Tufts economist Laura K Gee on why theoretical models and experimental design really matter. ow.ly/5f0X50vK3sr

How is the universe like a roll of the dice? Penn Physicist Jonathan Heckman thinks through quantum probability. ow.ly/4XJW50vLO28

Questioning the Past: on the use and abuse of ancient texts in modern politics sempercurious.com/colloquia/ques…

This Friday, 3pm PDT, psychologist Ian Lyons discusses the origins of numerical cognition sempercurious.com/colloquia/wher…

What can yeast tell us about ourselves? Quite a bit, say geneticists. sempercurious.com/blog/2019/09/f…

We all know what conscious experience is like, and scientists are getting better at mapping neural activity in the brain—no theory connecting the two has consensus yet, but could a competition help?

It turns out that we're most curious when we have just enough background context to make information *significant*, not merely novel. #becurious #alwayscurious nytimes.com/2019/10/18/opi…

ICYMI: A conversation with Georgetown psychologist Ian Lyons about what it takes to think in numbers youtu.be/q8E3uavJvgw

This amazing graphic shows most of the cognitive biases and organizes them into themes. But from the lens of evolution, if a cognitive bias increased fitness it it a not a design flaw, but a design feature onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.100…

I got stuck when a student asked if a digital balance measured mass or weight. I wanted to say "mass" - but that's technically not true. This got me to think about how we make measurements - and most of them are actually distances. wired.com/story/measurem…

Better methods can’t make up for mediocre theory nature.com/articles/d4158…

Our first colloquium, "How do relationships get under our skin?" with Dr. Darby Saxbe youtu.be/Oj73Xcjxa-A

Today is #WorldPhilosophyDay. Here's one way of thinking about what philosophers do. (Philosophers, please help out by sharing a question.) #philosophy dailynous.com/2019/11/21/phi…

What are the greatest stories or biographical facts in philosophy? Things I have in mind are like the trial and sentencing of Socrates, or out of spite Schopenhauer would schedule his lectures at the same time as Hegel but no one would show up.

Scott Auerbach, Executive Director of UMass Amherst iCons, will be presenting 'Can Chemical Complexity Solve the Energy Crisis?' as part of the SemperCurious seminar series on June 9.

Even as adults, many trained in one discipline are ill at ease with the culture & content of others. But in the right environment, with "cross-training," perhaps this can change. (See Jerome Kagan's 2009 book on Three Cultures, and his interesting chart, christiankull.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/kagan-….)

Or you just keep on learning. Also good. #learning tinyurl.com/yscytvhc