hrynyshyn | July 11, 2006This might be premature, but it's beginning to look like the debate between believers and scientists is getting some traction in the public sphere again. And that would be a good thing, if for no other reason that it gives us a chance to improve the quality of the discourse. The latest offerings, however, offer little more than "can't we all just get along?"
First, Time magazine delivers in its July 9 edition a profile of Francis Collins on the occasion of his new book, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. Genome impressio Collins is a former self-described "…
hrynyshyn | July 8, 2006Climate change has been blamed for a lot of things, sometimes not entirely based on the scientific evidence. But this is a first, at least to me:
From today's Guardian:
A vast chunk of Europe's most ill-famed mountain threatens to break loose and crash down in the next few days, a geologist monitoring the situation told the Guardian yesterday. Hans-Rudolf Keusen said 2 m[illion] cubic metres of the Eiger in the Bernese Alps, Switzerland - twice the volume of the Empire State Building - was rapidly working its way loose. He said the mountain appeared to have cracked open as an indirect result…
hrynyshyn | July 7, 2006Former science columnist turned blogger and all-round wise old guy Chet Raymo writes on his blog today that his Irish neighbors don't understand what's going on in America when it comes to the ascendancy of religiosity. I don't have an answer, but his question suggests a possible answer to a problem identified, co-incidentally, in today's Science magazine.
First, Chet's Irish friend's poser:
What puzzles the Irish is how a nation unequaled in its scientific and technical prowess can at the same time be so in thrall to what they see as rank superstition. To their mind, there is little…
hrynyshyn | July 6, 2006Last weekend's Los Angeles Times included a curious essay by Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert titled "If only gay sex caused global warming." How can you resist?
The basic thesis, drawn from evolutionary biology, is threats are meaningless without a face to associate. To wit:
...global warming lacks a mustache. No, really. We are social mammals whose brains are highly specialized for thinking about others. Understanding what others are up to -- what they know and want, what they are doing and planning -- has been so crucial to the survival of our species that our brains have developed an…
hrynyshyn | July 5, 2006I'm sure Robert Samuelson isn't the only pundit who doesn't buy Al Gore's argument that climate change is a moral issue. The Newsweek editor and Washington Post columnist weighs in on "An Inconvient Truth" today by rejecting Gore's characterization of the problem.
The trouble with the global warming debate is that it has become a moral crusade when it's really an engineering problem. The inconvenient truth is that if we don't solve the engineering problem, we're helpless.
Which got me to thinking: if climate change doesn't involve morality, then what does a public policy debate have to…
hrynyshyn | July 4, 2006On the eve of America's 230th, the New York Times steps to the plate with a short, sweet editorial calling for more and better science education:
Some universities have already realized the need for better ways of teaching. But this means revising an incentive system that has historically rewarded scientists for making discoveries and publishing academic papers, not for nurturing the next generation of great minds.
hrynyshyn | July 3, 2006Would-be 2008 presidential candidate John McCain has had every opportunity to distance himself from the retrogressive anti-Enlightenment policies of the current administration, but he just can't seem to bring himself to do it, even when polls that put Bush's approval rating at all-time lows suggest it would be a good idea.
This past Saturday McCain was given yet another chance to demonstrate his respect for the scientific method during an appearance at Aspen's Evening of Words and Music:
In the final question of the evening, an audience member asked McCain to outline his stance on teaching…
hrynyshyn | June 30, 2006Having worked as a communications officer for more than one scientific outfit, I can sympathize with the outreach guys at the University of Leicester. But methinks they took their attention-grabbing-headline lessons a bit too seriously. A story making the rounds of the science PR wires today asks:
What do Racquel Welch and quantum physics have in common?
The answer is not a whole heckuva lot.
The research they're trying to interest journalists in writing about involves zero-point energy, that mysterious quality of even a vaccuum to hold a measurable level of activity at the subatomic level.…
hrynyshyn | June 29, 2006Barack Obama is right. Barack Obama is also wrong. Not only should this not be surprising, it should be welcome. Because no other position is tenable when it comes to the subject of the role of faith in politics.
Obama, widely considered one of the brightest hopes for the Democrats come 2012 (if not 2008, as a candidate for Veep perhap?), gave a speech on appealing to secular voters at gathering of progressive Christians called the Call to Renewal Conference a couple of days ago. The reaction from the blogosphere includes some bewilderingly negative comments from those who want no truck nor…
hrynyshyn | June 28, 2006One more time, with gusto: "There's a debate over whether it's manmade or naturally caused." So said Bush Jr. the other day. As Chris "Intersection" Mooney, noted, the only "debate" over the causes of climate change is taking place in Bush's mind. Meanwhile, however, there are very real consequences to the way the science of climate change is being conducted. Word just came down that
"the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville [NC] would face cuts in services and layoffs under a budget proposal headed for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives, officials with the center warn.
