This article in the Washington Post by Ilya Somin proposes an interesting idea about the scientific literacy of the general public: we don’t need to be highly knowledgeable about science – or many other topics, for that matter – to get by in our daily lives. So when a survey comes out such as the… Continue reading
Do you wish you could get more sleep? Or do you brag about how you can manage on much less than the standard 8 hours a night? Or both? Then this article from Mother Jones by Indre Viskontas is for you. It summarizes nine main reasons why we should get more sleep. The information comes from… Continue reading
I haven’t written any posts specifically about this subject, but it should come as a surprise to no one that I am pro-vaccine. This is a great post by Jennifer Raff from her blog Violent Metaphors that covers the basic arguments for why vaccines are safe, effective, and important. The article is chock-full of links for… Continue reading
Here’s an interesting little article on the link between home cooking and health by NPR’s Melissa McEwen that illustrates how we have to be careful about the assumptions we make. There is a tendency with science reporting in the media to simplify complex ideas. This, of course, is necessary when you have to contend with word limits…. Continue reading
The appeal to authority is probably one of the most common logical fallacies. You hear it and see it all the time: “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says the climate is changing. All those scientists can’t be wrong, so the climate must be changing.” It’s true that the IPCC’s research has revealed a great… Continue reading
I was raised by parents who are baseball and football fans – not fanatics, but loyal enough to their hometown teams to be regular watchers and attendees at Padres and Chargers games. I would say we were more of a baseball family, and I count going to Padres games at San Diego Stadium (then Jack… Continue reading