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2017 : WHAT SCIENTIFIC TERM OR CONCEPT OUGHT TO BE MORE WIDELY KNOWN?

Contributors [ 206 ]  |  View All Responses [ 206 ]

The Genetic Book of the Dead Richard Dawkins Evolutionary Biologist; Emeritus Professor of the Public...	The Premortem Richard H. Thaler Father of Behavioral Economics; Director, Center for...
The Principle of Least Action Janna Levin Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Barnard College of...	Neurodiversity Joichi Ito Director, MIT Media Lab
The Second Law of Thermodynamics Steven Pinker Johnstone Family Professor, Department of Psychology;...	Reciprocal Altruism Margaret Levi Sara Miller McCune Director, Center For Advanced Study in...
Complementarity Frank Wilczek Physicist, MIT; Recipient, 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics;...	Relative Information Carlo Rovelli Theoretical Physicist; Aix-Marseille University, in the...
Mysterianism Nicholas G. Carr Author, Utopia is Creepy	Effective Theory Lisa Randall Physicist, Harvard University; Author, Warped Passages,...
Common Sense Jared Diamond Professor of Geography, University of California Los...	Confirmation Bias Brian Eno Artist; Composer; Recording Producer: U2, Coldplay, Talking...
Evolve Victoria Wyatt Associate Professor of History in Art, University of...	The Noösphere David Christian Director, Big History Institute and Distinguished Professor...
Reynolds Number George Dyson Boat designer; Author, Turing’s Cathedral and Darwin Among...	Affordances Daniel C. Dennett Philosopher; Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, Co...
Stigler’s Law of Eponymy William Poundstone Journalist; Author, Head in the Cloud; Nominated twice for...	Comparative Advantage Robert Kurzban Psychologist, UPenn; Director, Penn Laboratory for...
Naïve Realism Matthew D. Lieberman Professor of Psychology, UCLA; Author, Social: Why Our...	Cognitive Ethology Irene Pepperberg Research Associate & Lecturer, Harvard; Adjunct...
Menger Sponge Clifford Pickover Author, The Math Book, The Physics Book, and The Medical...	Sex Helena Cronin Co-Director of LSE's Centre for Philosophy of Natural...
Neoteny Brian Christian Author, The Most Human Human; Coauthor (with Tom Griffiths...	The Neural Code John Horgan Director, Center for Science Writings, Stevens Institute of...
Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking Gordon Kane Theoretical Particle Physicist and Cosmologist; Victor...	Regression to the Mean James J. O'Donnell Classics Scholar, University Librarian, ASU; Author, Pagans...
The Copernican Principle Mario Livio Astrophysicist; Author, Brilliant Blunders	Scientific Realism Rebecca Newberger Goldstein Philosopher, Novelist; Recipient, 2014 National Humanities...
Fundamental Attribution Error Richard Nisbett Professor of Psychology, University of Michigan; Author,...	Referential Opacity Nicholas Humphrey Emeritus Professor of Psychology, London School of...
Homophily Matthew O. Jackson Professor of Economics, Stanford University, Santa Fe...	Equipoise Nicholas A. Christakis Physician and Social Scientist, Yale University; Co-author...
Reflective Beliefs Hugo Mercier Cognitive Scientist, French National Center for Scientific...	Motivated Reasoning David Pizarro Associate Professor of Psychology, Cornell University
Life History Alison Gopnik Psychologist, UC, Berkeley; Author, The Gardener and the...	Length-Biased Sampling Elizabeth Wrigley-Field Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of...
The Law of Small Numbers Adam Alter Psychologist; Assistant Professor of Marketing, Stern...	Negativity Bias Michael Shermer Publisher, Skeptic magazine; Monthly Columnist, Scientific...
The Holographic Principle Donald D. Hoffman Cognitive Scientist, UC, Irvine; Author, Visual Intelligence	Illusory Conjunction Diana Deutsch Professor of Psychology, University of California, San...
Case-Based Reasoning Roger Schank John Evans Professor Emeritus of Computer Science,...	Matter Hans Halvorson Professor of Philosophy, Princeton University
Unruh Radiation Jeremy Bernstein Professor Emeritus, Stevens Institute of Technology; Former...	Peircean Semiotics Daniel L. Everett Linguistic Researcher; Dean of Arts and Sciences, Bentley...
Population Thinking Dan Sperber Social and Cognitive Scientist; CEU Budapest and CNRS Paris...	Recursion Read Montague Neuroscientist; Director, Human Neuroimaging Lab and...
Parallel Universes of Quantum Mechanics Frank Tipler Professor of Mathematical Physics, Tulane University;...	Simulated Annealing  Emanuel Derman Professor, Financial Engineering, Columbia University;...
