“Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” [The title of the 1973 essay by the evolutionary biologist and Russian Orthodox Christian Theodosius Dobzhansky, who criticized the anti-evolution creationist movement.] Almost 30% of humans carry the Human Papillomavirus. In women, HPV has been linked to 90% of […]
badscience
52 posts
The Republican Presidential Candidate debates (and all the media that encircles them) are a great place to look for examples of poorly applied thinking. Specifically, it’s a buffet of examples of pseudo-scientific argument. In this post, we’ll use one example that stemmed from the most recent CNN/Tea Party Express debate […]
In the most recent Republican Presidential Candidate debate [1], moderator John Harris from Politico put candidate John Huntsman on the spot about his criticism of many fellow Republicans as “a bunch of cranks.” Harris then said, HARRIS: . . . You yourself have said the party is in danger of […]
Let me just give a big shout out to our Texas-sized Governor, who just set back public impressions of the Texas science curriculum about 75 years. Oh, and also thanks to our highest-ranking public official for saying that Texas public schools are in violation of several supreme court rulings that […]
Science is sometimes very helpful when trying to sort informed political candidates from uninformed ones; uninformed or misinformed candidates are likely to make bad decisions when it comes to crafting policy. America deserves the most qualified policy makers. Today, Gov. Rick Perry got some press for his statement on Climate […]
Most of the time, organizations like Media Matters are a bit too left-wing for my tastes. However, recently they blogged [1] about a Fox News segment where a meteorologist [2] claimed that one of the laws of thermodynamics “proves” that global warming cannot happen. The stark scientific ignorance illustrated by […]
I enjoyed this quote from Matt Winkler, CEO of Asuragen and chairman of Mirna Therapeutics, regarding the recruitment of leading scientific talent to Texas. Over the last 20 years I have had the opportunity to recruit a large number of scientists to Texas . . . Not infrequently, I get […]
Snowpocalypse. We all remember the fun that popular media outlets like Fox News had with that one. The U.S. experienced a few weeks of anomalously cold temperatures and suddenly pundits and flapping heads were declaring the end of global warming. Yeah, that was fun. Good times. Where are the flapping […]
It’s been a week of news items on attempts to formally impose religious views in science classrooms in Texas. Primarily, the headlines have focused on new web-based materials submitted to the Stated Board of Education (SBOE) for review under the new science guidelines approved a couple of years ago. “Proposed […]
Something on the Sunday talk show, “Meet the Press”, caught my attention. Today’s show was hosted by Tom Brokaw, a favorite of mine in the news business. He interviewed Gov. Tom Pawlenty of Minnesota, Co-chair of the RNC convention in the Twin Cities. Gov. Pawlenty was acting as a “Vox […]
With all the disagreement about how to proceed on global climate change, you begin to forget that not that long ago energy companies were paying scientists to go out in public and speak against the science of climate change. We have gone from an era where scientists themselves were issue […]
Last year, right-wing pundit and flapping head Ann Coulter published a book entitled “Godless”. In it, she raised yet again the tired accusations that all Democrats are godless politicians, hell-bent (is that the right phrase?) on creating a society that crushes religion out of every private life. Sigh. Of course, […]