Have you ever gotten into a debate over a scientific topic with someone? For example, Big Bang Theory or Evolutionary Theory? If you have, maybe it went something like this, “We know the Big Bang happened because we have evidence of space expanding via Hubble’s Law, and the Cosmic Microwave Background suggests that at one time everything was condensed into a very small volume before rapid expansion.” In my experience, the people I debate respond by either questioning the…
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My first cell phone, back in the early 2000’s, was a Nokia 1100. The extent of its capabilities were basic calling, basic text messaging, and surviving high velocity impacts into hard surfaces. Despite 3G networks being commercially available two years before the Nokia 1100’s release in 2003, the phone operated solely within the 2G network. But what do these 2G, 3G, 5G networks mean, anyway? Do we just add a new digit every couple of years when the networks get better? Why are people worried about….
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In the news we often hear stories of ‘scientific studies’ which make claims such as: ‘the most addictive food is pizza’, or ‘the MMR vaccine causes Autism’ [1,2]. Those same news outlets will also report on studies that have found new evidence of climate change, or the effects of cannabis on opioid deaths [3]. Often, the same studies are discussed on multiple news outlets regardless of….
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A philosophical razor is a rule that cuts out conclusions that have a low probability of being correct. I use the phrase “low probability” because the nature of a philosophical razor is that it is a rule-of-thumb and not a formal principle. Razors are quite common in…
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A formal fallacy in which it is argued that because a perceived authority figure (or figures) believes a proposition (relevant to their authority) to be true, that proposition must therefore be true. This is also known as….
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We have been introduced to the Scientific Method in a previous post. To recap, the process goes a bit like this:…
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