Science - Quillette (Page 2)

When Animals Shed Their Wings

Worker ants can sprout wings—but don’t. Ant and termite queens destroy theirs after mating. Many island birds evolve into flightlessness. Can evolution explain why?

Richard Dawkins

5 May 2022 · 7 min read

An Astronomer Cancels His Own Research—Because the Results Weren’t Popular

Astronomy seems to be in trouble, as it is increasingly populated by researchers who seem more concerned with terrestrial politics than celestial objects, and who at times view the search for truths about nature as threatening. This became obvious in recent years, once the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project

Lawrence M. Krauss

10 Nov 2021 · 10 min read

As US Schools Prioritize Diversity Over Merit, China Is Becoming the World’s STEM Leader

In a 2018 report published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), China ranked first in mathematical proficiency among 15-year-olds, while the United States was in 25th place.

Percy Deift, Svetlana Jitomirskaya, and Sergiu Klainerman

19 Aug 2021 · 13 min read

Who Will Save Us From Racist AI?

The researchers analyzed multiple databases and the findings were striking—the ML models were able to predict self-reported race (classified as Asian, black, and white) with astonishing precision.

Zachary Robert Caverley

15 Aug 2021 · 9 min read

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

Lawrence M. Krauss

7 Jul 2021 · 6 min read

Looking for COVID-19 ‘Miracle Drugs’? We Already Have Them. They’re Called Vaccines

The evidence that mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines are safe, and that they work, is about as solid as medical evidence gets.

Claire Berlinski and Yuri Deigin

6 Jul 2021 · 14 min read

Mate Selection for Modernity

Hypergamy is an evolved sexual strategy where individuals mate with and/or marry those most capable of providing long term security. It is the act of marrying up.

Vincent Harinam

28 Jun 2021 · 17 min read

Standing Up to the Gender Ideologues: a Quillette Editorial

Once you sweep aside all the glitter showers, animated unicorns, and rainbow emojis, that is ultimately what gender supremacism is truly about.

Quillette

24 Jun 2021 · 10 min read

The Sperm Count Culture War

The authors all but ignore the science to focus on what they believe is more important—the ideological framing of the issue in socio-cultural discourse.

Geoffrey C. Kabat

16 Jun 2021 · 13 min read

The Importance of Understanding the Nonspecific Effects of Vaccines

A new strategy is required that balances authority with humility.

David McLelland

9 Jun 2021 · 7 min read

Understanding the Unidentified

With the decline of religious belief over the past century, perhaps this is what lies behind this quest to understand the unidentified.

Michael Shermer

3 Jun 2021 · 22 min read

In Defense of the Universal Values of Science

Until recently, it seemed inconceivable to imagine that any physical or biological scientists could become so misguided as to argue against the empirical basis of their own fields.

Lawrence M. Krauss

2 Jun 2021 · 4 min read

Trauma and the Psychedelic Renaissance

Negative stereotypes about psychedelics are undergoing a reassessment.

James Jeffrey

22 May 2021 · 10 min read

The Social Determinants of Health: Critique and Implications

This overreach of public health also bleeds into the educational sector, where schooling is yet another SDOH requiring intervention.

Zachary Robert Caverley

13 May 2021 · 12 min read

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

Lawrence M. Krauss

1 May 2021 · 6 min read