Science & Society

Does the adoption of GM crops lead to more or less pesticide use?  This is a frequent topic of debate, but generally one that misses the point.  Both sides make the same erroneous assumption that all pesticide use is, by definition, a bad thing.   In fact, it depends on the particular pesticide in question, the reason it is being used, and the details of its application.  Most modern pesticides are extremely low in hazard to us or to the environment.  Both "sides" of the GM debate would do well to stop over-simplfying this issue. What Biotech…

Sabine Hossenfelder is a well-known theoretical physicist as well as a successful blogger. In her blog today I read a letter she sent to Time Magazine. The letter was triggered by the following sentence in a piece by Jeffrey Kluger discussing the runners-up for "person of the year": “Physics is a male-dominated field, and the assumption is that a woman has to overcome hurdles and face down biases that men don’t. But that just isn’t so. Women in physics are familiar with this misconception and acknowledge it mostly with jokes.” Admittedly, the writer is badly downplaying the issue. Having…

In parts 1 and 2 of this series, I undertook a (much longer than anticipated) personal investigation into how scientists discuss the effects of cannabis as a way of trying to better it, both as a drug and as a cultural subject. The articles generated a great deal of discussion and many intriguing points were raised. Jimmy is a much smarter young man now. But even after all the reading, writing and discussion, I still had questions with unsatisfactory answers. So I decided to do the one thing that was even better than reading scientific articles: I talked to scientists. Two scientists were…

The UK government needs to monitor surrogate pregnancy more carefully, says Eric Blyth, professor of social work at the University of Huddersfield. Couples seeking to build a family, and surrogate mothers overseas who help them, are in danger of emotional, physical and financial exploitation. Since 1990, a UK couple wishing to become the legal parents of a child born to a surrogate mother must apply for a Parental Order. Initially this was restricted to married couples but in 2008, the rules were broadened so that same-sex couples were given the right to legal parentage following assisted-…

Lubos Motl is an acquaintance of mine, a high functioning idiot savant whose considerable abilities in juggling mathematics and its application to merely theoretical physics contrast an obvious lack in grasping truly complex systems (say those with uncertainty about meaning or due to deception), a lack that is so severe, it not just makes Lubos a social misfit (which is fine by me), but it even taints his intuition about physics, as for example evidenced by his misinterpretations of certain quantum mechanics papers that did not claim what he claims they claim.  He could be a leading…

Writing in JAMA, a group of researchers say the way to curb gun violence is to treat guns as a public health awareness issue, the way we do awareness campaigns against cigarettes and drunk driving. So media, celebrities and the public should "de-glorify" guns the same way, though the efficacy of the campaigns they list is suspect.  In movies, directors now make sure the edgy, rebellious person smokes, in order to show how edgy and rebellious they are. And marijuana use is actually being encouraged in lots of the same states that ban cigarettes in bars despite billions of dollars in…

In the New York Times, Nobel laureate Paul Krugman recently made the case for a return to the 1950s. Keynes-ian economics was still in vogue and taxes were higher for the super-rich, lots more people were in unions. Minorities and women had a tough time employment-wise but he thinks the economy was great, despite those recessions of 1953 and 1957. Not every American that cares about women, minorities and poor people agrees with Paul Krugman that the decade was all balloons and ponies. One factoid that would have bolstered his case among his detractors is that women were apparently…

Last week, environmentalist Mark Lynas presented an articulate and painfully honest apology for his significant role in starting the anti-GMO movement in the 1990s.  He said that it was the most successful campaign in which he has ever been involved, but after finally looking into the science, he now deeply regrets what he and others accomplished.  While it is gratifying to have a figure like Lynas make such a turn-about, it does nothing to mitigate the damage of which this anti-science movement has perpetrated on humanity and the environment.   Ideally, such a…

In the past couple years, I’ve written over a dozen articles examining facilitated communication as Biklen and Crossley define it, along with Soma’s clone, Rapid Prompting. On several occasions, I have collaborated with Dr. James Todd, a behavioral psychologist and university professor who has dedicated much of his time and effort to debunking pseudoscientific autism treatments and interventions, especially facilitated communication.  Over the last twenty-plus years, FC has stuck around, and Biklen’s institute at Syracuse University has gone through PR overhauls to obfuscate FC’s bad…

British environmentalist Mark Lynas was an early advocate against GMOs and, as he tells it, that meant he was an early advocate for demonizing scientists. While most actual scientists did not give much credence to an offhand claim by researcher Árpád Pusztai in the mid-1990s that a genetically-modified potato damaged the immune system of an animal, because the results were unpublished and unverified, UK media of the scare journalism kind and British activists took off with it and the "Frankenfood" movement was born. Here is what Lynas writes about his early efforts (bold mine): These fears…