Current Events

A major AP article in our local newspaper today headlines "Science ignorance is pervasive in our society".

The reason? "Values and beliefs trump science when they conflict- depressing and upsetting some of America's top scientists."

Think about that claim.  Some of America's top scientists do science apart from values and beliefs, as though that is possible!  There is no science done that is value free or neutral.  Facts are selected and interpreted.  That process is not uninfluenced by the beliefs and presuppositions of the human scientists. 

The Post below, from the Cornwall Alliance, includes an excellent, helpful article that  enumerates the steps involved in judging reports of scientific discoveries. They include accounting for Media Bias, the bias of Scientific Journals and the bias of scientific research funding.

http://www.cornwallalliance.org/articles/read/whats-incredible-learning-to-read-science-articles-with-a-critical-eye/