Networks Sheizaf Rafaeli Professor, Director, The Center for Internet Research,...	Morphogenetic Field Robert Provine Research Professor/Professor Emeritus, University of...
Criticality Cesar Hidalgo Associate Professor, MIT Media Lab; Author, Why Information...	Information Pathology Thomas A. Bass Professor of English and Journalism, State University of...
Iatrotropic Stimulus Gerald Smallberg Practicing Neurologist, New York City; Playwright, Off-Off...	Actionable Predictions Roger Highfield Director, External Affairs, Science Museum Group; Coauthor...
The Schnitt Michael Gazzaniga Neuroscientist, UC Santa Barbara; Author, Tales from Both...	Simplistic Disease Progression Eric Topol Professor of Genomics, The Scripps Translational Science...
The Trolley Problem Daniel Rockmore Professor of Mathematics, William H. Neukom 1964...	Impossible Chiara Marletto Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College and Postdoctoral...
The Longevity Factor Yuri Milner Physicist; Entrepreneur & Venture Capitalist; Science...	"The Big Bang" John C. Mather Nobel Prize in Physics Laureate; Senior Astrophysicist,...
Invariance Jim Holt Author and Essayist, New York Times. New Yorker, Slate;...	Fermi Problems Seth Shostak Senior Astronomer, SETI Institute; Author, Confessions of...
Digital Representation Jon Kleinberg Tisch University Professor of Computer Science, Cornell...	Optimization Sabine Hossenfelder Research Fellow, Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies
The Cancer Seed and Soil Hypothesis Azra Raza, M.D. Chan Soon-Shiong Professor of Medicine, Columbia University...	Paleoneurology Juan Enriquez Managing Director, Excel Venture Management; Co-author (...
Premature Optimization Kevin Kelly Senior Maverick, Wired; Author, The Inevitable	Embodied Thinking Barbara Tversky Professor Emerita of Psychology, Stanford University
Power Law Luca De Biase Journalist; Editor, Nova 24, of Il Sole 24 Ore	Determinism Jerry A. Coyne Professor Emeritus, Department of Ecology and Evolution,...
Exponential Bruno Giussani European Director and Global Curator, TED	Type I and Type II Errors Phil Rosenzweig Professor of Strategy and International Business at IMD,...
The Ideal Free Distribution Laura Betzig Anthropologist; Historian	The Texas Sharpshooter Charles Seife Professor of Journalism, New York University; former...
Gravitational Radiation Gino Segre Professor of Physics & Astronomy, University of...	Costly Signalling Steve Omohundro Scientist, Self-Aware Systems; Co-founder, Center for...
Alloparenting Abigail Marsh Associate Professor of Psychology, Georgetown University	Bisociation James Geary Deputy Curator, Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard...
Haldane’s Rule of the Right Size Paul Saffo Technology Forecaster; Consulting Associate Professor,...	Chronobiology Douglas Rushkoff Media Analyst; Documentary Writer; Author, Throwing Rocks...
Deliberate Ignorance Gerd Gigerenzer Psychologist; Director of the Center for Adaptive Behavior...	Uncertainty Lawrence M. Krauss Physicist; Cosmologist, ASU; Author, A Universe from Nothing
Polythetic Entitation Timothy Taylor Professor of the Prehistory of Humanity, University of...	Epigenetics Leo M. Chalupa Neurobiologist; Vice President of Research, George...
Quines Samuel Arbesman Complexity Scientist; Scientist in Residence at Lux Capital...	Verbal Overshadowing N.J. Enfield Professor and Chair, Department of Linguistics, University...
Liminality Christine Finn Archaeologist; Journalist; Author, Artifacts, Past Poetic	The Anthropocene Jennifer Jacquet Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies, NYU; Author,...
Number Sense Keith Devlin Mathematician; Executive Director, H-STAR Institute,...	Bayes's Theorem Sean Carroll Theoretical Physicist, Caltech; Author, The Big Picture
Polygenic Scores Robert Plomin Professor of Behavioral Genetics, King's College London	Need For Closure Dylan Evans Founder and CEO of Projection Point; author, Risk...
Babylonian Lottery Coco Krumme Applied Mathematician (adjunct), UC Berkeley; Head of...	DNA George Church Author, Regenesis; Professor, Harvard University; Director...
Non Ergodic Stuart A. Kauffman Professor of Biological Sciences, Physics, Astronomy,...	Possibility Space Ian Bogost Ivan Allen College Distinguished Chair in Media Studies and...
Antisocial Preferences Steven R. Quartz Neuroscientist; Professor of Philosophy, Caltech; Co-author...	Ocean Acidification Laurence C. Smith Professor and Chair of Geography; Professor of Earth,...
Natural Selection Jonathan B. Losos Monique and Philip Lehner Professor for the Study of Latin...	The Navier-Stokes Equations Ian McEwan Novelist; Author, Sweet Tooth; Solar; On Chesil Beach;...
