A book that criticizes alternative medicine to treat conditions that have names but no criteria is controversial - because it runs up against a supplement and alternative medicine enabled by governments that believe science can't be trusted
Science can't tell us exactly when the rising oceans will swallow up the Maldives, but it can give us a good idea. Credit: Hiroyuki-H, CC BY-SABy Richard Pancost, University of Bristol and Stephan Lewandowsky, University of Bristol
The Slave Trade painted by a French abolitionist artist.By Daina Ramey Berry, University of TexasPeople think they know everything about slavery in the United States, but they don’t. They think the majority of African slaves came to the American colonies, but they didn’t. They talk about 400 hundred years of slavery, but it wasn’t. They claim all Southerners owned slaves, but they didn’t. Some argue it was a long time ago, but it wasn’t.
It's easy to sneer at people for protecting their backyards, but what if there's a compelling reason to do so? Mickey DeRham photos, CC BY-NCBy Naomi Oreskes, Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University.The term NIMBY – “not in my back yard"– has long been used to criticize people who oppose commercial or industrial development in their communities. Invariably pejorative, it casts citizens as selfish individualists who care only for themselves, hypocrites who want the benefits of modernity without paying its costs.
Think twice before you over-react. Image: Jim Bourg/ReutersBy Alfred Hermida, University of British Columbia Whatever you do, don’t turn to Twitter for news about Ebola. The volume and tone of tweets and retweets about the disease will make you wish you were watching the zombie apocalypse of The Walking Dead instead. It is much less scary.
Too much to ask. wavebreakmedia / shutterstockBy James Hayton, University of Warwick
Human volunteers for Ebola vaccine. Image:niaidBy Connor Bamford, University of GlasgowThe world has been warned that the current Ebola epidemic may not end without the use of a vaccine – and no licensed vaccines exist yet. That may soon change, because scientists are making swift progress.
How much more glacial melting can the planet stand? NASABy Micheal Mann, Pennsylvania State University and Lawrence Torcello, Rochester Institute of Technology
Getting high on own supply. Dance by ShutterstockBy Adam Winstock, King's College LondonDespite the language we use about drugs, many people don’t see themselves as “drug users” but as rational adults who aren’t on a mission to seek moral disintegration and cause themselves harm. People who use drugs are just people who happen to use drugs (they might also do yoga, go the cinema, get degrees, litter the streets or be into base-jumping) – normal people who care about their loved ones, their health and well-being and want to make the most of that wonderful thing that we all share: life.
Not enough tobacco company money is going into public health campaigns. Credit: REUTERS/Daniel MunozBy Nicholas Freudenberg, City University of New YorkThe #20 Million Memorial created earlier this month by the United States Centers for Disease Control, is an online tribute to honor the 20 million spouses, mothers, fathers, children, sisters, brothers, and friends who have died of tobacco-related diseases since 1964.
Image: NASABy Monica Grady, The Open University
Image: the conversationBy David Glance, University of Western AustraliaIn 2012, the UK’s Sunday Times reported that actor Bruce Willis was going to sue Apple because he was not legally allowed to bequeath his iTunes collection of music to his children. The story turned out to be false (and shockingly bad journalism) but it did start a conversation about what we can, and can’t, do with our digital possessions.
Credit: mikecogh, CC BY-SABy Suzie Thomas, University of Helsinki
