Coronavirus, scientific expertise, and knowledge infrastructures

Coronavirus news is dominating our mental and physical airwaves – I for one have eyes glued to virologists’ Twitter feeds and am constantly refreshing the Seattle Times daily updates. Scrolling through tweets the other night (I have self-diagnosed “Scrolliosis”), I saw a fascinating exchange in the comments. My favorite computational biologist, since that’s a thing Read More…

Science: Not as Smooth as Its Seams

I was recently introduced to the term “seamful design” which, in contrast to “seamless design,” refers to a way of making things that doesn’t cover up all the messy inner workings — doesn’t remove all signs of the makers and their processes. A seamful design is one that may be more transparent, perhaps making the Read More…

The Myth of “Raw” Data

Previously I wrote about the allure of big data. Now I turn to the question of “raw” data. Is there such a thing or is it a myth, an oxymoron — like “jumbo shrimp” or “just one episode on Netflix”? Why do we cling to this notion of raw data if it doesn’t exist? I recently read “Raw Read More…