Hiya folks and welcome to the first Science at OnSET post! These will (hopefully) be regular posts that keep you up to date with the new submissions appearing on the OnSET website. We say hopefully, because it really depends on people like YOU sending us submissions! With these posts, we can help you to navigate through the blinding mass of awesomeness that is OnSET.
It’s also our way of thanking our equally awesome contributors. They deserve every bit of publicity that we can give them. In fact, we commission a titanium statue for every new contributor we get. There will also be a parade. Some critics have told us that this is not an appropriate way to use 93% of our budgetary funds; however, we feel that no token of worship is too extravagant for our mighty contributors.
So what’s up there now?
There’s a selection of videos from the SCOM2021 course. No Bones About It is a wacky documentary telling you everything you did and didn’t want to know about bones. Then there is the feature on geo-engineering, a field that is becoming increasingly important for those seeking to fight the effects of climate change. Another video looks at an amazing statistical result called Benford’s law which is used to fight fraud and financial crime.
Most of the rest is stuff from the OnSET archives. For a fascinating introduction to the field of psychology, you can listen to a short interview with Amanda Gorden of the Australian Psychological Society. Or if you’re thinking of going into science communication, check out this interview with the Surfing Scientist Ruben Meerman. [Edit: we are changing servers and our audio links seem to have disappeared in the process. Bear with us while we track them down!]
There’s also a good little selection of articles from the archives. Adrian Pokorny’s piece investigates the distress that organ transplants can cause by changing the recipient’s physical identity. We’ve also put up the first half of Ellie Pratt’s excellent article on the believability of science. Although the piece focuses on evolutionary theory, it is just as relevant to debates in other oft-challenged fields like climate science and genetics. Maybe you’ve got the blues after getting your Session 1 results back, and are in search of some new study techniques. In that case, you might want to read ‘Being Drunk In Exams: A Good Thing?’ If you’re thinking about getting into forensic science, there’s also a great feature on the CSI effect.
Plus lots of things so weird and wonderful that we probably wouldn’t believe they existed if they hadn’t been sent in by people like you. Brain fingerprinting? Female engineers? It’s all here, people.
