Scientific Imagination Research Articles

Scientific imagination of gifted and non-gifted middle school students

In this study, it is aimed to examine the scientific imagination of gifted and non-gifted 5th and 8th grade students. For this purpose, the study was carried out with 12 students including 3 gifted and 3 non-gifted students at both grade levels. The data of the study were collected with the instruments named “draw scientific imagination” and “explain scientific imagination”. The results of the study revealed that gifted students had higher scientific imagination scores than non-gifted students at both levels, and 8th grade gifted students had more scientific imagination scores than 5th grade gifted students. In all sub-dimensions of scientific imagination, gifted students score more than non-gifted students. Non-gifted 8th grade students have lower scientific creativity scores than 5th grade students. In other sub-dimensions, 8th grade non-gifted students have higher scores than 5th grade students. It may be suggested that school programs should be supported by activities that develop scientific imagination so that the scientific imaginations of non-gifted students do not go backwards after the 5th grade. It may be recommended that additional programs applied to gifted students should be extended to non-gifted students.

Insect feeds in salmon aquaculture: sociotechnical imagination and responsible story-telling

Salmon aquaculture is a growing industry with increasing challenges of feed sustainability and availability. This global sustainability issue has led to calls for novel feeds. Aquafly, a Norwegian research project, has performed small-scale tests using the black soldier fly as an ingredient in salmon diet. However, in order for insect feeds to become a reality on the industrial scale, workable scientific, technical and political solutions have to be envisioned in tandem. In this study, we studied, elicited and assessed sociotechnical imaginaries in the Aquafly research consortium, using the approaches of concomitant ELSA research, the Ethical Matrix and Quantitative Story-Telling. We show how the sociotechnical imaginaries develop together with the scientific trajectory of the project, and how this also affects the assessment of the ethical and environmental impacts of the technology, including issues of food and feed safety and security, fish health and welfare, pollution and efficient use of waste streams. We show how there are intrinsic challenges when dealing with global sustainability issues in the research project. For instance, overcoming the problem of salmon feed scarcity may aggravate the challenges caused by intensive aquaculture. We report the results of a Quantitative Story-Telling exercise that indicates that Aquafly can be seen as part of a larger economy of technological promise, and discuss if and how this critique can be employed and integrated into scientific and technical imagination in a research project, contributing to Responsible Research and Innovation.

خيال العلماء بين التعقُّل والتصوُّر

The ability to engage oneself in constructive philosophical imagination and to use the scientist’s imagination are among the most significant characteristics a scientific researcher should have, exactly like the painter when he visualizes something or someone out of the characteristics given to him. The history of sciences often emphasizes the importance of such characteristics that can lead to scientific discoveries of facts of phenomena prevalent in horizons and souls. Facts and ideas are per se inanimate; it is the imagination that gives them life. Faraday, with his known scientific sense and methodical imagination, used to say that he nearly could perceive the electromagnetic fields before Maxwell could put them into mathematical formulas. Cognitive characteristics or faculties as such are only possessed by the talented and they play an important role in achieving and developing scientific findings through refining the scientist’s talent and sensing the laws of nature.

'Seeing with one's own eyes' and speaking to the mind: a history of the Wilson cloud chamber in the teaching of physics.

In 1911 the Wilson cloud chamber opened new possibilities for physics pedagogy. The instrument, which visualized particles' tracks as trails of condensed vapour, was adopted by physicists to pursue frontier research on the Compton effect, the positron and the transmutation of atomic nuclei. But as the present paper will show, Wilson's instrument did not just open up new research opportunities, but the possibility of developing a different kind of teaching. Equipped with a powerful visualization tool, some physicists-teachers employed Wilson's instrument to introduce their students to a wide range of phenomena and concepts, ranging from the behaviour of clouds to Einstein's photon, the wave-particle duality and the understanding of the nucleus. This paper uses the notes, books and prototypes of these pioneering physicists-teachers to compose a pedagogical history of the Wilson cloud chamber, documenting an episode of immense ingenuity, creativity and scientific imagination.

