Category Archives: The scientific method

Bruno Latour

Posted on October 15, 2017 by

I came across an interesting interview with Bruno Latour, a sociologist with an interest in Science and Techology Studies (STS), who was involved with what has been called the “science wars”. I actually found much of what he said in … Continue reading →

Posted in Pseudoscience, Scientists, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , | 87 Comments

A bit more about clouds

Posted on October 7, 2017 by

A few years ago I posted a video by Andrew Dessler that was discussing whether or not Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity could be less than 3oC. The bottom line was that the best estimate for ECS is about 3oC. Given that … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate sensitivity, ClimateBall, Global warming, Research, Science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 32 Comments

The Portable POMO

Posted on September 10, 2017 by

Five paragraphs from Michel Foucault ought to be enough to dig POMO. Let’s take those that start his concluding remarks to the Seminar Discourse and Truth: the Problematization of Parrhesia. Parrhesia refers to the act of speaking candidly: My intention was … Continue reading →

Posted in Freedom Fighters, Philosophy for Bloggers, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , | 146 Comments

Prior knowledge

Posted on September 9, 2017 by

Something I have been bothered about for some time now, is how we best discuss climate change in the context of extreme events. Given the devastation from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, damaging floods in South Asia and Nigeria, and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Global warming, Michael Mann, Research, Science, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , , | 49 Comments

Beyond equilibrium climate sensitivity

Posted on September 7, 2017 by

Since I’ve written about climate sensitivity before, and since I have a few free moments, I thought I would briefly highlight a new paper by Knutti, Rugenstein, and Hegerl called Beyond Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity. It’s really a review of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Climate sensitivity, Global warming, Research, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Climate model tuning

Posted on September 5, 2017 by

I wrote a post about model tuning that discussed a paper that argued for more transparency in how climate models are tuned. Gavin Schmidt, and colleagues, have now published a paper that discusses the Practice and philosophy of climate model … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate sensitivity, Gavin Schmidt, Research, Science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , , | 62 Comments

STS: All talk and no walk?

Posted on August 19, 2017 by

In my previous post I discussed a paper by Harry Collins, and colleagues, that is mainly a response to an editorial by Sergio Sismondo. Collins et al. argue that Science and Technology Studies (STS) must take some responsibility for today’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics, Pseudoscience, Research, Science, Scientists, The philosophy of science, The scientific method, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 50 Comments