The Metaverse: Science Fiction or Reality?
We tend to overestimate a technology’s abilities in the near term, and massively underestimate what it can do in the long term.
Randall Mayes
· 9 min read
Science / Tech
A collection of 379 posts
The Burden of the Best?
From self-belief to self-care.
Steve Salerno
· 13 min read
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
Robert Zubrin
· 12 min read
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
Jim Rutt
· 11 min read
The Ideological Aversion to Harm Reduction
Progress has stalled in two major areas of harm reduction—opioid abuse and smoking—not because of physician resistance but because of non-physicians drunk on ideology.
Ronald W. Dworkin
· 9 min read
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
Robert J. Morris
· 10 min read
‘As We See It’ and the Changing Discussion About Autism
The show frankly acknowledges issues frequently haunting persons on the autism spectrum.
Jonathan Mitchell
· 6 min read
Autism or Encephalitis? My Son’s Misdiagnosis and Our Family’s Season in Hell
Encephalitis recovery often takes years, not months, and some patients never fully recover.
S. Stiles
· 19 min read
Remembering Richard Leakey (1944–2022), the Last Victorian Scientist
While he may have seemed like something of an (enormously) overachieving dilettante to some, there was in fact a unity to his life and work.
Geoffrey Clarfield
· 11 min read
Want to Restore Your Faith in Humanity? Visit a Scientific Conference
Meeting the people who are making this world a better place through science provides a much needed sense of balance.
Daniel Lelchuk
· 6 min read
The Case Against the Case Against AI
AI only knows what is in the data. The unfortunate use of the term “learning” is a simple, but potent, source of confusion and apprehension.
Peter L. Levin
· 9 min read
A Conversation with E.O. Wilson (1929–2021)
"I think I may have been the only scientist in modern times to be physically attacked for an idea."
Alice Dreger
· 29 min read
The Peculiar Economics of 3D Printing
Most new technologies, when they are launched, arrive with a lot of hype. While 3D printing fits the business model for customized products, it is not yet cost effective in a commercial manufacturing sector which requires mass production.
Randall Mayes
· 10 min read
Academic Ideologues Are Corrupting STEM. The Silent Liberal Majority Must Fight Back
We need to break the spell of illiberal ideology, and come back to our collective senses—to stop self-censoring in fear of the mob and excusing nonsense in the name of political allyship, and to start defending the values of pluralism, humanism, and democracy.
Anna Krylov and Jay Tanzman
· 10 min read
Fund Science on the Basis of Scientists‘ Work, Not Their Identity
The available numbers don’t tell us if there was any evidence of systemic bias in the underlying grant criteria, or in the evaluation of applications against those criteria.
Lawrence M. Krauss
· 6 min read