Scientists Against Science Denialism and Pseudoscience

Orac Respectful Insolence
It’s not enough to know the science (or history). You have to know the pseudoscience (or pseudohistory) inside and out. You have to know how science has been twisted, the studies that pseudoscientists will reference, and how they will misrepresent them. It takes a special skill set to combat pseudoscience and science denialism, and few academics have it.

Friday Nite Videos -- December 16, 2016

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Daryl Davis, Race & America | Movie Trailer. Everybody Knows | Leonard Cohen. ¡Cuba! Exhibition Now Open. The Brilliant Life of Ada Lovelace #OrdinaryWomen. My President Was Black.

¡Cuba! Exhibition Now Open

Its complex politics and vibrant music have attracted the attention of the world. But Cuba, the largest island nation in the Caribbean, is also home to the unexpected. It’s a place of stunning contrasts: mysterious caves and bright boulevards, sweltering fields and cool forests, hard challenges and high energy.

Scientists Prepare to Fight for Their Work During ‘the Trumpocene’

Sarah Kaplan The Washington Post
At a conference of 20,000 scientists, the echoed a worry is echoed again and again: Will Trump, who has made statements on climate change and vaccines that contradict the overwhelming scientific evidence, be not just anti-climate, but “anti-science”?

Friday Nite Videos -- December 9, 2016

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Fake News, Real Consequences. Get Up Stand Up | Playing For Change. False Claims and Foreign Policy: A Closer Look. Dinosaur's Feathered Tail Found Remarkably Preserved in Amber. Water Protectors React to Standing Rock Victory.

Dinosaur's Feathered Tail Found Remarkably Preserved in Amber

An extraordinarily well-preserved dinosaur tail, with a fluffy covering of feathers, has been trapped in a piece of amber for 99 million years. Researchers from China and Canada identify it as a juvenile of some type of coelurosaur, a birdlike dinosaur that walked on two legs. 

A Conductor of Evolution’s Subtle Symphony

Stephanie Bucklin Quanta Magazine
At first, the biologist Richard Lenski thought his long-term experiment on evolution might last for 2,000 generations. Nearly three decades and over 65,000 generations later, he’s still amazed by evolution’s “awesome inventiveness.”
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