This is edition 2025/165 of the Ten@10 newsletter.
Hi all,
This is the Ten@10, where I collate and summarise ten news items you generally won't see in the mainstream media.
Today's Ten@10 is mostly a tribute to Charlie Kirk.
Enjoy!
1. We Can't Value ‘Ancient Wisdom’ Over Scientific Fact
Robert Bartholomew
- 🌿 Ancient Wisdom Contributions: Indigenous cultures have long used plants like cinchona (quinine), willow (salicin), and snakeroot (reserpine) for treatments that inspired modern medicines such as malaria drugs, aspirin, and hypertension therapies.
- 🏹 Practical Innovations: Traditional knowledge also advanced navigation, construction, agriculture, and hunting, aiding human survival and progress.
- ⚖️ Need for Scientific Scrutiny: Respect for indigenous traditions is warranted, but practices must meet the same rigorous scientific standards as other knowledge systems.
- 🧙 Romanticizing the Past: Some “ancient wisdom,” whether indigenous or European, lacks evidence—examples include Aboriginal spiritual healing and European bloodletting, astrology, and alchemy.
- 🇳🇿 New Zealand Debate: The government grants Māori knowledge equal status with science in schools, leading to unproven claims about the lunar calendar influencing weather, plant growth, and human health.
- 🌕 Lunar Claims Questioned: Assertions that moon phases predict floods, affect soil moisture, or influence pregnancy and libido have no scientific backing.
- 💸 Resource Diversion: Government funding of lunar-phase studies and classroom practices based on moon cycles diverts resources from evidence-based medicine and education.
- 🧪 Balanced Approach: Scientists are urged to evaluate traditional knowledge objectively—valuing proven remedies while rejecting superstition—to safeguard science from cultural and political pressures.
