Minding the Sciences

Note: July 2025 will mark the centenary of the famous Tennessee “Scopes Monkey Trial.” This article is part of a series leading up to the centennial events in Dayton, Tennessee, the site of the trial. In the summer of 1925, the town luminaries of Dayton, Tennessee, summoned John T. Scopes from his tennis game to […]

The new Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford professor who gained fame as an early critic of U.S. COVID-19 policy, delivered his first public speech on May 2 at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He described the “failed” response to COVID-19 and then explained how this failure informed his […]

In Episode 5 of The Week in Science, Scott Turner, Director of Science Programs at the National Association of Scholars, offers a timely critique of the growing media narrative around a so-called “Trump brain drain”—the claim that scientists are fleeing American institutions due to MAGA-led funding cuts. Turner says that what is actually driving scientists away […]

In Episode 4 of The Week in Science, Scott Turner, Director of Science Programs at the National Association of Scholars, asks whether private philanthropy can rescue science from declining federal support. Before 1950, most scientific research was funded by private donors—not the government. That changed after WWII, when federal agencies like the National Institutes of […]

Editor’s Note: The following article was originally published by the Observatory of University Ethics on March 11, 2025. The Observatory translated it into English from French. I have edited it, to the best of my ability, to align with Minding the Campus’s style guidelines. It is crossposted here with permission. In a great burst of […]

In Episode 3 of The Week in Science, Scott Turner, Director of Science Programs at the National Association of Scholars, examines the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in scientific writing, the scientific deep state’s concerns over the politicization of science, and the federal government’s controversial changes to research funding rules. The episode also revisits the […]

In Episode 2 of The Week in Science, Scott Turner, Director of Science Programs at the National Association of Scholars, dissects Science magazine’s critical response to the first hundred days of the Trump presidency. The magazine describes a “chaotic 100-day push” that they claim has dismantled scientific and public health infrastructure, including the erasure of […]

The National Association of Scholars (NAS) has launched a new podcast. It features Scott Turner, NAS’s Director of Science Programs, who will cover topics that strike his fancy each week in the world of science. Watch for a new episode every week. In Episode 1, Turner looks at two articles published in the May 1, […]

Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from the soon-to-be-published National Association of Scholars report, Rescuing Science. It has been edited to align with Minding the Campus’s style guidelines and is cross-posted here with permission.  I sought a career in academia because it promised a life of intellectual freedom; to think, write, and teach what I […]

Editor’s Note: The following is an article originally published on the College Fix on May 14, 2025. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission. Far too many students are entering higher education ill-equipped to handle the rigors of collegiate-level science classes, according to professors who say they’ve had to alter their […]

Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from the soon-to-be-published National Association of Scholars report, Rescuing Science. It has been edited to align with Minding the Campus’s style guidelines and is cross-posted here with permission.  Public funding of academic research is shaping up as a major political confrontation between universities and the Trump administration. The first […]

Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from the soon-to-be-published National Association of Scholars report, Rescuing Science. It has been edited to align with Minding the Campus’s style guidelines and is cross-posted here with permission.  Since the Trump administration proposed a 15 percent cap on them in February, indirect costs on research grants are the object […]

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by All Things Rhapsodical on May 01, 2025. With edits to match MTC’s style guidelines, it is cross-posted here with permission. It is common these days to hear that climate justice requires redistributive payments from those societies, such as the U.S., that contribute most to greenhouse gas emissions to […]

Anyone intimately familiar with U.S. education research of the past half century recognizes its marked difference from that of other fields. Some attribute the difference to an inferiority of methods, implying that education professors are not quite as bright as, say, economists. I would argue, instead, that bias is, by far, a greater problem—that bias […]

Tsinghua University in Beijing is China’s top university and is often considered the top university in Asia. It is also a key instrument of the Chinese Communist Party’s foreign influence efforts and has played a key role in advancing China’s influence at American colleges and universities. Its influence is felt in many areas but none […]

Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from the soon-to-be-published National Association of Scholars report, Rescuing Science. It has been edited to align with Minding the Campus’s style guidelines and is cross-posted here with permission.  Recently, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) proposed that indirect costs rates (administrative overheads) on research grants from the NIH […]

Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from the soon-to-be-published National Association of Scholars report, Rescuing Science. It has been edited to align with Minding the Campus’s style guidelines and is cross-posted here with permission.  Indirect costs are a hot topic right now, set off by the Trump administration floating a proposal for the National […]

