Category Archives: Science

This week the Bush administration called for hiring tens of thousands of science and math teachers for advanced placement classes, and also for new tax cuts and incentives for research and development in science and technology. Why? Because business executives said it was important. At Prometheus, Roger Pielke, Jr., runs down the list of corporateContinue reading “Bush Administration Stumbles Over Science…Again”

Mark Johnson of Vista, CA., writes to LA Times with the why-didn’t-I-think-of-that answer to the intelligent design brouhaha: I have a proposal for those religious fundamentalists who insist on promoting "intelligent design" in our public schools. We will allow courses on intelligent design (and other creation myths) to be taught in public schools if youContinue reading “Intelligent Design: The Obvious Solution”

In Lebec, California (which is about ninety miles north of downtown Los Angeles) a suit has just been filed charging the school board with teaching so-called "Intelligent Design" under a new name: Philosophy. According to the story by Henry Weinstein in the LA Times (reg. required): An initial course description, which was distributed to studentsContinue reading “Earth A Few Thousand Years Old–Videos Say So”

As I predicted a month and a half ago, based on the common-sense reaction of local voters, the Federal judge in charge of the "Intelligent Design" judge has ruled that this religious ideology is not science and thus, should not be taught in public school high school biology classes. The judge, a lifelong Republican (reg.Continue reading ““Breathtaking Inanity””

A great number of thoughtful people, especially those on the left-hand side of the political dial, don’t see an inherent conflict between religion and science. Some of those thoughtful people, such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, were founders of this country. (Emerson, as usual, is the writer who puts it most forcefully. In anContinue reading “The Religion That is Afraid of Science”

Facing a difficult re-election campaign against a popular, "pro-life" Democrat (and trailing by twenty points, according to one poll) hard right Republican Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania is now distancing himself from Bush and Iraq, and has come out against teaching the religious ideology of "Intelligent Design" in high school classrooms. This is a knownContinue reading “Flip-Flopping On Intelligent Design”

From the Cornell University Library collection of "The Fantastic in Art and Fiction," the Weird Science division, and no, I’m not making that up. Is it just my imagination, or is it possible that a hundred years ago, science was a lot more fun?

Another insta-classic from The Onion…

According to The Simpsons, a "scientician" is "a scientist with questionable credentials who publicly supports spurious hypotheses." It’s a wonderful word, but almost too mild for criminals like Dr. Gilbert Ross, who has testified that arsenic in pressure treated wood is harmless, that PCBs in fish are not a health risk, and who has doubtedContinue reading “Scientician of the Month”

Here’s a profile I wrote on hard-working Chris Mooney’s important new book, The Republican War on Science, which was published in last week’s VCReporter… Young reporter Chris Mooney grew up in New Orleans, and three months ago The American Prospect website published a prescient article about the disaster that could befall his home town ifContinue reading “Trashing Science”