1  Communication in STEM: A Modern Synthesis

Like all information, the material in this book is largely informed by the author’s interests & background. That’s what makes it idiosyncratic. That means a personal connection to science, particularly biology and moreso molecular genetics and going deeper into the rabbit hole evolutionary and developmental genetics, as well as data science.

But I believe the main crux of this book, its ideas & lessons, its recommendations & exercises, are applicable accross the STEM fields. Thus I will endeavor to include relevant examples from across the STEM field, and indeed sometimes venturing even further afield.

2 What is STEM?

But first, let’s sort out what we mean by STEM, a convenient acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics.

Each of these terms are themselves convenient catch-all terms for a seemingly boundless number of materials & methods. The broad diversity of these materials & methods are unified under the banners of being quantitative, evidence-based, reproducible, explainable, transparent and amenable, among other terms. In this way, the four terms, although each broadly defined, have much in common.

In STEM fields, a naive, literal, understanding of Materials & Methods describes the conditions of an activity:

Materials are the what: The equipment/tools, measurement devices, items (subjects) being investigated, etc.

Methods are the how: The processes, (standard operating) protocols, reproducible recipes, algorithms, experimental design, etc.

A bit of probing brings us to a deeper, more revealing understanding of Materials & Methods:

Materials are the physical, and Methods are the mental elements which define and limit the scope of a discipline. The mental includes:

  • Schools of thinking:
    • Analytical thinking
      • Identify, label and describe the component pieces of a complex system
      • Imagines a complex system is equal to the sum of its parts.
      • cf. Reductionism
    • Creative thinking
      • The ability to employ materials & methods in an unexpected context
    • Critical thinking,
      • Imagines a complex system is more than the sum of its parts.
      • cf. Holism & Systems thinking
  • Mental models
    • A simplified version of the complex reality.
    • Stored completely in our minds.
    • Dictates what we expect to happen.
    • Limits what we imagine can happen and thus our interpretation of observations +/ acceptance of validity reality.
  • Reasoning/Logic:
    • Deductive
      • Conclusion follows from a set of premises with clear certainty.
      • Valid premises = Sound conclusion
      • A general rule -> specific conclusion (always true).
    • Inductive
      • Conclusion follows from a set of premises with some probability.
      • Strong premises = Cogent conclusion
      • Specific observation -> general conclusion (may be true).
    • Abductive
      • Incomplete observations -> best prediction (may be true).
      • A method for arriving at testable hypotheses

Philosophies: - Reductionism - Attempts explanation of entire systems in terms of their individual, constituent parts and their interactions. - Interprets a complex system as the sum of its parts. - Foundation for most of modern science, e.g. physics, chemistry and biology. - Biology can be reduced to chemistry, chemistry can be reduced to physics (cf. hierarchies -> Smallest units are the most fundamental and top of the hierarchy, from which all else follows). - Holism - Attempts explanation of entire systems in terms of integrated wholes, individual, constituent parts and their interactions.

2.1 STEM Relationships

The STEM fields encompasses two broad & complementary perspectives on “the world”. Activities for understanding “the world” and to work with the world.

2.1.1 777: An Analogy

In Unix and Linux operating systems, permission to read, write and execute a file, are granted to the user, the group and others.

This may serve as a useful analogy to understanding STEM fields.

Understanding is our ability to read a file. That is, we know it exists, we can find it, we have permission to open it and having the proper program to do so, it’s in a format and language that we can literally read and understand.

The work with is our ability to further write, or edit, the file. Just because we can read it doens’t mean we can do anything with it To use terms familiar to anology for controlling the world , Understanding the world around mind that , Understanding the sections of

2.2 What is the Modern Synthesis?

The first step is breaking down the barriers that

2.3 What is Systems thinking

There are a handful properties that help us to understand whole systems. Namely, they have three properties:

  1. Emergent properties
  • Complex systems are more than the sum of their parts
  • i.e. They exhibit emergent properties that can’t be understood by investigating individual components in isolation.
  1. Fractal properties
  • The system exists at any level of organization.
  • Zooming out or in reveals the same interactions at work.
  1. Amplifying properties
  • Positive + negative feedback loops connect each level of organization.
  • Small changes in individual components compound with time and repetition, resulting in an large amplification of suppression of the effect.
  • (small) cause -> (large) effect

We’ll see these come up over and over throughout our synthesis of communication in STEM.

2.4 Models

One of the unifying themes that connects STEM disciplines is the use of models. Indeed it is so fundamental to our personal understanding of the world we inhabit that we take it for granted. This will form the basis of understanding communication reframing it using a language familiar across STEM.