I have previously reported through two Minding the Campus articles (here and here) that the National Science Foundation (NSF) director, Sethuraman Panchanathan, published a paper through the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) that copied an uncited source previously published through the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). In addition to copying from IEEE for […]

For millennia, man has wondered whether he is alone in the universe. Organizations such as the SETI Institute (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence), founded in 1984, once employed more than 100 scientists, educators, and support staff in their quest to “explore, understand and explain the origin, nature and prevalence of life in the universe.” To […]

Science™ is fighting back! In case you were worried. The final straw was the National Institutes of Health (NIH) decreeing in February that indirect cost reimbursements on research grants would henceforth be cut to about 25 percent of their current rate. Hard to see what the complaint is there. Indirect costs mostly fuel administrative bloat, […]

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by the College Fix on March 12, 2025. With edits to match MTC’s style guidelines, it is cross-posted here with permission. A Planned Parenthood executive is researching “power and oppression” and “reproductive health services” with the help of nearly half a million in taxpayer funds. The study, “Enhancing Policy Impact for […]

Editor’s Note: This is the second of two essays titled “An Extra Credit Assignment Inspires Reflection on Study Habits.” You can read the first one here. An essay I wrote, “Incoming college STEM freshmen, take note: You need to take your classes seriously,” was published as a special to the USA TODAY Network and in two South […]

When misconduct strikes in scientific research, it triggers a domino effect of ruined reputations, compromised integrity, and shattered public trust in science. But when it happens in medical practice, the consequences are far graver: real human pain, suffering, and death. In the summer of 2024, Beverly and William Bryan would arrive in Florida together to […]

Described as a man who “always projected ‘moral and ethical rectitude,’” esteemed mid-1800s glacial geologist Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin once made a profound statement at the 1888 University of Michigan Annual Commencement: “Falsity in intellectual action is intellectual immorality.” This statement appears to ring ever truer when one considers recent trends in 21st-century science. Before diving […]

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by the College Fix on February 24, 2025. With edits to match MTC’s style guidelines, it is cross-posted here with permission. Princeton University students can learn about “Investigative Theater for a Changing Climate” this spring. Students will create “an original work of theater” by “pursuing a creative inquiry into some aspect […]

The headline caught my attention: “Squirrels spotted hunting and eating animals for first time.” Reading on [emphases added]: Until now, squirrels were thought to be primarily vegetarian, cramming their cheeks full of seeds and nuts, which they often bury in underground stores to get through the colder months. But biologists were amazed to see Californian […]

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by the College Fix on February 14, 2025. With edits to match MTC’s style guidelines, it is cross-posted here with permission. More than 500 studies on COVID-19 have been withdrawn due to “bias,” “unreliable” information, or unspecified reasons, a blog that tracks retracted documents, found. Retraction Watch co-founder Ivan Oransky told […]

The Trump Administration has proposed a much-needed reform of how we reimburse so-called “overhead expenses” associated with federal research grants made by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is reasoned that research activity financed by the Feds involves not only paying researchers, buying lab equipment, and some travel but also increases needed administrative oversight, […]

Editor’s Note: The following is an article originally published by the Observatory of University Ethics on January 25, 2025. It was translated into English from French by the Observatory before being edited to align with Minding the Campus’s style guidelines. It is crossposted here with permission. San Jose State University Elizabeth Weiss, a physical anthropologist and professor […]

My recent article on Minding the Campus examined a paper by National Science Foundation (NSF) director Sethuraman Panchanathan, published by the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM). ACM refused to investigate Panchanathan’s uncited copying from a paper published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The PubPeer website reported that Panchanathan wrote an October […]

I have just read your endorsement of Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to be the head of the National Institute of Health (NIH). While I agree with much of the editorial, I would like to express some concerns, commenting as a long-time teacher of philosophy of science, a private citizen who is eager for the scientific enterprise to thrive, and a long-time supporter of the National […]

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by RealClear Education on January 27, 2025. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission. America needs new science standards. That’s why the National Association of Scholars and Freedom in Education published The Franklin Standards: Model K-12 State Science Standards. These standards are […]

