cmooney | April 27, 2007Nisbet has reproduced it but I'll do so here as well. Note that the letter comes from a biologist and a theology professor at the University of Portland:
Science 27 April 2007:
Vol. 316. no. 5824, pp. 540 - 542
DOI: 10.1126/science.316.5824.540c
Letters
Science, Religion, and Climate Change
A moment of agreement has arrived for scientists to join forces with religious groups on issues of climate change. This is signaled by the summary for policy-makers from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)'s Fourth Assessment Report, the AAAS Board's consensus statement on climate change,…
cmooney | April 26, 2007From his blog:
Camp 3, which is perhaps not as well defined, promotes the inclusion of theistic elements in evolutionary biology, in some cases explicitly in other cases as a kind of "fill in the blank," in order to provide a better approach to "framing" evolutionary biology. (Notice the closeness between the word "blank" and the word "gap.")
Or at least, this is what they say. Explicit requests to ask them to clarify this key point have been left unanswered to my knowledge. Which is very worrisome, and sometimes makes me think Moran is right about the possibility that Nisbet and Mooney are…
cmooney | April 26, 2007
I spent about 24 straight hours traveling yesterday, crossing the Pacific and such--so I've been a bit out of it. But what do I come back to?
Fellow Sciencebloggers John Wilkins and Tim Lambert have both done posts--with lotsa cool pics--about our recent adventures, intellectual as well as alcoholic, in Sydney. Go check them both out. I stole one picture for this post but there are lots more.
Meanwhile while traveling I also had an article come out on framing and science communication in the Sydney Morning Herald. It's a written summary of much of what I'd been saying publicly during my…
cmooney | April 24, 2007
My new book, Storm World, will not be out for another two months yet; it hits in early July. However, the early reviews are coming in from outlets serving the literary and publishing industry such as Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. And I'm now tremendously pleased to be able to report that both of these publications have singled out the book, giving it starred reviews.
The reviews themselves are reproduced in full below the fold; the Publisher's Weekly version is also available online without a password (search for my name or the title).
From Publishers Weekly:
(Starred Review)
Storm…
cmooney | April 22, 2007
I've had a wonderful time in Australia; as will be shown in my forthcoming Seed column, the experience has also been very eye opening in a lot of ways. It's winding down, though: I do one last talk here in Sydney, and then it's off back to the states on that ridiculously long plane ride.
Tim Lambert (who I'll get to meet for the first time soon enough) has already blogged the talk, but here are the details:
Tuesday, April 24
6:30 PM-8:00 PM
Berkelouw Books--Leichhardt
70 Norton Street
Sydney, Australia NSW 2040
And then, when I get back to the states, it will be time for some talks on "…
cmooney | April 20, 2007
Yesterday I gave a talk in Melbourne at the Bureau of Meteorology, sponsored by the Melbourne Centre of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. Although in my previous conference talk here I had already raised the subject of framing (see coverage here and here), this time (for the first time) I devoted an entire talk to laying out the arguments that I've been putting forward with the help of Matt Nisbet.
The audience was a small but high caliber group of a few dozen scientists. My impression is that they were extremely receptive, in general, to the message. Some responses to…
cmooney | April 15, 2007
Once again, I can't keep up with all the latest reactions to Nisbet-Mooney. There are just too many of them (over 160 comments at PZ's blog alone; and even my own blog is pushing 40 right now). I'm in Australia prepping a series of talks, and that's the top priority at the moment.
However I'd like to make one major comment:
There's a somewhat disingenuous critique circulating out there, which is that we don't give any specifics, or even that we don't back up our argument with data. On the contrary, the Science article was amply referenced, and Matt and I have been continually elaborating on…
cmooney | April 14, 2007
I looked out my window this morning in Melbourne--after sleeping off jet lag--and saw seven hot air balloons in the sky. You would never see something like that over a U.S. city.
It was a pretty good introduction to the awesome country that I have the fortune of visiting for the next 10 days.
I'll have many more posts about Australia, I hope, but first, here's a comprehensive listing of the public events I'll be doing while down here. Originally there was one, then there were two...now there are four! My speaking schedule is kind of like exposing Gremlins to water. Anyway, here they are,…
cmooney | April 14, 2007
It has begun--especially with this post from PZ. He is ticked at us for our Washington Post piece. Oddly, PZ goes through much of the article but not the specific response to him:
There will always be a small audience of science enthusiasts who have a deep interest in the "mechanisms and evidence" of evolution, just as there will always be an audience for criticism of religion. But these messages are unlikely to reach a wider public, and even if they do they will probably be ignored or, in the case of atheistic attacks on religion, backfire.
Nisbet has what I think is a really stellar inline…
cmooney | April 14, 2007Following the Science piece, there has been a great need for Nisbet and I to expand upon our arguments regarding "framing." Matt did so the other day on NPR, and now we have a joint piece in the latest Washington Post outlook section that goes further.