The Gaia Hypothesis Hans Ulrich Obrist Curator, Serpentine Gallery, London; Editor: A Brief...	Ansatz Neil Gershenfeld Physicist, Director, MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms;...
The Scientist Stuart Firestein Professor and Chair, Department of Biological Sciences,...	Indexical Information Anthony Aguirre Professor of Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz
Decentering Gary Klein Senior Scientist, MacroCognition LLC; Author, Seeing What...	Social Identity Ziyad Marar Global Publishing Director, SAGE; Author, Intimacy:...
Positive Illusions Helen Fisher Biological Anthropologist, Rutgers University; Author, Why...	Prediction Error Minimization Andy Clark Philosopher and Cognitive Scientist; Professor of Logic and...
The Illusion of Explanatory Depth Adam Waytz Psychologist; Associate Professor of Management and...	Mental Emulation Stephen M. Kosslyn Founding Dean, Minerva Schools at the Keck Graduate...
State Scott Aaronson David J. Bruton Centennial Professor of Computer Science,...	Emotion Contagion June Gruber Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Colorado,...
Sexual Selection Rory Sutherland Executive Creative Director and Vice-Chairman, OgilvyOne...	The Brainstem Eduardo Salcedo-Albaran Philosopher; Director, Scientific Vortex, Inc
Time Window Ernst Pöppel Head of Research Group Systems, Neuroscience and Cognitive...	Transfer Learning Peter Lee Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Research
Substrate-Independence Max Tegmark Physicist, MIT; Researcher, Precision Cosmology; Scientific...	Mismatch Conditions Daniel Lieberman Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
Negative Evidence Bart Kosko Information Scientist and Professor of Electrical...	Functional Equations Jason Wilkes Graduate student in Psychology, UC Santa Barbara; Author,...
Emptiness Jaeweon Cho Professor of Environmental Engineering, UNIST; Director,...	Effect Size Bruce Hood Chair of Developmental Psychology in Society, University of...
Intertemporal Choice David DeSteno Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University	Rheology Matthew Putman Applied Physicist; Chairman of the Board, Pioneer Works;...
Counting Peter Norvig Director of Research, Google Inc.; Fellow of the AAAI and...	Spatial Agency Bias Simone Schnall Director, Cambridge Embodied Cognition and Emotion...
Isolation Mismatch David C. Queller Evolutionary Biologist. Washington University in St. Louis	The Symbol Grounding Problem Joshua Bongard Veinott Professor of Computer Science, University of...
Double Blind Scott Draves Software Artist	Emergence Antony Garrett Lisi Theoretical physicist
Included Middle Melanie Swan Philosophy and Economic Theory, the New School for Social...	Conceptual Combination Lisa Feldman Barrett University Distinguished Professor of Psychology,...
Cumulative Culture Cristine H. Legare Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University...	Bounded Optimality Tom Griffiths Associate Professor, Psychology and Cognitive Science,...
The Transcriptome Andrés Roemer Co-creator, Ideas City; Author, Move UP: Why Some Cultures...	Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety John Naughton Vice-President, Wolfson College; Author, From Gutenberg to...
Surreal Numbers Siobhan Roberts Director’s Visitor, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton...	Habituation Katherine D. Kinzler Associate Professor of Psychology and Associate Professor...
Mating Opportunity Costs David M. Buss Professor of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin;...	Attractors Kate Jeffery Professor of Behavioural Neuroscience, Dept. of...
Somatic Evolution Itai Yanai Director, Institute for Computational Medicine; Professor,...	Coarse-Graining Jessica Flack Professor, Director of the Collective Computation Group,...
Commitment Devices Michael I. Norton Associate Professor of Marketing, Harvard Business School;...	PT Symmetry Daniel Hook Managing Director, Digital Science; Visiting Professor,...
Satisficing Michael Hochberg Evolutionist, CNRS, Santa Fe Institute, Institute for...	Homeostasis Martin Lercher Professor of Computational Cell Biology at Heinrich Heine...
Herd Immunity Buddhini Samarasinghe Molecular Biologist	Alternative Possibilities Tania Lombrozo Associate Professor of Psychology, UC Berkeley
Empathic Concern Daniel Goleman Psychologist; Author, Ecological Intelligence, Focus: The...	Relative Deprivation Kurt Gray Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of North...
Phylogeny Richard Prum Evolutionary Ornithologist, Director of Franke Program,...	The Big Bounce Paul J. Steinhardt Albert Einstein Professor in Science, Departments of...
