Sciencespeaking topic
Whether complex science can be honestly compressed into a twenty-minute animated video, or whether simplification always smuggles in distortion.
— YouTube (science communication debate)
practice with this topic
Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.
similar topics
- A reflex happens before the brain makes the decision: touch a hot stove and your hand pulls back before the brain can even say 'hot,' because the signal short-circuits in the spinal cord. So your brain only learns about some of 'your' movements afterward. Then who made the decision?
- Committing today for the future: why do we have to bind ourselves in advance to keep the promises we make starting tomorrow? Is Ulysses tying himself to the mast a strategy?
- Effect size versus significance: a result can be statistically significant yet tiny in practice. Does a difference being real mean it is important?
- Wegener's idea of continental drift was mocked in his own time; how was it vindicated by plate tectonics?
- Mind wandering and unhappiness: Killingsworth and Gilbert found we are less happy when our minds wander. Is being present the key to happiness, or is daydreaming the price of our creativity?