Science & Society

In the fall of 2003, Starbucks tested a new latte in two cities and autumn hasn't been the same since. The pumpkin spice craze was born.  How did it all happen? We can thank free market economics. The company already had Christmas locked up with cups and flavors, like Peppermint Mocha and Eggnog latte, and wanted to do the same for Halloween. Or Thanksgiving. Whatever period lasts as long as Christmas seems to, they wanted to make money and the way to do that was to come up with something new, or at least new for their customers.  Some cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove later and they…

To most people, food production, home ownership, and energy don't have much in common, but in the hands of 'science is a corporate conspiracy' theorist Dave Goulson, humans are ruining the planet. The common cultural cancer underpinning of our problem, he believes, is capitalism. Rachel Carson believed misuse of DDT was harming birds, Goulson claims our very existence is. And his solemn false dichotomy choice to prevent it is Draconian. Start culling the human herd or create a level of social authoritarianism that even John Holdren, Paul Ehrlich, and Anne Ehrlich didn't advocate in their book…

If a group of astrologers all write papers endorsing astrology and then another astrologer comes along and does a meta-analysis of those, they can conclude authoritatively that astrology works. As a smart reader, you know it's nonsense, but if you are selling astrology services, you either set out to deceive people or you want to believe so badly you lose your ability to reason.  Yet activists have exploited this manipulation technique for years. From chemicals to food to air quality, most of the claims you read, many of which have been turned into government policy, are garbage. Want to…

Fear and frustration hang over London, Ont., where many people are discussing four formal allegations of sexual violence reported to Western University and sharing unconfirmed rumours about wider sexual assaults. Members of the Western community say they feel unsafe, especially young women and other vulnerable groups. In response to the situation, students organized a walkout rally on Sept. 17 to stand with survivors and demand change. Alan Shepard, the university’s president, has said Western let its students and their families down, stating: “What happened last week is really unacceptable…

There is almost nothing that could make the Moon fall towards the Earth that wouldn’t disrupt the orbit of the Earth around the Sun as well as the other planets. However, there is no apparent violation of the laws of physics in this trailer. As surprising as that may sound physics allows for things far stranger than the Moon colliding with the Earth. The real question is what could put the Moon on a collision course with the Earth in such a short time frame that we would not see it coming for millions or billions of years in advance? Aliens of course. Which may violate the laws of biology if…

 Is what we are seeing in a science fiction TV show like Star Trek or a movie like Star Wars possible is the whole thing science fiction aka fictional science or is it a total fantasy that could never happen? The laws of physics and biology are the ones fantasy and fantasy within sci fi will most often break.  Fiction that tries to respect them is science fiction, fiction that does not is fantasy or perhaps science fantasy. There is an easy way to answer this and it comes by knowing just a few basic laws of physics. The laws of physics are well tested hypotheses which…

The EPA is requesting public comment on a biological evaluation of three seed treatment pesticides, called neonicotinoids. Neonicotinoids were created in the 1990s to require less mass spraying and possible damage to the environment. They are seed treatments, so they protect plants when they are most vulnerable to pests and that means less strain on the environment with spraying. The sounds great, but so does limiting them when you read "each of these chemicals is likely to adversely affect certain listed species or their designated critical habitats" because that reads authoritative. Well,…

A new survey has good news for the alternative-to-cattle market, Beyond Burgers and the like; 54 percent of surveyed Americans claim they have tried it and 70 percent of those thought it okay.(1)   Burger King is a game changer on that, and over 40 percent reported buying it there. That all sounds great, but there is a confounder. The survey of 30,700 conflates lab-grown meat and vegetable patties, which have gigantic differences among consumer beliefs. That said, it still has some good news for companies in that space. Meat eaters are most likely to give science a chance. The…

At the turn of the century, if you denied global warming or believed that vaccines cause autism, it was easy to know which political party you were in. When it came to acceptance of evolution, things were muddier. Though more Democrats than Republicans accepted evolution the margin was single digits and over half of all people didn't know what to make of it or flat out denied it.(1) Science is hard and evolution is complex. Yet now the majority does accept it and the likely reason is college education. Though it has caused runaway debt and far too many new buildings at universities, unlimited…

“Thank you for being a regenerative farmer. We would like to introduce you to the Regenerative Farm Map we’ve created — you’re on it!” The email finally arrived from Regeneration International, notifying my wife and I that we had officially made it onto the map with our small regenerative dairy founded on the land in rural Wisconsin she inherited from her grandfather called Happy Köe Farm — a place that doesn’t exist. Of course, the location was once a real farm and the backstory was true about my wife’s grandfather, who immigrated to a Dutch dairy community in Wisconsin after enduring the…