For all the seemingly endless, breathless headlines about ‘Earth-like planet discovered!’, usually accompanied by fanciful ‘artist’s impressions’ (ie made-up pictures), the reality is a lot grimmer – and weirder. The sort of people who like to bandy about pseudo-scientific tosh like the so-called “Drake Equation” (which claims to estimate the
It’s not for nothing that my Second Law of the Media is, When an article claims, “science says…” or “new study shows…”, assume that it doesn’t until proven otherwise. Especially when the headline is making an extraordinary, attention-grabbing claim. And doubly especially when it’s from the field
Adam Houser cfact.org Adam Houser coordinates student leaders as national director of CFACT’s collegians program and writes on issues of climate and energy. In an intriguing development, a new biodegradable bottle has been invented that disintegrates once torn up and placed under water. The product, called “GoneShells”, is
Duaa Eldeib propublica.org This story was originally published by ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. Series: Stillbirths When Babies Die Before Taking Their First Breath Federal officials have released a bleak
In a truly rational world, Paul Ehrlich would be a punch-line, if remembered at all. Ehrlich’s entire career has been a masterclass in how to be wrong, consistently and about everything. Yet, far from a figure of universal mockery, Ehrlich remains a guru to the green-left. How is this
New Zealand Doctors Speaking Out with Science nzdsos.com Less than a month since we reported on the Cochrane Library’s Physical interventions to interrupt or reduce the spread of respiratory viruses, the conflicts of interest which we wrote about have taken centre stage again. Public health is a diverse
Michael Ippolito Michael Ippolito is a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation. http://www.heritage.org/ Reprinted from PA Pundits – International OXON HILL, Md – The Earth is warming, and while many worry about the potential consequences of the change, it is not unprecedented or dangerous, and
You’d think that, outside the wilder fringes of women’s erotica, banging Neanderthals is not a topic of much interest. Just to show that there’s nothing you can’t get a scientific grant for, there is in fact a considerable amount of scholarship on, uh, “relations” between modern
For all that the outdated notion of a ‘missing link’ refuses to go away, the broad outline of human evolution is pretty well understood. But, within the broad brush of the “ascent of man”, there’s still plenty of fine detail left to be filled in. Among them, the exact
It’s not for nothing that my Second Law of the Media is: When an article claims, “science says…” or “new study shows…”, assume that it doesn’t until proven otherwise. Once again, Stuff are the proof of that rule. Scientists have cautiously concluded climate change is partly responsible for
Michael Cook mercatornet.com Michael Cook is the editor of MercatorNet. He lives in Sydney, Australia. Earlier this month, the Australian Government announced a A$15 million pilot program for mitochondrial donation, or, as it is sometimes called, “three-parent IVF”. In December 2021, Parliament passed Maeve’s Law, which permitted
It’s an almost unassailably universal opinion that money doesn’t buy happiness. The notion is deeply ingrained in popular culture, which abounds with cautionary tales of miserable plutocrats, from Ebeneezer Scrooge to Charles Foster Kane in fiction, and J Paul Getty and Howard Hughes in real life. Held up
It’s very fashionable these days to witter about the “Islamic Golden Age” and ‘indigenous’ science. No doubt the type of people who bandy such nostrums about fondly imagine that they’re being terribly cosmopolitan and graciously ‘anti-racist’, or some such nonsense. What they’re really being is ignorant and
Gary Moller garymoller.com A health professional wrote to me: “What is the latest word on ivermectin? Siouxsie Wiles quotes a 2023 study and others that appear to throw cold water on its efficacy against Covid.” https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/300814481/siouxsie-wiles-ivermectin-is-for-parasites-not-for-covid I’m not an expert in
It’s a funny thing, but even the most hardened people who’ve developed a thick skin to the suffering of their fellow humans will turn into incandescent balls of rage at cruelty to animals, especially dogs. Which is why some of the most gut-wrenching scenes in the miniseries Chernobyl
Peter J Morgan BE (Mech.), Dip. Teaching, Hon. CEO & Chair, Environomics (NZ) Trust (PJM.forensic.eng@gmail.com) In the mid-1980s, groups of climate scientists began developing computer climate models of the atmosphere. These models are now known to not properly model key climate parameters. One fundamental error in
