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wellerstein's profile
Alex Wellerstein
Alex Wellerstein
Alex Wellerstein
Verified account
@wellerstein

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Alex WellersteinVerified account

@wellerstein

Historian of science, secrecy, and nuclear weapons. Professor of STS at @FollowStevens. UC Berkeley alum with a Harvard PhD. NUKEMAP creator. Coder and web dev.

Hoboken, NJ / NYC
blog.nuclearsecrecy.com
Joined September 2011

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    1. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 15 Apr 2018
      • Report Tweet
      Replying to @profmusgrave

      The silliest thing about the "children are natural scientists" line (which is common amongst scientists for whatever reason) is it actually underemphasizes how hard it is to be a scientist, and how many millennia it took before we really had "science" in the modern sense.

      8 replies 10 retweets 85 likes
    2. Paul Shapiro‏ @tweetingpauls 15 Apr 2018
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      Replying to @wellerstein @peterktodd @profmusgrave

      ok, so, what specific knowledge or criterion makes someone able to be a true scientist?

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
    3. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 16 Apr 2018
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      Replying to @tweetingpauls @peterktodd @profmusgrave

      Being a scientist (true or not) isn't specific knowledge or a criterion. It is patterns of thought, experience, worldviews, tacit knowledge. It is about being indoctrinated into the practices and habits of a discipline. Same as for non-scientific disciplines, like mine: history.

      2 replies 0 retweets 2 likes
    4. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 16 Apr 2018
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      Replying to @wellerstein @tweetingpauls and

      The exact practices and habits of thought vary dramatically across the spectrum of what is called science (or expertise more broadly). The work to become a paleontologist has little in common with that of a theoretical physicist, as just an example.

      1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
      Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 16 Apr 2018
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      Replying to @wellerstein @tweetingpauls and

      There is great work that has been done in the history, anthropology, and sociology of science on what exactly these practices are, how they are taught, and how students at different levels of education are disciplined into becoming professional scientists.

      6:18 AM - 16 Apr 2018
      • 1 Like
      • Paul Musgrave
      1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
        1. New conversation
        2. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 16 Apr 2018
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          Replying to @wellerstein @tweetingpauls and

          But the general point is, there's a reason it tends to take around 10 years of education for someone to be able to really contribute novel, reliable knowledge (in ANY field). Because it's not at all a basic part of human nature to do that — it's a product of education.

          1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
        3. Alex Wellerstein‏Verified account @wellerstein 16 Apr 2018
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          Replying to @wellerstein @tweetingpauls and

          I think that people who have been experts for so long (in whatever field) tend to forget how much work was involved in all of those years, and tend to see their way of seeing the world as more "normal" and "natural" than it really is. But it's the product of a long process.

          0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
        4. End of conversation

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