On this unique episode of Unsupervised Thinking, we talk not about a particular area of science, but about the process of doing science itself. In particular, we're discussing how scientists take in information from their niche research areas and beyond. The topic for this free-form conversation stemmed from interviews we collected at the latest Computational and Systems Neuroscience Conference (Cosyne), where we asked people to tell us about a research finding from outside their area that they thought was cool. You'll hear those interviews in this episode, along with our motivation for asking that question and our reaction to the responses. We then go on to speak broadly about our experiences at different conferences both big and small. In particular, we reveal how attending talks from far-reaching areas of science is a great way to build appreciation for your field and contextual your research. Ultimately, influence from talks and colleagues is how scientists choose their projects, and so decisions of what to consume can have long-lasting effects. We give our personal examples of times when talks have unexpectedly impacted our research, and the concrete things we do to keep up with the literature. Throughout, there is also talk of the culture divides that arise in research and Josh tells us about how Game of Thrones special effects are done. Thanks to all the Cosyne attendees who agreed to be interviewed for this, and special thanks to Nancy Padilla, our special guest for this episode!
We mentioned:
Episode 5: Neural Oscillations
Episode 24: Social Neuroscience Research
Also relevant, Grace wrote a blog on some of these themes for the Simons Foundation:
Cross-Pollination at Cosyne 2018
To listen to (or download) this episode, (right) click
here.
As always, our jazzy theme music "Quirky Dog" is courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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