Science and Narratives of Nature

Science and Narratives of Nature
Author: Sundar Sarukkai
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 275
Release: 2017-07-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1351549847

The discourse and practice of science are deeply connected to explicit and implicit narratives of nature. However, nature has been understood in diverse ways by cultures across the world. Could these different views of nature generate the possibility of alternate views on science? Part of the innovative series Science and Technology Studies, this volume looks at different conceptualizations of nature and the manner in which they structure the practice of the sciences. The essays draw upon philosophy, history, sociology, religion, feminism, mathematics and cultural studies, and establish a dialogue between cultures through a multi-disciplinary exploration of science. With contributions from major scholars in the field, this volume will deeply interest scholars and students of science and technology studies; sociology, history and philosophy of science; as also environmental studies.

Narrative Science

Narrative Science
Author: Mary S. Morgan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 499
Release: 2022-10-06
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1009008781

Narrative Science examines the use of narrative in scientific research over the last two centuries. It brings together an international group of scholars who have engaged in intense collaboration to find and develop crucial cases of narrative in science. Motivated and coordinated by the Narrative Science project, funded by the European Research Council, this volume offers integrated and insightful essays examining cases that run the gamut from geology to psychology, chemistry, physics, botany, mathematics, epidemiology, and biological engineering. Taking in shipwrecks, human evolution, military intelligence, and mass extinctions, this landmark study revises our understanding of what science is, and the roles of narrative in scientists' work. This title is also available as Open Access.

Science and Narratives of Nature

Science and Narratives of Nature
Author: Sundar Sarukkai
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2017
Genre:
ISBN: 9781315088358

"The discourse and practice of science are deeply connected to explicit and implicit narratives of nature. However, nature has been understood in diverse ways by cultures across the world. Could these different views of nature generate the possibility of alternate views on science' Part of the innovative series Science and Technology Studies, this volume looks at different conceptualizations of nature and the manner in which they structure the practice of the sciences. The essays draw upon philosophy, history, sociology, religion, feminism, mathematics and cultural studies, and establish a dialogue between cultures through a multi-disciplinary exploration of science. With contributions from major scholars in the field, this volume will deeply interest scholars and students of science and technology studies; sociology, history and philosophy of science; as also environmental studies."--Provided by publisher.

Reconstructing Nature

Reconstructing Nature
Author: John Hedley Brooke
Publisher: Burns & Oates
Total Pages: 412
Release: 1998
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN:

This book, first published in the U.K. by T & T Clark, expands on the authors' prestigious Glasgow Gifford Lectures of 1995-6. Brooke and Cantor herein examine the many different ways in which the relationship between science and religion has been presented throughout history. They contend that, in fact, neither science nor religion is reducible to some timeless "essence"--and they deftly criticize the various master-narratives that have been put forward in support of such "essentialist" theses. Along the way, they repeatedly demolish the cliches so typical of popular histories of thescience and religion debate, demonstrating the impossibility of reducing these debates to a single narrative, or of narrowing this relationship to a paradigm of conflict.

Everyday Thoughts about Nature

Everyday Thoughts about Nature
Author: W.W. Cobern
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2000-06-30
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780792363446

Dr. Olcbee Lee SchoolofEducation, UniversityofMiami Coral Gables, Florida 33124 I remember my excitement and appreciation several years ago when I first read World View Theory and Science Education Research by Bill Cobern (1991). It was a comprehensive, theoretical discussion ofworldview theory in science education. I am delighted to see that Cobern has taken the next step to provide empirical accountsofworldview in Everyday Thoughts about Nature. . The primary goal of the book is to understand how typical- ninth grade students and their science teachers think about Nature or the natural world, and how their thoughts are related to science. In pursuing this goal, the book raises a basicquestion about the purpose ofscienceeducationfor the public: Should science education seek to educate "scientific thinkers" in the pattern of the science teachers? Or, should science education seek to foster sound science learning within the matrices ofvari- ous cultural perspectives? (p. 3) The answer to this question becomes clear, thanks to Cobern's excellent research and persuasivearguments. First, this research takes a humanistic approach in understanding what students and teachers think about Nature "through the language and ideas voluntarily expressed" (p. I). The research used multi- directional prompts and encouraged students and teachers to speak freely and at length in any directions they wished. This humanistic approach is stated clearly: " T]he research seeks to illuminate some of the various ways in which students think aboutNature withoutjudging eventhe most unorthodox perspectives" (p. 14).

