Democratising science and increasing public access, with the Collaborative...
In today’s information-driven world, where misinformation is widespread, it is crucial to cultivate critical thinking skills and approach claims with skepticism. However, scientific research, one of...
View Article“What Nonsense!”– unpacking popular pseudosciences for a Brazilian audience
Over the past week, both the print and digital editions of the third book that I’ve co-authored with Natalia Pasternak have been released. This marks five years since our lives intersected, and this...
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The top 10 most infuriating climate change memes, and how to debunk them
As the real-world effects of climate change become more and more (and more and more) apparent, some people seem persistently determined to listen to the gotcha images that clutter up their social...
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Headlines about “talking” fungi raise the question: Do we really discover...
Humanity has for a long time been fascinated by the question: “Is there language out there?” It is one of the most intriguing questions, along with “Is there life out there?”. Learning the animal...
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Not right about nitrites? Mouse study provokes media scaremongering over...
As anyone who has been watching the news will have realised, for a lot of pupils, it hasn’t been the smoothest start to the new school year. Yet, crumbling classrooms and failing concrete aren’t the...
View ArticleThe power of placebo-controls has little to do with the placebo-effect
“I’m addicted to placebos. I could quit, but it wouldn’t matter.” – Steven Wright Placebo controls are a mainstay of clinical research in medicine. They are one of the gold standard features of the...
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The recent Glasgow Low Emission Zone protest turned out to be more of a ‘low...
“THE WHITE RACE IS BEING REPLACED! WE ARE BEING REPLACED!” These were the first words I heard on Saturday 30th September 2023 as I wandered into Glasgow’s George Square. They were being launched into...
View ArticleGreenwashing: The dark side of the sustainable fashion industry
The green movement is flourishing as more and more brands adopt the sustainable fashion trend. Some are genuinely reinventing themselves to become sustainable, whereas others appeal to customers as...
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How do we know what we know? The question that untangles Magisteria’s science...
‘Magisteria: The Entangled Histories of Science and Religion’ is a thoroughly engaging and detailed account of the backstories to the big debates between science and religion over the past five...
View ArticleThe radicalisation of “Joan”: a true-life account of one colleague’s slide...
I knew it was time to leave, when I heard her say “Hitler was just misunderstood, that’s all. He was actually a hero if you think about it. The only reason the war happened was because the Jews...
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Five persistent myths about caring for houseplants, and why they’re wrong
At the start of the pandemic – when I was told to work from home instead of going to the lab where I worked every day – I found myself getting demotivated. Understandable really; it was a big...
View ArticleGiven climate change and energy insecurity, we need to tackle public fear of...
Last year, a small majority in Japan supported restarting idled nuclear reactors for the first time since the Fukushima catastrophe, according to a poll in the country’s top business newspaper, the...
View ArticleA brief history of radio-phobia: new technology is always met with fear and...
In September 2019, I and few colleagues from Edinburgh Skeptics attended a lecture given by Ian M. Crane in a city centre hotel. Crane – who sadly died in early 2021 – gave a talk about the dangers of...
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How to spot and avoid greenwashing and misleading eco claims
After ordering a ‘vegan’ leather bag online, I sleep soundly with a sense of pride. It’s because I feel like a wise and conscientious consumer who has chosen an eco-friendly product, instead of buying...
View Article“It’s in our DNA”: the clichés that confuse the public about genetics and...
Linguistic prejudice is an ugly thing, but I have to confess that every time I hear someone (whether it’s a person or a legal entity) use the cliché “<such and such a quality> is in our DNA“, I...
View ArticleCould ASMR be a possible explanation for some new age and spiritual experiences?
Anyone who uses YouTube will likely have come across clips of hyperattentive whisperers who seem to be attempting to beguile the viewer. Most of us probably know that these are ASMR (“autonomous...
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Electronic advertising is a climate crime that makes our public spaces more...
In recent years, Euston Station – one of London’s biggest and busiest train stations – has changed a bit. It used to be the case that train and platform information was displayed on a giant bank of...
View ArticleDoes a prohibition-based approach to drugs and disposable vaping make sense?
It’s easy to get the impression that the government acts swiftly to ban any substance primarily enjoyed by young people. Nitrous Oxide recently joined this list, along with freshly picked ‘magic’...
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Did we really discover pain in insects? Maybe… but we can’t be sure they feel...
Every time you burn your fingers with a hot teapot, your spinal cord rapidly withdraws your hand before you can understand what was the matter – and before you experience an emotionally loaded,...
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“Big Pharma” has its flaws, but like all industries, it’s made up of people –...
Negative feelings about “Big Pharma” have inundated our popular media. The pandemic and its associated medical misinformation, the controversies surrounding “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli and the Sackler...
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