Category Archives: Science

All things scientific.

Why *Everybody* Needs Critical Thinking Skills #2: Research Fraud

Posted on March 4, 2011 by ErgoOne

In the past few weeks, two cases of serious research fraud have become public. Both involved medical research done by well-respected researchers, and both led to inappropriate medical decisions that have probably caused deaths in patients. Andrew Wakefield. British researcher … Continue reading →

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Why the Public Needs Critical Thinking Skills #1: “Churnalism”

Posted on March 3, 2011 by ErgoOne

In today’s Columbia Journalism Review is a excellent article on “churnalism”, their term for articles posted on news sites as news articles that are, in fact, simply press releases with little or no additional material. The article discusses who issues … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Internet, Meta, Politics, Science | 1 Comment

U.S. Air Force X-37B Space Plan Flies on Friday

Posted on March 3, 2011 by ErgoOne

According to a story posted today in Space.com, the United States Air Force X-37B unmanned space plane is due to take off Friday to some unnamed location, presumably outside the 100 km boundary to space, on an unspecified mission for … Continue reading →

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Indian Government Denies Workers Medical Test Results

Posted on March 1, 2011 by ErgoOne

According to the Times of India, in 2007 an agency of the Government of India, the National Institute of Occupational Health, tested 126 mine workers for silicosis.  The institute later published a research paper that stated that some of the … Continue reading →

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Why You Should Pay Attention at School

Posted on February 26, 2011 by ErgoOne

Below is an image of a page from the front of what I believe must have been a high school science textbook. I couldn’t possibly improve on it, so without further comment: NOTE: Sunday a reader emailed me the link … Continue reading →

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Serendipity: Discovery Launch as Seen from Airplane

Posted on February 26, 2011 by ErgoOne

This video is “trending” around the Internet, but I couldn’t resist showing it here.  Gorgeous!

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Fun New Blog, *Mostly* About Archaeology

Posted on February 22, 2011 by ErgoOne

A new blog went live yesterday: Square Holes.  The blogger, Joe Jefferson, plans to write mostly about archaeology, but I would expect to see the occasional blog about trains (he’s a fanatic), other science subjects, and politics, with the occasional … Continue reading →

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Enceladus Seen From Orbit

Posted on February 18, 2011 by ErgoOne

The Cassini spacecraft took some absolutely stunning photographs of Enceladus, Saturn’s sixth largest moon, on January 31.  I’ve been busy, and just got around to looking at them today.

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13.2 Billion Years Into the Past…

Posted on January 26, 2011 by ErgoOne

Today NASA released a video taken by the Hubble Space Telescope that shows the most distant galaxy that the human race has ever discovered.   Since, in astronomy, space=time, this video also peers 13.2 billion years into the past….

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About Women Science Writers

Posted on January 26, 2011 by ErgoOne

Just read a wonderful article posted by Emily Willingham, a science writer and biologist, to her blog about being a woman who writes about science.  Her conclusions?  Being female is simply a fact — she was born that way.  Being … Continue reading →

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