Current Projects

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Here are a few projects I'm currently working on actively. Feel free to contact me if you're interested in similar or complementary work and would like to discuss/collaborate.

  • Cosmology text - With Craig Tyler I'm putting the finishing touches on a textbook (Your Cosmic Context: An Introduction to Modern Cosmology - due out in January 2008). The book introduces the core ideas of modern cosmology with an emphasis on connecting insights from scientific cosmology to your own life and sense of place in the universe. It's intended as a self-study introduction to the subject and as the text for an introductory course in cosmology for students not specializing in physics or astronomy.
  • Information physics -With Jack Semura I'm exploring the idea that the second law of thermodynamics is fundamentally about information. Clues from multiple areas of physics suggest the intriguing possibility that we might need to take information seriously as a fundamental building block of the universe, on par with energy, charge, mass, etc. Perhaps if we can uncover the fundamental laws governing information dynamics, it will turn out that quantum behavior and the second law of thermodynamics are just different aspects of the dynamics of information, leading to a deeper understanding of the nature of ultimate reality. Such an understanding may also have important implications for incorporating subjective awareness into our model of the natural world.
  • Subjective experience in the natural world - A central obstacle to placing ourselves clearly within the framework of a scientific map of the universe is our inability to describe subjective experience using the core concepts out of which the scientific map is built. So I'm exploring two interrelated questions this raises: 1) How can we describe the features of subjective experience within the conceptual terms of the scientific map? 2) Given that the scientific map, for all its power, is only a limited model of the Universe (it's a universe, not "The Universe," in Ed Harrison's terms), in what ways is it reasonable to expand the concepts of the current scientific map that may more naturally include subjective experience? Most compelling, I think, are careful extensions of the scientific concepts that can be motivated internally by the demands of the scientific field itself, rather than only as additions introduced solely for the purpose of making room for consciousness. (This is one reason I think the information physics project listed above is a fruitful line of investigation.)

In broad outline I think the solution will amount to viewing the history of science and its current place in our overall understanding of the world in a way that goes something like this: Starting with a world that includes subjective experience and meaning, we uncovered the predictability which must be a necessary part of that. But then we have become so absorbed in that part of the Universe (the model that is the physical universe) that we let it convince us that's all there is, and find ourselves alienated from the real Universe we started with. This makes sense as a natural progression of our developing understanding (we had to focus in this way in order to make progress), but it's time to think seriously about the limitations of our highly successful models and how to take the next steps in expanding the models to be more inclusive of the aspects of our experience that have been omitted so far. Following the insight of Kenneth Craik, we need to guard against letting our "view of reality become as narrow as our theory."

  • Key concepts of physics series - As part of the Science Integration Institute I'm building up a lecture series and accompanying web site designed to provide the general public with access to core concepts from modern physics that seem relevant to our worldviews. If you have suggestions or would like to give a talk or write a tutorial, please let me know. We'd also like to expand this series to include key concepts from all areas of science.
  • Academic home for science integration - Along with efforts by many other people and organizations, the formation of the Science Integration Institute has helped establish an identity and home base for this kind of work (rigorous science focused on "looking for meaning in the modern universe") that falls through the cracks of the existing structures of scientific research and education. But now that the identity of the field of scholarship is becoming better established, it's time to expand the framework of connections to existing infrastructure. As I get more and more students asking how to get involved in this effort, it would be nice to have a degree program they could enroll in from which to launch projects and a career in science integration. I'm currently exploring possibilities for how to set this up either as part of the Center for Science Education at Portland State University or as a program at Pacific University.
    • (students, degree programs, courses and research infrastructure, visitors, etc.)
      • [might include some documents here from original McDonnell Foundation proposal, 1998, that led to SII]
  • Pacific University physics and optometry courses - During the 2007-8 AY I'm teaching cosmology, quantum mechanics, intro physics labs, and physical optics labs.
  • Oregon Math/Science Partners - A collaboration among Portland State University, Pacific University, Beaverton School District, and Hillsboro School District to help build a community of scholars to support and improve science education across all grade levels.

 

 

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Todd L. Duncan
duncan@scienceintegration.org
Date Last Modified: April 29, 2009