Ernest Rutherford’s ambitions

One of the pioneers of radioactivity research, Rutherford feared his work would be overlooked—and changed his publishing strategies to make sure it wasn’t.

Before Science and Religion: Learning from Medieval Physics

Scientists today are surprised when confronted by the sophistication of natural philosophy of the thirteenth century. Although clearly of a former age and holding very different perceptions of material structure, its mathematical and imaginative exploration of nature is striking. It also finds a natural theological and contemplative framing; because of this it can work as a resource for contemporary projects constructing ‘theology of science’ and constructing different approaches to the relation of science and religion. Taking the work of the English polymath Robert Grosseteste from the 1220s as an example, I exemplify these claims in more detail through three aspects of medieval physics: 1) a teleological narrative for science; 2) a fresh apprehension of scientific imagination; and 3) a christological and incarnational metaphysics.

Scenarios as Tools of the Scientific Imagination: The Case of Climate Projections

Climatologists have recently introduced a distinction between projections as scenario-based model results on the one hand and predictions on the other hand. The interpretation and usage of both terms is, however, not univocal. It is stated that the ambiguities of the interpretations may cause problems in the communication of climate science within the scientific community and to the public realm. This paper suggests an account of scenarios as props in games of make-belive. With this account, we explain the difference between projections that should be make-believed and other model results that should be believed.

Human Forms: The Novel in the Age of Evolution. Ian Duncan. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019. Pp. xiii+290.

<i>Human Forms: The Novel in the Age of Evolution</i>. Ian Duncan. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019. Pp. xiii+290.

The Scientific Imagination: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives ed. by Arnon Levy and Peter Godfrey-Smith

The Scientific Imagination: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives ed. by Arnon Levy and Peter Godfrey-Smith

The scientific and poetic creativity: knowledge in the culture

This article describes the role of apperception and imagination (scientific and poetic) in scientific and poetic creativity in order to compare with each other. It demonstrates the importance of imagination for scientific creativity and highlights typological features of ideal objects (according to V.S. Stepin) that are common to scientific ideal objects and poetic images. The article discusses the concept of scientific and poetic meaningfulness and scientific and poetic meanings. According to the definition of N.M. Smirnova creativity is understood as the process of creation of new cultural meanings. The scientific imagination is analyzed as a necessary factor of scientific activity. The role of imagination in the apperception of the results of scientific and poetic creativity is demonstrated. It’s shown that in term of phenomenology, human culture appears as the horizon where the meanings circulate as ideal objects of culture. Special attention is paid to the concepts of intersubjectivity of scientific and poetic contents. The reasons and the sources of special reliability of scientific and poetic knowledge are presented. Poetic creativity is considered as a kind of spiritual activity that has cognitive meaning. It’s demonstrated that poetic creativity as well as scientific one has its own object and subject. From this perspective the analysis of poetic seems heuristic for theory of knowledge.

Видение топора. Достоевский и космонавтика

This essay explores the scientific and literary origins of the image of an axe thrown into outer space to orbit the earth, as it appears in the chapter “The Devil. The Vision of Ivan Fyodorovich” in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. Did Dostoevsky anticipate the idea of an artificial satellite, as many critics and journalists argue? How were science (in this case astronomy) and literature connected in his mind? How did Dostoevsky’s scientific and creative imagination work in general? The author shows that Dostoevsky’s “prophetic” reference to a sputnik was rooted in popular articles and textbooks about Newton’s mechanics and in Marko Vovchok’s (Maria Vilinskaya’s) translation of Jules Verne’s science fiction novel Around the Moon (“Autour de la Lune”), published in The Russian Herald (Russkii vestnik) in 1869. The novel relates the chronicle of a voyage of brave researchers inside a cannonball that was fired out of a giant space gun. The essay reconstructs the trajectory of Verne’s image of a manmade satellite in Russian literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Видение топора. Достоевский и космонавтика

