autonomous, untethered, entirely soft robot: the octobot.
Instead of being controlled by electronics, the robot’s logic board is powered by chemical reactions and fluid passing along tiny channels. Scientist have struggled to create completely soft robots because rigid components like circuit boards, power sources and electronic controls are difficult to replace.
Learn more about the octobot and soft robotics here and see the full study published in Nature here.
Videos Credit: Harvard SEAS/Image Credit Lori Sanders
so i clicked the link to that last article i reblogged and found this and oh my god
this person is 1000% done
“Despite how fancy the journal sounds, the International Journal of Advanced Computer Technology is actually an open-access publication that spams thousands of scientists every day with the offer of publishing their work – for a price, of course.
Back in 2005, US computer scientists David Mazières and Eddie Kohler created this 10-page paper as a joke response they could send to annoying and unwanted conference invitations…
The PDF went pretty viral in academic circles, and then recently an Australian scientist named Peter Vamplew sent it off to the pain-in-the-ass International Journal of Advanced Computer Technology in the hope that the editors would open it, read it and take him off their f*cking list.
Instead, Scholarly Open Access reports that they took it as a real submission and said they’d publish it for $150. Apparently the journal even sent the paper to an anonymous reviewer who said it was ‘excellent’.”
EY FATTY BOOM BOOM 