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to clarify the roles of Rand Simberg and Mark Steyn in the legal disputes involving Michael Mann. The original text suggested that Steyn himself made the comparison between Mann and Jerry Sandusky. In fact, the comparison originated with Simberg, and Steyn quoted and commented on Simberg’s remarks while […]

Federal agencies pay for research at colleges and universities. Those institutions also charge overhead—called Facilities and Administrative (F&A) or indirect costs—by billing the agency at a fixed rate applied to the direct costs. Arizona State University (ASU) charges 57 percent for F&A. When a professor spends $100,000 of grant money on direct costs, ASU collects […]

The language and tone of the recent U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation report, “D.E.I. Division. Extremism. Ideology. How the Biden-Harris NSF Politicized Science,” is very partisan, which makes the report less persuasive than it otherwise might be. Still, the report identifies and criticizes a growing failure of objectivity by the National Science […]

Editor’s Note: This essay is the second installment of a two-part series. You can read Part 1 here. Yesterday’s assessment of Jay Bhattacharya’s appointment as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) was written before I had seen two excellent weekend Wall Street Journal stories on the Trump appointee. In a news story by Liz […]

Research misconduct scandal after research misconduct scandal has surfaced in the science world as of late. Between neuroscientist and National Institute of Health (NIH) officer Eliezer Masliah, who Minding the Campus contributor David Randall reported on in late September, and superconductivity physicist Ranga Dias, whom I reported on, news of scientific misconduct has become increasingly […]

Editor’s Note: This essay is the first installment of a two-part series. You can read Part 2 here. Probably the most important federal funder of traditional advanced research is the National Institutes of Health (NIH). President-Elect Trump has appointed a remarkable man to head that key branch of the federal government, Jay Bhattacharya, M.D., and Ph.D. […]

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Judith Curry on November 13, 2024. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission. On the 12th of November, the Hague Court of Appeal ruled in the “climate case of the century” that Milieudefensie (“FoE”) filed against Shell in 2019. FoE demands […]

Research misconduct. It is defined by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as “fabricating, falsifying, and/or plagiarizing in proposing, performing, or reviewing research, or in reporting research results.”[1] It is deplorable and shameful behavior, grounds for serious disciplinary action. And it is alarmingly on the rise in the science world. In mid-September, science journalism was […]

For a time, I worked at a South African university, where my department still upheld the civilized practice of morning tea. One morning, I happened to arrive a few minutes late but found an open seat at a table just as a senior professor was opining—in very orotund tones, naturally—to some Honours students, “Wouldn’t it […]

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by RealClear Science on November 4, 2024. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission. The latest research fraud scandal concerns one Eliezer Masliah. He’s one of the world’s leading researchers into Alzheimer’s and it looks as if he fabricated a good deal of his data. […]

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by the American Postliberal on October 23, 2024. With edits to match Minding the Campus’s style guidelines, it is crossposted here with permission. In the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene and Milton progressives have jumped on the climate change rhetoric to explain the disaster. Nowhere do they mention the draining of […]

Editor’s Note: The following is a short excerpt from an article originally published on the author’s Substack Purpose and Desire on October 16, 2024. With edits to fit MTC’s style, it is crossposted here with permission. I have a recent publication in Minding the Sciences concerning the “irreproducibility crisis”—also variously named the “replication crisis” or “reproducibility crisis.” The crisis, […]

Science has a trustworthiness problem. Public trust in science, scientists, and in the worthiness of scientific research for society, has been on a steady decline since 2019, according to Pew Research Center. To be frank, “science” is lucky its trustworthiness problem is not worse, because the public has long been unaware just how deep the […]

Editor’s Note: This essay is a condensed version of the author’s previous piece for Minding the Sciences, titled “The Evolution of Intelligent Design Theory.” You can read the full-length version here. Headlines occasionally flash across the start page of my Microsoft browser’s newsfeed that feature articles about Darwinian evolution or the supposed chemical origin of […]

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on the author’s Substack, Science Is Not The Answer, on September 10, 2024 and is crossposted here with permission. One reason there is so much Bad Science, as I have said many times, is that there is too much science. Rather, too much activity in the name of science. […]

Another day, another science scandal. Recently, we learned that leading Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease researcher Eliezer Masliah is seriously suspected of research misconduct. A Science investigation has now found that scores of Masliah’s] lab studies at UCSD and NIA are riddled with apparently falsified Western blots—images used to show the presence of proteins—and micrographs of brain […]

