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Science Talk

Episode 1: Uncertainty is Science's Super Power. Make It Yours, Too

Science Talk

Scientific American

Science

4.2 • 644 Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2024

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Welcome to Uncertain, a five-part podcast miniseries from Scientific American. Here we will dive head first into the possibilities of the unknowing. Over the next five episodes, I’ll be talking with people like her: explorers who work in the realm of uncertainty. Through them, we’ll discover the ways that uncertainty can spark curiosity and scientific breakthroughs. But we’ll also find out how uncertainty can bite us in the butt and make science really hard. We’ll see how neglecting uncertainty can lead to overconfidence and how embracing uncertainty can allow for a more nuanced and accurate understanding of the world. We’ll finish by examining how it’s possible to have confidence in scientific findings, even with their uncertainties. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:05.7

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0:11.2

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0:16.9

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0:21.9

use right now. That's why the world works with ServiceNow. Visit ServiceNow.com

0:27.8

slash UK slash AI for people.

0:36.4

Hey, Rosemary, do you remember that time we were hiking along the lake on Enchanted Mesa?

0:41.4

And I told you I was thinking about doing a project about science and uncertainty.

0:46.2

Oh my God, I totally do.

0:47.4

And I said, oh my God, I love uncertainty.

0:51.2

And you should totally do that project.

0:53.3

And?

0:57.5

And you should totally talk to poets.

1:03.9

Like you. Yeah. Well, Christy, I mean, I have written a lot of poems about uncertainty. You sure have. You're probably the only person I know who's more enamored with uncertainty than I am.

1:10.4

Yeah, I know.'s more enamored with uncertainty than I am.

1:20.7

My daily poem blog has this little word cloud and uncertainty is really big.

1:25.6

So are words like unknowing and mystery and unlearning, unknown.

1:29.4

So what makes uncertainty such great fodder for poetry?

1:38.7

When we engage in the realm of uncertainty, then we step in a stream of incredible potential and possibility. And this is where all ideas come from. Ah, because everything is still possible.

1:46.1

The thrilling part is to not know what will happen.

1:49.4

And then to continue to play, and as we play and as we create, something happens.

1:55.7

So you're saying that poetry comes from dancing with the unknown?

...

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