Posted in In The News, Opinion on Jan 21st, 2006
[Creationism, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Michael Behe, Orson Scott Card, Politics, Religion, Science]In a long essay, Orson Scott Card defends Intelligent Design as expressed in “Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution” (Michael J. Behe). I just finished reading it and frankly am surprised by it. Card rehashes the main points made in […]
Posted in In The News, Informative Articles on Jan 20th, 2006
[NASA, Orbital Debris, Space, Space Exploration, Space Junk]In an analysis published yesterday in Science magazine, two NASA scientists report that the threat of space junk will steadily increase even if no new satellites or rockets are launched [citation]. We have reached a critical threshold at which the density of debris and junk at certain […]
Posted in In The News on Jan 12th, 2006
[Blogs, Science, Seed Magazine]Today I happened to check my visitor stats and noticed a whole bunch of visitors from The Intersection. I stepped on over there and found out that it is a blog written by Chris Mooney, author of The Republican War on Science. He’d happened to link to my reviews on […]
Posted in In The News, Opinion on Jan 10th, 2006
[Hwang, Peer Review, Scandal, Science, Stem Cells]Though undoubtedly you have read headlines such as this already, today the New York Times published an article in its Science Times section stating that not only was some of the data faked in Hwang’s research on stem cells, it probably all was. The South Korean researcher claimed […]
Posted in In The News on Jan 6th, 2006
[Culture, Science, Seed Magazine]Back in June, I posted an entry suggesting that part of the reason that science is not considered cool for kids to study is that scientists are portrayed so poorly in the media. Scientists are either shown as super geeks on prime-time television, or as boots-and-shorts wearing treehuggers on PBS’s many […]
Posted in In The News on Dec 20th, 2005
[Creationism, Dover, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Trial]In a sweeping decision, Judge John E. Jones III ruled that Intelligent Design is “a religious alternative masquerading as a scientific theory.” In this ruling, Judge Jones chose not to limit his ruling simply to Dover, but instead he ruled that teaching Intelligent Design in the classroom is unconstitutional. […]
Posted in In The News on Dec 19th, 2005
[Web 2.0, Wikipedia]Some of my regular readers will probably note that I frequently link over to Wikipedia entries on topics I’m discussing. I do this not so much because I believe Wikipedia to be a fantastic reference source of unimpeachable truth, but rather that it is convenient and thorough. But, in this week’s […]
Posted in In The News on Dec 13th, 2005
[Kuiper Belt, Linguistics, Malaria, Narwhal, Permian Extinction, Science News, Virgin Galactic]I am very sorry to say that tomorrow’s links RSS feed will have many more entries in it than usual, because today has just been an amazing day for science. Let me try and keep up. By the way, if you aren’t receiving […]
Posted in In The News, Opinion on Dec 12th, 2005
[Grand Theft Auto, Video Games, Violence]Concerned parents and reactive legislatures have for years decried the increase levels of casual violence in video games. Grand Theft Auto has become the lightning rod in this remarkably juvenile public discussion after the murder of three people was attributed to that game. In response to its critics, […]
Posted in In The News, Opinion on Dec 9th, 2005
[AGU, Aurora, Magnetic North Pole, Northern Lights, Radiation]There is a question that all scientists face with their work: “what is the societal relevance of your research?” We all answer it in different ways, but Joseph Stoner, a paleomagnetist (someone who studies the magnetic history of our planet as recorded in rocks and sediments) from […]
