Dear Scislug community, I’m Olivia and I’m graduating after having been in Scientific Slug for all four of my years at UCSC. Admittedly that’s a bit of an exaggeration. I joined at the very end of my first quarter of my 1st year. But from the moment I joined, I suddenly became incredibly invested and involved. And it kinda changed […]
Scientists are trained to think in very specific ways, to focus on the individual by disconnecting our subject from the complex factors that affect it. We do this in an effort to make it easier to understand our discoveries and avoid bias. This method has brought us a wealth of knowledge about our world: helping to cure and prevent disease, develop technologies that connect us in meaningful ways, and identify and help to solve our problems. But, too often, it is seen as the only or best way of knowing. I argue that is not the case.
Have you ever learned something about the state of the environment that made you want to give up on life? Maybe it was the latest statistics on biodiversity loss, the realization of how much plastic is and will be in landfills for thousands of years, or maybe it was the latest and bleakest climate reports forecasting a future of environmental […]
Do genetic test results actually mean anything?? This was the question in my head after my professor suggested the answer was “no” offhand in a lecture for the class I was taking: The History of Capitalism (which I do recommend, if it’s taught again). I love both science and the humanities. But I’ve come to discover how different the two […]