New episode on podcast

How does science approach failure and ignorance? What is an experiment? What can we learn from a failed experiment? How ignorance plays a relevant role in science and technology? I discuss these and related issues in this episode.

  1. Chalmers, Alan Francis. What Is This Thing Called Science? Hackett Publishing Company, Incorporated, 2013. https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/What_is_this_Thing_Called_Science/WQh5wDlE8cwC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover.
  2. “Experimental Determination of the Velocity of Light, by Albert A. Michelson.” Accessed June 8, 2023. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11753/11753-h/11753-h.htm.
  3. “History of Scientific Method.” In Wikipedia, May 8, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_scientific_method&oldid=1153802180
  4. “Edward W. Morley.” In Wikipedia, April 15, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_W._Morley&oldid=1149891428.
  5. “Dayton Miller.” In Wikipedia, November 12, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dayton_Miller&oldid=1121492015.
  6. Kumar, G. V. Pavan. “Importance of a Failed Experiment.” Scatterings (blog), September 8, 2019. https://backscattering.wordpress.com/2019/09/08/importance-of-a-failed-experiment/.
  7. NobelPrize.org. “The Nobel Prize in Physics 1907.” Accessed June 7, 2023. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1907/michelson/facts/.
  8. “Scientific Method.” In Wikipedia, June 9, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Scientific_method&oldid=1159248399.
  9. Swenson, Loyd S. The Ethereal Aether; a History of the Michelson-Morley-Miller Aether-Drift Experiments, 1880-1930. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1972. http://archive.org/details/etherealaetherhi0000swen.
  10. Firestein, Stuart. Ignorance: How It Drives Science. Oxford University Press, 2012. https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/Ignorance/GbD052_PH0cC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover.
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Author: G.V. Pavan Kumar

Namaste, Hola & Welcome from G.V. Pavan Kumar. I am a Professor of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, India. My research interests are : (1) Optics & Soft Matter: Optically Induced Forces – Assembly, Dynamics & Function; (2) History and Philosophy of Science – Ideas in Physical Sciences. I am interested in the historical and philosophical evolution of ideas and tools in the physical sciences and technology. I research the intellectual history of past scientists, innovators, and people driven by curiosity, and I write about them from an Indian and Asian perspective. My motivation is to humanize science. In the same spirit, I write and host my podcast Pratidhvani – Humanizing Science.

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