Category Archives: AntiScience

Panspermia – rocking perception or probable phenomena? Recent evidence for meteorite microfossils

Just last month, 2010. 5th floor of a gray building so nondescript that half the people showed up late. Richard B. Hoover, Astrobiology Group Leader at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama has something he wants us all to see. I look across the table to see all eyes patiently waiting for his powerpoint images. [...]
Also posted in Astrobiology, Microbiology | 1 Comment

Rime of the Pleistocene Mariner (and Other Oddities in Cognitive Evolution)

The patterns of social behavior are predicated upon biological patterns which are themselves driven by environmental and physical patterns. Sometimes though, Nature throws us for a loop and things are discovered which seem to defy our perceptions of evolution.  Examples of ideas, organisms and phenomena that stand out as temporal oddities are all around us. Many [...]
Also posted in Cognitive Evolution | 1 Comment

Early Study Linking Vaccines to Autism Officially Retracted

The Lancet, one of the world’s leading medical journals, retracted a study on February 2nd that linked autism to vaccinations. The study by Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues, originally published in 1998, is titled “Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children.” The study was one of the first scientific publications that spurned [...]
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Surprise! Jenny McCarthy Completely Ignores Scientific Research

I’m sure by now that we’re all aware of the actress and “activist” Jenny McCarthy and her crusade against the medical and biomedical research community. Her unfounded and dangerous belief that vaccines increase the frequency of autism has been making a splash in the easily convinced minds of many parents who are desperate to help [...]
Also posted in Health & Medicine | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Evidence for Environmental and Epigenetic Cause of Autism

A study published a few months ago in the journal NeuroToxicology investigates the non-random variation in prevalence of autism. The study has shown that the highest frequency of autism occurs in areas of the study location (Minnesota) with increased amounts of pollution in the environment, such as mercury and pesticides. The study concludes there is [...]
Also posted in Biology, Genetics | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Discovery Institute’s Embarrassing Diatribe About Darwinism

The Discovery Institute is a dangerous organization to be associated with; not necessarily physically dangerous, but academic careers can spiral to oblivion when members of this Seattle-based Intelligent Design (read: “science needs religion!”) group make statements like the one they did today. This article is title “PBS: Publishing Bad Science” and discusses (with evidence that [...]
Also posted in Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Genomics | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments