Categories
-
Recent Posts
Archives
- January 2022
- September 2021
- October 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- March 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
RSS Feeds
Meta
Category Archives: The Science-Minded Citizen
Does Literary Fiction Help You Read Minds?
Article by Dan Arel
I read a lot. However, I mostly focus on history, politics or science. I rarely break out a good piece of literary fiction. Though, after reading this recent study from the New School for Social Research, in which they studied the correlation between what people read and how well they read faces….
In the study, recently published in the journal Science… Read more
The Know It All Effect
Article by Dan Arel
Do people who claim to have a strong understanding of science challenge their views? - Do people who claim religious affiliation read scientific studies that oppose their worldview?
S. Mo Jang of the University of Michigan set out to answer such questions. He recently published findings in Science Communication.
In his paper, “Seeking Congruency or Incongruency Online? Examining Selective Exposure … Read more
Posted in The Science-Minded Citizen
Tagged media, opposing views, religious affiliation, science, understanding, worldview
3 Comments
Error and Uncertainty Lead to Confidence
Article by Davis Jacobson
“Doubt is our product, since it is the best means of competing with the ‘body of fact’ that exists in the minds of the general public. It is also the means of establishing a controversy.”
–Brown and Williamson, 1969 (internal memorandum, found here)
It is often lamented that there are misunderstandings of scientific findings in the general public. There’s no … Read more
Posted in The Science-Minded Citizen
Tagged accuracy, confidence, confusion, doubt, error, interval, mathematical, measurements, precision, scientific, uncertainty
1 Comment
Parking Perplexity
Article by Davis Jacobson
Who wants to waste time walking if you could just drive? If only there were a perfect way to find a parking space in a big lot….
Spoiler alert: There isn’t! But there are glimmers of ways that are reliably not as bad as the worst you could do! It turns out that this problem fits within a category called … Read more
Fish Fights
Article by Davis Jacobson
I saw a bit in the Telegraph regarding the problems surrounding all the mackerel in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Yes, the mid-latitude Atlantic fish, and yes, the smallish island countries between Scandinavia and Greenland. Plus Russia.
A lot of science comes together here: climate science, biology, political science, economics…. (Today I’m using “science” in a broad sense like the German … Read more
All posts