The Best American Science And Nature Writing 2020

The Best American Science And Nature Writing 2020
Author: Michio Kaku
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 379
Release: 2020-11-03
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 035807424X

A collection of the best science and nature writing published in North America in 2019, guest edited by New York Times best-selling author and ground-breaking physicist Dr. Michio Kaku. “Scientists and science writers have a monumental task: making science exciting and relevant to the average person, so that they care,” writes renowned American physicist Michio Kaku. “If we fail in this endeavor, then we must face dire consequences.” From the startlingly human abilities of AI, to the devastating accounts of California’s forest fires, to the impending traffic jam on the moon, the selections in this year’s Best American Science and Nature Writing explore the latest mysteries and marvels occurring in our labs and in nature. These gripping narratives masterfully translate the work of today’s brightest scientists, offering a clearer view of our world and making us care. THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE AND NATURE WRITING 2020 INCLUDES RIVKA GALCHEN • ADAM GOPNIK • FERRIS JABR • JOSHUA SOKOL • MELINDA WENNER MOYER • SIDDHARTHA MUKHERJEE • NATALIE WOLCHOVER and others

Narrating Nature

Narrating Nature
Author: Mara Jill Goldman
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2020-11-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0816541949

The current environmental crises demand that we revisit dominant approaches for understanding nature-society relations. Narrating Nature brings together various ways of knowing nature from differently situated Maasai and conservation practitioners and scientists into lively debate. It speaks to the growing movement within the academy and beyond on decolonizing knowledge about and relationships with nature, and debates within the social sciences on how to work across epistemologies and ontologies. It also speaks to a growing need within conservation studies to find ways to manage nature with people. This book employs different storytelling practices, including a traditional Maasai oral meeting—the enkiguena—to decenter conventional scientific ways of communicating about, knowing, and managing nature. Author Mara J. Goldman draws on more than two decades of deep ethnographic and ecological engagements in the semi-arid rangelands of East Africa—in landscapes inhabited by pastoral and agropastoral Maasai people and heavily utilized by wildlife. These iconic landscapes have continuously been subjected to boundary drawing practices by outsiders, separating out places for people (villages) from places for nature (protected areas). Narrating Nature follows the resulting boundary crossings that regularly occur—of people, wildlife, and knowledge—to expose them not as transgressions but as opportunities to complicate the categories themselves and create ontological openings for knowing and being with nature otherwise. Narrating Nature opens up dialogue that counters traditional conservation narratives by providing space for local Maasai inhabitants to share their ways of knowing and being with nature. It moves beyond standard community conservation narratives that see local people as beneficiaries or contributors to conservation, to demonstrate how they are essential knowledgeable members of the conservation landscape itself.

Houston, We Have a Narrative

Houston, We Have a Narrative
Author: Randy Olson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2015-09-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 022627098X

Communicate more effectively about science—by taking a page from Hollywood and improving your storytelling skills. Ask a scientist about Hollywood, and you’ll probably get eye rolls. But ask someone in Hollywood about science, and they’ll see dollar signs: Moviemakers know that science can be the source of great stories, with all the drama and action that blockbusters require. That’s a huge mistake, says Randy Olson: Hollywood has a lot to teach scientists about how to tell a story—and, ultimately, how to do science better. With Houston, We Have a Narrative, he lays out a stunningly simple method for turning the dull into the dramatic. Drawing on his unique background, which saw him leave his job as a working scientist to launch a career as a filmmaker, Olson first diagnoses the problem: When scientists tell us about their work, they pile one moment and one detail atop another moment and another detail—a stultifying procession of “and, and, and.” What we need instead is an understanding of the basic elements of story, the narrative structures that our brains are all but hardwired to look for—which Olson boils down, brilliantly, to “And, But, Therefore,” or ABT. At a stroke, the ABT approach introduces momentum (“And”), conflict (“But”), and resolution (“Therefore”)—the fundamental building blocks of story. As Olson has shown by leading countless workshops worldwide, when scientists’ eyes are opened to ABT, the effect is staggering: suddenly, they’re not just talking about their work—they’re telling stories about it. And audiences are captivated. Written with an uncommon verve and enthusiasm, and built on principles that are applicable to fields far beyond science, Houston, We Have a Narrative has the power to transform the way science is understood and appreciated, and ultimately how it’s done.

Nature, Empire, and Nation

Nature, Empire, and Nation
Author: Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2006
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780804755443

This collection of essays explores two traditions of interpreting and manipulating nature in the early-modern and nineteenth-century Iberian world: one instrumental and imperial, the other patriotic and national. Imperial representations laid the ground for the epistemological transformations of the so-called Scientific Revolutions. The patriotic narratives lie at the core of the first modern representations of the racialized body, Humboldtian theories of biodistribution, and views of the landscape as a historical text representing different layers of historical memory.