The Science Slot Machine

How does your life sound? Which soundscapes shape the spaces around you? Let’s enter the STS spaceship and listen in on what Harry, Robbie, Costa and Nora would send out to space to portray their lockdown routines in 2021 Vienna. Join them in discussing the soundtracks of their lives and learn more about how STS concepts can help to make sense of space - be it at a physical, sociocultural or cognitive level.

Feel free to share the soundscapes that portray your life with us in your Instagram story by tagging us @science_slotmachine. You can also always send us your topic suggestions and STS related questions to [email protected]

Thanks to Free Sound user FiveBrosStopMosYT for “Spaceship Flyby 3” (uploaded on April 2nd, 2021 - Creative Commons licensed). Additional sounds from NASA’s Voyager Spacecraft Golden Record.

💖 Fooooooood 💖

🍎 In this episode, Robbie, Nora, and Costa take a closer look at food 🍌

How can we look at food? And how can we look at food through an STS (Science and Technology Studies) lens?

We discuss various aspects of food, including food production, our relations to food, food waste, and many more! What can we learn about societies and humans when looking at our relation to food ❓ Also, we try to discover some recent trends within the topics of food production and consumption 🌟

In order to gain more insights, we explore different angles, theories, and concepts from STS and beyond. We discuss Langdon Winner’s article “Do Artefacts Have Politics?”, a chapter from the STS Handbook, and Sheila Jasanoff’s notion of “co-production”.

Tune in to get to know more about how we can look at food through an STS lens 🔊

Sources:

Iles, A., Graddy-Lovelace, G., Montenegro, M. & Galt, Ryan. (2016). Agricultural systems: Co-producing knowledge and food. In U. Felt, R. Fouche, C. Miller, L. Smith-Doerr (Eds.), The Handbook of Science and Technology Studies (4 th edition) (pp. 943-972). Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Jasanoff, S. (2004). The Idiom of Co-production. In States of Knowledge. The Co-Production of Science and Social Order (pp. 1-12) . London: Routledge.

Winner, L. (1986). Do Artifacts Have Politics? In The Whale and the Reactor. A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology (pp. 19-39) . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Sound from Zapsplat.com

In this episode, the Science Slot Machine team discusses the interview with professor Ulrike Felt further and explores pathways to think about science, different practices, and scientific misconduct 👀

But first, we are happy to announce that we are bringing on a new team member! In this episode, fellow STS master’s student Nora joins Robbie, Costa, and Harry for the first time 👯👯 Get to know more about her in the episode 👋

Here, the four of us discuss various aspects of scientific misconduct including plagiarism, false data fabrication, and issues of (co)authorship ☝

While we also touch upon famous cases of plagiarism like the recent case of minister Aschbacher in Austria, we ask ourselves how scientific practice can actually be improved and how good scientific practice can actually be achieved❓

Tune in to get to know more about misconduct, responsibility, and trust in science 🔊

References:

Shapin, Steven, & Schaffer, Simon. (1985). Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Merton, Robert K. (1973) [1942]. The Normative Structure of Science. In Robert K. Merton Robert (ed.), The Sociology of Science: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations (pp. 267-278). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Weber, Stefan. (2009). Das Google-Copy-Paste-Syndrom: Wie Netzplagiate Ausbildung und Wissen gefährden (2., aktualisierte und erw. Aufl.. ed., Telepolis). Hannover: Heise.

Weber, Stefan. (n.d.). Doz. Dr. Stefan Weber. Sachverständiger für Plagiatsprüfung. Accessed March 6, 2021. https://plagiatsgutachten.com/.

In this special feature, Harry and Costa have an interview on scientific practice with professor Ulrike Felt from the Department of Science and Technology Studies (STS) at the University of Vienna. 🎓

Together with Harry and Costa, our guest discusses a variety of questions: What is good science? Where does the responsibility for good and bad science lie? How can we look at science and scientific misconduct through an STS lens? 😎 How can we research scientific practices and the values embedded in them?

👭 In STS we look at science as a collective enterprise.👭 While we often assume that scientists do their very best to expand the knowledge that societies can build upon, this assumption has been challenged and discussed critically by STS scholars since the 1980s.

