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"Science Experiments Fiction."
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11 experiments that failed
A hyper-curious young girl tries a series of wacky experiments, such as seeing if a piece of bologna will fly like a frisbee and determining whether seedlings will grow if watered with expensive perfume, and then must suffer the consequences of experiments gone awry.
BOOK
The Forever War
The aim of this paper is to show that scientific thought experiments and works of science fiction are highly suitable tools for facilitating and increasing understanding of science. After comparing one of Einstein’s most famous thought experiments with the science fiction novel “The Forever War”, I shall argue that both proceed similarly in making some of the more outlandish consequences of special relativity theory intelligible. However, as I will also point out, understanding in thought experiments and understanding in science fiction differ in one important respect: While the former aim at what I shall call “physical understanding”, science fiction novels typically have “existential understanding” as their target.
Journal Article
On a scale from idiot to complete jerk : a highly scientific study of annoying behavior : science project by J. J. Murphy
When grade-eight science-project time rolls around, J.J. Murphy skips the beakers and the papiermache and dives into research about jerks. And idiots. But mostly jerks. By his own estimation, his science project, \"On a Scale from Idiot to Complete Jerk,\" is groundbreaking, exhaustive, highly scientific and seriously worthy of bonus marks. Beginning with the dawn of humankind and concluding conclusively with a very cool pie chart, the project dissects the elements of jerkosity through extensive case studies and scientific illustrations. It explores the who, what, when, why and how of jerks and, more important, peppers the lively research with sciencey-looking graphs and charts that reveal a lot about J.J., his family and friends, and the jerks of this world.
Book
The Future of Material Scientists in an Age of Artificial Intelligence
Material science has historically evolved in tandem with advancements in technologies for characterization, synthesis, and computation. Another type of technology to add to this mix is machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). Now increasingly sophisticated AI‐models are seen that can solve progressively harder problems across a variety of fields. From a material science perspective, it is indisputable that machine learning and artificial intelligence offer a potent toolkit with the potential to substantially accelerate research efforts in areas such as the development and discovery of new functional materials. Less clear is how to best harness this development, what new skill sets will be required, and how it may affect established research practices. In this paper, those question are explored with respect to increasingly more sophisticated ML/AI‐approaches. To structure the discussion, a conceptual framework of an AI‐ladder is introduced. This AI‐ladder ranges from basic data‐fitting techniques to more advanced functionalities such as semi‐autonomous experimentation, experimental design, knowledge generation, hypothesis formulation, and the orchestration of specialized AI modules as stepping‐stones toward general artificial intelligence. This ladder metaphor provides a hierarchical framework for contemplating the opportunities, challenges, and evolving skill sets required to stay competitive in the age of artificial intelligence.
In this perspective, the implications of adopting increasingly advanced AI technologies in materials science are discussed. It is considered how to best utilize AI technologies, identify the necessary new skills, and examine the impact they may have on traditional research methodologies. Central to the discussion is a conceptual AI ladder that spans from elementary data fitting to general artificial intelligence.
Journal Article
The Acadia files. Book two, Autumn science
Acadia Greene is at it again. In the summer she used science to figure out who was raiding her blueberry bushes. Now she's leading a campaign to clean up a local pond; figuring out why leaves change color; learning about time zones and germs; and discovering why we might all be drinking dinosaur pee. \"Conduct an experiment,\" her parents tell her whenever she has a new mystery to solve. \"Use the scientific method.\" So Acadia does science. And so can you.
Book
Gamification suffers from the novelty effect but benefits from the familiarization effect: Findings from a longitudinal study
There are many claims that gamification (i.e., using game elements outside games) impact decreases over time (i.e., the novelty effect). Most studies analyzing this effect focused on extrinsic game elements, while fictional and collaborative competition have been recently recommended. Additionally, to the best of our knowledge, no long-term research has been carried out with STEM learners from introductory programming courses (CS1), a context that demands encouraging practice and mitigating motivation throughout the semester. Therefore, the main goal of this work is to better understand how the impact of a gamification design, featuring fictional and competitive-collaborative elements, changes over a 14-week period of time, when applied to CS1 courses taken by STEM students (N = 756). In an ecological setting, we followed a 2x7 quasi-experimental design, where Brazilian STEM students completed assignments in either a gamified or non-gamified version of the same system, which provided the measures (number of attempts, usage time, and system access) to assess user behavior at seven points in time. Results indicate changes in gamification’s impact that appear to follow a U-shaped pattern. Supporting the novelty effect, the gamification’s effect started to decrease after four weeks, decrease that lasted between two to six weeks. Interestingly, the gamification’s impact shifted to an uptrend between six and 10 weeks after the start of the intervention, partially recovering its contribution naturally. Thus, we found empirical evidence supporting that gamification likely suffers from the novelty effect, but also benefits from the familiarization effect, which contributes to an overall positive impact on students. These findings may provide some guidelines to inform practitioners about how long the initial contributions of gamification last, and how long they take to recover after some reduction in benefits. It can also help researchers to realize when to apply/evaluate interventions that use gamification by taking into consideration the novelty effect and, thereby, better understand the real impact of gamification on students’ behavior in the long run.
