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Scientific acknowledgments

"When thinking changes your way of thinking, that's philosophy. If God changes your way of thinking, that is faith. When facts change your mentality, then, that's science. What has made you change mentality and why?" This is the question that the Edge Foundation has asked this year to 165 scientists. In fact, the Edge Foundation aims to promote debate on scientific, literary, artistic and philosophical issues, asking scientists and thinkers every year.

Ana Galarraga Aiestaran

When data changes, do scientists change mentality? How, in what? This is what the Edge Foundation asked 165 scientists.

This is the question of this year: science is based on data. What happens when data is modified? How have your thoughts changed scientific discoveries or new evidences? The answers have been very varied, with a total of 112,600 words collected and personal responses, sometimes very technical and some policies. They address issues that concern people, from climate change or differences between men and women to the existence of God.

For example, the director of the scientific journal Nature, Philip Campbell, has confessed to the Edge foundation that he has changed his opinion on drug use. He says if they asked him a year earlier, he would have responded that it did not seem good for healthy people to take drugs. Now, however, he has pointed out that he has “reasons in favor.”

Some articles published in the journal and the opinion of some scientists have changed your beliefs. In fact, they have shown that the use of certain substances that act on the brain has beneficial effects on the work and behavior of some people. Therefore, the moderation of these substances does not seem bad to you and it would be good that your adult children also take them, provided it is with a good purpose, if their side effects are acceptable and do not produce dependency.

For her part, Helena Cronin has modified her opinion on the reason why men and women are in the most prominent places in society. Philosopher of the Faculty of Economics of London, he thought that congenital differences between men and women are due to differences in tastes, abilities and personality of both sexes. Adding prejudices to one's own, macho attitudes and behaviors of society, Cronin had clear why men occupy the top positions.

However, in statistical studies it is observed that women tend to similar behaviors and concentrate around the average. The men, on the contrary, are more separated from each other, leaving many individuals ahead and behind the average. That is why, in Cronin’s opinion, “there are more men than women among nonsense, but also among the Nobel Prize winners.”

On evolution, races, God

In both scientific and personal subjects, scientists have changed their opinion and conviction on a variety of subjects.

And what is the key to human evolution? In this regard, scientists also have different opinions and some have changed their minds. This has been recognized by the anthropologist of Richard Wrangham Harvard University when the Edge Foundation asks him this year. I thought that meat was the first key, that the beginning of food led to evolution. It is a classic idea, accepted for a long time. Now, however, the anthropologist believes that the monkey was made human by cooking, cooking.

Wrangham explains that the human diet is characterized by food preparation. When cooking, foods become safer and easier to eat, and higher amounts of energy can also be consumed than if eaten raw. Thanks to this, we do not need to ingest large amounts of food, so we have time for other things. The cook is related to the control of the fire and sleep on the ground... In short, being human.

Another scientist has reflected not on the differences between the monkey and man, but on the differences between human beings, and has changed his perception of the races. The scientist is Mark Pagel, biologist at the University of Reading, an expert in evolution. According to him, when they decoded the human genome, they said that the genome of all people was the same in 99.9%. On the contrary, the latest research shows that the difference is greater and that only 99.5% are equal. With chimpanzee we are equal to 98.5%.

In Pagel's words, "although the ancient concept of race was wrong, whether I like it or not, I have to recognize that there are great differences between people and that human groups can be genetically separated." This does not mean that one group is better than the other, but it is possible that, because of these differences, in certain circumstances, some may develop better than others.

Sometimes there is no need for evidence or relevant data to change opinion, for Patrick Bateson an interview was enough at a dinner. Bateson Cambridge is a University researcher who was considered agnostic, did not believe in God. It seemed too hard for him to say that he was an atheist, that there was no God. But one day he dined with a fervent defender of creationism and since then has no doubt; he recognizes that I am atheist.

For more answers or questions and answers from previous years consult the World Question Center section of the Edge Foundation website. Sure you will receive more than one surprise.

Published in Gara