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Raccoons Are Smart But Not Good Pets
Animal intelligence is fascinating for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it forces researchers to think carefully about what intelligence is. The comparison might also provide a...
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Fact-checking on Facebook
Last year Facebook announced that it was partnering with several outside news agencies, the Associated Press, Snopes, ABC News, PolitiFact and FactCheck.org, to fact-check popular news articles and...
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John Oliver Nails Trump
In the season finale of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver reviews Trump’s assault on truth and decency. If you haven’t been watching this show, you should give it a try. Not only is it funny and...
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The Ethics of Head Transplants
Newsweek, who has been following the story of Italian Neurosurgeon, Sergio Canavero, now reports: “Human Head Transplants Are About to Happen in China: But Where Are the Bodies Coming From?” I have...
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The Moon Landing Hoax – Again
James Randi has often observed that paranormal beliefs are like “unsinkable rubber duckies.” No matter how many times they are knocked down, they just keep popping back up. That’s because they are not...
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How Wikipedia Tackles Fringe Nonsense
Wikipedia is an interesting experiment in amateur crowdsourcing of information. I think it is a massively successful experiment, but it faces specific challenges. This page on Wikipedia discusses their...
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Evolution Observed in Darwin’s Finches
Just two weeks ago I wrote about “Evolution Caught in the Act” – I was writing about fossils that are clearly transitional and occur within a major evolutionary change, like a land animal adapting to...
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Renewed Antiscience Legislation
The fight over science in public education continues, and if anything picked up considerably in 2017. Earlier in the year Nature reported on various state laws designed to water down science education...
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The Pseudoscience of Masaru Emoto
Masaru Emoto thought that emotions can affect inanimate objects. If you are nice to water and then freeze it, it will make pretty happy crystals. If you are mean to water and then freeze it, it will...
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Semi-Synthetic Life With Expanded Genetic Code
It’s interesting to follow truly cutting edge research that has the potential to significantly change our world. I include in this category research into brain-machine interfaces, regeneration through...
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