Category Archives: Science

“THE DEB WHO SANK THE BISMARCK”.

Posted on June 6, 2016 by Philip

“THE DEB WHO SANK THE BISMARCK”. The Economist (June 4 to 10) has an obituary for Jane Fawcett (nee Janet Caroline Hughes), the person who received the message which told where the Bismarck was going to be, leading to the … Continue reading →

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THE PROBLEM OF MIXED DNA.

Posted on May 28, 2016 by Philip

THE PROBLEM OF MIXED DNA. The two types of problems with DNA that I described in the last two posts are similar to problems with other kinds of forensic evidence. First, keeping a chain of evidence and avoiding contamination are … Continue reading →

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THE PROBLEM WITH “TOUCH DNA”.

Posted on May 27, 2016 by Philip

THE PROBLEM WITH “TOUCH DNA”. Both Shaer and Andrey Smith tell the story of the “perfect alibi” that I posted on here. (a man who was in police custody at the time of a murder was accused of the crime … Continue reading →

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THE UNCERTAINTIES OF DNA EVIDENCE.

Posted on May 26, 2016 by Philip

THE UNCERTAINTIES OF DNA EVIDENCE. Matthew Shaer has an article in the Atlantic (June 2016) and Peter Andrey Smith has an article on the Smithsonian site (June 1, 2016) on evidentiary problems with DNA. Some of the mistakes and miscarriages … Continue reading →

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THREE PROBLEMS WITH THE BIG BANG THEORY.

Posted on May 15, 2016 by Philip

THREE PROBLEMS WITH THE BIG BANG THEORY. Ross Pomeroy’s review is entitled “Three Problems with the Big Bang”. The first two problems could as well be described as two anomalies that the Big Bang theory cannot account for, rather than … Continue reading →

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SUMMARIZING WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE BIG BANG.

Posted on May 14, 2016 by Philip

SUMMARIZING WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE BIG BANG. Ross Pomeroy summarizes the astounding facts that we know about the Big Bang. Again, I have rearranged the quote to demonstrate the detail with which we know what happened 13.8 billion years … Continue reading →

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SUMMARIZING EVIDENCE FOR THE BIG BANG.

Posted on May 13, 2016 by Philip

SUMMARIZING EVIDENCE FOR THE BIG BANG. This review by Ross Pomeroy on the NewtonBlog describes three problems that the Big Bang theory can’t explain. Pomeroy begins by summarizing the evidence for the Big Bang. (I began this blog with this … Continue reading →

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THE FIRST PAPER BASED ON DOMINANT WRITING CONTRIBUTIONS BY NON-EXPERT CITIZEN SCIENTISTS.

Posted on May 6, 2016 by Philip

THE FIRST PAPER BASED ON DOMINANT WRITING CONTRIBUTIONS BY NON-EXPERT CITIZEN SCIENTISTS. Here is an article by John Bohannon about “the first paper based on dominant writing contributions—and co-lead authorship—by non-expert citizen scientists recruited through a video game.” The paper … Continue reading →

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UPDATE ON COMPUTER GAMES AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH.

Posted on May 5, 2016 by Philip

UPDATE ON COMPUTER GAMES AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. I posted here in 2010—less than six years ago—about Foldit, a videogame, with 57,000 registered users, in which players scored points by finding chemically stable configurations for chains of protein molecules. Nonscientists playing … Continue reading →

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CAN OUTSIDERS ANALYZE COMPLEX DATA MEDICAL DATASETS?

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Philip

CAN OUTSIDERS ANALYZE COMPLEX DATA MEDICAL DATASETS? Ornstein writes about an interview with the editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine: “The worry he was initially trying to articulate, Drazen said in an interview, is that scientists not involved … Continue reading →

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