Journal Article
Sam the Man & the rutabaga plan
\"Sam the Man is not a vegetable man. But when a school project has him paired up with the worst of all the vegetables--the rutabaga-- he soon will learn that it's not half bad. And as he grows fond of his new little friend, Sam the Man will have to come up with plan on how to keep him happy before he rots\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
LLM-Guided Weighted Contrastive Learning with Topic-Aware Masking for Efficient Domain Adaptation: A Case Study on Pulp-Era Science Fiction
Domain adaptation of pre-trained language models remains challenging, especially for specialized text collections that include distinct vocabularies and unique semantic structures. Existing contrastive learning methods frequently rely on generic masking techniques and coarse-grained similarity measures, which limit their ability to capture fine-grained, domain-specific linguistic nuances. This paper proposes an enhanced domain adaptation framework by integrating weighted contrastive learning guided by large language model (LLM) feedback and a novel topic-aware masking strategy. Specifically, topic modeling is utilized to systematically identify semantically crucial domain-specific terms, enabling the creation of meaningful contrastive pairs through three targeted masking strategies: single-keyword, multiple-keyword, and partial-keyword masking. Each masked sentence undergoes LLM-guided reconstruction, accompanied by graduated similarity assessments that serve as continuous, fine-grained supervision signals. Experiments conducted on an early 20th-century science fiction corpus demonstrate that the proposed approach consistently outperforms existing baselines, such as SimCSE and DiffCSE, across multiple linguistic probing tasks within the newly introduced SF-ProbeEval benchmark. Furthermore, the proposed method achieves these performance improvements with significantly reduced computational requirements, highlighting its practical applicability for efficient and interpretable adaptation of language models to specialized domains.
Journal Article
Suspicious minds
A mysterious lab. A sinister scientist. A secret history. If you think you know the truth behind Eleven's mother, prepare to have your mind turned Upside Down in this thrilling prequel to the hit show Stranger Things. It's the summer of 1969, and the shock of conflict reverberates through the youth of America, both at home and abroad. As a student at a quiet college campus in the heartland of Indiana, Terry Ives couldn't be farther from the front lines of Vietnam or the incendiary protests in Washington. But the world is changing, and Terry isn't content to watch from the sidelines. When word gets around about an important government experiment in the small town of Hawkins, she signs on as a test subject for the project, code named MKULTRA. Unmarked vans, a remote lab deep in the woods, mind-altering substances administered by tight lipped researchers . . . and a mystery the young and restless Terry is determined to uncover. But behind the walls of Hawkins National Laboratory--and the piercing gaze of its director, Dr. Martin Brenner--lurks a conspiracy greater than Terry could have ever imagined. To face it, she'll need the help of her fellow test subjects, including one so mysterious the world doesn't know she exists--a young girl with unexplainable, superhuman powers and a number instead of a name: 008. Amid the rising tensions of the new decade, Terry Ives and Martin Brenner have begun a different kind of war--one where the human mind is the battlefield.
Biophilic architecture in artificial environments: insights from sci-fi cinema
Space tourism is rapidly advancing in both feasibility and popularity, yet architects still lack established frameworks for designing in outer space. Science fiction films increasingly depict expansive space megastructures with biophilic elements that are not only visually captivating but also serve as conceptual experiments for potential future habitats beyond Earth. This research employs a two-phase mixed-methods approach: first, a visual analysis of scenes from the film
Passengers
, using Kellert’s biophilic design framework to identify and quantify design elements and attributes; second, a comparative analysis of three recent biophilic design frameworks. The paper introduces the Biophilic Architecture Integration Model (BAIM), a tailored framework for designing in extreme environments, such as outer space, offering guidance for future architectural projects in artificial and challenging settings. By exploring how cinematic portrayals of space settlements shape our perceptions of life beyond Earth, the study highlights the significance of these representations in influencing our understanding of nature in futuristic contexts. Ultimately, the paper calls for expanding biophilic design beyond Earth-based architecture, advocating for its incorporation into speculative designs in cinema and artificial environments.
Journal Article