How to Read a Scientific Paper 2015年度

Many years ago there were reports of a phenomenon called “cold fusion”, which would have provided virtually unlimited clean energy. Then there was a guy in Paris who claimed that water retained a molecular “memory” of dissolved molecules that had been diluted away. These turned out to be honest misinterpretations of experiments that lacked proper controls. They made headlines because they challenged conventional theories. Perhaps there are many more cases of “sloppy” science that escape detection because the conclusions generally fit our current theories. Part of a scientist’s job is to look very critically at published articles to see if the research was done properly.
In this class, you will choose one or two articles that seem interesting to you, and we will carefully examine them together, step by step. This will give you a glimpse of one of the important things that scientists do, apart from their own struggles with their experiments. We will be conducting the course entirely in English, and I will help you with the vocabulary! The small size of the class will allow you to work collaboratively with your classmates.