Science / Tech
How We Can Get Clean Energy—What Needs to Be Done?
Editor's note: this is the third in a three-part series on how we can get clean energy. Part I explains the relationship between Fuel and Human Progress, Part II answers the question “Is Nuclear Power Safe?” and Part III provides an answer to “What Needs to Be Done?” Nuclear power
Musk and Moderation
Reports that Twitter has accepted Elon Musk’s offer to buy the company for $54.20 a share have provoked much handwringing about his attitudes to free speech, especially with respect to possible changes in the social media platform’s moderation policies. So far, the discussion has been a largely
The Ideological Aversion to Harm Reduction
Putting a patient under general anesthesia is a dangerous business. Waking a patient up from anesthesia is an ugly one. After I turn off the gas the patient typically thrashes and writhes like a sinner in Hell. Yet such resistance has never bothered me. I don’t want good and
It May Not Be Possible to Achieve Racial Equity in American Scientific Research
“NIH Stands Against Structural Racism in Biomedical Research.” This was the title of a statement released on March 1st, 2021, by Francis S. Collins, who was then the Director of the National Institutes of Health. The statement continued: As a science agency, we know that bringing diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and
‘As We See It’ and the Changing Discussion About Autism
A few days ago, Amazon released As We See It, a new series about three roommates on the autism spectrum who struggle with employment, relationships, and other life issues. As an autistic man, I was intrigued. There have been many sympathetic depictions of autism in recent art and entertainment, but
Autism or Encephalitis? My Son’s Misdiagnosis and Our Family’s Season in Hell
One night in August 2021, at around 2am, my husband and I were awakened by the sound of laughter coming from our son’s bedroom down the hall. I went in to check on him. Our five-year-old, “Leo,” was awake and running around the room in circles, plowing into toys
Want to Restore Your Faith in Humanity? Visit a Scientific Conference
As laypeople, we often learn about emerging science through the politicized lens of social media—especially when it comes to such issues as global warming, pandemic modelling, vaccines, and biological sex. And so it becomes easy for us to imagine that the everyday world of scientists is constantly afflicted by
The Case Against the Case Against AI
A review of The Age of AI and Our Human Future by Henry A. Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, and Daniel Huttenlocher. Little, Brown and Company, 272 pages (November, 2021). Potential bridges across the menacing chasm of incompatible ideas are being demolished by a generation of wannabe autocrats presenting alternative facts as
