cmooney | March 22, 2008So now PZ getting thrown out of Expelled (and Dawkins getting in) triggers New York Times coverage.
If you ask me, this really helps the Expelled people, who want nothing more than controversy. And Dawkins completely doesn't get it:
Dr. Dawkins said the hoopla has been "a gift" to those who oppose creationism. "We could not ask for anything better," he said.
How exactly does that work? How does "hoopla" over an anti-evolution movie help the cause of opposing creationism?
No, I suspect this is a gift to Expelled, a gift to Ben Stein. The controversy raises the profile of the movie, people--…
cmooney | March 21, 2008...are either dead, not scientists, or not American. They are:
Albert Einstein, 6 percent
Bill Gates, 6 percent
Al Gore, 6 percent
Stephen Hawking, 2 percent
Bill Nye the Science Guy, 2 percent
Ben Franklin, 1 percent
Thomas Edison, 1 percent
Of course, most Americans can't even identify a living scientist. And note that Bill Nye is actually an engineer.
Details on all this here.
Gee, does anybody else think American science has a massive PR problem?
sheril | March 21, 2008In this month's Evolutionary Psychology, an article titled 'Attractive Women Want it All: Good Genes, Economic Investment, Parenting Proclivities and Emotional Commitment' out of The University of Texas at Austin, reports women ideally want partners who have all the characteristics they desire, but preferences can be influenced by their own attractiveness.
"When reviewing the qualities they desire in romantic partners, women gauge what they can get based on what they got," Buss said. "And women who are considered physically attractive maintain high standards for prospective partners across a…
sheril | March 20, 2008Last week, Inoculated Mind's Karl J. Mogel interviewed me about ScienceDebate2008, science blogging, sea cucumbers, the intersection of science and policy, and the truth about PZ Myers fear to debate me over the best marine invertebrate.
vs
No contest! Cukes would eat squid for breakfast...
I'm thrilled Karl chose the Firefly theme song and you can find me about 30 minutes in...
Listen to the mindcast here
cmooney | March 19, 2008My latest piece for Science Progress--where I am now a contributing editor--has just gone up. It's entitled "Enablers," and it's how people like us, who care about science, are often guilty of actually empowering those who who are attacking it.
A great example occurred recently with the Heartland Institute's climate skeptic conference in New York. Climate skepticism is totally passe--this event should have been completely ignored. Instead, many of my intellectual allies were screaming their heads off denouncing it, and thereby drawing greater attention to it.
In the piece I give other…
cmooney | March 19, 2008That's the quandary I face tomorrow, when I'll be returning to New Orleans' Isidore Newman School--alma mater of, among others, Peyton and Eli Manning, Walter Isaacson, and Michael Lewis--to talk to the senior class.
This isn't entirely a shot in the dark, as the seniors are taking a course on the environment, and I'm their speaker as they move into a section on Hurricane Katrina. So it's obvious that I'm to talk mostly about Storm World and the hurricane-global warming debate.
At the same time, though, that won't suffice...roughly thirteen years ago, I was one of these seniors. I feel like…
sheril | March 18, 2008
..is to go beyond them into the impossible.
Arthur C. Clarke
1917-2008
Arthur C. Clarke, writer and futurist, predicted many of our technological breakthroughs with uncanny accuracy while maintaining humility and a sense of humor.
'I've never predicted the future, or hardly ever. I extrapolate. Look, I've written six stories about the end of the Earth; they can't all be true!'
As the NYTimes describes, he was a writer of 'scientific expertise and poetic imagination'.
In an interview with The Associated Press, he expressed no regret at not having traveled in space, adding he arranged to…
sheril | March 18, 2008I'm Just One Person. What Can I Do About Global Warming?
EARTH HOUR 2008
Created to take a stand against the greatest threat our planet has ever faced, Earth Hour uses the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming.
This simple act has captured the hearts and minds of people all over the world. As a result, at 8pm on the 29 March, 2008 millions of people in some of the world's major capital cities, including Copenhagen, Toronto, Chicago, Melbourne, Brisbane, Tel Aviv and Manila will unite and switch off for…
cmooney | March 17, 2008In its latest issue, Time magazine singles out "10 Ideas That Are Changing the World." One of those is very literal: geoengineering.
Time's piece on the subject is a bit muddled--it lists iron fertilization of the oceans as a way of reducing sunlight to the planet--but the bottom line is unfortunately very accurate: "Unless the geopolitics of global warming change soon, the Hail Mary pass of geoengineering might become our best shot."
