What science tells us about one of life’s biggest unanswered questions is, naturally, much contested. Jim Al-Khalili, a UK physicist and president of the British Humanist Association, recently asked: “So do we have free will or not?” The question came midway through an essay on the subject, and his answer is, “Yes,” I believe we still…Continue Reading…
Flu Shots Are Damn Dangerous No, that’s not from the Huffington Post. It’s the headline to a Daily Beast story that is beyond the pale. It’s mind-boggling that the Daily Beast–a high-profile media outlet–would give space to this piece of misinformation and scare-mongering. The author’s intent is obviously to sow doubt about the effectiveness and…Continue Reading…
Earlier this week, I was dismissive of the GMO labeling movement in a way that didn’t do justice to its core concerns. I wrote: Like climate change, the crazy politics of the GMO debate trump the science. Along those lines, I view the “right to know” campaign (which is part of a larger effort to label…Continue Reading…
This tweet from the NYT green blog caught my eye: At a Protest, Science and Religion Team Up nyti.ms/13AWQo3 — NYT Green Blog (@nytimesgreen) January 16, 2013 What? Have the atheist police been alerted? This is something they ought to know about. Here’s the opener to that news item: Science and religion went hand-in-hand on…Continue Reading…
When it comes to evolution, no reputable museum would dare “teach the controversy,” a catchphrase used as a ploy by creationists some years back, when they tried to put “intelligent design” on an equal scientific footing with evolutionary biology. The biotech issue, which is a source of much controversy in environmental and food circles, is…Continue Reading…
Anyone who believes that science, above all, should inform our debates on medical, health and environmental issues, will find much to agree with in The Geek Manifesto, a recently published book by Mark Henderson, one of Britain’s leading science communicators. As science writer David Dobbs writes in his foreward to the U.S. edition, The Geek Manifesto articulates…Continue Reading…
The underlying basis for why some people become so fiercely opposed to genetically modified crops or to action on climate change is often not grounded in science. That’s why I’ve come to believe that the anti-science tag is misused and a distraction from what’s really at play. An example of what I mean is captured…Continue Reading…
As Slate noted last year, the UK’s Daily Mail is “the world’s most popular online newspaper.” It’s not exactly a news you can use publication. Imagine if you crossed the New York Post (and its worst tendencies) with the National Enquirer and maybe throw in a splash of Weekly World News. That’s the Daily Mail. So…Continue Reading…
One of the main impediments to rational discussion of biotechnology is fear-mongering by anti-GMO zealots. The most outlandish claims (cancer! birth defects!) are couched in science and often peddled by activists like Jeffrey Smith, who is given the opportunity to air his baseless assertions to nationally syndicated TV audiences (on multiple occasions), courtesy of the popular but…Continue Reading…