You…
hrynyshyn | June 26, 2006No. I'm not talking about Dick Cheney's metric for how probable a threat must be before taking it seriously (that would be 1 %). Instead we have this bizarre statement in Newsday from a researcher of the paranorma identified only as "Wendy":
"Only one-tenth of 1 percent of all those who claim to be psychic are," she said, basing her conclusion on 15 years of research.
The story, by Newsday reporter Tania Padgett, ran on Friday. Although it started out well enough, with a headline of "Psychic or quack? Skeptics cry foul," the piece immediately ran into problems. Critics of psychic power are…
hrynyshyn | June 22, 2006If I had $50,000 -- and no mortgage -- I'd love to bid on a letter that's just surfaced and is about to be auctioned off by Sotheby's. It's from the revered Charles Darwin to the Reverend William Denton. New Scientist has a short item with a couple of excerpts:
"I am very far from being surprised at anyone not accepting my conclusions on the origin of species."
and
"Those naturalists who go a little way with me, the more they reflect on the subject the further they go."
Just makes you want to love the guy even more, doesn't it?
hrynyshyn | June 22, 2006Everyone's had a good time taking shots at Ann Coulter's inability to think straight. Some valiant types, like PZ Myers, have even sacrified several hours of their lives to reading and picking apart her pathetic prose. Everything she says is wrong, particularly her efforts to explain why evolution is a myth.
All well and good. This kind of response is necessary. So are international efforts like that of the recent declaration by "67 national academies of science under the united banner of the Interacademy Panel on International Issues [who] blasted the scriptural teaching of biology as a…
hrynyshyn | June 21, 2006Move over Fritjof Capra. The author of The Tao of Physics captured the imaginations of naive readers a couple of decades back by exploring the similarities between quantum theory and Eastern philosophies. But as the New York Times' Dennis Overbye reported Tuesday, Chinese scientists are more interested in the words of Stephen Hawking than Lao-tzu.
Which is a good thing. For the Chinese. Maybe not so much for those of us in the West.
Just the other day I was listening to our own Chris Mooney taken on anti-intellectual Tom Bethell on NPR's Science Friday. Central to Bethell's case that liberals…
hrynyshyn | June 20, 2006The American Psychological Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental disorders in 1973. The Pentagon is still mulling it over, according to a report from AP.
WASHINGTON -- A Pentagon document classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder, decades after mental health experts abandoned that position. The document outlines retirement or other discharge policies for service members with physical disabilities, and in a section on defects lists homosexuality alongside mental retardation and personality disorders.
Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jeremy M. Martin said the policy…
hrynyshyn | June 20, 2006Yesterday's non-decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on just how far the Army Corps of Engineers can go in telling developers what they can and cannot build produced no identifiable winners or losers. But a close look at the rulings hints at how the court will treat science in future cases.
In the end, the court couldn't agree on what the Clean Water Act was meant to do, so it sent Rapanos et ux., et al, v. United States back to the lower courts to sort out just what constitutes a wetland deserving of protection. One of properties in contention is depicted at right. You can see why there's no…
hrynyshyn | June 16, 2006I wasn't going to wade into the Stephen-Hawking-has-lost-it debate, but then I came across an otherwise unrelated story this morning pitting Cosmologist Numero Uno against the late Pope John Paul II.
For those unfamiliar with the fuss, Hawking had the nerve last week to publicly support the idea of colonizing the Moon and Mars because, he said, things are looking pretty dicy down here on Earth.
As Stein so eloquently put it at Dynamics of Cats, "Hawking is not being ridicilous. At worst he is being pessimistic about the time scale for major potential catastrophes, and optimistic on feasible…
hrynyshyn | June 15, 2006Time for some consequential feedback from Doubtful readers. It's:
The ScienceBlogs/DonorsChoose raise-money-to-help-science-classrooms-a-thon!
Those of us who blog here at ScienceBlogs think science is the coolest part of school, important, and worth understanding. If you're reading the blogs here, chances are you feel the same way.
A lot of us fell in love with science because of early experiences in school -- teachers who made science intriguing, exciting, maybe a little bit dangerous. But tightening budgets are making it harder and harder for public school teachers to provide the books,…
hrynyshyn | June 14, 2006This week's "ask a science blogger question" from the SEED gang is: "Assuming that time and money were not obstacles, what area of scientific research, outside of your own discipline, would you most like to explore? Why?"
First, to be fair, I don't really have an area of expertise, at least, not like most of the folks at scienceblogs do. No PhD, not even a masters in any scientific discipline. But I do have a BSc in marine biology,so I guess I can't choose to spend more time whale watching.
My choice:
Given the enormous challenge facing society at the moment as we come up on peak oil, and…
hrynyshyn | June 13, 2006How do you rank on the Scale of Doubt?
Jennifer Michael Hecht, who teaches at Nassau Community College in New York, has come up with one of those clever little web quizzes to accompany her book Doubt: A History.
First, take the quiz.
If you think she might know what she's talking about, and have an hour to kill, you can download a podcast of last night's edition of "Speaking of Faith," a weekly radio program heard on NPR stations, which features lots of Prof. Hecht's thoughts on the importance of doubt, not just to the intellectual development of western thought, but to religion as well.