Category Archives: science

More Things That Are Not Arguments

Posted on 2013-04-22 by TJ

I recently had some interactions with anti-gun-control people (there is a lot of that about) in which one of them offered the following statement (which is not an argument): “if someone is really intent on hurting someone, even if they … Continue reading →

Posted in epistemology, probability, psychology, religion, science | Leave a comment

Supernatural Explanations

Posted on 2013-04-01 by TJ

Before talking about supernatural explanations, it’s a good idea to say something about explanations in general. An explanation is a causal account of a particular situation based on general principles, laws or abstractions. Causal accounts are general, explanatory accounts are … Continue reading →

Posted in epistemology, god, probability, psychology, quantum, religion, science | Leave a comment

The Art of Arbitrary Choices

Posted on 2013-03-26 by TJ

Engineering is more like art than people think. So is science. The key to all of them is the same: making arbitrary choices well. On the face of it, an arbitrary choice ought to be, well… arbitrary. It shouldn’t matter … Continue reading →

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Why Isn’t the Germ Theory of Disease Mentioned in Scripture?

Posted on 2013-02-24 by TJ

My text for the day will be the Gospel According to Lister, in which he recounts the revelation God gave to His beloved prophet, Pasteur: And in those days there was a great sickness in the land, and the people … Continue reading →

Posted in epistemology, god, history, life, psychology, religion, science | Leave a comment

Blur

Posted on 2013-02-05 by TJ

Science is the discipline of publicly testing ideas by systematic observation and controlled experiment. There is a lot of stuff entailed by that claim: the whole of actual scientific practice, in fact. The specific sciences and subdisciplines all have their … Continue reading →

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How Not to be a Science Writer

Posted on 2013-01-04 by TJ

The state of science reporting has always been pretty dismal, with a few major luminaries outshining the combined light of their lesser colleagues. I suspect that the science desk is the place where novices and interns get parked until they … Continue reading →

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Wrong is Not Right

Posted on 2012-11-28 by TJ

Sea levels are rising faster than predicted by climate models, Arctic ice is melting more rapidly, glaciers are retreating more quickly, and a number of other one-dimensional measures have significantly larger first derivatives than climate models predict. In other words: … Continue reading →

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Things That Are Not Arguments

Posted on 2012-11-22 by TJ

This story of a group of Australian geologists who “undiscovered” an island in the Coral Sea clearly proves all of the following: Anti-science conservatism is true: Obviously if science can get an entire island wrong it must be the case … Continue reading →

Posted in bayes, epistemology, politics, probability, psychology, science | Leave a comment

Some notes on fiberglass blisters

Posted on 2012-10-14 by TJ

I’ve been reading a lot about the “boat pox” that many fiberglass hulls suffer from. There is no shortage of ideas as to what causes this issue, but very little in the way of science, which is publicly testing ideas … Continue reading →

Posted in sailing, science | Leave a comment

What Does “Climate Change” Mean?

Posted on 2012-08-18 by TJ

I argued in the previous entry that while it is uncontroversial that human activity has added 1 – 2 W/m***2 to the Earth’s heat budget (say 0.1 – 0.2 % of the total, equivalent to shifting Earth’s orbit by a … Continue reading →

Posted in economics, life, physics, prediction, science, thermodynamics | 2 Comments