I haven’t got time for science, or at least not all of it. I cannot read 9,000 astrophysics papers every year. No way. And I have little patience for bad science, which gets more media attention than it deserves. Even the bad science is overwhelming. 700 papers are retracted annually, and that’s a gross underestimate […] … learn more→
Author Archives: Kevin
How to quickly spot dodgy science
Seven ways education needs to change in 2017
When James Callaghan, then UK prime minister, launched his great debate on education at Ruskin College Oxford in 1976, the content and role of education became a hotly contested subject. Schools today, however, are now less concerned with education, and more with how social engineering can achieve a variety of external goals external. The legacy […] … learn more→
A Liberal academic teaches Liberals..or tries
Hey, how about that last election? It’s so funny how many people are still puzzling over how the polls could all be so wrong, for so long, so consistently. I mean, Hillary was presented as way ahead, and after every debate, the mainstream media was only too happy to tell us that Hillary’s lead extended […] … learn more→
Too many tabs – why some people can multitask online and others can’t
The internet may be the most comprehensive source of information ever created but it’s also the biggest distraction. Set out to find an answer on the web and it’s all too easy to find yourself flitting between multiple tabs, wondering how you ended up on a page so seemingly irrelevant to the topic you started […] … learn more→
2017 – the year of the ‘to do’ list
Social media folk delight in discussing the organisation of academic work. How to manage time. How to organise all that information that comes in and out. How to sort and select tasks in order of their urgency and importance. How to manage various kinds of analysis. Now don’t get me wrong – I think all […] … learn more→
The UK higher education system works. So why overhaul it?
With Britain set on a course to leave the European Union, many are worried about the prospects for the economy. The UK’s government has taken steps to reassure the car industry that Britain is a safe place to invest after Brexit. And so it should. But there is one area in which the UK is […] … learn more→
Ten reasons some of us should cut back on alcohol
At this time of year, alcohol promotions, sales and consumption are prominent. Many of us enjoy celebrating a year ended, work and family gatherings, a holiday and a time to kick back and relax. But it can also be a time when we experience adverse consequences of our own or someone else’s drinking. Many of […] … learn more→
Louisiana Lawmaker Says to Defund Libraries and ‘Send Users Back to Mexico’
This is a republish of this article This column has discussed book after book that has been banned and/or challenged for various reasons. Most incidents are the result of ignorance and intolerance, others may even be innocently well-intentioned; but what happens when entire libraries are threatened in order to serve the arrogant hatred of racism […] … learn more→
Things you were taught at school that are wrong
Do you remember being taught you should never start your sentences with “And” or “But”? What if I told you that your teachers were wrong and there are lots of other so-called grammar rules that we’ve probably been getting wrong in our English classrooms for years? How did grammar rules come about? To understand why […] … learn more→
