"You have to purchase this article to access it"

10 reasons why we must share our research to the public

Science – and nobody cares! While the media is filled with gossip and trash, a high number of school children fears physics and biology. Meanwhile people, not working in the science sector, are excluded from brilliant results, because they don’t have an access to hidden online libraries. It’s about us to have a change!

1.      Imagine a world, in which teenagers don’t admire Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber, but fill the walls in their room with posters showing the current Nobel Prize winner for physics.

2.      Research’s aim is to improve, to create and to understand and therefore contains many positive aspects. It could change our perception of our world, filled with wars, conflicts and poverty towards a more positive image.

3.      Research is the answer for young children asking the question “why do you we go to school?” School helps to gain basic knowledge and the first step towards a career in the science sector.”

4.      If we encourage young people to become a scientist, the number of scientist and researchers will increase, including the number of ideas, questions and answers we have.

5.      The university has no more money for your PhD? If the majority of our society would be more aware about science, we could be sure, also the institutional attitude would shift towards more support.

6.      Science is mostly about people or at least about the things they are interested in. So they have the right to know about it.

7.      Researchers, especially international projects, prove that people with different backgrounds, nationalities and ideas can collaborate and create something new.

8.      Research is about understanding. If we understand the world we live in, we can improve it.

9.      Science is more creative than most people would imagine. There is no limitation concerning the questions a researcher is allowed to ask and further, no restriction to find the right answer. And the result is always the same: more and more questions! You’ll never get bored!

10.   Science is something we can touch, feel, smell and see. Something real. And there is nothing more fascinating than reality!

I(m)mobility project

How many hours a day do you spend sitting? Results show, that some people might spend more than 50% of their day sitting, not including the 8 hours of sleep.

Some thoughts about how sitting affects our bodies.

Reality Research – understand the invisible

T-5 talk @SpaceUpCGN

Can we research something we even cannot reach? Something beyond the horizons we are able to touch, see or travel to? 

I'm studying psychology. The official definition of psychology says, psychology is the study of mind and behavior. How do we study behavior though? We do research! 

@SpaceUpCGN

The function of research is to analyze and understand reality. How things are working, how people will react and behave. In order to research our mental status, psychologists use several methods. 

The most important thing are questionnaires. Psychologists love questionnaires! It’s the best method to analyze and understand our complicated social behavior. For example, the phrase in a questionnaire “I love solving puzzles” actually means: “I can solve problems”. This shows us, you can study an entire person’s soul by asking this kind of questions with five answer possibilities. 

The more complex version contains at least two or more subject groups – mostly students who need some money and therefore participate in the experiment. 

Psychologists split them into two or more groups, put them in this really realistic lab situation, and conduct our experiment, including questionnaires until they finish with some exhausting statistics. 

Remember, why are we doing this? Because we want to understand reality!

But regarding this research procedure, I sometimes think, we draw our conclusions about reality from unreal situations. 

Here we go with the biggest problem concerning space psychology. We want to find out how social behavior changes on Mars, but we can only do research on earth so far. So we search real facts in an unreal situation again!

In order to solve this problem, we establish simulations like Mars500 or artificial habitats and observe our subject groups, which is the most approximate method we possess. The positive aspect concerning simulations shows: these experiments are focused, concentrated and controlled. 

Nevertheless, we have to deal with two major problems:

a.       Factor of risk: would the results change, if we could actually fly to Mars?

b.      For studies like Mars500 or MarsHa we always acquire aspirants who want to be in this situation. But – what happens to people who are there involuntarily?  This is the worst, but not the most unrealistic scenario we might have to deal with. 

At my university, I attended a course, in which the teacher said about the definition of Psychology is not only the study of behavior and mind, but also the study of experiencing.” So we can draw conclusions not only from observing behavior but also from experiencing situations. 

This thought inspired me to search for answers focusing on space psychology on earth. And I found some: we can draw conclusions from long term isolated people in hospitals or people working in factories. 

My conclusion is: we should use both, controlled and special constructed space research, but also observational methods on earth’ environments in order to share our broad knowledge.

On the other hand, regarding environments on earth can have a reverse positive impact on especially these environments. 

Research is not only about facts; it is also about exploration, passion and risk. 

Sometimes, reality and research are like two parallel curves that meet in infinity.

Maybe, the most important thing is: Ignore the facts, and just go! Following our vision is the most real thing we can do!

:envihab - human sciences on earth // DLR //#research