Man Plays God and Wins…Again

In another startling instance of human beings doing a better job than god at creating stuff, Scientists at the might have unexpectedly created a new form of matter inside the Large Hadron Collider.

Bill Nye Says What We All Are Thinking

Bill Nye, who I admiringly refer to as Uncle Billy, pushed himself into the front lines in the war of Creationism vs. Science. In a video titled “Creationism Is Not Appropriate For Children”he rails against the notion that classrooms should teach Creationism alongside Evolution.

Study Finds Doctors Distrust ‘Big Pharma’

One of the standard propaganda lines for the alternative medicine industry is that the typical physician is in the pocket of “big pharma.” Even if they’re not bought off with pens and pads of paper, then their good intentions can be subverted with biased studies that are funded by pharmaceutical companies. And since these doctors don’t take the possibly nefarious intentions of “big pharma” as seriously as the alties do, they end up as unwitting salespeople of unnecessary drugs, which serves to line the pockets of the CEOs of drug companies.

This sounds like a pretty testable hypothesis. Do physicians trust company-funded clinical trials too much? The New England Journal of Medicine decided to investigate. Here’s what they found (emphasis mine):

Why Don’t More Nobel Prize Winners Do This?

Half the fun of winning a Nobel Prize – at least one that hasn’t been made completely ridiculous – should be in how you can rub it in the noses of all of those who have wronged you in the past. And that’s what John Gurdon, who just won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, is doing to one of his schoolteachers. Good for him. Check out the excerpt from his 1949 report card after the jump:

Libyan Attacks – Let’s Fight Violence with Science

Cross posted at JesusLovesBags.com

By now, you’ve probably heard about the terrorist attacks on the US consulate in Libya where four Americans were killed in protest of an anti-Muslim film that was recently released.

There are many facets of this development that merit discussion, but this comment from Obama caught my attention:

As we mourn their loss, we must also send a clear and resolute message to the world: those who attack our people will find no escape from justice. We will not waver in their pursuit. And we will never allow anyone to shake the resolve of the United States of America

The sentiment, that the US will do whatever is needed, where ever it is needed, as long as it is needed to bring those who committed these senseless acts to justice, is understandable. It represents a respect and to the families of those that were murdered and a commitment to Justice.

Yet, I can’t help but feel that this is a misguided approach, if it is truly intended to be implemented as Obama’s remarks make it sound.

Homeopathy Companies Pay Journalist to Smear Edzard Ernst

Anyone who’s spent a significant amount of time addressing the scientific problems that come up with alternative medicine will eventually be accused by some quack of being on the Big Pharma payroll. If the alties were right, pharmaceutical companies throw away millions of dollars on misinformation campaigns, focusing largely on Facebook, Twitter, and other internet forums. Advocates of science-based medicine get cut a check once a months for their services.

The Epigenome Project: You Should Really Stop Looking at Porn

Suggested Musical Accompaniment: Particle Man by They Might Be Giants

“I’m gonna beat you so bad that your momma’s gonna feel me for the next ten birthdays,” Tommy Costello called out before kicking my twelve-year old ass all over the baseball diamond. Although, I was more concerned with not pissing myself in between punches, I still had enough sense to know that no matter how hard he hit me, my momma wasn’t going to feel a thing.

…But my kids might.

Scientists Discover Ginormous Body of Water in Space

Researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory discovered a huge body of water around a black hole some 12 billion light years away. They say that it’s big enough to distribute the same amount of water we have here on Earth to 28 galaxies the size of the Milky Way, provided there are ten Earth-like planet in each of the galaxies’ 400 billion stars. That works out to 140 trillion Earths of water.

Greetings, I’m New Here (Science is Good!)

Hello ladies and gentleman! Justin Williams back in the house and I’m here to talk to you about something very important: Science.  Now I actually don’t know much about science, but I listen to scientists when they talk about things I don’t understand.  Because they are scientists.  It’s kinda their thing.

Sadly though, many Americans routinely choose not to or don’t have the ability to understand basic science.  Hard-line creationists make the most headlines, but people who deny we landed on the moon, 9/11 conspiracy theorists, and climate change skeptics are also part of this giant group of Americans who are either ignorant or think they know better than the experts who have actually studied these things.

Gene Ray is Not Even Wrong

Gene Ray says that all of physics is wrong. It would have to for his new model of reality, which he describes as a Time Cube, to be correct. Everything from quantum theory to force being equal to mass times acceleration; it’s all just wrong according to Ray. So when his ramblings counter some established truth about how the physical world operates, he can always play the “Everything you know is wrong” trump card.