Ways of Knowing
An audio show about the humanities
Season 3: An Inexact Science
Cell, black hole, natural selection, deep time…Science is filled with metaphors. This highly inexact and subjective way of thinking is not just necessary for communicating about science, but to the entire scientific process—from the formulation of hypotheses and interpretation of data, to the development of humankind’s most revolutionary theories. Despite the overwhelming evidence that metaphor is central to scientific inquiry, the prevailing conception of science is that it is a strictly rationalist endeavor, dependent solely on data and logic.
Season 3 of Ways of Knowing provides a different perspective, and a new take on what a podcast can be. The entire 18-episode series is a single, two-hour audio show. It was produced in partnership with the Institute on the Formation of Knowledge at the University of Chicago.
Table of Contents
0:00 Intro
2:19 Part 1 – Metaphors We Live By
5:52 Part 2 – Metaphors in Science, an Ancient Paradox
10:32 Part 3 – Embryology
23:10 Part 4 – The Clockwork Universe
32:04 Part 5 – The History of a Dead Metaphor: Cell
44:00 Part 6 – Black Holes
51:10 Part 7 – The Body
57:50 Part 8 – Pain, in 78 Adjectives
1:05:29 Part 9 – Natural Selection
1:09:47 Part 10 – A New Metaphor for Science
1:20:22 Part 11 – The Solar System Model of the Atom
1:24:35 Part 12 – Uniformitarianism
1:31:35 Part 13 – Glia, the Gendering of a Cell
1:39:15 Part 14 – Light Bulbs and Seeds
1:46:04 Part 15 – War and Disease, the Domination of a Metaphor
1:51:26 Part 16 – Social Darwinism
1:55:05 Part 17 – The Universe
2:02:08 Part 18 – Anthropomorphism
Credits
An Inexact Science is a production of The World According to Sound. It’s part of our series, “Ways of Knowing,” audio works dedicated to humanities research and thought. It was made in collaboration with the University of Chicago’s Institute on the Formation of Knowledge.
Special thanks to Shadi Bartsch-Zimmer, who spearheaded the project at the University of Chicago. Editorial support from Hans Buetow. Academic advising by Andrew Hicks. Voicing work by Tina Antolini. Mathematical consultant, Steven Strogatz.
Bibliography
Aristotle. Posterior Analytics
Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species
DeCristofano, Carolyn. A Black Hole is Not a Hole
Flannery, Maura. Quilting: A Feminist Metaphor for Scientific Inquiry
Gould, Stephen. The Flamingo’s Smile. “For Want of a Metaphor”
Gould, Stephen. Time’s Arrow Time's Cycle
Kuhn, Thomas S. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Lakoff, George. Johnson, Mark. Metaphors We Live By
Lyell, Charles. Principles of Geology
Melzack, Ronald. “McGill Pain Questionnaire”
Montgomery, Scott. The Scientific Voice
Rau, Dana. Black Holes
Redding, Anna. Black Hole Chasers
Reynolds, Andrew. The Third Lens: Metaphor and the Creation of Modern Cell Biology
Upchurch, Meg. Fojtová, Simona. Women in the Brain: A History of Glial Cell Metaphors
Musicians
Acreil
Alejandro Remeseiro
Audiorezout
Bauchamp
Chad Crouch
Christoph Schindling
Cuekermann
Daniel Birch
Darkslider
Dawid Szczesny
Hank Hobson
InSpectr
John Bartmann
Ketsa
La Trombe
Makunouchi Bento
Marcriver29
Matmos
Meydän
Mikuś
Morten Rasz
Neu!
North Without End
Petroglyph Music
Pornophonik
REW
Schemawound
Smyth
Soul on Strings
Spuntic
Tab
Thomas Strønen
Travis Johnson