Scientific Sense ®

The world is running out of energy in 100 years, Large-Scale Computation using Astronomical Resources, and the future of Artificial Intelligence. Prof. Gregory Laughlin is a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Yale University. He is interested in hydrodynamic simulations, the characterization of extrasolar planets, and planet-forming environments as well as the far future of the universe. He has done research on a variety of topics, including star formation, extrasolar planets, and interstellar objects. With Fred Adams, he is the author of The Five Ages of the Universe

The New Horizons Mission to Pluto, the Juno Mission to Jupiter: What have we learned and what's in store? Prof. Fran Bagenal is a Professor of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder and a researcher in the fields of space plasmas and planetary magnetospheres. Her career spans involvement in the exploration of the outer solar system with NASA’s Voyager, Galileo, New Horizons, and Juno missions.

Bayesian analysis of the astrobiological implications of life’s early emergence on Earth,  A Possible Spectroscopic Biosignature of Extraterrestrial Plants, and Characterization of extrasolar terrestrial planets from diurnal photometric variability Prof. Edwin Turner is a Professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. He also serves as Co-Chair of the NAOJ-Princeton Astrophysics Collaboration Council (N-PACC). He has carried out extensive astronomical observations at Mt. Palomar Observatory, Kitt Peak National Observatory, NRAO's Very Large Array, Apache Point Observatory, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan’s Subaru Telescope, and with the Hubble Space Telescope.

Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence,  definitions, origin, progress, problems, and the future. Dr. Chris Bleakley is an Associate Professor and Head of the School of Computer Science at University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland. Chris leads a research group focused on inventing novel algorithms for analyzing real-world sensor data. His latest book ‘Poems that Solve Puzzles: The History and Science of Algorithms tell the story of how algorithms came to revolutionize our modern computerized world.

Qatar, a great field experiment in understanding factors affecting COVID incidence rates, mortality, herd immunity, testing, reinfection, and vaccination and forming policies for the future. Laith Abu-Raddad is a Professor of Population Health Sciences at Cornell University in Qatar. He is also the director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Disease Analytics on HIV, Sexually Transmitted Infections, and Viral Hepatitis. Previously he held academic and research positions at the University of Washington, Imperial College London, and Osaka University.

Phage Therapy: A Renewed Approach to Combat Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, Prisoner's dilemma in an RNA virus, Virus population extinction via ecological traps, and Dynamics of molecular evolution in RNA virus populations depend on sudden versus gradual environmental change Prof. Paul Turner is a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University and a Microbiology faculty member at Yale School of Medicine. He studies evolutionary genetics of viruses, particularly phages that infect bacterial pathogens, and RNA viruses transmitted by arthropods. Paul’s honors include Fellowship in the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and American Academy of Microbiology.

Love, Money, and Parenting: How economics can help explain how we raise our kids today, Women's Employment in a Pandemic Recession, and Why has the college wage premium risen rapidly in the US, but not in European economies such as Germany? Prof. Matthias Doepke is a Research Professor in the Department of Economics at Northwestern University. His research spans many areas including parenting, inequality, and their economic effects on society.

The history, puzzles, and miracles of Quantum Mechanics Prof. Michel Janssen is a Professor, Program in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine & School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota. Books on the subject are below: Anthony Duncan and Michel Janssen, Constructing Quantum Mechanics. Vol. 1. The Scaffold, 1900–1923. Vol. 2. The Arch, 1923–1927. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Vol. 1 (2019), Vol. 2 (expected Fall 2022).    Michael Janas, Michael E. Cuffaro and Michel Janssen, Understanding Quantum Raffles. Quantum Mechanics on an Information-Theoretic Approach: Structure and Interpretation. Berlin: Springer (expected Spring 2021). Jeffrey Bub, Bananaworld. Quantum Mechanics for Primates. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016 (slightly revised paperback edition: 2018). Tanya Bub and Jeffrey Bub, Totally Random. Why Nobody Understands Quantum Mechanics. A Serious Comic on Entanglement. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018.

In silico experiments of cytokine-directed clinical trials using agent-based modeling, Examining sepsis using genetic algorithms on an agent-based model, The Crisis of Reproducibility, and the Scientific Role of Multi-scale Modeling Prof. Gary An is a Professor of Surgery and Vice-Chair of Surgical Research at the University of Vermont. He specializes in trauma and surgical critical care. His research interests include computational biology, mathematical modeling, and computer simulation, and translational systems biology.

Strategic Plan for U.S. Particle Physics in the Global Context, Dark Energy Survey, Cosmological Constraints from Galaxy Clustering and Weak Lensing Prof. Scott Dodelson is a professor of Physics at Carnegie Melon University. He serves as co-chair of the Science Committee for the Dark Energy Survey and is actively involved in the LSST Dark Energy Science Collaboration, and work with data from the South Pole Telescope.