Science and Religion: Like Oil and Water
This week’s Nature features a news article and editorial about Francis Collins–director of the US National Human Genome Research Institute–whose new book The Language of God advocates reconciliation...
View ArticleScientists as Poets
On the surface, science and poetry seem as distant from each other as the Republican Party and good science policy. And, in a large part they are. While both strive for a deeper understanding of the...
View ArticleFantastical Fridays: The End of the Hard Sciences?
It has been known officially since 2002 that the sciences are hard, and, as much as we scientists love it when our friends and family tell us how smart and wonderful we must be since they could never...
View ArticlePluto: The (Really) Broader Social Context
For such a small planet (or non-planet now), Pluto sure has been making waves the last couple of weeks. I haven’t really weighed in and instead deferred to the experts. I’m not going to really say much...
View ArticleNew SPUSA Blog
Student Pugwash USA (SPUSA), an organization that encourages the inclusion of social responsibility considerations in our scientific dialogue, has started a new blog called MindFull. The blog has...
View ArticleAcademic Research: Solving Puzzles or Solving Mysteries?
Earlier this year, Malcolm Gladwell wrote an article for The New Yorker called “Open Secrets” in which he discussed the distinction between two types of problems: what he called “puzzles”, which are...
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Science and Politics Create the Perfect Storm in Chris Mooney’s Storm World
Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming by Chris Mooney Harcourt: 2007, 400 pages. Buy now! (Amazon) At 2:09 am on September 13, 2007, Hurricane Humberto made landfall...
View ArticleScience for a Brave New World
On Monday, I attended an interesting lecture sponsored by the 21st Century School here in Oxford entitled “What Is Science For?”. You can see a discussion on the event here and read a pdf summary of it...
View ArticleMetaphorical Smack Down of the “Cult of Darwinism” Argument
Recently, I wrote about how raising the specter of “Darwinism” as a reason for people’s lack of acceptance of evolution is totally irrelevant. But, Faith in Honest Doubt now has a much more...
View ArticleWhy We Need More Evidence-Based Medicine
As mentioned here previously, the stimulus package passed in February includes funds to encourage evidence-based medicine. Some uninformed critics will claim that this is some big government conspiracy...
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