Science and Technology

Bill Nye is now taking on the grown-ups, challenging climate change deniers, and objecting to the Christian right's encrouchment on science education.
Squaring-off against Creationists, Nye warns that replacing scientific facts with Christian lore in children's education is not just a disservice to those children, but also a threat to America's competitiveness in a world of increasingly sophisticated scientific knowledge.

An intriguing new study released last week in Psychological Science in the Public Interest reveals why people are more apt to believe false information being fed to them by the media and politicians.

At the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado, scientists have modeled what the U.S. would look like in 2050, and they say it’s possible for renewable energy to make up 80 percent of the electricity generated, even with existing technologies.
Whether that comes to pass will depend on the price of technology, transmission capacity and policies and regulations that encourage renewable energy development.

A Virginia judge issued an order today putting an end to the American Tradition Institute (ATI) frivilous lawsuit that sought to compel the University of Virginia (UVA) to release the private emails of climate scientist Michael Mann.

Why has Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE) allowed one of its bloggers, Peter Wood, to smear noted climate scientist Dr. Michael E. Mann? Woods’ latest post, “A Culture of Evasion”, quite inappropriately compares Penn State’s handling of the Jerry Sandusky child rape case with that of its investigation of stolen emails that included messages from Dr. Mann. (Previous posts by Wood also maligning Dr. Mann include “Bottling Up Global Warming Skepticism” and “Climate Thuggery”.) Multiple international investigations, including one from the National Science Foundation, have carefully reviewed Dr. Mann’s email messages and have found no misconduct whatsoever. (For more on these investigations see http://bit.ly/hxdKKJ)

Unless you've had your head buried in the mantle of the Earth this week, you probably heard what Missouri Congressman Todd Akin said about women's bodies and rape. If you haven't, my friend Matt Lowry at Skeptical Teacher has the lowdown.
But in a nutshell - apt phrasing, that — Akin claimed that:
First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare... If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.

Statement by the President on Curiosity Landing on Mars
Tonight, on the planet Mars, the United States of America made history.
The successful landing of Curiosity - the most sophisticated roving laboratory ever to land on another planet - marks an unprecedented feat of technology that will stand as a point of national pride far into the future. It proves that even the longest of odds are no match for our unique blend of ingenuity and determination.