Science & Society

Why I Am Peter Gleick When your opponent has dipped his gloves in glue and glass and has kicked you in the nuts, most people would agree that if you depart somewhat from the Queensbury rules the other side has no right to complain about your ethics. Far too many ordinary people are allowing sqeptics - quasi-skeptics - to do their thinking for them.  Some things are really too horrible to contemplate.  How easy it is to accept any seemingly plausible snippet from a seemingly plausible source if it explains the nasty thing away as an illusion or hoax. A truly skeptical practitioner of…

There have been several articles talking about opposition to GMO foods as being "anti-science" and raising the issue of the precautionary principle, but in fairness, we have to consider what the role of the precautionary principle is, before we just blow it off as an alarmist parlor trick. Let's be clear.  ALL questions have scientific legitimacy and some may be well-thought out, while others may be totally off the mark.  This doesn't make them unscientific, it just makes them uninformed.  If a particular view persists after the proper information has been provided, then the…

The Heartland Institute and Murdoch Media The Heartland Institute story broke on February 14th.  The revelation that anti-science bunkum has been funded by corporate dollars was no surprise to those of us who have been investigating these propaganda mills.  Peter H Gleik has confirmed that he was the one who obtained the secret documents.  In confirming that he got them straight from the Heartland Institute he also confirms their authenticity. The world at large also needs to know that Rupert Murdoch's media empire - which often cites the Heartland Institute as a source for "…

Despite claims by some of the more aggressive groups who attack science academia, women do not face a 'hostile' work environment because in some fields they are less than 50 percent or some other scientists are rude. Instead, they face a tough personal choice. Getting tenure is hard.  The work load is tremendous.  More women than men tend to think it is not worth the effort and, if they have kids, that feeling becomes more so.  They are not rejecting science but they are opting for a higher quality of life.  Studies show that male scientists often wish they had made the…

A note to bird flu virologists: Not all of you have been approaching of this whole engineered flu pandemic controversy quite optimally.  It’s understandable that you weren’t prepared for all the attention.  After all, you were only answering calls from both the NIH and World Health Organization to better understand the deadly H5N1 bird flu.   Ultimately, by showing how bird flu can more easily infect mammals, you are trying to prevent a natural flu disaster.  So of course it was surprising and offensive when the media branded you as out-of-control mad scientists, and when…

    Will we recognise alien life if we find it? The answer to that is: if it’s a very basic life form we will only know it as living if it’s based on carbon and water. The reason for saying that is that you only have to look at the articles  and comments on this subject here at Science 2.0 over the last few weeks to see that almost everyone has an axe to grind, or a hobbyhorse to display, or they are led astray by careless language. Life, it seems, is a subject close to everyone’s heart, (no pun intended) except, of course, for those who consider the quest for certainty about…

If someone in 2012 wants to criticize Henry Ford because he didn't know everything about automobiles a century ago, it's a little silly. He knew what he knew given the science and the technology of his day - he revolutionized his field.  Freud got a lot wrong about psychology but he created the only unified theory of psychology recognized by people today. Criticizing him is as quaint and pointless and irrelevant as someone criticizing a 19th century analysis of Coleridge - any researcher doing it is likely to get a "someone paid for them to write this?" response. In 2012, though, people…

Recent research examined suicide rates north and south of the border between 1960 and 2008 and revealed the widening gap in suicide rates between Scotland and England and Wales is largely due to the number of young Scottish men taking their lives. The suicide rate for both men and women was lower in Scotland than the rest of the United Kingdom until around 1968 when it overtook the other two but suicide rates among men continued to rise on both sides of the border until the early 1990s when rates in England and Wales began to fall. The gap between north and south widened markedly. The study…

Accessing the absolute latest in scientific communications directly by the independent amateur or citizen scientist has been a financially daunting prospect for decades; practically impossible. The top research journals carry high subscription rates (price out for yourself one of the best), and the science professional relies on their employing institution to cover the costs of access through the resident library budget, save for a personal subscription to their most treasured journal. Of course, a great deal of front-line scientific research is funded by governmental agencies, which…

"Sex education is failing to reduce adolescent birthrates in conservative states, according to a new study" begins a somber Livescience piece. Oooh, that's juicy.  We all want to talk about how dumb conservatives are. And if it's a study - and it is, the writer says it right there - they are not injecting any personal bias. Science media writes more 'conservatives are dumb' pieces than the Democratic National Committee and it's election season in the U.S., so the goofy 'here is why you must vote Democrat' faux-evidence articles are out in force. This one, titled "Sex Education Less…