Episode #516
News Items
Who's That Noisy
- Answer to last week:
Interview with Paul Braterman
- I am a retired chemistry professor, now science writer, in Glasgow, committee member of British Centre for Science Education, heavily involved in promoting and defending science, in Skeptics and Humanists, regular contributor to 21st Floor, to Panda’s Thumb a couple of times, to BCSE’s analyses of creationist activity in the UK, and, on a variety of topics, as a result of contacts I made while working in the US, to the New Mexico Committee for excellence in science education house organ, the Beacon. My formal networks: British Centre for Science Education (BCSE), http://www.bcseweb.org.uk/ [a small group doing much the same work as our friends, NCSE, whom you mention, are doing in the US; we got Sue Blackmore to sign the CrISIS campaign letter to the Education Secretary], Glasgow Brights, New Mexicans for Science and Reason, Oxford University. From NCSE: http://ncse.com/news/2015/05/update-from-scotland-0016382 https://www.scottishsecularsociety.com/creationism-in-scottish-schools-the-scottish-secular-society-won/
Science or Fiction
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Item #1
Science
Biologists have engineered double-helix DNA that has six instead of four nucleotides. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150527113101.htm
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Item #2
Science
Recent research suggests that infants are able to understand abstract relationships even before they develop language. http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2015/05/babies-can-think-before-they-can-speak.html
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Item #3
Fiction
Italian physicists have announced the discovery of the Majoranon, the first elementary particle that is its own antiparticle. http://arxiv.org/abs/1404.5444
Skeptical Quote of the Week.
‘Science is not a boy’s game, it’s not a girl’s game. It’s everyone’s game. It’s about where we are and where we’re going. Space travel benefits us here on Earth. And we ain’t stopped yet. There’s more exploration to come.’ – Nichelle Nichols