I think we’ve come to the point at which academia is just one huge case of Poe’s Law.
Category Archives: Science And Society
Confident Idiots
A long but very interesting piece on the overconfidence of the incompetent, by David Dunning (of Dunning-Kruger fame). For some reason, I think it has some relevance to the Trump phenomenon, and politics in general.
For the record, I have never had a problem claiming my ignorance on a topic.
Epigenetic Aging
We may be able to turn it off, and reverse it. I’ve always been amused by (in Clarke’s words) the “distinguished elderly [or not so elderly] scientists” who think that the laws of physics require our bodies to deteriorate over time.
Via Glenn, who has some further thoughts.
BMI
Not exactly news to readers of this site, but it is a terrible measure of health.
The “Dangerous” Paleo Diet
Here’s your daily dose of stupid. Based on nine mice.
Future researchers will find bizarre the notion we thought lab mice were good analogs for humans in diet studies. https://t.co/xrT0dOoH02
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) February 19, 2016
3-D Printing Human Tissue
This looks very promising. I can imagine at some point they’ll be able to actually print entire limbs, if they can’t come up with improved mechanical designs, that will be as good as the original. But organ replacement is the most exciting possibility, I think.
This Woman Tried To Come From Sniffing A Mushroom
…and you’ll never guess what happened next!
TL;DR: It didn’t work. It is kind of an amusing science story, though.
Gravitational Waves
This is a huge day for Kip Thorne (and others). Nadia Drake has a comprehensive story up already.
[Update a few minutes later]
Here’s another write up by Matthew Francis at The Atlantic.
[Update a few more minutes later]
Here‘s the paper itself.
[Update a while later]
And one from Miri Kramer.
[Update a while later]
And from Loren Grush.
Obama’s Climate Legacy
Looks like SCOTUS just wrecked it, 5-4. Couldn’t happen to a nicer dictator.
The stay implies that they think the administration is likely to lose on the merits when the case is argued. But this points out the stakes of the election, given that the next president is likely to appoint more than one justice.
[Wednesday-morning update]
Jonathan Adler explains the ruling. (Note: He is more concerned about climate change than I am.)
Cryonics
This seems huge. Researchers have preserved a rabbit brain down to the neuron.