Here is Sunday’s episode of “Life Matters” on RTÉ Radio 1, which features (among many luminaries) none other than yours truly. Entitled The God of Aliens, the programme addresses those famous bedfellows, science and religion. It’s all a very interesting package and I encourage you to give it a listen (don’t worry, […]
Scientific literacy
Some pieces and bits
It’s early January. That time when other people’s New Year’s resolutions mean that you get lots of emails. About really important stuff that you simply must deal with, like, immediately. These folks need a reply because they only have stamina for a few days’ frantic emailing. After the New Year energy […]
Forthcoming: “Adventures in Science Communication”
Interested in adventure? Well, then this public lecture is for you. It’s me again, this time at the invitation of Maynooth University as part of their celebration of Science Week 2014. Here is the abstract…
I’m not saying Greenfield’s a pseudoscientist. I point to her pseudoscientific reasoning. That is all
Like a good sharknado, Susan Greenfield is (a) ridiculous and (b) back for more. We all remember this defence of her claim that internet use causes autism, don’t we? I point to the increase in autism and I point to internet use. That is all. Well, whoopy do. On that basis, […]
Telling parents how vaccines are safe makes them *less* likely to vaccinate their kids
Here’s a classic science communication fiasco. Many of us believe empiricism enables the resolution of uncertainty with data, and that more information is better than less. That’s why we do science. One of the moral imperatives that drive us is that carefully scrutinized, systematically replicable, and objectively verifiable information trumps […]
Half-full glass latest: Americans beginning to accept heliocentrism
Three quarters of Americans believe that the Earth orbits the Sun. Three quarters. That’s almost all of the quarters. It’s practically everyone who is awake at any one time. Good news, huh? I mean, the opposing view — that the Earth is the centre of the universe, that the stars are […]