This essay explores the scientific and literary origins of the image of an axe thrown into outer space to orbit the earth, as it appears in the chapter “The Devil. The Vision of Ivan Fyodorovich” in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. Did Dostoevsky anticipate the idea of an artificial satellite, as many critics and journalists argue? How were science (in this case astronomy) and literature connected in his mind? How did Dostoevsky’s scientific and creative imagination work in general? The author shows that Dostoevsky’s “prophetic” reference to a sputnik was rooted in popular articles and textbooks about Newton’s mechanics and in Marko Vovchok’s (Maria Vilinskaya’s) translation of Jules Verne’s science fiction novel Around the Moon (“Autour de la Lune”), published in The Russian Herald (Russkii vestnik) in 1869. The novel relates the chronicle of a voyage of brave researchers inside a cannonball that was fired out of a giant space gun. The essay reconstructs the trajectory of Verne’s image of a manmade satellite in Russian literature of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Colloidal Quantum Dots as Platforms for Quantum Information Science.

Colloidal quantum dots (QDs) are nanoscale semiconductor crystals with surface ligands that enable their dispersion in solvents. Quantum confinement effects facilitate wave function engineering to sculpt the spatial distribution of charge and spin states and thus the energy and dynamics of QD optical transitions. Colloidal QDs can be integrated in devices using solution-based assembly methods to position single QDs and to create ordered QD arrays. Here, we describe the synthesis, assembly, and photophysical properties of colloidal QDs that have captured scientific imagination and have been harnessed in optical applications. We focus especially on the current understanding of their quantum coherent effects and opportunities to exploit QDs as platforms for quantum information science. Freedom in QD design to isolate and control the quantum mechanical properties of charge, spin, and light presents various approaches to create systems with robust, addressable quantum states. We consider the attributes of QDs for optically addressable qubits in emerging quantum computation, sensing, simulation, and communication technologies, e.g., as robust sources of indistinguishable, single photons that can be integrated into photonic structures to amplify, direct, and tune their emission or as hosts for isolated, coherent spin states that can be coupled to light or to other spins in QD arrays.

The Introduction of Science Fiction to Korea ：The Undercutting of Enlightenment and the Scientific Imagination in The Iron World：a Science Fiction Novel, a translation of Jules Verne’s novel by Lee Haejo

The Introduction of Science Fiction to Korea ：The Undercutting of Enlightenment and the Scientific Imagination in The Iron World：a Science Fiction Novel, a translation of Jules Verne’s novel by Lee Haejo

The Introduction of Science Fiction to Korea ：The Undercutting of Enlightenment and the Scientific Imagination in The Iron World：a Science Fiction Novel, a translation of Jules Verne’s novel by Lee Haejo

The Introduction of Science Fiction to Korea ：The Undercutting of Enlightenment and the Scientific Imagination in The Iron World：a Science Fiction Novel, a translation of Jules Verne’s novel by Lee Haejo

TRANSFORMASI PEMIKIRAN AL-GHAZALI DARI KECENDERUNGAN RASIONAL KE SUFISTIK (Telaah Kritis Epistemologi Sejarah Pemikiran)

Discussing the transformation of Al-Ghazali's thinking from rational tendency to sufistic is not as easy as al-Ghazali immediately changing the character of his thinking. This transformation process is very long. Over a long period of time, within al-Ghazali there was a transformation in his speculative interests, and even his outlook on life. He was not interested in philosophy anymore, and devoted himself entirely to Sufism and the renewal of orthodox Islamic teachings. In the aftermath of the psychological crisis and his escape in Sufism, he produced a book that became a magnum opus for al-Ghazali, Ihya' Ulum Al-Din. However, he is still remembered and inspires Muslims afterwards especially in the matter of fiqh, theology, philosophy, and also sufism which became the conversion of the end point of his scientific imagination options. This research uses library research design and uses al-Ghazali's rational-sufistic epstemology historical approach with the theory of transformation in al-Ghazali's Intellectual history from rational to sufistic.

