Synthetic Biology

Science reporting is hard, and mistakes can be made. But I never expected the BBC could cover a subject this badly.

Back in March, David Shukman (BBC Science Editor) published a short report on synthetic biology. The reports cast a shadow on the hard work of scientists and implies that synthetic biology is not accepted my the main stream scientific community.

Original video (BBC news at 10 on 28/3/12 15mins in)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDGbTxZzr9w
BBC Complaints
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/
Synthetic Biology Explained
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD5uNAMbDaQ
Stab-Bot 5000
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=850E10G87lY

Anti-Bullying Speaker Curses Christian Teens. Or Maybe not.

Through the years I’ve learned to keep an eye on people with different viewpoints. For one it exposes me to new ideas and challenges my own ideas and what I base them on. When done right this can create an interesting exchange of ideas.

But sometimes, like with what I saw in my twitter feed this morning, it makes me cock an eyebrow and wonder what really happened (retweeted by Steven Crowder):

Anti-Bullying Speaker Curses, Mocks Christian Teens | FOX News & Commentary: Todd Starnes http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/anti-bullying-speaker-curses-mocks-christian-teens.html via @toddstarnes

Is the Christian God A Maniac?

The following blog post was written by my friend CSBair on his blog. I’ve reposted it here, with permission, to highlight one of the issues I have with certain claims surrounding the Christian god.

For those who argue that the Christian god is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent, then it stands to reason:

1. This god created everything
2. Therefore, this god created the tree with the forbidden fruit, and the fruit itself.
3. This god knew that creating this would allow mankind to fall from its grace
4. This god could foresee this event.
5. This god then punished its own creation for doing what it knew would happen based on its own work.
6. This god would then constantly destroy its creation because they did exactly what it knew they would do.
7. It stands to reason, then, that arguments of the Christian god being omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent mean that the Christian god is a sadistic, deranged maniac.

However, if this god could not know the events after the choice of whether to eat the fruit, then this god is not omniscient.

If this could not remove the tree, knowing what would transpire, then it is not omnipotent.

And if this god could not prevent the eating of the fruit, then it is not omnipresent.

One cannot make contradictory explanations to justify the act with the attribute, and still argue that such a god is just and loving. It’s illogical.

Anti-evolution And Anti-climate Science Bills Laid Bare

Before I became active on YouTube I wasn’t aware of the NCSE, but I’ve become a big supporter of this organisation in the past few years, as they provide a very valuable service:

NCSE is a not-for-profit membership organization that defends the teaching of evolution and climate change in the public schools. NCSE provides information, resources, and advice to schools, teachers, parents, and concerned citizens defending science education.

And one of their activities are presentations about these issues. Of which the following video is a good example. It is a long video but well worth the time as it provides some insight in the language used and positions held by creationists. Especially in the context of laws they are attempting to pass to enable the teaching of it in schools:

Policy director Steve Newton dissects the recently passed Tennessee “monkey bill”, its cohorts, and the chilling effects on American science education. When: 4/15/2012. Where: Berkeley Public Library

Update 25 April 2012:

The Q&A section for this talk is now available.

Weird Winter – Mad March

Yet again two great videos from Peter Sinclair (Greenman3610) on the subject of climate change. This time he tackles the weather extremes we’ve seen the past few years. And gives scientists a chance to explain what is causing this, how it relates to global warming (and where not) and what this might mean for the future.

This extraordinary mild winter in north america, followed by an unprecedentedly warm march, has shocked a lot of people who formerly dismissed the reality of climate change.
In addition, several years of violent tornado seasons have many asking if we are entering a “new Normal” in regard to our seasons.
For this two part series, I interviewed a number of climate scientists and experts from around the country, and found some surprising answers.