We Need to Educate the Public about Dirty Bombs
The fear of radiation such a weapon could spread is far more harmful than the radiation itself
Stories by David Ropeik
Vilifying Parents Who Don't Vaccinate Their Kids Is Counterproductive
The ongoing measles outbreak in the U.S., which has spread to 14 states, has provoked a rising vilification of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children.
Europe Should Reject the Call to Eliminate Its Science Adviser
More and more often, societies around the world are facing a conflict that puts us all at risk. People reject scientific evidence when it does not fit their worldviews and values, challenging governments to make evidence-based policies that do the most good for the most people over the long term, but also respond to short-term [...]..
Climate Report Nails Risk Communication
The National Climate Assessment released Tuesday by the White House is a masterful piece of science and risk communication. Senior science writer Susan Joy Hassol, who turned massive contributions from hundreds of scientists into an accessible, persuasive report that will play an important role in getting the U.S...
Golden Rice Opponents Should Be Held Accountable for Health Problems Linked to Vitamain A Deficiency
By 2002, Golden Rice was technically ready to go. Animal testing had found no health risks. Syngenta, which had figured out how to insert the Vitamin A-producing gene from carrots into rice, had handed all financial interests over to a non-profit organization, so there would be no resistance to the life-saving technology from GMO opponents [...]..
“The Scarecrow” – Lots of Heart, But It Could Use More Brain
Have you seen the Chipotle Grill animated video “The Scarecrow”? More than four million people have, since it was first published last week.
Will "Pandora s Promise" Start a New Environmental Movement for Nuclear Power?
The last line in Pandora’s Promise , Robert Stone’s new documentary about the environmental advantages of nuclear power, comes from Michael Shellenberger, co-head of the Breakthrough Institute...
Filipino Ruling on Bt Eggplant
A recent decision by an appeals court in the Phillipines about genetically modified food was a striking victory for environmentalists who oppose many modern technologies that are ‘destroying nature’, and an ominous defeat for science and reason and the thoughtful search for solutions to some of humanity’s biggest problems...
The Messy (and Risky) Ways That Governments Try to Manage Risks
The very concept of risk is tricky. To you and me, it means pretty much what the dictionary says…the probability that something bad might happen. And to us, the part of that definition that most influences how worried a risk makes us feel is the subjective ‘bad’ part, more than the objectively quantifiable likelihood...
The L Aquila Verdict: A Judgment Not against Science, but against a Failure of Science Communication
A court in Italy has convicted six scientists and one civil defense official of manslaughter in connection with their predictions about an earthquake in l’Aquila in 2009 that killed 309 people...
Could You Look Down from 24 Miles Up and Jump? Felix Baumgartner Just Did
DID YOU WATCH! Did your heart pound, your palms get sweaty, your muscles tense! Did you join the millions around the world gripped by fear and tension as Felix Baumgartner rose to more than 24 miles in a balloon-lifted capsule, opened the door (OH MY GOD!) stood out on the bar outside with a camera over his head looking down (OH MY GOD!!!!!),…AND JUMPED!!!!!!!!!!!...
The Rise of Nuclear Fear-How We Learned to Fear the Radiation
I remember going to bed one night when I was 11, seriously afraid I would not be alive in the morning. It was October, 1962, and the frightening cold war between the U.S.
WARNING!!! Health Warnings May be Hazardous to Your Health!!!
For all the benefits modern society provides, not least of which are vast improvements in public health and longevity, our advanced post-industrial technological/information age also produces risks, far too many for you and me to keep track of...
Italian Seismologists on Trial-for Failing to Communicate Well?
The ground shook violently in L’Aquila, Italy, early in the morning of April 6, 2009, more violently than it had during the tremors the area had been experiencing for months.
Food Fight: why are we so passionate about what enters our bodies
Why is that there can be such divergent views about basically the same body of evidence regarding organic and GM food? This debate/argument illustrates two things; the subjective and emotional nature of risk perception, and the fallacy of our faith in pure fact-based Cartesian reason as the be-all and end-all way of figuring out the [...]..
Food Fight: Why Are We So Passionate about What Enters Our Bodies?
Why is that there can be such divergent views about basically the same body of evidence regarding organic and GM food? This debate/argument illustrates two things; the subjective and emotional nature of risk perception, and the fallacy of our faith in pure fact-based Cartesian reason as the be-all and end-all way of figuring out the truth.In the response to Christie Wilcox’s challenge of the organic orthodoxy both sides wielded their data and experts like weapons, but underneath this war is not about the details...
The Lesson of the Fear of Vaccines.
Time for Society to Say Enough is Enough. The science community laments that people deny the evidence science produces.
Cell Phones, Cancer and the Dangers of Risk Perception
May 31, 2011, was a bad day for a society already wary of all sorts of risks from modern technology, a day of celebration for those who champion more concern about those risks, and a day that teaches important lessons about the messy subjective guesswork that goes into trying to make intelligent choices about risk in the first place, for policy makers or for you and me...
Trains, nukes, marriage, and vaccines (and anything else): Why the facts don't matter
A lot has been written about why people deny the findings of science. Why, ask the devotees of reason, do people’s views on vaccines or climate change not match the overwhelming bulk of the evidence?...
Dear chemists
Happy International Year of Chemistry. We hope things go well with your effort to increase public appreciation of chemistry and increase the interest of young people in chemistry and generate enthusiasm for the creative future of chemistry.Fat chance that’s going to get us to relax, though...
