Minding the Sciences

Admit it: science has gone woke. What once seemed like an ideological virus confined to the arts and humanities has now infiltrated every corner of academia, including the STEMM fields. That’s why Minding the Campus is doubling down on our scrutiny of the sciences with this series, “Minding the Sciences.” In this ongoing series, we delve into topics like wokeism in STEMM, scientific ethics, research funding, climate science, scientific organizations, and much more.


 

Proposed Scientist Law: Do Good Work Or No Money

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. […]

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Eliezer Masliah’s Misconduct Exposes a Crisis in Scientific Integrity

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 […]

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The Evolution of Intelligent Design Theory

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 […]

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When Reproducibility Reformers Fail Their Own Test

A prime piece of scientific research intended to ameliorate the irreproducibility crisis has itself been withdrawn for failing to adhere to proper reproducibility standards.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 […]

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Botanical Backlash: The Controversy Over “Woke” Taxonomy and Historical Nomenclature

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 […]

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California Legislative Meeting Starts with Prayer, Ends with Burying Science

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 […]

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Climate Reactionaries and Green Colonialism

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, […]

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Restore the Science Section

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 […]

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Beyond Alarmism: A Christian Ethic of Earth Stewardship

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 […]

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Weiss: National Science Foundation’s New Mandate Will Censor Researchers

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,” […]

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To Rescue Science, We Must Turn Off the Funding Spigot

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 […]

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Deboning Anthropological Science: A Boneheaded Decision

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 […]

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Cut Government Funding of Scientific Research

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 […]

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Fake It: The Surefire Way to Win at Science Fairs

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 […]

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Animal Consciousness: The Latest ‘Science’ Magic Show

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 […]

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Minding the Sciences—Science’s Goose is Cooked: Seven Pillars of Folly

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 […]

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Minding the Sciences—Wicked Science and Understanding Climate Change: Uncertainty, Risk, and Pragmatics

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 […]

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Minding the Sciences—Lancet’s Radical Shift: A Call to Reform Medical Ethics

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 […]

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Minding the Sciences—The Case for Federal Mandates on Hypothesis Preregistration

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 […]

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Minding the Sciences — The Scientific Deep State: The National Institute of Standards and Technology

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 […]

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Minding the Sciences — The Scientific Deep State: What Is It and How Big?

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 […]

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Minding the Sciences — California Buries Science

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 […]

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Minding the Sciences — Smarter Than Your Average Bears

  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 […]

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Minding the Sciences — Spinning Out of Control

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 […]

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Minding the Sciences — Rebuilding the Public’s Trust in Science

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 […]

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Minding the Sciences — At DDP, Innovation Trumps Environmentalism

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 […]

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DEI Laws Are Meaningless Without Enforcement

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 […]

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Minding the Sciences — DEI Takes the NIH

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 […]

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Minding the Sciences — What Is Science?

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 […]

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Minding the Sciences — Death of a Science Academy

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 […]

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