Category: Natural Sciences

Despite Esteem for Science, Public at Odds with Scientists on Major Issues

January 30, 2015

“Scientists and their work have an important place in every major aspect of American life.

Many hope that advances in science will improve people’s lives and enhance the economy. They are anxious to understand what innovations will disrupt existing daily activities and business routines. Policy arguments about science-related issues have held center stage in the Obama era, starting with the protracted arguments over medical care, insurance and the Affordable Care Act and extending into every cranny of energy and environmental concerns, policies around food, challenges created by digital technology disruptions, and whether educators are preparing today’s K-12 students for a future with greater requirements for science literacy and numeracy.”

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2015/01/29/despite-esteem-for-science-public-at-odds-with-scientists-on-major-issues/

The 200-year-old mystery of Mercury’s orbit — solved!

January 30, 2015

“It wasn’t too long after Newton published his laws of motion that people noticed something was off about them. To be specific, they were off by the orbit of an entire planet. And they remained off until Einstein, and general relativity, explained why Mercury moves the way it does.”

http://io9.com/the-200-year-old-mystery-of-mercurys-orbit-solved-1458642219

Another article on the same topic

http://www.techinsider.io/einstein-planet-vulcan-myth-relativity-2015-11

Overview of Acupuncture

January 30, 2015

“Acupuncture was developed in a pre-scientific culture, before anything significant was understood about biology, the normal functioning of the human body or disease pathology. The healing practices of the time were part of what is called philosophy-based medicine, to be distinguished from modern science-based medicine. Philosophy-based systems began with a set of ideas about health and illness and based their treatments on those ideas.”

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/reference/acupuncture/

Antivaccine hero Andrew Wakefield: Scientific fraud?

January 30, 2015

“Over the next decade, aided and abetted by useful idiots in the media, by British newspapers and other media that sensationalized the story, and the antivaccine movement, which hailed Wakefield as a hero, Wakefield managed to drive MMR vaccination rates in the U.K. below the level of herd immunity, from 93% to 75% (and as low as 50% in some parts of London). As a result Wakefield has been frequently sarcastically “thanked” for his leadership role in bringing the measles back to the U.K. to the point where, fourteen years after measles had been declared under control in the U.K., it was in 2008 declared endemic again.”

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/antivaccine-hero-andrew-wakefield-scientific-fraud/

The Placebo Effect Doesn’t Apply Just to Pills

January 30, 2015

“For a drug to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration, it must prove itself better than a placebo, or fake drug. This is because of the ‘placebo effect,’ in which patients often improve just because they think they are being treated with something. If we can’t compare a new drug with a placebo, we can’t be sure that the benefit seen from it is anything more than wishful thinking.

But when it comes to medical devices and surgery, the requirements aren’t the same. Placebos aren’t required. That is probably a mistake.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/07/upshot/the-placebo-effect-doesnt-apply-just-to-pills.html?abt=0002&abg=0

Does science ever actually prove anything?

January 29, 2015

Below is a link to a letter signed by a large number of climate scientists about the reality of climate change. One provocative statement they make in defense of their work and against climate change skeptics is that “There is always some uncertainty associated with scientific conclusions; science never absolutely proves anything.”

This letter caused a stir among other scientists, some of whom wrote and signed another letter making the argument that: “There is no reason to doubt the laws of physics governing acceleration and momentum. These laws are the basis for a large number of industrial operations, transportation and numerous other activities.”

An interesting exchange that gets to the nature of science and scientific knowledge.

Original letter:

http://www.skepticalscience.com/Climate-Change-and-the-Integrity-of-Science-a-letter-to-Science.html

Response:

http://www.nars.org/Voice_of_Science_Articles/Does%20Sciences%20Ever%20Absolutely%20Prove%20Anything.pdf

Ann Druyan Talks About Science, Religion, Wonder, Awe . . . and Carl Sagan

January 29, 2015

An interesting essay written by Ann Druyan, Carl Sagan’s widow. Carl Sagan was a famous scientist and creator of the original Cosmos television show.

“It is a great tragedy that science, this wonderful process for finding out what is true, has ceded the spiritual uplift of its central revelations: the vastness of the universe, the immensity of time, the relatedness of all life, and life’s preciousness on our tiny planet.”

http://www.csicop.org/si/show/ann_druyan_talks_about_science_religion/