Science & Society

The monthly book club here at Adaptive Complexity has been on hiatus for the summer, and its revival is long overdue. Join me here on the second Sunday of each month to discuss a great (hopefully)…

What is it about technology that makes people so optimistic?  Despite the claims of technological progress it seems that no one considers technological transitions and the impact of failures.…

I'm in that awkward lull between proposals and actual cash in hand.  I call it freelancer hell.  But since I'm thinking about money, time for a look at how to fund success. My own success…

If I could do it all over again, I would forget genomics and specialize in the chemistry of Scotch. You may scoff, dear reader, but there are employment opportunities out there (not to mention…

In case you haven't heard, there's a debate about health care reform going on - today we find out that a campaign promise, no fines if you choose not to use government health care, is off the table…

One of the biggest concerns about president Obama's government health insurance plan is that both quality and waiting lists will suffer in return for broader access.    It turns out…

There is little doubt that, in modern times, scientific knowledge is at a peak from any other period in human history.   However, there are also other factors that need to be considered. …

I ran into an interesting linguistic stumbling block.  I'll call it the "It's science, so it must be hard" frame of mind.  I wrote to some friends and family about this project, saying: I'm…

The 2009 movie District 9 is a metaphor for what might be an evolved version of the world federalist government we have today.  Some time before the 1990s, conflicts were mainly fought between…

A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in citizen science was certainly not on the minds of 6-year-old Alyson Yates and her mom, Kate, when they stepped out into their back yard one day to scout for…