Science & Society

Could we be living in a computer simulation of some sort?  In priciple physics will never be able to directly test this.  It is an appealing idea, mentioned by everyone from scientist to pop culture figures.  It appeals as this would naturally explain certain foundational mysteries of science.  Such as the fact that we can write mathematical laws that predict precisely what will occur in nature.  Can this question even be interrogated scientifically?  Is the question “Are we living in a simulation?” a matter for science or belief? The key difference between…

MacKenzie Scott does not give Science 2.0 any money. I wish she did. For a minute fraction of her $57 billion we could increase the science literacy for Americans quite a lot.  I am not criticizing her, just a few months ago she pledged $4 billion to nearly 400 groups, from food banks to community colleges. She didn't have to do that, no rich person does, it is wonderful she did.  It would even be great if funding science nonprofits carried the same cultural cachet as funding environmental lawyers, who rake in $2 billion a year from progressive foundations and corporations. You…

For much of 2020, it looked like media was trying to pivot the anti-vaccine movement from being predominantly left wing to one afflicting right. More right-wing people than left in America didn't want to wear masks, after all, so it seemed easy to claim they would be less likely to take a vaccine. It didn't really work and the organic industry is not willing to give up the fight to be anti-vaccine that easily. Ronnie Cummins, conspiracy theorist and head of Organic Consumers Association, has teamed up with osteopath and supplement huckster Joe Mercola, D.O, to assure their base that science…

The Pennsylvania Game Commission manages 1.5 million acres of land for its citizens and all "public land owners" are able to use it for hiking, hunting and various activities. Despite such an enormous responsibility, the Game Commission receives no General fund appropriations. The Game Commission and state biologists instead get to be stewards of nature thanks to nearly all of its $120,000,000 in funding coming from licenses like deer hunting.  Though western elites decry hunting, especially "trophy" hunting, its environmental and social benefits are clear. In the case of Pennsylvania,…

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are one of the key pillars of the UN’s attempt to remake the world according to a more equitable and sustainable model. The SDGs are a set of 17 individual goals which the UN aims to achieve by 2030. Prior to the global pandemic, the SDGs were already off target, and the pandemic only made the task of achieving them even harder. Not only did the pandemic stall progress, it reversed much of the progress that had been made in the previous five years.  So, it was no surprise that, in October 2020, when United Nations secretary-general…

Oumuamua was hypothesized by Avi Loeb to be an alien probe due to its apparent very flat shape and hyperbolic path through the solar system.  It was almost certainly not an alien probe.  The orbit indicates that it is an object that was never gravitationally bound to the Sun, and it is hard to imagine how a natural asteroid can appear to be quite so flat but while this makes it an odd ball it does not make it a space probe.  How can you as a reader or producer of science know this?  Occam’s razor, given competing explanations that fit the data equally well the simpler one…

The Doomsday Clock, a marketing gimmick of the anti-nuclear group Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, gets an unreal amount of attention from political allies in journalism in a way that scientists can't understand any more than how Environmental Working Group's so-called "Dirty Dozen" list of foods (that strangely exempts organic food pesticides their corporate donors sell) gets so much corporate media coverage. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists must be short on cash this year because they have pulled out all the stops and declared that we are closer to the apocalypse than at any point in…

Jan 6 th 2020 will be remembered as a day of farce and tragedy in close proximity.  Right now, passions are high, tensions are high.  Right now, is the time when scientist and academics must hew to our basic principles and the principles embodied in the constitution.  Even as leaders, especially but not exclusively Trump, not exclusively Republican fail to do so.  We are voices of reason who the general public greatly respect even when they disagree.  The very rancor of the anti-science people left and right comes from the fact the value what we say.  Their anger…

Space Force has chosen the term guardians for what to call them.  As in Army soldiers, Navy sailors, Marines…marines.  What gets tricky now a days is calling Airmen, airmen. Some have said that guardians are too sci fi.  The truth is it really is not, and a space focused military force would look like science fiction until it was commonplace.  The name is thoughtful anyone can be a guardian if they have the right stuff. 5 Good reasons for a progressive and/or Libertarian to Like the Space Force We all use GPS and satellite communications. They enable us to plan more…

A recent computer model finds that it doesn't hurt a product to negative reviews and it may even help. A flawless product does not exist, people are suspicious if they see no bad reviews, and using game theory, the researchers analyzed how negative reviews affect sales. The model had two sets of participants: sellers, who know the true quality of the products they are selling and can selectively publish reviews about it, and buyers, who do not know a product's quality and can be categorized as either 'naïve' or 'rational'. Rational buyers use all available information to determine the…