science
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The Invention of Nature
I’m neck deep in Andrea Wulf‘s biography of Alexander von Humboldt, and it’s absolutely riveting. Von Humboldt was some kind of scientific maniac, who caught the interest of everyone from Goethe to Thomas Jefferson to Simon Bolivar. Von Humboldt was arguably the first naturalist to think ecologically, as well as one of the earliest abolitionists. … Read more
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Are you a turtle?* Is this a fluke?
Just when you think science can’t get any more weird, we get something like this A new species of blood fluke was found infecting the lungs of turtles in Malaysia. This parasitic flatworm has been dubbed Baracktrema obamai, in honor of the President of the United States (who is the fifth cousin twice removed of… Read more
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An Unasked Question, Answered
I’d never really thought about it before, but it’s true: my backyard swimming pool* doesn’t have a strong chlorine smell, and the water doesn’t sting my eyes. Turns out that’s because folks at my house don’t pee in the pool. Tip from Sara Hoyt writing at the Instapundit. Lots of links there about too many… Read more
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Blinded Me with “Science”
Writing in The New Atlantis, Daniel Sarewitz says “Science, pride of modernity, our one source of objective knowledge, is in deep trouble.” The public has swallowed the myth of scientism and Vannevar Bush’s self-serving rationalization for federally-funded Big Science: Scientific progress on a broad front results from the free play of free intellects, working on… Read more
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The Doorway Effect
Ever have this happen? Walk through a doorway and immediately lose focus, forgetting what you had just intended to do? This is an extreme example of the “doorway effect” which is a manifestation of our brain’s method of spatial processing. This and more are the subject of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine… Read more
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How many significant figures should I use?
That question gets asked dozens of times every semester in my statistics classes; it’s pretty clear that most of my students have no sense of scale or proportion about numbers. But now I have Dr Rhett Alain’s short answer in his Dot Physics Measurement and Uncertainty Smackdown, wherein he refers to the (extremely) long answer… Read more
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Pathological Altruism
Add the term to your vocabulary. From James Taranto’s ever-amusing Best of the Web Today, read about the work of Barbara Oakley, an associate professor in engineering…defines pathological altruism as “altruism in which attempts to promote the welfare of others instead result in unanticipated harm.” A crucial qualification is that while the altruistic actor fails… Read more
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Academic Publishers Give Science the Business
Here’s a great overview of the business of publishing academic journals. What a racket! Update (3 Sep 2013): The Brazilians have hacked the system. Let the academic infowars begin! Tip from the Instapundit. Read more
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(Some) Scientists are Frickin’ Liars
Tom Naughton explains the difference between an observational study and a clinical trial, in terms everyone can understand. I’m SO stealing this lecture for my biostatistics courses. Tip from Authority Nutrition via Gary Jones (who you really should be reading). Read more
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Egg yolks are bad for you. Oh, wait. No they’re not…
First some guy in a rush to publish a paper decides egg yolks are almost as bad for you as smoking, then some other guy reads the paper and declares it hogwash. It’s a bunch of Canucks, so you gotta make allowances. Tips from Instapundit and BlissTree. Update (18 August). BlissTree reminds us that eggs… Read more
The Random Texan 