Edward O. Wilson and sociobiology
"He rejected claims for a genetic basis of hierarchy and downplayed IQ, a fetish of the right, as ‘only one subset of … intelligence’. In an interview with the New York Times, he explained, ‘I see maybe 10 percent of human behaviour as genetic and 90 percent environmental’. "
"Wilson wrote copiously and passionately on the threat of extinction caused by the destruction of ecosystems, including a stint editing the journal BioDiversity in 1988. Against ‘spurious’ claims that humanity was merely acting as another ‘Darwinian agent’ by causing species’ extinction, he noted that the ‘rate of extinction is now about 400 times that recorded through recent geological time and is accelerating rapidly’."
The now retracted paper halted hydroxychloroquine trials. Studies like this determine how people live or die tomorrow
The Lancet has made one of the biggest retractions in modern history. How could this happen?
by Dr James Heathers
This article is mostly abt possible flaws in peer review. The article is an apology for the Lancet's mistake in publishing bad science
Nature December 13, 2021. Delhi court will scrutinize whether the pirate paper website falls foul of India’s copyright law. The verdict could have implications for academic publishers further afield. Delhi court will scrutinize whether the pirate paper website falls foul of India’s copyright law. The verdict could have implications for academic publishers further afield.
By Hannah Rundle, Scientific American October 12, 2019
People who live off the land depend on keeping ecosystems intact, and scientists are tapping into their unique expertise
According to Karl Popper, widely regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of science in
the 20th century, falsifiability is the primary characteristic that distinguishes scientific
theories from ideologies – or dogma. For example, for people who argue that schools
should treat creationism as a scientific theory, comparable to modern theories of evolution,
advocates of creationism would need to become engaged in the generation of falsifiable
hypothesis, and would need to abandon the practice of discouraging questioning and
inquiry. Ironically, scientific theories themselves are accepted or rejected based on a
principle that might be called survival of the fittest. So, for healthy theories on
development to occur, four Darwinian functions should function: (a) variation – avoid
orthodoxy and encourage divergent thinking, (b) selection – submit all assumptions and
innovations to rigorous testing, (c) diffusion – encourage the shareability of new and/or
viable ways of thinking, and (d) accumulation – encourage the reuseability of viable
aspects of productive innovations
S. Vahdati, N. Arndt, S. Auer, and C. Lange. Proceedings of 20th International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management (EKAW'2016)
, 10024, Heidelberg, Springer Verlag, (November 2016)