Pre-Registration — Why the Fix Isn't Fixed
Pre-registration aims to reduce publication bias. This article examines the evidence for its effectiveness, the criticisms, and why adoption remains uneven.
Category
Science
14articles followthis line of inquiry.
Articles in Science
Planned Versus Unplanned Obsolescence
Obsolescence is not always a flaw. Some systems break by design and some by neglect. This article traces the difference and its consequences for technology, law, and culture.
Ambiguity — When Precision Is the Problem
Precision is often treated as a virtue. In law, natural language, and design, ambiguity is not a flaw — it is a deliberate feature that makes systems adaptable over time.
What Can Be Dropped — The Problem of Lossy Compression
Lossy compression discards data that is deemed unnecessary. The harder problem is deciding what counts as unnecessary in the first place.
How Maps Distort Reality
Every flat map lies. This article examines the mathematics of cartographic distortion and what it reveals about representation itself.
Error-Correcting Codes — How Systems Handle Corruption
Error-correcting codes detect and fix data corruption during storage and transmission without human intervention. The mathematics behind them dates to the 1950s.
Why Replication Matters More Than Discovery
Science prizes new findings but neglects to verify them. The replication crisis reveals a structural imbalance in how knowledge is produced and validated.
When Prediction Is Enough — and When It Isn't
Black-box descriptions capture behavior without revealing mechanism. They work well until they don't.
The Model That Meant Everything — and Left Meaning Behind
The 1948 Shannon-Weaver model gave information theory its mathematics, but it also defined information in a way that excluded meaning entirely.
Backpressure — How Systems Say "Slow Down"
Backpressure lets downstream systems signal upstream producers to slow down. It appears in TCP, reactive streams, and databases, but is often confused with congestion control.
The Paywall Problem
Scientific publishing funds research with public money, publishes it behind paywalls, then charges libraries to access it. The economics of the system are traced here.
Where Classification Systems Break
Classification systems impose order but guarantee edge cases, bias, and revision. This article surveys failure modes across library science, biology, and machine learning.
The Future of Digital Preservation — Why Formats Die Before Data Does
Digital preservation fails not when bits degrade but when formats become unreadable. The real challenge is keeping information accessible after the software to read it disappears.
What the Planet Definition Changed
The 2006 IAU redefinition of planet reshaped solar system classification. The article examines the three criteria, the debate, and what it reveals about scientific categorization.