Scientific imaginaries and science diplomacy: The case of ocean exploitation

Scientific imaginaries and science diplomacy: The case of ocean exploitation

Power Trip

"Power Trip" tessellates and synchronizes a multi-channel mash-up of pop science cinema spanning half a century of scientific knowledge and imagination. The result is a nostalgic voyage through interstellar and subatomic space that recalls the awe and wonder of seeing ourselves from afar and within for the very first time.

New Empiricisms in the Anthropocene: Thinking With Speculative Fiction About Science and Social Inquiry

Interest in new empiricisms and transdisciplinary methods has led many social inquirers to engage with 20th-century post-classical physical science. Many of these projects have focused on alternative matter–mind mixtures and in/organic variation, concerned that past theories of sociality have dismissed the vibrancy and animacy of the nonhuman material world. This paper explores the power of speculative fiction to help us rethink empiricism in posthuman ecologies of the Anthropocene, in the midst of post-truth conditions and growing science denialism. We foreground speculative fiction as a way to open up scientific imaginaries, rethinking the relationship between nature, technics, and human “sense” making. We show how such texts offer alternative images of research methods for studying pluralist ecologies and new forms of worldly belonging.

Scientific Explanation of Phenomenon, Imagination and Concept Formation as Correlates of Students’ Understanding of Physics Concepts

Knowledge of physics to many students is described in quantitative terms such as how much scientific vocabulary and how many formulae have been memorized. However, only few students can successfully make connections to apply the scientific knowledge in answering questions in physics. That is, physics students answer questions in relation to their emergent views mainly based on their prior knowledge about everyday experience which is at variance with scientific knowledge in a typical physics classroom. It is evident that teaching and learning of physics concepts introduced in verbal and mathematical definitions may not promote conceptual understanding of physics even after instruction. Therefore, no relationship exists between students, prior knowledge in physics and scientific understanding of physics concepts as they attempt to answer physics questions that probe their scientific understanding. Hence, the main purpose of this study was to ascertain if relationship exist among scientific explanation of phenomenon, imagination and concept formation (predictor variables) and students’ understanding of physics concepts (criterion) and amount of variation in the criterion variable that can be attributed to the predictor variables. The study adopted a correlation research design. The sample of the study was 385 respondents drawn from the population of Senior Secondary III Physics Students of 2016/2017 academic session in the government owned secondary schools in Akure Education Zone of Ondo State. The instruments for data collection were four namely: Students’ Scientific Explanation of Phenomenon Test (SSEPT), Students’ Scientific Imagination Scale (SSIS), Students’ Scientific Concept Formation Test (SSCFT), and Students’ Understanding of Physics Concept Test (SUPCT). SSEPT and SUPCT were ten (10) structured essay questions each. The internal consistency indices obtained were 0.81 and 0.86 respectively. An internal consistency of twenty (20) item structured questionnaire of (SSIS), modeled on a four (4) point rating was determined using Cronbach Alpha formula and was found to be scale 0.85.Also, the internal consistence index of SSCFT with twenty multiple choice items was determined using Kuder-Richardson 20 (K-R20) Formula and was found to be 0.82. The research questions were answered using Pearson-Product Moment Correlation and coefficient of determination The Null hypotheses were tested using Multiple-Regression analysis at.05 level of significance. Results showed that there was a statistically significant relationship among students’ scientific explanation of phenomenon, students’ scientific imagination, students’ scientific concept formation and students’ understanding of physics concepts. It was recommended among other things that Physics teachers should help in fostering conceptual understanding of physics concepts in physics students using scientific explanation of phenomenon to trigger students’ scientific imagination and students’ scientific concept formation. Keywords: Scientific Phenomenon, Scientific Imagination, Concept Formation, Understanding, Physics. DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/11-16-03 Publication date: August 31 st 2020