science

Has the US National Park Service gone rogue?

by

The short TL;DR; answer is probably not, and officially they continue to maintain a politically neutral position. So what inspired the question? The National Mall, the bit of land between the US Capital and the Lincoln Memorial, is officially managed by the US National Park Service. As you are no doubt aware, when Mr T … Read more

Is a Fake News Vaccine really possible?

by

The BBC reports on a recently published study as follows … A University of Cambridge study devised psychological tools to target fact distortion. Researchers suggest “pre-emptively exposing” readers to a small “dose” of the misinformation can help organisations cancel out bogus claims. Stories on the US election and Syria are among those to have caused … Read more

Neil deGrasse Tyson’s dialog with an anti-science journalist

by

Science writer Ryan Mandelbaum, who was also a researcher at CERN at one point, has published a fascinating exchange that took place between himself, Neil deGrasse Tyson , others, and anti-science journalist Anthony Liversidge. It was not a formal debate, but instead was a friendly backstage spontaneous conversation that Ryan has published in detail because it gives insight into much of … Read more

It’s official, 2016 was the warmest year – #Climate

by

Data coming in from distinctly different sources such as NASA, NOAA and also the UK’s Met Office all now confirm that the previous warmest year ever recorded, 2015, is now in second place and that 2016 is now the warmest year ever recorded. Quite rightly this is being picked up and reported by major news … Read more

Will Rex Tillerson become US Secretary of State – #climate risks

by

Rex Tillerson, the CEO of ExxonMobil, is now Mr Tumps candidate for the office of US Secretary of State. As is normal, last week he presented himself before a confirmation hearing convened by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. From this point we can now wave goodby to the word ‘normal’. Many of his answers were quite frankly jaw dropping, … Read more

#Arctic Sea Ice Extent – Mid Jan Update

by

The Arctic sea ice extent has never been seen this low before at this time of year. Right now in the middle of winter it should be growing, but it is not, the growth has once again stalled. To drive this point home, here are a couple of extracts from Michael Le Page’s Jan 16th … Read more