“New Study Debunks Prior Belief” is a pretty common format for science news headlines, especially in any area of science that deals with how human beings behave, what they believe, and what values are important to them (psychology, in other… Read More ›
Well done Ali Razeghi, who’s only just gone and invented a time machine. And what a time machine it is. Despite the near wall-to-wall use of Back to the Future imagery in news coverage, this is not a time travelling… Read More ›
As we all know, the old days were the best. You know. Ye olden days. This is what I thought when I received this tweet alert from @ClaireMcCallion earlier today: http://twitter.com/ClaireMcCallion/status/321298065220833280 It links to an article just out in the American Psychological… Read More ›
It’s all bad news this week, I’m afraid. Literally. Not only does it look bad and sound bad, but it also has bad effects on you. It’s all-round baaaaaaaaad. First of all — and you’re not going to be hugely surprised… Read More ›
So, I’ve concluded that we might as well give up on trying to spread the word about the correlation-causation fallacy. People just don’t seem to be getting it. I do appreciate that there are complexities (after all, causality causes, and… Read More ›
Well, guess what. Only yet another cosmetics advert has been pulled. A cosmetics advert? Pulled? Honestly? Gee whizz. I am in total shock here. I mean, how could this possibly have happened?! It truly does beggar belief. This time, it’s an ad… Read More ›
Recipe for a long life: overweight people have lower death risk #tomorrowspaperstoday http://t.co/tk7UxlYJ— The Independent (@Independent) January 01, 2013 I must be getting old. Things are beginning to repeat themselves. It feels like déjà vu all over again. In fact,… Read More ›
Well, kind of. Here is a video of the keynote lecture I gave as part of the #celt12 ‘Written Word’ conference held last June in Galway, Ireland. Why not set aside 29 minutes or so of your life and watch something… Read More ›
Here’s a famous football quote (out of the mouth of Satan himself): “Football, eh? Bloody hell!” Yes. Football and hell. Inextricably linked. So, it was always but a matter of time before intrepid photojournalists would capture occult goings-on at a… Read More ›
We’ve previously discussed the whole “oh-my-god-vaccines-are-terrible” carry-on that seems to have gripped the popular Luddite imagination since, well, since vaccines were basically invented. Well, they’ve been at it again. This time the controversy has related to the tragically young death… Read More ›
I am totally on holidays right now. I even have a beard. However, I still function at an intellectual level (for all intents and purposes). Here are two minor updates regarding ongoing media coverage of this blog/blogger-with-beard. Yesterday, The Guardian’s… Read More ›
So, lots of people (in the UK at any rate) are pleased at proposals to provide free access to the results of publicly funded research. Here’s George Monbiot’s tweet: This is great news: free access to British scientific research within… Read More ›
Here is an interesting article from Discover Magazine, about some recent research into the association between intelligence and social attitudes. The study was conducted by some psychologists from Canada, and published in the prestigious journal Psychological Science. It represents a… Read More ›
As part of my day job, I’m involved in psychology research examining the effects of having other people around when you’re trying to cope with mental stress. Here’s the summary of our findings to date: it’s complicated. But not to… Read More ›
So apparently, the dinosaurs are extinct. That’s not really news of course (time to let it go, Nessie fans). But what is making the news is some new research about how those terrible lizards ended up shuffling off this mortal coil en… Read More ›
Here is a short piece I wrote for Tuesday’s Irish Independent. It was part of their ‘Science For Life’ supplement (not available online), in which scientists provide answers to “some of life’s big questions“. I was asked to respond to a… Read More ›
What is it with some media outlets and their tendency to gloss over the difference between ‘weather‘ and ‘climate‘? Let me give you the basics. Here’s the Wikipedia* explanation of the term ‘weather‘: …the state of the atmosphere, to the… Read More ›
