Necessity Is the Mother of Invention, and Has Been for Over 3,500 Years
It is comforting to imagine that our modern sensibilities distinguish us from our ancient ancestors, but when it comes to human societies, it seems the more things change, the more they stay the same. Our knowledge of the workings of the world has improved immensely, but our personal experience of
Whatever It Is, It Ain’t Aliens
From my knowledge of the world that I see around me, I think that it is much more likely that the reports of flying saucers are the results of the known irrational characteristics of terrestrial intelligence than of the unknown rational efforts of extra-terrestrial intelligence. ~Richard P. Feynman, The Character
In Defense of the Universal Values of Science
The progress of modern science has been a truly global phenomenon, a fact worth celebrating, just as the technological fruits of science have, to varying degrees, impacted the lives of everyone on the globe. Scientific breakthroughs have paid no heed to geographic boundaries. Modern algebra owes its origins to 10th
Why Climate Science Is Like the Rest of Science
Recent White House initiatives suggest that addressing climate change has risen to the policy forefront of government at the presidential level for the first time in US history. Last week President Biden convened an online international meeting of heads of state on the issue and committed the US to a
Science Goes Rogue
Social justice activists have been arguing for some time that scientific societies and institutions need to address systemic sexism and racism in STEM disciplines. However, their rationale is often anything but scientific. For example, whenever percentages in faculty positions, test scores, or grant recipients in various disciplines do not match
Making the Profane Sacred
“By making a statute and by defining blasphemy, the church sought to prevent discussion—sought to prevent argument—sought to prevent a man giving his honest opinion. Certainly a tenet, a dogma, a doctrine, is safe when hedged about by a statute that prevents your speaking against it. In the
Why Is Scientific Illiteracy So Acceptable?
In the mid-1980s, when I taught a Physics for Poets class at Yale University, I was dumbstruck when I gave the students a quiz problem to estimate the total amount of water flushed in all the toilets in the US in one 24-hour period and I started to grade the
Racism Is Real. But Science Isn’t the Problem
In his June 9th eulogy for George Floyd, Reverend Al Sharpton said, “What happened to Floyd happens every day in this country, in education, in health services, and in every area of American life.” The metaphor goes to the suffocation of hopes, dreams, and basic rights among many black Americans,
