Who are today’s scientists? Inspired by the project “Humans of New York”, Ar Magazine turns the spotlight on individual humans of science every month.
Labs: Behavioral Neuroscience at the CCU and Andreas Nieder’s lab at the University of Tuebingen
Project titles: Using a game theoretical approach to study cooperative behavior in rats and Neural representation of numerosity in primate frontal and parietal areas
Last Tuesday was Valentine’s Day. What parallels do you find between relationships and science?
I guess I had thought the important thing in science was to find something both hidden and true. To find something that interests us and to carefully map all the connections between its various eccentricities to reveal a hidden truth. In so doing we replace a little mystery with some certainty. The more time one spends trying to do science, the more one realises that such moments are rare, and when they do happen they always create more questions than answers. Maybe this is important for both science and relationships, that to be happy in either we must be comfortable enough with uncertainty to be inspired by mystery. Being comfortable with Valentine’s Day is almost certainly not important – Scott Rennie
(Em português)
Esta terça-feira foi o Dia dos Namorados. Que paralelos existem entre as relações pessoais e a ciência?
Acho que eu pensava que, em ciência, o importante era encontrar algo que estivesse escondido e que, ao mesmo tempo, fosse verdade. Encontrar algo que nos interessa e mapear cuidadosamente as ligações entre as suas diversas excentricidades para revelar uma verdade escondida. Ao fazer isso, estamos a substituir um pequeno mistério por algum grau de certeza. Quanto mais tempo passamos a tentar fazer ciência, melhor percebemos quão raros são esses momentos – e que, quando acontecem, criam sempre mais perguntas do que respostas. Talvez isto seja importante tanto para a ciência como para as relações: para sermos felizes em ambas as coisas, temos de estar suficientemente à vontade com a incerteza para nos sentirmos inspirados pelo mistério. Sentir-se à vontade com o Dia dos Namorados quase de certeza que não tem importância nenhuma. – Scott Rennie
Marina Fridman is a PhD student in the Cortical Circuits Lab at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown
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