Antiscience

The heart of the book is the story of the Great Terror that struck the scientific establishment in the 1930s. Ings shows that scientists now depended for resources and promotion (but also for physical survival) on the power of patrons such as top leaders like Andrei Zhdanov, or the greatest patron of all, Stalin. He describes the rise of the maliciously cunning but childlike Trofim Lysenko, who notoriously became Stalin’s favorite scientist (though they met only once or twice). As starvation spread in the wake of Stalin’s collectivization, particularly in 1932-33, Lysenko, a semi-educated charlatan, attacked well-known geneticists who were trying to develop new hybrid crops that could solve the problem of low productivity, much of it caused by Stalin’s brutal policies. Fueled by what Ings calls “a huckster’s monomania,” Lysenko claimed he could raise crop yields by his own process, called vernalization, in which artificially induced coldness could fool winter wheat to develop earlier i...

Meet William Happer, high on the list to be Delirium Tremens' chief science advisor. The notoriously reality-biased scientific journal liberal rag Nature reports: Happer, an emeritus professor at Princeton, is no stranger to government: he directed energy research at the US Department of Energy from 1991 to 1993 and is a long-time member of JASON, a US defence advisory group. He is also a well-known critic of mainstream climate science and as such, a frequent target of environmental activists. In 2015, the environmental group Greenpeace UK announced that it had caught Happer in a sting operation. Greenpeace officials, posing as representatives of an unnamed Middle Eastern oil company, offered Happer money to write a report on the benefits of increasing atmospheric levels of CO2 — while keeping the funding source a secret. Happer agreed, and maintains that he did nothing wrong. He says that he told the ‘oil company’ officials that any payments should be sent to the CO2 Coalition, ...

A splendidly horrible press release touts a nematode worm model for teenaged fickleness. Worms and people respond to the smell of the chemical diacetyl, known to humans as “buttered popcorn smell,” which is present in a number of foods, including ones in the C. elegans diet. In fact, the worms have a pair of neurons called AWA dedicated to sensing it. To observe behavioral variation between adult and adolescent worms, the Salk team placed the animals in the center of a dish with a drop of diacetyl on one side, and a neutral odor on the other. Then, in a series of trials over several days, they characterized the paths the worms took. What the scientists saw surprised them: Adolescent worms meandered and took their time getting to the diacetyl, if they got there at all; adult worms made a beeline for it. I hate C. elegans , having spent far too many years trying to teach this microscopic nematode how to do tricks. Press releases like this stretch the bounds of credibility for an organism...

Science denial goes big --- creationist theme park Ark Encounter not only rejects evolution but also electromagnetism (note the non-ROYGBIV rainbow). Originally shared by Peter da Silva Nice rainbow, with red in the middle and green at the end. http://sdgln.com/entertainment/2016/12/22/christian-theme-park-wants-take-back-rainbow

The study was funded by the Templeton Foundation, which has traditionally opposed Dawkins' work. Originally shared by Jeff Green And another well designed study finds just was it was funded to find. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/richard-dawkins-atheism-criticism-atheist-study-rice-university-science-scientists-a7389396.html

Not sure what to make of this one. Paolo Macchiarini, experimental surgeon at Karolinska Institute, is accused of playing extremely loosely with ethical and scientific standards. The studies, involving the implantation of engineered biomaterials to restore tracheal function, have not been retracted but questions remain about the researchers' honesty in evaluating their patients before and after the procedure. Macchiarini lost his job and today it emerged that heads all the way to the top of Swedish biomedical science are rolling. Is this a real scandal or a pretext for housecleaning? http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/09/another-scathing-report-causes-more-eminent-heads-roll-macchiarini-scandal

Sabine Hossenfelder  writes in Aeon about monetizing interactions with crank mathematicians and physicists. Hossenfelder paints a sympathetic picture of math and physics cranks as well-intentioned but deeply misguided amateurs who have been lead astray by poor science communication. The majority of my callers are the ones who seek advice for an idea they’ve tried to formalise, unsuccessfully, often for a long time. Many of them are retired or near retirement, typically with a background in engineering or a related industry. All of them are men. Many base their theories on images, downloaded or drawn by hand, embedded in long pamphlets. A few use basic equations. Some add videos or applets. Some work with 3D models of Styrofoam, cardboard or wires. The variety of their ideas is bewildering, but these callers have two things in common: they spend an extraordinary amount of time on their theories, and they are frustrated that nobody is interested. .... I still get the occasional joke fro...