Category Archives: Science

How scientists failed the pandemic test

Posted on January 14, 2022 by ...and Then There's Physics

Philip Ball has an interesting article about UK science advice called [q]uiet, uncritical, obedient: how the UK’s scientists failed the pandemic test. It make some good points about there appearing to have been collusion between the science advisors and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Policy, Science, Scientists, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , | 29 Comments

Decoding the Gurus

Posted on December 10, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

Since I haven’t had much to write about, I thought I would briefly highlight a podcast that I’ve really enjoyed listening to. It’s called Decoding the Gurus, and is run by Chris Kavanagh, an anthropologist, and Matt Browne, a psychologist. … Continue reading →

Posted in Pseudoscience, Research, Science, Scientists | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

Science communication

Posted on October 12, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

I listened to one of Andy Revkin’s Twitter broadcasts with Randy Olson which discussed if science communication was worse now than it was 100 years ago. I’ve actually read most of Randy Olson’s book, where he introduces his 3-step model … Continue reading →

Posted in Pseudoscience, Science, Scientists | Tagged , , , , | 48 Comments

Declaring a climate emergency?

Posted on June 6, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

Matthew Nisbet, Professor of Communication, Public Policy, and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University, has a new article called Manufacturing Consent: The dangerous campaign behind climate emergency declarations. It makes similar arguments to those made by Mike Hulme in an article … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Philosophy for Bloggers, Policy, Politics, Science, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 57 Comments

Halting the vast release of methane is critical

Posted on May 1, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

A week or so ago there was a New York Times article called Halting the Vast Release of Methane Is Critical for Climate, U.N. Says. As the title suggests, it was reporting on a United Nations Report that (according to … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Environmental change, Global warming, Policy, Science | Tagged , , , , , | 95 Comments

Science in the Time of COVID-19

Posted on March 23, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

There was an interesting BBC Radio 4 item, hosted by Sonia Sodha, on Science in the Time of COVID-19. If you can’t access it, there is a related Guardian article. I’ve listened to it a few times, and I’m still … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy for Bloggers, Science, Scientists, Sound Science (tm), The philosophy of science, The scientific method, We Are Science | Tagged , , , , , , | 63 Comments

Anti-Virus

Posted on January 30, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

There’s a new site called Anti-Virus: The Covid-19 FAQ. It’s a little like Skeptical Science, with articles that respond to common arguments made by Covid Sceptics (what Skeptical Science would call Climate Myths). On a related note, I have been … Continue reading →

Posted in ClimateBall, Pseudoscience, Science | Tagged , , , , | 536 Comments

On baselines and climate normals

Posted on January 17, 2021 by ...and Then There's Physics

Mike Hulme, Professor of Human Geography at the University of Cambridge, has a somewhat bizarre article published in Academia Letters called Climates Multiple: Three Baselines, Two Tolerances, One Normal. It’s basically a discussion of the recent World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Philosophy for Bloggers, Politics, Science | Tagged , , , | 91 Comments

Some reflections on lecturing during a pandemic

Posted on November 27, 2020 by ...and Then There's Physics

I noticed, via Twitter, that a colleague had written an interesting post about survival strategies for lecturers [Edit: I hadn’t appreciated that this had been written pre-pandemic, but it is what largely motivated my post]. I had been thinking about … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal, physicists, Science, Universities | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

Climate change doesn’t work like that

Posted on November 17, 2020 by ...and Then There's Physics

A couple of years ago I wrote a post where I tried to explain why I thought climate change was a different kind of problem when compared to most of the other issues we might face today. I find it … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Environmental change, ethics, Policy, Science | Tagged , , , , , | 72 Comments