This past year, I have seen headlines flash across the start page of my Microsoft browser’s newsfeed that featured articles about the supposed chemical origin of life. Was it the result of aliens seeding our planet billions of years ago—a theory called Panspermia? Or an asteroid bombardment with trace amino acids and nucleic acids, the […]

A prime piece of scientific research intended to ameliorate the irreproducibility crisis has itself been withdrawn for failing to adhere to proper reproducibility standards. One of the prime directives of reproducibility reformers is to preregister your research—say in advance what you intend to do and how you will do it—so we know you didn’t repurpose […]

Editor’s Note: The following is a short excerpt from an article originally published on the Substack Heterodox Stem on September 1, 2024. With edits to fit MTC’s style, it is crossposted here with permission. Is the tide turning against the woke mind-virus? There are hopeful signs for sure, as universities and companies are beginning to eliminate mandatory diversity statements, or are gutting […]

Last month, California assemblyman James C. Ramos started a state legislative meeting with a prayer; it was appropriate for a meeting that would end with the funeral of anthropology in California. The California legislators met with tribal leaders and California State University (CSU) and University of California (UC) officials to review the progress California’s public universities are […]

Editor’s Note: The following is a short excerpt from an article originally published on the author’s Substack Purpose and Desire on August 21, 2024. With edits to fit MTC’s style, it is crossposted here with permission. Jennifer Hernandez has a useful piece in a recent City Journal, about how the Green New Deal is actually harmful to the poor. Well, […]

Editor’s Note: The following is a short excerpt from an article originally published by James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal on September 4, 2024. With edits to fit MTC’s style, it is crossposted here with permission. For decades, aspiring college students have had to submit with their applications scores from standardized tests, such as the SAT […]

Editor’s Note: The following is a brief excerpt from the author’s in-depth essay, “Using the Cultural Mandate of Genesis 1:28 and the Ten Commandments as the Foundation for a Christian Ethic of Earth Stewardship,” originally published by the Cornwall Alliance on November 7, 2023. Shared here with permission. Introduction As recently as the 2018 Gallup […]

A new academic year is upon us. With that, new faculty and graduate students will be delving into research applications, especially through the largest higher education funder of scientific research: the National Science Foundation (NSF). This year, those applying for research funds will have to consider whether their projects “may impact tribal resources or interests,” […]

During a discussion about whether government funding of academic science was a good idea, I argued that it was a net negative—a prominent physicist once told me that there was no particle physics before World War II. I remember thinking to myself: “Who’s going to tell him? No particle physics? Maxwell? Planck? Rutherford? Einstein?” My […]

In the last year, there has been a rapid increase in actions that involve removing human remains and photographs of human remains from anthropology and archaeology classrooms, conference halls, publications, and museums, including the American Museum of Natural History, the Penn Museum, and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. These museums and many others around […]

The Wall Street Journal cries alarum: “Flood of Fake Science Forces Multiple Journal Closures.” Dozens of scientific journals have become paper mills—homes for rings of pseudo-academics to cite one another, review another, and puff up their publications with bogus research to secure the rewards of academic employment. After it bought its Egyptian rival Hindawi, academic […]

Fraud was uncovered last week at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, the world’s biggest science fair, put on by the non-profit group Society for Science. The 17-year-old winner beat out nearly 1,700 competitors to take home a $50,000 cash prize, along with an additional $5,000 bonus, the hopeful start of an impressive science […]

On April 19, the “New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness” was announced to some fanfare. Mark your calendars because the Declaration was hailed as a momentous change in our thinking about animals. Science says so! Forty scientists signed the Declaration! More scientists’ signatures are coming in! NBC News and MSN, among other media, are breathless […]

The era of Big Science began formally in 1950, when the National Science Foundation opened its doors. Its mission was to fulfill a hopeful promise: for government to fund the very best academic science, to explore science’s “endless frontier,” in the inspiring words of Vannevar Bush, President Roosevelt’s—and subsequently President Truman’s— science czar. There was […]

Wicked problems need wicked science to, minimally, frame what is puzzling. Wickedness is not a moral judgment. Instead, it is tied to the limits of knowing—when rationality is encumbered by ambiguity and uncertainty and when control over the variables is limited or currently impossible. Predictions that emerge from modeling, especially those that reach decades into […]

