Category Archives: Science

Links and Comments: How Science Really Works; How Pandemics Can Trigger Cultural Renewal; Newton’s work during a Plague Year

Posted on Friday 17 July 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

(updated 18jul20) Slate, Shannon Palus: How Public Health Experts Feel About Being Wrong. Subtitle: “That they change their advice is actually why we should trust them.” The subtitle is precisely right. Experts, scientists, anyone with intellectual integrity change their minds … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments: How Science Really Works; How Pandemics Can Trigger Cultural Renewal; Newton’s work during a Plague Year

Links and Comments: Wars on Science; Epistemology; Conspiracy Theories

Posted on Wednesday 27 May 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

A facebook friend comments: “Research” isn’t just googling to find someone saying what you want to hear. That’s confirmation bias, and cherry picking. \\ My own thought, a week ago: The big political conflicts aren’t about asking the same questions … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Loners, Law and Religion, Our Anti-Science Leaders, the Roots of Science Denial

Posted on Saturday 23 May 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

Atlantic: How Loners Are an Evolutionary Insurance Policy This echoes my comments about how diversity is needed in the human race because different attitudes and skills may be needed in situations that require different ways to survive. Though the article … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Evolution, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Loners, Law and Religion, Our Anti-Science Leaders, the Roots of Science Denial

Links and Comments: 28 Apr 2020

Posted on Tuesday 28 April 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

One of today’s news sites links to an article about how Trump, and science-deniers in general, aren’t trying to fight science per se, but are trying to “claim the prestige of capital-s ‘Science.’”. Adam Laats at the History News Network: … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Politics, Science | Comments Off on Links and Comments: 28 Apr 2020

My History with Pseudo-Science (Briefly) and Science

Posted on Monday 13 April 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

I went through a brief phase of interest in pseudo-science. Beginning at that 7th grade book fair when I bought (in addition to Blish’s Star Trek), an early edition of Ripley’s Believe It or Not, and a book by Frank … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal history, Science | Comments Off on My History with Pseudo-Science (Briefly) and Science

Yuval Noah Harari, HOMO DEUS: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2017; 2015 in Israel)

Posted on Friday 7 February 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

This is, in effect, a sequel to SAPIENS. Top level summary: It opens with a long prologue: now that humanity has largely overcome famine, plague, and war, what next? Three possibilities: immortality, happiness, divinity. However these are predictions; this book … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Evolution, Human Progress, Religion, Science | Comments Off on Yuval Noah Harari, HOMO DEUS: A Brief History of Tomorrow (2017; 2015 in Israel)

Yuval Noah Harari, SAPIENS: A Brief History of Humankind (2015)

Posted on Sunday 2 February 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

Yuval Noah Harari, SAPIENS: A Brief History of Humankind (2015) This is a history of the human species in the context of “Big History” – the first page sketches the history of the entire universe as a backdrop – and … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Evolution, Human Progress, Religion, Science | Comments Off on Yuval Noah Harari, SAPIENS: A Brief History of Humankind (2015)

Carl Sagan’s THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD: Science As a Candle in the Dark

Posted on Friday 31 January 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

This is a book I think of as one of my foundational nonfiction books, i.e. a major book of central importance for its discussion of a critical theme. That theme, essentially, is that given the prevalence of pseudo-scientific claims in … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Notes, Science | Comments Off on Carl Sagan’s THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD: Science As a Candle in the Dark

Intuitive Theories about Intuitive Theories

Posted on Friday 24 January 2020 by Mark R. Kelly

I’m about to read a book (by Andrew Shutlman) about “intuitive theories” and before I do I’m going to write down my take on intuitive theories, since the idea of them has been an occasional theme in these posts, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology, Science | Comments Off on Intuitive Theories about Intuitive Theories

Link and Comments: Scientists Underestimating Climate Change

Posted on Thursday 14 November 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

NYT, Eugene Linden: How Scientists Got Climate Change So Wrong, subtitled, “Few thought it would arrive so quickly. Now we’re facing consequences once viewed as fringe scenarios.” Because, despite the cynicism of the anti-science crowd, scientists as a group are … Continue reading →

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