Category Archives: The scientific method

Stay in your own lane?

Posted on April 3, 2020 by

Even though there are scientists who have the kind of expertise that might help us to better understand this pandemic, there’s a tendency to suggest that it would probably be best if they stayed in their own lane. Although I … Continue reading →

Posted in Contrarian Matrix, Philosophy for Bloggers, Scientists, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , | 82 Comments

Responsible SciComm

Posted on March 25, 2020 by

Yesterday, a group in Oxford released a paper that implied that a signifcant fraction of those in the UK may already have been infected. This was quickly picked up by numerous media outlets who highlighted that coronavirus could already have … Continue reading →

Posted in Scientists, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , | 114 Comments

A physicist for president?

Posted on March 19, 2020 by

Jim Al’Khalili has an article in Scientific American called [a] physicist for president? Jim is a physicist, so he’s probably being somewhat provactive. Also, he’s mostly arguing for someone who applies the scientific method to thinking and decision-making and is … Continue reading →

Posted in economics, physicists, Politics, Scientists, The scientific method, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 51 Comments

Andrew Dessler rebuts Roy Spencer

Posted on March 16, 2020 by

Most of the focus at the moment is rightly on the coronavirus. Since I have no relevant expertise whatsoever, all I’ll say is that I hope everyone is doing their best to stay safe, and listening to the advice that’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Policy, Roy Spencer, The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , | 63 Comments

Zharkova et al. – retracted

Posted on March 4, 2020 by

Just a quick post to highlight that the Zharkova et al. paper, that I’ve discussed in a couple of previous posts, has now been retracted. The retraction notice is here. There’s a Retraction Watch post, which also includes a link … Continue reading →

Posted in Gavin Schmidt, Global warming, Philosophy for Bloggers, Sound Science (tm), The philosophy of science, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 104 Comments

feedbacks, runaway, and tipping points

Posted on February 1, 2020 by

There’s been some discussion on Twitter about feedbacks, runaways, and tipping points. The issue is that some seem to confuse these and sometimes imply that we could cross thresholds where we’ll undergo a runaway. I thought I would briefly try … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, Climate sensitivity, Global warming, Severe Events, The scientific method, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 211 Comments

RCP8.5 – another update

Posted on January 31, 2020 by

In case anyone is interested, Zeke Hausfather and Glen Peters have a Nature comment about the whole RCP8.5 issue. Unfortunately, they used misleading in the title, which seems to have produced an unfortunate headline on a BBC article. Otherwise, Zeke … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate change, ClimateBall, Gavin Schmidt, Michael Mann, Research, Scientists, The scientific method | Tagged , , , , , , | 65 Comments