Microbes on Venus May Herald Human Extinction (Though Not in the Way You Think)
Many of these cultures surely had their share of Elon Musks—beings who wished to colonize other worlds.
James D. Miller
· 8 min read
Science / Tech
A collection of 373 posts
At the Intersection of Art and Science: Revisiting EO Wilson’s 'Consilience'
Artists and scientists have a reductionist’s idea of one another and perceive the other as a threat.
Clint Margrave
· 6 min read
The Myth of Harmonious Indigenous Conservationism
By 2014, Homo sapiens had, by the reckoning of the World Wildlife Fund, destroyed an incredible 60 percent of the wild mammal, bird, reptile, and fish populations that were in existence as recently as 1970.
Baz Edmeades
· 10 min read
'Science Fictions' Review: Begone, Science Swindlers
Science Fictions is engaging, story-led, and well-organised. It will equip my sad young friend to articulate what went wrong with his charity’s study on literacy and, as importantly, to do the next one well.
Rosalind Arden
· 10 min read
International Scholars Must Resist the American Campaign to Inject Racial Tribalism Into Science
We retain the belief that, in supposedly pluralistic societies, everyone is entitled to their own opinions. We urge other scientists not to follow the American example, and to resist the campaign to racialize science.
Andreas Bikfalvi and Marcel Kuntz
· 8 min read
The Problems with Discrimination Research in Medicine
The narrative that has emerged from the conclusions of these limited studies could inadvertently cause some populations to avoid medical follow-up and form an inaccurate view of healthcare practices.
Zachary Robert Caverley
· 12 min read
What Computer-Generated Language Tells Us About Our Own Ideological Thinking
Thus, the ancient question of what separates humans from animals is the inverse of the more recent question of what separates humans from computers.
Cameron Harwick
· 10 min read
Why Have So Many American Conservatives Embraced COVID-19 Pseudoscience?
But what I’m describing here isn’t evidence-driven debate: It’s angry, ideologically driven luddite mysticism masquerading as hard-headed conservative skepticism.
Nidra Poller
· 7 min read
As Statues Fall, What's the Best Way to Evaluate History's Heroes?
One possibility is that morality is dependent on local circumstances and facts about social order and organization.
Steven D. Hales
· 7 min read
PODCAST 98: Physicist Lawrence Krauss on Why Identity Politics Should be Kept Out of Science
Listen onSpotify Renowned physicist Lawrence Krauss talks to Jonathan Kay about his Quillette essay Racism Is Real. But Science Isn’t the Problem and explains why he expressed skepticism about the sincerity of the #strike4blacklives campaign supported by so many science organisations.
Quillette, Lawrence M. Krauss
· 1 min read
Racism Is Real. But Science Isn’t the Problem
There are fewer tenured black physicists at universities and laboratories because there are fewer black PhD physicists.
Lawrence M. Krauss
· 11 min read
On Steve Hsu and the Campaign to Thwart Free Inquiry
It is not unreasonable to consider avoiding research that risks creating unmanageable divisions.
Peter Toshev
· 6 min read
Reducing the Chance of New Pandemics
To call SARS-CoV-2 the “pandemic of the century” is a figure of speech, and an optimistic one at that.
Javier Arcos Hódar
· 15 min read
The Need for Scientific Caution in the New Space Race
On May 30th, 2020, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched from NASA’s facility at Cape Canaveral. Hidden in the roar of the thrusters was the crack of a starting gun for the second era of human expansion: The era of private crewed space exploration was on. During the last
Michael Shilo DeLay and Anastasia Bendebury
· 7 min read
COVID-19 and the College Football Debate
Most healthcare experts basically agree that there is still too much uncertainty about COVID-19 to play football safely this fall.
Daniel McGraw
· 13 min read