Recently in Austria, we have been talking a lot about plagiarism, but professor Ulrike Felt nicely points out that there is more to discuss when thinking about science and scientific misconduct.💬

She also explains to us what her own research is about and how she investigates scientific practices. Thanks a lot to Ulrike Felt who shared her thoughts and ideas with us.🎇

Tune in to get to know more! 👋

Ulrike Felt’s university webpage: https://sts.univie.ac.at/en/about-us/ulrike-felt/

In part II of our discussion of sustainability ♻️ the Science Slot Machine team turns to topics like fashion 💃, new and holistic approaches ♻️, and the usual STS (Science and Technology Studies) spin 🔱. Therefore, scholars like Sheila Jasanoff or Ulrich Brand and their concepts are discussed and put into relation.

HUGE shoutout to Ivana Dimitrova 👧🧠 who shared her opinion on and experience with slow fashion. 👗👖  If you are living in Bulgaria and willing to try out the concept of a more sustainable fashion, check out the “Exchange Collective, Майна” community Ivana created.

We are also ultra thankful to Katharina Buiten 👩🧠who reminded us about the different approaches towards sustainability and the holistic perspective we could apply to it. 🍀 Don’t forget to look up the digital magazine she represents ➡️ Tech & Nature, dedicated entirely to sustainable news, solutions, and ideas. 

Some local sustainability startups 🚀we mention in the episode that you might want to know more about are ➡️ TooGoodToGo, Refurbed, Rebel Meat, ZIRP Insects, and Damn Plastic. In the sources, you can find a link to a list of all zero waste shops in Vienna. :)

And if you are in the corporate world 👔 make sure you get more familiar with the idea of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). 🧐

Drop us your comments and opinions on our social media channels: 🤳🏽

Instagram @ science_slotmachine 

Facebook @ TheScienceSlotMachine 

Twitter @ SciSlotMachine 

🗓️ This episode was recorded on January 7th, 2021. 🗓️

Last but not least: Let’s spin the science slot machine reels again and see which topic hits the jackpot! 🎰 Drop us your suggestions at [email protected]

Sources:

Music & Sounds https://icons8.com/ & https://freesound.org/ 

Literature:

“New year, new me” 🎉 strikes again and as we would like to live more mindfully in 2021, we are happy to kick off the first episode of the year with the topic of Sustainability. ♻️

Sustainability… a buzzword of our time! How can we think about it? And how can we define it? In Part 1 Robbie, Harry & Costa scratch the surface of the endless elements of sustainable living. 🍀

Generally speaking, sustainability includes three main aspects - environment 🌍, society 👭, and economy 📈, as the three main pillars are long term environmental practices, a better quality of life for all members of society, and sustainable economic development.

In this episode, we discuss a variety of topics related to sustainability, climate change, and environmentally friendly projects such as the sustainable development goals (SDGs), reducing greenwashing inequality, innovative solutions, frugal innovation. What it’s all about, and who is responsible? The individual or societies as a whole? ❓❗️

We are extremely thankful to Dimitar (Dino) Kirov who shared some of his knowledge on sustainable mobility. 🚗☢️ His comment is a great example of how less we actually know about sustainable solutions and that sustainability often serves as a marketing strategy rather than a way of changing the world. If you are interested in learning more about “full and plug-in hybrids or battery electric vehicles”, check out this essay by Dino Kirov. ⬅️

Sustainability is such a broad and important topic that we barely managed to talk about all the different angles you can look at it from. Therefore, we continue our philosophical debates on sustainability in Part II, where we explore further the concept of slow and fast fashion as well as different STS approaches towards sustainability. ⏯

Drop us your comments and opinions on our social media channels: 🤳🏽

Instagram @science_slotmachine

🗓️ This episode was recorded on January 7th, 2021. 🗓️

Last but not least: Let’s spin the science slot machine reels again and see which topic hits the jackpot! 🎰 Drop us your suggestions at scienceslotmachine@gmail.com

Sources:

Sounds www.bensound.com

Literature:

Sooo, how would you describe 2020 in one word? 🧐 A challenge, a resilience, an Oaschloch? What would you remember this year with? Lockdown, Zoom, home-office?😷

Despite the tough times, 2020 had a bright side as well and forced us to grow exponentially as individuals and as a society. The “new normal” is not only about wearing a mask but also about accepting the need for a change. 🏳️ Do you think the difficulties we experienced in the last 12 months would make us more optimistic and hopeful in the future? ❤️

