Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
The knowledgeable subject matter experts are yelling, but nobody appears to be really listening … The BBC reported a couple of days ago … Arctic ice melting at ‘amazing’ speed. Scientists in the Arctic are warning that this summer’s record-breaking melt is part of an accelerating trend with profound implications. … The Norwegian Polar Institute (NPI) … Read more
I blogged the day before yesterday about a study soon to be published in Psychological Science . It revealed that conspiracy theories tend to cluster, those that buy into moon hoax theories are prone to buy into other conspiracy theories such as 9/11 being an inside job, or climate change denial. Interestingly enough they also found that … Read more
Within a scientific context we know specific things to be true, not because they are the current fad or preference, but rather because that is where the data has led us. If new surprising data arrives that leads us to a different conclusion, then that is where we go. If however you reject the process, … Read more
This is big news, the international Encode project has found that about a fifth of the human genome regulates the 2% that makes proteins. What was the previous thinking? Until now, the thought was that the vast stretches of DNA between our 20,000 or so protein-coding genes – more than 98% of the genetic sequence … Read more
Jim Al-Khalili interviewed evolutionary biologist and author Prof Richard Dawkins on BBC Radio 4 (broadcast on Mon 3rd Sept) It ran for 28 mins and is worth listening to. Richard Dawkins’ first book on evolutionary biology “The Selfish Gene” was published to much acclaim and some controversy in 1976. In this interview with Jim Al-Khalili, Professor … Read more
Having thought I was done, I’m now once again back on the topic of Blasphemy in Pakistan. There is an article in Today’s “The News”, A Pakistani on-line paper, that rather bizarrely claims … Rimsha case speaks volume of the failure and inefficiency of the Islamabad police but its latest turns and twists have made … Read more