It is not news that the Lancet is politicized. The once-respected journal, the gold standard for medical research publication, has been hawking radical left policy in the guise of “medical policy” for a generation and more. America’s medical establishment may never be quite as radical as the Lancet, but it usually adopts Lancet’s positions with […]

Scientists are figuring out how to make scientific research more reliable. The federal government should take what they’ve learned and make it mandatory. Since 2018, the National Association of Scholars (NAS) has been beating the drum about the irreproducibility crisis. That’s the failure of an enormous amount of modern scientific research to meet an elementary […]

This is the second of a series of articles exploring the scientific deep state. Here, Dr. J Scott Turner will explore basic questions, including how many scientists are employed by the federal government, where they work, what they do, and what are their qualifications? Articles to come will present case studies of how the scientific […]

This is the first of a series of articles exploring the scientific deep state. Here, Dr. J Scott Turner will explore basic questions, including how many scientists are employed by the federal government, where they work, what they do, and what are their qualifications? Articles to come will present case studies of how the scientific […]

On October 10, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom—whose Democratic party claims to be the party of science and science education—signed two anti-science education bills (AB226 and AB389) into law. These bills require the University of California and the California State University systems to bar the use of skeletal collections that cannot be affiliated with any […]

  Remember those pathetic photographs of polar bears standing on tiny ice floes, scanning the horizon for the tasty seals that were no longer there? Those viral photos of an emaciated polar bear, starving because its prey has disappeared along with the sea ice that has melted away due to climate change? The very same […]

When James Taranto edited the Best of the Web Today feature on the Wall Street Journal Opinion page, there was a recurring trope: “Everything seemingly is spinning out of control.” This featured hysterical reactions to ordinary things, such as a new Heinz ketchup recipe “shaking up” fans of the condiment. It seems now that we […]

Over the past three years, the general public has been inundated with appeals to “Trust the science.” In spite of this, many have grown increasingly distrustful of both science and scientists. It is the height of hypocrisy to expect people to put their blind faith in scientific authority—for that is what “trust the science” amounts […]

In July, I attended the 41st Annual Meeting of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness (DDP) in Tucson, Arizona. The meeting opened with the national anthem played beautifully on the trumpet and the violin by the teenage sons (Benjamin and Franklin!) of Willie Soon, the first speaker. DDP was founded in the early 1980s as a “group […]

At long last, some state legislatures have begun reacting to the “wokeness” epidemic that has consumed both K-12 and higher education. Unfortunately, many of these bills are likely doomed to accomplish little or nothing because they fail to address an essential issue: enforcement. Particularly in the context of public universities, expecting state employees to simply […]

Affirmative-action peer review The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has supported extramural biomedical research since the end of WWII. This year, the program spent close to $40 billion. The basic concept is simple. Write down what you, the scientist, want to do and why; estimate how much it will cost each year; and send the […]

Why do we feel lied to when we are admonished to “Follow the Science”? Is it because “the Science” is herding us to energy suicide? For our own good, of course. Is it because “the Science” insists that the distinction between men and women is illusory, and enthusiastically backs up the delusion with stunning non […]

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine forget … Science In July 2020, just two months after the killing of George Floyd, chairwoman of the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, 84-year-old civil-rights pioneer Eddie Bernice Johnson, asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) [T]o take action on research […]

Editor’s Note: This piece is part of a new Minding the Campus article series called Minding the Sciences, wherein we are renewing our focus on the sciences given the many threats it faces in modern academia. Click here to learn more. In April, David Muir of ABC News broadcast a special report from South Sudan, […]

Editor’s Note: This piece is part of a new Minding the Campus article series called Minding the Sciences, wherein we are renewing our focus on the sciences given the many threats it faces in modern academia. Click here to learn more. Sixty years ago, Rachel Carson warned of a “silent spring” to come. Presently, here […]

Editor’s Note: This piece is part of a new Minding the Campus article series called Minding the Sciences, wherein we are renewing our focus on the sciences given the many threats it faces in modern academia. Click here to learn more. A dozen years ago, National Association of Scholars President Peter Wood posed the provocative […]

Editor’s Note: This piece is part of a new Minding the Campus article series called Minding the Sciences, wherein we are renewing our focus on the sciences given the many threats it faces in modern academia. Click here to learn more. In late April 2023, twenty-nine scientists published a manifesto titled “In Defense of Merit […]