Science & Society

Since the early 1970s, all aspects of academia have skewed left.  With that political shift, the confidence that scientists are neutral arbiters for the public good has also declined on both sides. More Republicans than Democrats think the fix is in regarding a green 'agenda' and global warming whereas more Democrats than Republicans think scientists are shills for Big Ag, Big Pharm, etc. regarding food and vaccines.  Basically, science can't win but there was a time when being an academic, and certainly a scientist, was impressive and not a presumption about a political world view…

Coming into the Democratic convention, science academia is going to be enthusiastic in its support of President Obama.  Unlike counterparts in private-sector science, academia will vote up to 85% Democratic and some of that reason has been that Democrats are more 'pro-science' than Republicans. Obviously that isn't true, I (co)wrote a whole book itemizing how progressives who have a vocal minority among Democrats hijack their liberal and even conservative brethren. They're dangerous and their anti-science positions far outweigh the craziness on the right. A complete itemized list isn't…

Social security is in a crisis even worse than Medicare. Because Congress has consistently spent contributions, social security is always on the edge of insolvency and now that the Baby Boomers have begun retiring, the crisis is going to get worse, with not enough workers to fund the retirees. Ideas such as raising the retirement age are floated by University of Michigen economists have a more positive approach; they say if we stop collecting social security payroll taxes when workers are 55-years old, their take-home pay would jump by 10.6 percent, older people would work 1.5 years longer on…

Standards of Transparency in Science?  The issue of attention, scrutiny -- and transparency --  has never been more paramount than in science, which sets the gold standard for accountability in the hungry search for truth. But there have always been flaws and biases. (Believe me!) New technologies offer ways to both speed the results publication and expose them to credibility-ranking through criticism, not by abandoning peer review but by finding ways to crowd-source it with feedback ranked by a credibility scoring system. (I have proposed something similar as a terrific business…

While Californians in America are fighting for ways to send America back to the 13th century, some Canadians are embracing science and the modern world. Why? Two reasons.  First, they have discovered that 'zero' GMOs in food is impossible, even if we picked some arbitrary point in time and declared no modifications were 'allowed' after that date.  If Prop 37 in California passes the only companies and stores that cannot be sued are the ones the litigation lawyers behind it declare exempt; namely their organic food clients.  A rational approach is not easy in Canada either.…

39% of Americans feel 'green guilt' for wasting food, a much higher number than letting the sink run while they brush their teeth or not buying those stupid low-flow toilets. The 2012 Eco Pulse results are in.  So look for the latest marketing campaigns from environmental activism corporations soon. Why does anyone do surveys on what people feel guilty about rather than what people care about?  They do it to sell it to environmental groups and no environmental group raises money on a 'things are great' platform, they raise money by telling you how much you are a parasite for Gaia.…

Distrust and paranoia did not start with claims about genetically modified foods or vaccines. Concern about the motivations of government, secret societies and corporations has a long history. The belief in a conspiracy of elites fuels suspicion about all authorities and the claims they make.  What is more of a puzzle is that the attraction of conspiracy theories is so strong that it leads people to endorse entirely contradictory beliefs, like how the government should make special regulations for genetically modified foods, though the government is supposedly dependent on lobbyist…

Having just read an article about forest fires [How the Smokey Bear Effect Led To Raging Wildfires], I was struck by the obvious question of why this should be a problem. In effect, it illustrates one of the primary difficulties we face, as humans, in a modern society, equipped with all manner of scientific knowledge and yet seemingly unable to solve the simplest problems. When viewed in this light, it isn't difficult to see why many recent controversies produce so many diverse responses regarding global climate change or GMO foods.  Each of these issues faces exactly the same kind of…

The British may think they 'colonized' Kenya to teach them about civilization and the modern world, but it would be the other way around today.  While over 80 percent of Europeans admit they are against any GMO regardless of whether or not they can be 'proved' safe - an impossibility anyway - and some Americans on the kooky anti-science left insist they are allergic to any product that has anything to do with GM sugar beets, Kenyans are downright enlightened about food science. What does it tell you?  Patronizing elitists are not as smart as they think they are.  The vaccine…

A key aspect of being human, in the literal and figurative sense, is rationality.  It separates us from our pets. Not in a good way, we are a lot less rational than other animals and we even strive to make our irrational aspects rational - which is not rational at all.  An alien who visited Earth and looked at us like a human evolutionary psychologist does would be searching for a biological reason we wear neckties.  Elaborate papers would be written about how, like red monkey butts and peacock plumes, they must help us get mates. And they do, but only circumstantially.  A…