Tag Archives: truth

The WAR on SCIENCE

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.
Carl Sagan

Perhaps society has always been at war with science. Science challenges belief systems. Science threatens the status quo. Scientific thinking requires one to question everything. 

However scientific thought does not grant one the ability to throw out centuries of hard-won knowledge just because the doubter does not “believe” it. The Internet is chock full of blogs decrying the “lies” perpetuated by scientists, NASA, the media, the government. It is truly ironic that the science and technology that made computers, smart phones, tablets, and the Internet possible is the very science under attack on the Internet. So much of the “information” on the Internet is opinion and belief offered up as fact. The Internet gives everyone an equal voice.

Instead of making us smarter, the Internet is making us dumber. Our knowledge is based on “factoids” and “sound bites”. Few people bother to dig deeper. TL;DR

Sadly, I ran across this video on one of those “anti-science”, “we have been lied to” blogs. The author comments:

This is just such a great example of how sometimes the propaganda gets so heavy in it’s shaming tactics that it only serves to show how desperate and panicky the official side is seemingly becoming.

Science = propaganda 

Sigh

Whatever other titles I have held during my professional career …

I proudly claim the title of Scientist.

Energy Density

Log Scale

http://xkcd.com/1162/

The energy density of fissionable uranium in megajoules/kilogram is 1.7 million times that of gasoline. This one of the reasons for why we cannot choose to ignore nuclear power in our energy mix.

The number of deaths, injured, or sickened from the combined nuclear incidents of Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima is less than the annual deaths, injured, or sickened in the coal, oil, solar, or wind industries. The global push to decommission nuclear power plants in wake of Fukushima is driven by baseless fear and media hype.

Suggested blogs and podcasts

http://atomicinsights.com

http://www.hiroshimasyndrome.com

http://pandoraspromise.com