If you wanted evidence of geoengineering entering mainstream social discourse, it's hard to think of something better than an article like this, in Time.
sheril | March 17, 2008Our partner on the ScienceDebate2008 steering committee, Alan Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Executive Publisher of Science magazine contributed this Op-Ed piece to today's Philadelphia Inquirer:
A successful president thus needs to be science-minded. Voters deserve candidates who can answer core science-related questions crucial to our future. Here's the start of a presidential questionnaire.
National Security: The U.S. government has spent billions of dollars on advanced missile-defense systems and now plans to update our nuclear weapons and…
sheril | March 17, 2008Well it's St. Patrick's Day and what better way to celebrate than taking pause to consider the science of BEER!
According to History.com, Americans annually consume 21.6 gallons per capita. Today, you might be able to imbibe green-dyed beer at one of the nation's 47,984 drinking places--many among them Irish pubs.
Beer brewing has come down to a science. We've got approximately 40 flavors common to our two broad types of beer: lagers and ales. Ales include pale ales, amber ales, and stouts, with pilsners and bocks among the lagers.
So is all this drinking bad? Well, that depends. Everyone…
cmooney | March 16, 2008...to attend ScienceDebate2008. Watch here to see why:
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For more info from our latest press conference, see here.
cmooney | March 14, 2008We held an event at the Franklin Institute today to call attention to the debate and its local support. Sheril and I weren't on hand, but our peeps were. See here for photos, streaming video, podcast, etc. More links when we have them.
Meanwhile, below is an image of one of our fearless leaders, Matthew Chapman, speaking in front of Ben:
sheril | March 14, 2008
Check it out at Carnival of the Blue 10 now live up at Kate Wing's place with a contribution from The Intersection in the mix...
sheril | March 13, 2008Written Testimony of
William H. Gates
Chairman, Microsoft Corporation
Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:
I believe this country stands at a crossroads. For decades, innovation has been the engine of prosperity in this country. Now, economic progress depends more than ever on innovation. And the potential for technology innovation to improve lives has never been greater.
These four policy prescriptions - strengthening educational opportunities, revamping immigration rules for highly skilled workers, increasing federal funding for basic scientific research, and providing incentives…
sheril | March 13, 2008Remember high school? Social pressure and teen angst amid discovering sexuality and a changing physique... perhaps finding your first love while drunk on a cocktail of emotions that defy explanation?
Heck, at 27, I'm still confused now and then. But I suspect these feelings are universal and it's comforting to recognize that no one's quite got it all figured out. So what is it that governs our actions and how do we come to terms with the raw emotions that influence our thoughts and behaviors?
This is what I got to wondering while in NYC where I caught 'Spring Awakening'--the best show I…
sheril | March 12, 2008
You know, here I try to have a nice relaxing week in New York City, and Governor Eliot Spitzer up and resigns...
Go figure.
cmooney | March 11, 2008
Over the past few days, it has been possible to catch the two "framing science" perpetrators jogging along San Francisco Bay under the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge.
We haven't hung out in a while, so we had a lot to catch up on. Nisbet is a former Osher Fellow at the San Francisco Exploratorium who is still reeling from the massive attention paid to his AAAS panel (wink). And as for me...well, you already know I moved to LA. And as you'll soon hear, Sheril and I are embarking on a new project (besides Science Debate 2008) about the intersection between science and society.
So we're in…
cmooney | March 10, 2008Philadelphia's Franklin Institute has just released a joint press release with ScienceDebate2008 (PDF) that serves as a kind of reminder that this thing is still on--and we're hoping the candidates will appear. It is in a critical state just before its primary, and many leading science voices in Pennsylvania are signing on. To wit:
So far in Pennsylvania, Science Debate 2008 has growing support from some major players. Drexel University, Carnegie Mellon University, Temple University, Lehigh University, Lafayette College, the Chemical Heritage Foundation, The Fox Chase Cancer Center, and the…
sheril | March 10, 2008VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Thou shall not pollute the Earth. Thou shall beware genetic manipulation. Modern times bring with them modern sins. So the Vatican has told the faithful that they should be aware of "new" sins such as causing environmental blight.
The guidance came at the weekend when Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti, the Vatican's number two man in the sometimes murky area of sins and penance, spoke of modern evils.
Off to NYC, but this one's worth checking out... What will PZ say?