Samples from eight cedar trees in Bolivia have helped shed light on the seasonal rainfall in the Amazon basin over the past century, say researchers. A study led by UK-based scientists said the data from the trees provided a key tool to assess the natural variation in the region’s climate system. It suggested that tree-rings…
Falsified data is the main reason biomedical and life science research articles are retracted, a problem that has increased 10-fold in the past three decades, a review of studies found. About 43% of the articles were rescinded because of made-up or manipulated data, 14% were retracted because the study appeared in more than one publication…
We could wring our hands about our unreconstructed nature but sex is at the center of human thought, and always has been. Some of the earliest cave art has erotic themes. We didn’t get where we are without genetic programming that makes us value eating, drinking and having sex. Add to that our inbuilt compulsion…
The Higgs boson, the pope, and the curious interaction between organized religion and big science.
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has just published a study criticizing Fox News Channel and the Wall Street Journal’s opinion section for misleading coverage of the climate change issue. Jumping straight to the key findings: Over a recent six-month period, 93% of Fox News Channel’s representations of climate science were misleading (37 out of…
Astronomers in Germany have developed an artificial intelligence algorithm to help them chart and explain the structure and dynamics of the universe around us with unprecedented accuracy. The team, led by Francisco Kitaura of the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics in Potsdam, report their results in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Scientists…
The man known to a generation of Americans as “The Science Guy” is condemning efforts by some Christian groups to cast doubts on evolution and lawmakers who want to bring the Bible into science classrooms. Bill Nye, a mechanical engineer and star of the popular 1990s TV show “Bill Nye The Science Guy,” has waded…
We like to believe that more information allows us to make more informed decisions, to be more knowledgeable. That’s wrong: knowledge does not grow with information access.
Say “pseudoscience,” and immediately a bunch of doctrines leap to mind: astrology, phrenology, eugenics, ufology, and so on. Do they have anything in common? Some posit unknown forces of nature, others don’t. Some are advocated by outsiders to the scientific community, while others have been backed by the elite. And the status of each can…
A newly discovered fragment of Coptic writing suggests some early Christians believed Jesus was married. In a paper presented at the Tenth International Congress of Coptic Studies, Harvard Divinity School historian Karen L. King notes that the papyrus is the “only extant ancient text which explicitly portrays Jesus as referring to a wife. It does…