Archive for December, 2007
Saturday, December 22nd, 2007
Pinker on the Small Screen
We at the Center for Science Writings have just taken a big step toward our goal of becoming a multimedia powerhouse, examining science through audio and video as well as through text. My multitalented colleague Suhas Sreedhar is putting together the “CSW Multimedia Archive.” He has posted video of my conversation with Steve Pinker. Once [...]
3 Comments » - Posted in The Scientific Curmudgeon by John Horgan
Saturday, December 15th, 2007
Parsing Pinker
The Harvard psychologist and language expert Steve Pinker came to Stevens on Wednesday for a public talk about his new book, The Stuff of Thought. He was terrific. We’re going to post video of the event soon. In the meantime—because I have to play hockey and buy a Christmas tree today–I’ll just quickly quote from my introduction, which gets at a tension, or paradox, or contradiction, or something in Pinker’s work:
No Comments » - Posted in The Scientific Curmudgeon by John Horgan
Friday, December 14th, 2007
The Stevens Seventy Greatest Science Books
We at the Center for Science Writings began compiling “The Stevens Greatest Science Books” in late 2005. Written primarily by scientists but also by philosophers, historians, journalists and other worthies, these books stand out for their subject matter, rhetorical style and impact on science and the rest of culture. Although our original goal was 100 [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Stevens 70 Greatest Science Books by Rand HOPPE
Wednesday, December 12th, 2007
The Future Looks Bright (Like Your Teeth)
Two nights ago, while I was sitting on my plush recliner at home, the TV spit out the most amazing thing I’d seen in a long time. Introducing: The Oral B Triumph With Smart Guide! This toothbrush is so remarkable that it tells you when to switch from brushing on one side of your mouth to the other! And it tells you if you are brushing too hard! And it costs only $150! Plus, it’s well-reviewed (as you can see by the link) by many people (including Ellen DeGeneres!)
No Comments » - Posted in The Scientific Curmudgeon by Suhas Sreedhar
Tuesday, December 11th, 2007
Johnson Critiques Horgan Seventy
In the same Bloggingheads.tv chat in which he callously defends cat cruelty to birds—provoking a whack from my wife Suzie—George Johnson redeems himself with a wonderfully detailed critique of what he calls the “Horgan Seventy” Greatest Science Books. George praises some choices (Ackerman’s History of the Senses, Dawkins’s Selfish Gene, Gleick’s Chaos), faults others (Gene Sharp’s Politics of Nonviolent Action, Bohm’s Implicate Order, PIHKAL and other books with psychedelic themes), recommends additions (Lewis Thomas’s Lives of a Cell, Timothy Ferris’s At Home in the Milky Way, Sacks’s Uncle Tungsten as a substitute for The Man Who Mistook His Wife). George has given me a lot to mull. You can chime in on the list here. Change my mind and I’ll change the list.
1 Comment » - Posted in The Scientific Curmudgeon by John Horgan
Monday, December 10th, 2007
George Johnson Gets Whacked (by my Wife)
On this week’s Bloggingheads.tv, George Johnson and I talk about the case of the bird-loving cat-shooter, covered in a recent article in the New York Times Magazine. In November 2006 Jim Stevenson, director of the Galveston (Texas) Ornithological Society, shot a feral cat stalking piping plovers. A tollbooth operator who had fed the cat and witnessed the shooting ratted on Stevenson and got him arrested. Stevenson’s trial triggered a vicious, year-long spat between cat-lovers and bird-lovers, which ended with a hung jury and dismissal of the case last month.
2 Comments » - Posted in The Scientific Curmudgeon by John Horgan
Monday, December 10th, 2007
You’ll Never Make a Monkey Out of Me! Just a Virus…
So I’m a few weeks late on this, but I just stumbled on this wonderful story in the New Yorker about the role viruses, and more specifically retroviruses, have played in shaping the course of evolution over millions of years.
1 Comment » - Posted in The Scientific Curmudgeon by Suhas Sreedhar
Saturday, December 8th, 2007
Stop, Drop, and Roll!
A Christian biologist was fired from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the largest nonprofit ocean research organization, for his refusal to accept evolution theory. I just wanted to point out the title of my RSS feed from MSNBC: “Christian biologist fired for beliefs, suit says.” Looking at this from a science-in-the-media perspective I can’t help but feel melodramatically horrified.
3 Comments » - Posted in The Scientific Curmudgeon by Suhas Sreedhar
Friday, December 7th, 2007
Scientist-Citizens
Why is it that so many people say things like this: “science should inform public policy but that doesn’t mean that we want scientists running our country.” I guess they mean that they would prefer to leave the politics to the politicians. Does that make sense? If we all didn’t know better, it would sure sound like it does.
2 Comments » - Posted in The Scientific Curmudgeon by Suhas Sreedhar
Monday, December 3rd, 2007
Physics Jumps the Shark
In 1977 the interminable TV show “Happy Days” ran an episode in which the punk-with-a-heart-of-gold Fonzi straps on water skis and jumps over a shark tank. The phrase “jumping the shark” now refers to laughably desperate attempts to boost ratings. Physics is jumping the shark, and so is the British paper The Telegraph, as evidenced by two recent stories. One suggests that astronomers’ observations of the universe may hasten