Doing Science in the Open: A talk by Michael Nielsen
26 Aug 2011
On Wednesday 7 September 2011 (1-2pm) in Samuel Alexander Building, Alexander Lecture Theatre.
The School of Computer Science invites you to a talk by Michael Nielsen, author and advocate of open science, entitled 'Doing Science in the Open'.
The talk will be followed by a Q&A session from 2pm to 2.30pm.
This event is free of charge, but you will need to register.
For details and to register, please go to:
Synopsis
The internet is causing a radical change in how science is done. In this talk I'll describe how mass online collaborations are being used to prove mathematical theorems; how online markets are allowing scientific problems to be outsourced; and how online citizen science projects are enabling amateurs to make scientific discoveries. These and other projects show how we can use online tools to amplify our collective intelligence, and so extend our scientific problem-solving ability. This promise is only part of the story, however, for today there are many cultural barriers inhibiting scientists from using online tools to their full potential. I will discuss these cultural barriers, and how they can be overcome.
About the speaker
Michael Nielsen is an author and an advocate of open science. His book about open science, Reinventing Discovery, will be published by Princeton University Press in 2011. Prior to his book, Michael was an internationally known scientist who helped pioneer the field of quantum computation. He co-authored the standard text in the field, and wrote more than 50 scientific papers, including invited contributions to Nature and Scientific American. His work on quantum teleportation was recognized in Science Magazine's list of the Top Ten Breakthroughs of 1998.