One of the biggest difficulties in understanding and acceptance of evolutionary biology is the eye. It isn’t just detractors who are trying to protect a sectarian viewpoint, it is genuinely curious people, smart people, who don’t get it because it isn’t easy. Science is difficult and, inside science, evolution is difficult. We’ve even had prominent biologists here submit...
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If you are anything like me, and you had a chance to sit around with Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, you wouldn’t ask fanboy questions like ‘will we ever understand the soul?’ or ‘how much should I make fun of evolutionary psychology surveys about sex?’ you would instead lean in conspiratorially and ask, ‘what’s the best way to get out of a speeding...
read moreSpace is an extremely hostile environment. You knew that, though no one wants to think about exploding instantly as their blood boils without an atmosphere (or it does not - like how airplanes fly, this seems to still be a debate). Most planets aren't all that much better. read...
read moreCarl Wieman, Nobel Laureate, Science Education advocate and general shining light of reason in the Obama administration is stepping down as associate director for science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.Three years in politics is a long time if you are not a career politician and Prof. Wieman has likely accomplished all he can at a high level and may simply want to get...
read moreConservatives and more taxes are kind of an oxymoron in the same sentence but pretend for a minute that more taxes are going to happen. Because they are. Do you want a bad one or a really terrible one?America has been trying to get a really terrible one but even President Obama couldn't pull that one off - he gave us terrible health care law instead. But he had limits even on...
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