science

This is something new under the sun.  I blame George Bush.Tip from the Geek Press. Read more

Theodore Dalrymple reviews The Murderer Next Door and nails sociobiology: Sociobiology no doubt brings crumbs to the feast of human self-understanding, but nothing more. Read more

So I was reading about the new Chinese pebblebed reactor technology on MSNBC.com when I came to this The uranium in each sphere can’t get hot enough to melt the casing and escape. Also, the main coolant for the system is inert helium, not water, as is used in other types of reactors (water, of… Read more

After a long hiatus, Crumb Trail is back on the air, crochety as ever, on organic agriculture Organic agriculture is based on ignorance, and that’s a shame because an informed agriculture that avoids truly dangerous chemicals and cultivation techniques that degrade land is not that difficult or expensive. With population expected to reach half again… Read more

The latest research indicates that the ladies prefer guys with a sense of humor–and (Duh!) guys prefer ladies who laugh at their jokes. This is pretty good stuff, having been confirmed experimentally. But then we get this blather According to one theory, proposed by psychologist Geoffrey Miller at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, women… Read more

Philospher John Silber writes in the New Criterion: With regard to the literalists and the reductionists, I would say, a plague on both houses. Read the whole thing.  I said something similar, if less eloquently, some time back. Tip from John Derbyshire at NRO’s The Corner. Update (14 November):  Head on over to MathandText, Jay… Read more

So far, this is the smartest thing I’ve read on the whole debate I can’t think of a worse way to make science more attractive than by a stepped-up attack on God, ghosts and the Loch Ness monster. People perceive (correctly) that "skeptic" types (a group which, in my experience, has minimal overlap with real… Read more