Metamaterials John Markoff Pulitzer Prize-winning Reporter; The New York Times; Author...	Standard Deviation S. Abbas Raza Founding Editor, 3QuarksDaily.com
Positive Feedbacks in Climate Change Bruce Parker Visiting Professor, Center for Maritime System; Author, The...	Allostasis Tor Nørretranders Writer; Speaker; Thinker, Copenhagen, Denmark
Russell Conjugation Eric R. Weinstein Mathematician and Economist; Managing Director of Thiel...	Humility Barnaby Marsh Philanthropy Executive and Scholar, Institute for Advance...
Antagonistic Pleiotropy Gregory Benford Emeritus Professor of Physics and Astronomy, UC-Irvine;...	Gravitational Lensing Priyamvada Natarajan Professor in Departments of Astronomy and Physics at Yale...
It's About Time Dustin Yellin Artist; Founder, Pioneer Works	The Climate System Giulio Boccaletti Chief Strategy Officer of The Nature Conservancy
General Standardization Theory Rolf Dobelli Founder, Zurich Minds; Journalist; Author, The Art of...	Replicator Power Susan Blackmore Psychologist; Author, Consciousness: An Introduction
Class Breaks Bruce Schneier Fellow and Lecturer, Harvard Kennedy School; Author, Data...	Effect Modification Beatrice Golomb Professor of Medicine at UCSD
Fallibilism Oliver Scott Curry Senior Researcher, Director, The Oxford Morals Project,...	Epsilon Victoria Stodden Computational Legal Scholar; Assistant Professor of...
Cosmological Constant, or Vacuum Energy Raphael Bousso Professor of Theoretical Physics, Berkeley	De-Anonymization Ross Anderson Professor of Security Engineering at Cambridge University
Phenotypic Plasticity Nicolas Baumard Research Scientist at the CNRS, Paris and Associate...	Scaling Ashvin Chhabra President of Euclidean Capital; Author, The Aspirational...
The Breeder's Equation Gregory Cochran Consultant; Adaptive Optics and Adjunct Professor of...	Fixpoint David Dalrymple Research affiliate, MIT Media Lab
Maladaptation Aubrey de Grey Gerontologist; Chief Science Officer. SENS Foundation;...	Blind Analysis Sarah Demers Horace D. Taft Associate Professor of Physics, Yale...
Abstraction Ursula Martin Professor of Computer Science, University of Oxford	Synaptic Transfer David Rowan Editor, WIRED UK
Zone of Proximal Development Athena Vouloumanos Associate Professor of Psychology, Director, NYU Infant...	Future Self-Continuity Brian Knutson Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience;...
Confusion Maximilian Schich Associate Professor in Arts and Technology, University of...	Construal Eldar Shafir William Stewart Tod Professor of Psychology and Public...
Sleeper Sensitive Periods Linda Wilbrecht Associate Professor, UC Berkeley Department of Psychology...	Media Richness Nina Jablonski Biological Anthropologist and Paleobiologist; Evan Pugh...
Galactic Centre Koo Jeong - A Artist	Maxwell’s Demon Jimena Canales Thomas M. Siebel Chair in the History of Science at...
Anthropomorphism Diana Reiss Professor, Department of Psychology Hunter College; Author...	Enactivism Amanda Gefter Physics writer; Author, Trespassing on Einstein's Lawn
On Average Kai Krause Software Pioneer; Philosopher; Author, "A Realtime...	Intellectual Honesty Sam Harris Neuroscientist; Co-founder and Chairman, Project Reason;...
Systemic Bias Richard Muller Physicist, UC Berkeley; Author, Physics for Future...	Boolean Logic Simon Baron-Cohen Professor of Developmental Psychopathology, University of...
Variety Lee Smolin Physicist, Perimeter Institute; Author, Time Reborn	Adaptive Preference Steve Fuller Philosopher; Auguste Comte Chair in Social Epistemology,...
Historiometrics Howard Gardner Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard...	Impedance Matching W. Daniel Hillis Physicist, Computer Scientist, Co-Founder, Applied...
Algorithms Terrence J. Sejnowski Computational Neuroscientist; Francis Crick Professor, the...	The Virial Theorem Seth Lloyd Professor of Quantum Mechanical Engineering, MIT; Author,...
“On The Average” Robert Sapolsky Neuroscientist, Stanford University; Author, Monkeyluv	Exaptation W. Tecumseh Fitch Professor of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna;...
Supernormal Stimuli Nancy Etcoff Psychologist and faculty member of the Harvard Medical...	Genetic Rescue Stewart Brand Founder, The Whole Earth Catalog; Co-founder, The Well; Co-...
The Non-Returnable Universe Andrei Linde Theoretical Physicist, Stanford; Father of Eternal Chaotic...	Coalitional Instincts John Tooby Founder of field of Evolutionary Psychology; Co-director,...
Multiverse Martin Rees Former President, The Royal Society; Emeritus Professor of...	The Scientific Method Nigel Goldenfeld Physicist, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign