The Role of Cosmology and the ‘Unknown’ in your Research, with Falk Huettmann
The Role of Cosmology and the ‘Unknown’ in your Research: From Alexander v. Humboldt and Jane Goodall to the lab, Mother Earth, Climate Change and Global Sustainability
Abstract:
Many world-famous researchers encountered soon or later ‘the deep unknown.’ While only a few of such investigators turned to religion, many posed questions about the wider universe, the origin of life and death, and way beyond that. Here I am presenting such details, and try to make a connection how it links with ‘pragmatic’ and real-world applied research that most of us engage in these days.
While the Yeti, ghosts, shamans, UFOs and the ‘Cloudbuster’ will be mentioned, I will also show that the n-to-n body problem poses many tough questions for us, and so do neutrinos, black holes, re-incarnation, non-christian religions and the GAIA theory. Other subjects featured in this presentation deal with ‘Gonzo Science,’ the moons and comets, calendars, big bangs, deep earth, evolution, taxonomic monopolies, the DNA, perceived human limits, lack of independence in statistical samples, the 95% confidence trick in statistics, indigenous worldviews for an effective Earth Stewardship, and why in good science “1+1 is usually not 2.”
This talk will conclude with some new views and best procedures to acknowledge the ‘real’ uncertainty inherent in the universe and how to address such things in ‘modern’ science and for global sustainability and governance.
About the Speaker:
Falk is a globally working faculty member with the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF); Institute of Arctic Biology, Biology & Wildlife Department. He has published over 160 peer-reviewed publications in the international literature, including 6 books and over 1,000 digital datasets and metadata in various publicly available webportals. His research deals primarily with Wildlife Ecology and Habitat conservation questions, using Open Access, Open Source, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Machine Learning and Ecological Economics. His study species include Snow Leopard, Pallas Cat, Siberian Crane and thousands of other model-predicted species in Central America, Africa, Asia, Madagascar, Alaska and the oceans.