Science and Politics:
If you're looking for a better explanation of why it would be good for the presidential candidates to have a debate on science-related topics, the ScienceDebate now has a number of videos available where knowledgeable people talk about why...
Posted on February 20, 2008 9:47 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Suppose that you are taking a walk through the hills above a town, and you reach the foot of a dam. There's a crack in the dam, and it's getting wider. You run back down to the town, and...
Posted on February 18, 2008 8:38 PM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Bush Administration has once again managed to reach new levels of self-parody. This time, the subject is stem cell research, and they've taken a position on funding new research that incorporates the classic Catch-22 problem. Sadly, though, the Catch-22 lacks anything that bears the faintest resemblance to humor when it's used to block funding for potentially lifesaving research.
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Posted on January 11, 2008 9:45 AM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Chris Mooney's recently-published article in Seed magazine has stirred a bit of discussion about the role of the Presidential Science Advisor, and just who would be a good choice for that position. Of the two questions, the first is...
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Posted on January 7, 2008 9:19 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Today's Wall Street Journal has a page A1 article (and accompanying blog post) about John Edward's decision to invoke the Nataline Sarkisyan case in his campaign-trail discussions of health care. Sarkisyan, you may remember, was the 17-year-old California girl...
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Posted on January 7, 2008 11:56 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Last night, in Oslo, Al Gore delivered a simple, powerful message. It's a familiar message to anyone who has watched him speak since 2000, or watched his movie, or read his books. It's simply a call for nothing more...
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Posted on December 11, 2007 12:22 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Why - and when - do bridges fail? How and why does veterinary usage of some medications pose a risk to humans? How important is it to be absolutely certain that global warming is causing an increase in hurricane...
Posted on December 10, 2007 2:31 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
John Wilkins was browsing through the Convention on Biological Diversity's website, and decided to compile a listing of the countries that are not parties to the treaty. I replicated his experiment and came up with something similar. It's not...
Posted on November 7, 2007 8:47 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Apparently, Matt Nisbet didn't think that one poorly-reasoned critique of Gore's ability to communicate science was enough for the weekend, because he tossed out another a day later. You might recall that in his first critique, Nisbet claimed that...
Posted on October 15, 2007 8:34 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In "The Republican War on Science" Chris Mooney referred to the Newt Gingrich-led Congress' decision to eliminate the Office of Technology Assessment as "a stunning act of self-lobotomy." If anything, he was lowballing the effects. For those of you...
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Posted on September 17, 2007 9:26 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Mike Dunford is a graduate student in the Department of Zoology at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, where he studies evolution. He's also a contributer to The Pandas Thumb. As is the case with everyone else here, his opinions are his own, and do not necessarily represent those of any organization he is affiliated with. 
