Tag Archives: rhetoric of science

A 2-dimensional world

SciAm has reposted an article they ran in May 1963: The Evolution of the Physicist’s Picture of Knowledge. It’s a heady read, to be sure. After the first few paragraphs, it turns into some heavy-duty physics with little detail. But … Continue reading

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Even More Bad Medical Reporting

Or, more specifically, even more ideas for preventing bad medical reporting. A post by Mark Liberman over at UPenn hits at the topic of that last post, how to prevent bad reporting of medical news in the popular press. Liberman … Continue reading

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Bad Medical Reporting?

On June 8, 2010, there was an opinion piece on cnn.com that hit at problems with medical research reporting in the popular press: Otis Browley: Bad medical writing hurts public health He rambles a bit in the piece, bouncing from … Continue reading

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Diagnosis: Denialism

New Scientist has an opinion piece up that hits on an ongoing theme of this blog: communicating statistical science to the public. In summary, it argues that those who reject scientific ideas like evolution, global warming, vaccination, AIDS, and such … Continue reading

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The small doing what the big can’t

Interesting article over at scientificamerican.com: Local Governments Lead Effort to Combat Climate Change: Call them the Silicon Valley garages of climate policy. Local efforts to trim emissions, change economies and alter behavior are serving as idea labs where mistakes can … Continue reading

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At least he got the problems right

Back in February I wrote a post reacting to Freud’s Dream Psychology. I’d just finished listening to the audio version and had some concerns about his objectivity as a researcher (his psychoanalysis seemed to be highly influenced by his own … Continue reading

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Forget the numbers?

Yet another post on what has become a near obsession of mine: how do experts communicate numbers to the public? I’m still working my way through the Intro to Psych class from MIT that motivated the last post. But this … Continue reading

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Scientists have it easy

Oh, to be a scientist where research topics are so easy to come by. I’m working my way through audio recordings of an Intro to Psych course, courtesy of MIT’s OpenCourseWare. And I’ve been really interested in trying to pick … Continue reading

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Climategate debunked, finally?

There was the whole “climategate” debacle a few months back where emails were stolen from a leading climate research lab that supposedly showed fraudulent activity. Rhetoric of Science people almost assuredly remember that. Earlier today a second UK panel investigating … Continue reading

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The Lasting Legacy of Freud

This past week I finished reading Freud’s Dream Psychology. Well, more accurately I finished listening to it, courtesy of the good people over at Librivox. And I was struck throughout the entire book by two things how nonsensical so many … Continue reading

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