What is it about science that has allowed our knowledge to advance so rapidly? And why wasn’t science invented long before that pivotal figure, Issac Newton? These are some of the questions that Michael Strevens, a professor of the philosophy of science, attempts to answer in a book called The Knowledge Machine.
Other Science News
Farewell articles are tough to write, which is one reason why I try not to write them very often.
Is aging just a matter of miscommunication? Should we have National Oceans, like the National Parks? Is a virus like COVID-19 alive, or is this just the zombie apocalypse? Would the Sierra Club allow genetic modification of a tree to save them?
March 5, 2020, was my last trip on the hideous New York City subway. At that time COVID has just begun to hit the city. By any measure, the last year sucked (as does the subway) but now that I'm inoculated I'm able to ride the damn thing again. Here's the one-year anniversary update of the trip report from last year. Things are much different now.
Aging is a failure to communicate? Should we have national sea parks? COVID-19 is not an equal opportunity disease. If a virus is not truly "alive," is this the zombie apocalypse?
The mainstream media is repeating the unscientific claims of a dishonest book. A deeper dive into the author of the book would have revealed duplicity and enormous conflicts of interest.
We are surrounded by sounds creating a soundscape just as the land and buildings create landscapes. They are distinctive. The sirens and traffic of Manhattan, the silence punctuated by honking geese and their splashdowns in the nearby pond. The oceans, too, have soundscapes, humpback whales, the snap of a predatory snapping shrimp stunning its prey, and increasingly, the sounds of men and women.
The risk of radiation on a trip to Mars, the dark segments of our DNA, the role of "caste" in defining the elite, and how will our war with COVID-19 end?
Geology tells a story of Earth's long history of climate change, the Supreme Court - of Facebook, searching outside the algorithm has replaced searching outside the box, and California rarely walks its political talk.
A malevolent troll named Paul Thacker has made a living smearing and harassing scientists on Twitter. With the blessing of editors Nikhil Swaminathan and Jennifer Block, the website Grist has now given him a platform to spread his lies.
Two stories designed to explain COVID-19’s variants and a short history of vaccines, with all the influencers and entrepreneurs with have come to love or hate.
I have been reading at the intersection of COVID and monopolies, COVID and modeling, COVID and our bureaucracy. For those who have been vaccinated once, the second dose may allow you to experience for a day or two, first hand, the power of our immune systems.