Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Big STEM collaborations should include humanities and social science

Nature Human Behaviour volume 7, pages 1229–1230 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Big STEM collaborations, however, do not operate in isolation but are part of an interconnected web of social institutions, relations and values. Part of this involves recognizing that science often comes with complex effects on the world around it, not all of which are immediately obvious — advances in renewable energy technology, for example, are reliant upon metals that are often mined in regions with lax labour and environmental regulations that endanger workers and surrounding communities1. Humanities, social science and behavioural science scholars are positioned to understand and shape these interactions by emphasizing different ways of knowing and different approaches to questions that can, among other benefits, help to mitigate long-term risks from the outset. In return, they become part of a global real-time case study, which enables access to data (both physical and social) and provides unique opportunities to try new ideas with a continuous feedback loop.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Lèbre, É. et al. Nat. Commun. 11, 4823 (2020).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Galison, P. et al. Galaxies 11, 32 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration. et al. Astrophys. J. Lett. 875, L1 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Johnson, M. D. et al. Galaxies 11, 61 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Doeleman, S. et al. Bull. Am. Astron. Soc. 51, https://baas.aas.org/pub/2020n7i256 (2019).

  6. Loomis, I. & Cho, A. Science 348, 614–615 (2015).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Galison, P. Governing epistemology: collective reasoning at the core of science. ngeht.org, https://www.ngeht.org/governing-epistemology-talk (2023).

  8. Hemming, V., Burgman, M. A., Hanea, A. M., McBride, M. F. & Wintle, B. C. Methods Ecol. Evol. 9, 169–180 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Mellers, B. et al. Perspect. Psychol. Sci. 10, 267–281 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Marcoci, A. et al. Preprint at MetaArxiv, https://doi.org/10.31222/osf.io/xdsjf (2023)

Download references

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the hundreds of researchers and engineers worldwide who have contributed to the ngEHT and have helped to define the direction of this collaboration. In particular, we are grateful to the members of the History Philosophy Culture (HPC) Working Group, and the attendees of the 1st HPC Workshop and Responsible Siting Workshop, as well as to J. Nguyen for comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. N.C.M.M. acknowledges support from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme for the funding received under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 101065772 (PhilDarkEnergy) and the ERC Starting Grant agreement no. 101076402 (COSMO-MASTER). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. A.C.T, N.C.M.M, S.S.D., P.G. and M.D.J. acknowledge the Black Hole Initiative, a project funded in part by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. It was also made possible through the support of a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of these foundations. S.S.D. and M.D.J. acknowledge support from National Science Foundation grant AST-1935980, and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation grant GBMF10423. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Alexandru Marcoci

  2. McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    Ann C. Thresher

  3. Freudenthal Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Niels C. M. Martens

  4. Descartes Centre for the History and Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Niels C. M. Martens

  5. Department of the History of Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Peter Galison

  6. Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Peter Galison

  7. Black Hole Initiative, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Ann C. Thresher, Niels C. M. Martens, Peter Galison, Sheperd S. Doeleman & Michael D. Johnson

  8. Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Sheperd S. Doeleman & Michael D. Johnson

  9. Stanford Doerr School for Sustainability, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    Ann C. Thresher

Authors
  1. Alexandru Marcoci
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ann C. Thresher
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Niels C. M. Martens
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Peter Galison
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Sheperd S. Doeleman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Michael D. Johnson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alexandru Marcoci.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

A.M., A.C.T., N.C.M.M., P.G., S.S.D. and M.D.J. are members of the ngEHT collaboration, an interdisciplinary project that spans STEM, the humanities and the social and behavioural sciences. A.M., A.C.T., N.C.M.M. and P.G. are members of the History Philosophy and Culture Working Group (led by P.G.). S.S.D. is the principal investigator of the ngEHT collaboration and the founding director of the EHT collaboration. M.D.J. is the project scientist of the ngEHT collaboration.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Marcoci, A., Thresher, A.C., Martens, N.C.M. et al. Big STEM collaborations should include humanities and social science. Nat Hum Behav 7, 1229–1230 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01674-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01674-x

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing