Category Archives: Science

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 , , , , , | 93 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 , , , , , , | 62 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 , , , , | 534 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

Policy in the language of science

Posted on October 24, 2020 by ...and Then There's Physics

I was listening to the a Received Wisdom podcast. It’s a podcast by Shobita Parthasarathy and Jack Stilgoe, which I have written about before. At the beginning of the podcast, the hosts were discussing the Great Barrington Declaration, and Jack … Continue reading →

Posted in Policy, Politics, Science, Scientists | Tagged , , , , | 77 Comments

Evidence-led?

Posted on September 19, 2020 by ...and Then There's Physics

I was blocked on Twitter by Zion Lights after I, somewhat snarkily, retweeted one of her tweets. Zion Lights is the UK director of Michael Shellenberger’s organisation, Environmental Progress. Zion Lights has had a bit of a rough week, having … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, Philosophy for Bloggers, physicists, Research, Science | Tagged , , , , , | 158 Comments

The Auditing Problem

Posted on September 18, 2020 by Willard

Auditing leads to an open problem. Let’s try to specify it as lightly as possible. Technical notes follow the main text, they’re tagged using curly brackets, like {this note}. §1. Alvaro’s Story Alvaro wrote a piece called What’s Wrong with … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy for Bloggers, Research, Science, Scientisits, Sound Science (tm), The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , , , | 28 Comments

Directly observing the earliest stages of star and planet formation

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

Since I haven’t had much to write about recently (or, haven’t felt much like writing recently) I thought I would highlight one of my recent papers. It was lead by James Cadman, a PhD student who is been working with … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy, Research, Science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , | 42 Comments