Alarming rates of depression and anxiety in college students are drawing headlines. A recent study reports that 41% of college students show symptoms of depression, and nearly three-fourths have experienced … Continue reading “Why Johnny Can’t Relax”
Holden Thorp is a very clever fellow. With a PhD in chemistry from Caltech and after some business ventures and a spell teaching at the University of North Carolina at … Continue reading “Science Needs Honesty, Not Affirmative Action”
I recently submitted a manuscript to an education journal, a review essay of another scholar’s work. It opened with a compliment of the author’s “highly-praised and influential work.” To that … Continue reading “Peer Review, a Tarnished “Gold Standard””
(Editor’s note: this article was updated on August 25, 2021, to provide additional information and clarification about the microaggressions research done by Monnica Williams, Ph.D.) The need to combat “microaggressions” … Continue reading “How ‘Experts’ Abused Science to Saddle America with the Microaggression Mania”
“Woke” academics have taken to attacking almost everything that’s traditional in our culture. Math and science are denounced for their “whiteness,” and Shakespeare has to be replaced by writers from … Continue reading “Higher Education Takes Aim at ‘Colonialist’ Music”
In an essay in the liberal UK broadsheet The Guardian, multiple authors chart out the most important task for the incoming Biden administration: to “restore the faith in science.” “Joe … Continue reading “Who Is Responsible for the Loss of Faith in Science?”
“The United States is producing more research scientists than academia can handle,” so begins a July 2016 article by respected New York Times science reporter Gina Kolata. It turns out … Continue reading “Science and Its Discontents: Too Few Jobs—or Too Many Scientists?”
If you’ve spent much time on a college campus you’ve probably heard the claim that conservatives are anti-science. If you’re a liberal who doesn’t interact with many conservatives, you might … Continue reading “Tribal Politics Is Turning Us Against Each Other—and Science”
The scientific process is broken. The tenure process, “publish or perish” mentality, and the insufficient review process of academic journals mean that researchers spend less time solving important puzzles and more time pursuing publication. But that wasn’t always the case.
About to retire, Oklahoma senator Tom Coburn, M.D., has just released his 107-page 2014 Wastebook, a tabloid-type listing of over a hundred wasteful government-funded projects. Coburn continues the tradition of the late William Proxmire, the Wisconsin senator who, more modestly, chose just one or two “Golden Fleeces” each year.