In the Post, we focus on one of the most obvious examples of badly framing the defense of evolution--tying it to criticism of religion. Richard Dawkins is the most prominent example in this regard, and we single him out accordingly. I want to emphasize that I grew up on Dawkins' books; they really helped me figure out who I am. But…
cmooney | April 13, 2007
Matt Nisbet has just done a segment with NPR's "On the Media" about our "Framing Science" article in Science. At Matt's blog, he notes that this is just the first of many instances in which we'll be starting to elaborate on the arguments advanced in our (necessarily brief) Science piece.
In any event, I'm psyched not only that Matt did a great job on the air, but that it's possible to embed the program right here, YouTube-style:
Meanwhile, I just crossed the Pacific for the first time in my young life: I'm currently blogging from the Sydney airport as I wait for my plane to Melbourne, where…
cmooney | April 12, 2007
There have been a lot of oddities when it comes to the reception of our Science piece.
One is how many people can't even correctly spell Nisbet's name.
Another is the seemingly dismissive attitude towards much communication research. Perhaps the best comment on this phenomenon came from Chad Orzel:
...the people who are most adamant about Nisbet and Mooney being way off base are the people who are most outraged whenever somebody with an engineering degree dares to say something stupid about biology.
The irony here is that this framing business is exactly Nisbet's area of expertise.
Now,…
cmooney | April 11, 2007
I am pleased to say that Science has made our much-discussed article available by author referral. So for those who haven't read it yet, now you can.
Here's the trick: You've gotta go to Matt Nisbet's blog to do so. Then click the link on the left margin.
Meanwhile, of course there have been tons of new reactions. I'll recommend Simon Donner's in particular.
Finally, I've noticed several bloggers spelling Matt Nisbet's name wrong. Talk about lame...
cmooney | April 11, 2007I didn't know there was a reporter in the audience. But the Salt Lake Tribune has a full length write-up of the talk I gave at the University of Utah law school on Monday. It nicely quotes the central punch-line of my (new) presentation, which obviously differs in tone from the talks I gave before the Democrats retook Congress in November 2006:
"Now is the time to talk about solutions," Mooney said.
You can read the rest of the article here.
cmooney | April 10, 2007
I've had some great travel experiences over the past week--taking in the National Hurricane Conference; sleeping in my mom's FEMA trailer; getting to try out a new talk (with "framing" content) in Camarillo, CA, and Salt Lake City, UT; getting to see Sandhill Cranes and strutting Sage Grouse in Park City, UT--but it has all tired me out massively. Luckily, this evening I get back to D.C. (am currently bloging from the Denver airport). That will be a relief.
But of course, I'm off to Australia on Thursday, where I'll be giving the opening plenary speech at the World Conference of Science…
cmooney | April 9, 2007
I gotta confess--I can't keep up any more with all the reactions on the "framing science" front. The latest is from Gavin Schmidt, who has a really thoughtful item on how this plays out in real time for a scientist who has to go before the media.
Perhaps my all time fav post so far is from Orac, and if you read it I think you'll see why.
Meanwhile, Nisbet has a round-up post, as does Coturnix. They may have missed the most recent stuff, though, so also check out Cognitive Daily and Uncertain Principles.
I'm in Utah today giving a talk, so I may not be able to follow the debate in as much…
cmooney | April 8, 2007Okay, I know this has nothing to do with science. But I'm in the mood to promote my kid brother. I'm sure you can understand.
I've just created Davy Mooney TV, using Searchles and combining together my brother's three existing YouTube Videos of live performances. Check it out:
cmooney | April 8, 2007
My brother Davy, a talented young jazz guitarist, is the subject of a lengthy profile in today's edition of the New Orleans Times Picayune. The occasion? He got through a grueling competition and so became the first of seven students admitted into the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance's 2007 class at Loyola University, which has just been established.
Here's an excerpt from the article, outlining my brother's story:
By the summer of 2005, he had graduated from UNO and settled into a comfortable life as a working musician, performing at least five nights a week. He and his wife…
cmooney | April 8, 2007PZ Myers says he likes the concept framing "less and less." He wants to know why we're beating up on scientists, when there's so much wrong with the media and the public in terms of how they approach and use scientific information.
I just posted a long reply to his blog, and will reproduce it below the jump:
Hi PZ,
Just for the record, I think I've done as much as anyone to criticize bad reporting on science, going back several years:
http://www.cjr.org/issues/2004/6/mooney-science.asp
So has my colleague Nisbet; here we are defending evolution in the face of bad reporting:
http://www.cjr.…
cmooney | April 7, 2007
Our piece in Science has prompted many responses; my colleague Matt Nisbet has a pretty comprehensive rundown of what we'd heard as of yesterday, with some inline replies. Of course, a lot more has cropped up since then, including from Bora, James Hrynyshyn, and Mike the Mad Biologist, among others.
Bora and Mike are in general agreement with us, so I direct you there for great discussions that amplify what's already been said. As for those who are in disagreement, after the jump I'll elaborate on a few responses by Matt, and add a few points of my own, by replying to Carl Zimmer, PZ Myers,…