By Dr. Robert Thorson America should change its national anthem from the “Star Spangled Banner” to the equally familiar “America the Beautiful”; especially its first verse. I realize that this will take some getting used to. But times have changed. The glorification of war — of “rockets’ red glare,” and “bombs bursting in air” — […]
Author: Crnic, Benjamin
How is Co2 Pollution?
By Dr. Robert Thorson Take a deep breath. That’s oxygen going in. Now exhale. That’s carbon dioxide going out. Did you just pollute the atmosphere? I don’t think so, unless you have halitosis. Yet attorneys from 12 Northeastern states and several environmental organizations are suing the federal Environmental Protection Agency to classify CO[subscript 2] — […]
Fingering Culprit in Piltdown Man Hoax
By Dr. Robert Thorson When I was a kid in the late 1950s, I remember being riveted by the case of Piltdown man, “one of the most famous scientific frauds in history.” Though the hoax is a century old, it remains an excellent “cautionary tale to scientists not to see what they want to see.” […]
Don’t Monkey with Science
By Dr. Robert Thorson On Feb. 8 the Kansas State Board of Education tossed out a science curriculum that questioned the basic tenets of evolution. It affirmed that students were free to learn the truth: that the birds and bees and flowers and trees evolved from earlier forms via natural selection, and that human beings […]
People Know Less, Deny More
By Dr. Robert Thorson Looking for that perfect holiday gift? I recommend a fairly new book, “Merchants of Doubt,” by the historians of science Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway. Its pages expose and dissect members of a remarkably successful covert profession: professional deniers. These specialists are similar to courtroom expert witnesses, being properly credentialed, […]
The Right Thing for the Wrong Reasons
By Dr. Robert Thorson In what is being hailed as one of the most important environmental decisions in years, the Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant. Nature writer Rachel Carson would have been pleased and amused. The major legal hurdle in the court’s 5-4 decision […]
Holding Nature in Trust
By Dr. Robert Thorson Look carefully at the head of any U.S. nickel. The graven image of Thomas Jefferson is being forced to stare at the words “In God We Trust.” If Jefferson were with us today and able to inscribe his own coin, I think he would prefer “In Nature We Trust.” This would […]
Politics Aside, New Orleans a Lost Cause
By Dr. Robert Thorson Why is Hurricane Katrina back in the news? Because journalists of color cast it as a racial issue on June 28, 2007, during the All- American Presidential Forum, attended by eight contenders for the Democratic nomination. I agree that the tragedy has a racial dimension made worse by administrative bungling. I […]
The Myth Museum
By Dr. Robert Thorson The creationists are back with a vengeance. This is bad news for liberal Christians and for science education. On May 28, the Creation Museum will open in Petersburg, Ky. This is no mom and pop operation. It’s a high-tech, 60,000-square-foot, $24 million commitment to prove that the biblical account of Genesis […]
Water Shortage Should KO Student Apartment Project
By Dr. Robert Thorson `Ponde Place,” a private development of student apartments being proposed near UConn, is wrong for Mansfield on two counts. First, the university shouldn’t give the developers water when it doesn’t seem to have enough for itself. Second, the cutesy real estate name being proposed constitutes an unlicensed theft of the town’s […]