Hello Steemit! I'm Mack, a scientist
I'm here to write about research in a way that is accessible to non-scientists, yet informative to even the biggest nerds. I'll post regularly about my work, and other exciting topics. My interests: neuroscience and metascience.
Why neuroscience?
Neuroscience is the study of the brain, the organ that shapes how we experience life. How are we able to observe and imagine the world around us? Why do we feel how we feel? This field offers a peek under the lid of our own skulls. I've even gotten to take a peek under my own, check it out!
A selfie, in a way. Don't I look good?
I work in a lab that studies the brain using non-invasive fMRI scanners. These let us examine neural differences between people who are diagnosed with different mood disorders (such as depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia). Want to learn more about what fMRI is, how it works, and my lab's research? Stay tuned! That's worth a post of its own.
Why metascience?
Metascience is the science of science. When science has a problem, we need to take a step back and look at what's going on, and how to fix it.
Putting the microscope under the microscope: how do we know what we know?
Unfortunately, that's not hypothetical situation. Science may be in a replication crisis. Recently, scientists could not replicate the results of up to 89% of prominent cancer studies, 66% of psychology studies, and 50% of life science studies. This is a big deal, and governments and businesses might be throwing away millions on unreliable results. What's going on?
In short: bad incentives, weak methods, and poor statistics! My metascience efforts centers around statistics in particular. I work on programs that download scientific articles, scan them for statistics, and generate automated analyses for each one.
Soon, I'll launch an online database containing over hundreds of thousands of these analyses, and the raw data and programs that made them. Through good statistics, we can better understand the results of old research and tackle the reproducibility crisis. Stay tuned for more info and updates!
Good science = good for the Steemit community
There are great scientists and amazing initiatives like @SteemSTEM here. Scientists have a duty to share their work in a way that is publicly engaging, and Steemit makes this mutually beneficial. If a scientist posts something valuable to the community, they benefit too! In a country like mine where research funding is getting billion dollar cuts, scientists may start looking to fund research in different ways.
An experiment: can Steemit benefit science?
I'm not sure, let's treat it like an experiment! The recent success of Steem Park is a powerful example of what this platform can do and points to a future where projects can be funded by upvotes!
I received funding to create the database I'm working on, but not to develop it futher. I'd love to keep working on it, and I'm eager explore new ways to make science possible. To test the potential of Steemit to support science, I will be posting regularly about my work and other science topics, and all payout will fund research.