Slow and fast disasters, standardization, and the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) are a few of the STS angles we managed to apply to this topic. 🎓

➡️ Let us know what would you remember 2020 with, what lessons did you learn? :) ⬅️

Drop us your comments and opinions on our social media channels: 🤳🏽

Instagram @science_slotmachine

🗓️ This episode was recorded on December 28th, 2020. 🗓️

Last but not least: Let’s spin the science slot machine reels again and see which topic hits the jackpot! 🎰 Drop us your suggestions at scienceslotmachine@gmail.com

Sources:

Music & Sounds https://icons8.com/ & https://freesound.org/

Did you prepare Christmas presents for friends and family already? 🎁 Be honest—how many presents did you purchase on Black Friday? In this episode, Harry, Robbie, and Costa discuss the wide topic of consumerism with the coming holidays in mind.

We reflect on e-shopping, monitoring consumer behavior, planned obsolescence, reasserting the activist component back into Science and Technology Studies. 🛒 If you’re worried about being judged on this episode for your online shopping, don’t worry! We’re also very guilty ourselves. 🛍️

Have you heard of the social theory of Consumer Society (Konsumgesellschaft)? Actually, despite the negative association with the word “consumerism”, this social and economic order encourages the competitive environment among manufactures which led to many industrial revolutions and more quality and accessible goods and services for everyone. 🏭

                                                    🎄⭐ The Science Slot Machine wishes you very HAPPY HOLIDAYS! 🎄⭐

Drop us your comments and opinions about consumer society and remember to share your highlights from 2020 on our social media channels: 🤳🏽

Instagram @science_slotmachine

🗓️ This episode was recorded on December 12th, 2020. 🗓️

Last but not least: Let’s spin the science slot machine reels again and see which topic hits the jackpot! 🎰 Drop us your suggestions at scienceslotmachine@gmail.com

Sources:

Music - www.epidemicsound.com

Literature:

Vienna, our favorite city! ❤️

Austria's capital, as you may know, has been ranked among the top 3 cities to live in worldwide 10 years in a row, which is quite an achievement. Therefore, in this episode, we dig deeper into the concept of what makes Vienna so livable and how such great quality of life is maintained. 🍀

Wait, how could you even measure the livability of a city? 🤔 More about the methodology of such rankings, the strengths, and weaknesses, as well as the usual STS twist on it, you hear in this episode.

Stay up to date with the upcoming topics in the Science Slot Machine on our social media channels: 🤳🏽

Instagram @science_slotmachine

🗓️ To avoid confusion, this episode has been recorded on November 27th, 2020. 🗓️

Last but not least: Let’s spin the science slot machine reels again and see which topic hits the jackpot! 🎰 Drop us your suggestions to scienceslotmachine@gmail

Sources:

Literature:

Within the second part of our episode dedicated to the US Presidential elections between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, we would like to pay special attention to revisioning this complex topic from the perspective of Science and Technology Studies (STS), 👨‍🎓

Politics, society, science, and technology are inseparable entities of our lives and are the core aspects that construct our past, present, and future. 🤯 We managed to apply the STS approach to the case of the US presidential elections by discussing the certainties and uncertainties, the value of expertise and controversy, the impact technology has on understanding and participating in politics, and most importantly the impact on our future-making.🌍

📌 What do you think is the role of science in politics, elections, and voting? Drop us a line directly on social media. ⬇️

Huge thanks to Hugh Schmidt 👨‍🎓 who took part in this episode and provided us with valuable insights on the structure of the voting system in the USA. Get to learn more about the history of elections, the established practices, and different voting mechanisms in the first part of this episode!

With this episode, we pay our respects to all scientists, experts, doctors, and nurses  🦸 🦸‍♂️

#politics #USelections2020 #VOTE #science #uncertainties #futuremaking

🗓️ To avoid confusion, we want to inform you that this episode has been recorded on November 7th, 2020. 🗓️

Stay up to date with the upcoming topics in the Science Slot Machine on our social media channels: 🤳🏽

Instagram @science_slotmachine

Last but not least: Let’s spin the science slot machine reels again and see which topic hits the jackpot! 🎰 Drop us your suggestions to scienceslotmachine@gmail