The notice on the wall of the Biophysics Institute inviting to Ennio Candotti’s talk was provocative and I had to go. That was many years ago, but I still remember as if it was today. Far from being a celebrity, Ennio was pretty well know in academia in Brazil. Italian born, the physicist got his education in […]
A very important article published today in Nature called my attention. It talks, again, about the misuses of statistics by scientists and the volume of unreproducible studies it is producing. You probably have heard the joke: “there are three kinds of lies: lies, big lies and statistics”. Even though unfair (does anyone expect a joke to be fair?), it is […]
Everyone has prejudice. And… we like them. The reason, I believe, is simple: prejudice is convenient. Daniel Willingham has shown in his book ‘Why students don’t like school’ how thinking is demanding. And that, in spite of our ability to do so, how we suck at it. Prejudice helps you ‘save’ thinking. In a given situation […]
When I was a kid, there was this advertisement on TV: Gerson de Oliveira, the outstanding soccer player from the Brazilian national team that won the ’70 world cup, asked the audience “do you want to take advantage?” while explaining why they should buy a particular brand of cigarettes. Many years later, the advertisement became notorious. It represented […]
Last time I participate in a PhD selection process, I asked 10 students where did they see themselves in 10 years. The answer was unanimous: “doing research at the university”. I got worried. It is clear to me that there won’t be positions at the university to every grad student and the fact that not […]
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Bernardo MonteiroSays
One little step further and you would be to be to talk to future versions of you, to help you…
Euclydes SantosSays
"Tristo è quel discepolo che non avanza il suo maestro" Orgulho de te ver voando alto e fugindo com folga…