Environmental catastrophism
The New Generation Society’s Kennedy Lecture aimed to embrace the kind of challenge that its namesake laid before the world nearly half a century ago. “Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors. Together let us explore the stars,...
Climate science: truth you can wear on your hands
‘We are armed only with peer reviewed science’, declared the banner at the head of the Climate Camp march along the proposed route of the third runway at Heathrow in August. And in one sense they were - literally. The protesters were wearing gloves made from...
Is atheism just another fundamentalism?
Just so you know… I don’t believe in God. And I think science is a Good Thing. Science is one of the many fine products of the Enlightenment. It is the best way of exploring the material Universe we have. And it has transformed human lives for the better. So I am not...
The Royal Society’s ‘motto-morphosis’
Nullius in Verba, the motto of the prestigious Royal Society in London, is usually translated as ‘on the word of no one’. When it was coined back in 1663, it was intended to distance science from the methods of the ancient universities, which relied heavily on the...
Respect the facts
Sir, – “Nullius in Verba”, the motto of the Royal Society, is usually translated as “on the word of no one”. That is a fine motto, the message being that knowledge about the material universe should be based on appeals to experimental evidence rather than authority....
Every silver lining has a cloud
Little is certain in the field of global climate prediction. But one thing is for sure: if all those worst-case scenarios made so much of by environmentalists come true, we really are screwed. So you might expect those same environmentalists to be rather excited by a...
Debunking the debunkers
There should be more to scepticism than angry rants about stupid religious people or New Age mysticism. Responding to the apparent rise and rise of ‘bunk’ - creationism, homeopathy, fad diets and bad science - a new movement of sceptics is mobilising to defend the...
A chilling climate for science
'Art was made to disturb, science reassures.' Like all the best quotes, this one from cubist painter Georges Braque makes you think, but it doesn't quite ring true. Both science and art have the capacity to disturb and reassure. Scientific breakthroughs - like the...