Is it ever acceptable to deceive children as a strategy for teaching them? For most folks, the quick answer is a resounding philosophical “no!” Regardless of the fact that sometimes deception can teach a powerful lesson, the idea of deluding impressionable children with falsehoods is usually considered out-of-bounds. We simply don’t like “lying” to our [...]
Facts and evidence can be strange things. Regardless of what you see when you look up, the sky is not blue. We perceive it as blue because of the way the atmosphere filters the spectrum of light. So the evidence – our eyesight – suggests a blue sky, but it isn’t a fact. In truth, [...]
There are two ways of covering science news: The first is the equivalent to covering a fire or other disaster – get as much information as possible and throw it out at the public as quick as possible. That emphasizes the true nature of news – that it is immediate – and that its lifespan [...]
Most people laughed in 2005 when comedian Stephen Colbert coined the term “truthiness.” The idea was that there are some things we all know based on our “gut feelings,” that are guided by our instinct and that lack any linkage to logic, evidence or data. The term struck such a resounding chord that it’s now [...]
Among those who do science (as well as those of us who cheer from the sidelines) the loss of public interest in recent years robs the soul. Many scientists, fueled by a curiosity that blossomed in childhood about how the world works, are driven to understand, to know and decipher, and to unravel nature’s mysteries. [...]
An early morning email from a member of our reactor staff rarely signals a serious problem but such communiqués should never be ignored. Last week’s message, however, was just plain weird. It contained: “Screenwriter Greg Russo has sold an action pitch to Alloy Entertainment called Black Ice. Meanwhile, the scribe also has been hired to [...]
The public — however you might define them – has grown more and more comfortable disbelieving what research tells them. The more complicated the science, and the more convoluted the caveats, the more willing many people are to pooh-pooh what scientists say. And even science writers, whose bread is buttered with their confidence in research [...]
If you believe the Boston Globe and the New York Times – and few other American newspapers are as believable as they are – then Harvard University is withholding information about one of its faculty that rightfully belongs in the public spotlight. How dare they!? Last week, Globe staffer Carolyn Johnson broke the story that [...]
