Monthly Archives: April 2017

The other day an alert LOTRW reader (thank you!) passed along this link to an April 26 post by Brad Plumer on Vox. In this article, entitled A Cold War theory for why scientists and the government have become so … Continue reading →

“Scientists are a community of scholars engaged in a common search for knowledge.” – line (as I recall it) from my ninth-grade science textbook[1] Yesterday had a lot of moving parts around our household, but a time window between noon … Continue reading →

… one last, brief set of thoughts for scientists on the eve of tomorrow’s March for Science and Earth Day. This post is triggered by an article by Tim Requarth in Slate (a tip of the hat to Fred Carr, … Continue reading →

Air pollution? An unintended consequence of population growth and economic success, contamination of U.S. air (as well as water and soils) was becoming daily more evident throughout the 1960’s. The establishment of NOAA and EPA in 1970 by President Nixon … Continue reading →

(Physicist Tom McLeish’s quote and eleven others in a similar vein can be found on that well-known religious website – where else? – BuzzFeed.) “…The best defense of science is pointing out all the positives we’ve accomplished…” –John Plodinec (In … Continue reading →

Earth Day and the March for Science are coming up. The mood of both is somber, a bit defensive. From the Earth Day website: Earth Day 2017’s Campaign is Environmental & Climate Literacy. Education is the foundation for progress. We … Continue reading →

America and Americans are today blessed with the world’s largest and strongest economy. Suppose you wanted to put that economy and that world standing at risk? How would you go about it? Some argue that’s exactly what China is attempting … Continue reading →

Last week saw two major events in the United States. The first, the historic encounter between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, was duly accompanied by pomp and by breathless, nonstop media attention. Meanwhile, under the media radar, … Continue reading →

This weekend, both the Washington Post and the New York Times carried op-eds on the new administration’s attempts to turn back the clock on climate change policy. Both articles suggested such efforts will fail, for a variety of reasons: Writing … Continue reading →