The Lancet retracts article, conspiracy against anti-vaxxers

That headline, of course, is a joke, but I’m sure some anti-vaccination advocates will see it as a conspiracy.
I am referring, of course, to news that The Lancet, a prominent British medical journal, retracted a 1998 article by Dr. Andrew Wakefield erroneously suggesting a potential link between autism, and the Measles-Mumps-Rubella (MMR) vaccine
They retracted [...]

UPDATE: Uganda, Maddow, and Praying Away the Gay

MSNBC has done a great public service by letting the people at the Rachel Maddow Show practice actual journalism.
This video is important because it shows just how dangerous pseudoscience (or in layman’s terms, outright quackery) really is. Richard Cohen has written a book that has had the effect of igniting an attempted genocide of gays, [...]

The Interaction of Man and Nature

The Storybook Wolf

Jose Luis Rodgriguez* recently won the Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009 award for his photograph, The Storybook Wolf.
For more information on the contest and other winners, go to this BBC article, Leaping wolf snatches photo prize, or the this photo gallery at The Guardian.
The BBC article quotes one of the [...]

The Physics of a Zombie Attack

Physicist Davide Cassi at the Università di Parma in Italy recently studied how long something could hide (an immobile target) in a complex structure without being found by a random walker. To Mike Lucibella at livescience.com, “immobile targets” are humans hiding and “random walkers” are zombies.  Lucibella infers from Cassi’s study that if zombies were [...]

The Controversy of “Creation”

If someone had told me that the movie chosen to open the Toronto Film Festival, a British movie starring Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly, was having trouble picking up US distribution, I wouldn’t believe them.  Granted the reviews have been mixed (The writer at Movieline was not a fan) but many have said it is [...]

Keep Watching the Skies

In case you’ve missed it, 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy. In keeping with the FFW promotion of science, I have a couple inspiring news items.
Recently, a 14-year-old girl discovered a supernova. She is the youngest person ever to do so. I thought that it was cool to see someone so excited about discovery [...]

Decoding Near-Death Experiences

NPR has been doing a series on the science of spirituality. I’ve only caught a couple of the broadcasts, but I found the final installment completely engrossing. [Mental note: renew NPR membership] I find the concept of this series incredibly fascinating, but there have to be a few caveats.
Barbara Bradley Hagerty, the series correspondent, grew [...]

Lefty Loves Science

Phil Mickelson

(Note:  I started writing this post on Tuesday.  Yesterday, it was revealed that Phil Mickelson’s wife, Amy, has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  I’d like to express on behalf of FreeThought Fort Wayne that we wish Mrs. Mickelson the best in care and treatment and hope that she makes a full recovery.)
I’m not sure [...]

Angels & Demons: Good Movie, Bad Science

Several days ago Andy D. and I went to see the new film Angels & Demons based on the novel of the same name written by Dan Brown. Andy and I were expecting more nods to religion than there were and the movie was often delightfully irreverent, at times leaving the two of us doubled [...]

Fahrenheit vs. Celsius: Smackdown Edition

I happen to be in Toronto this week and this, of course, means I have to do math on a consistent basis. Why you ask? Well turns out the Canadians have this fancy and super easy Metric system. Come on, Canada! Anybody can divide by 10. Try doing everything with 12’s.
Anyway, by now I’ve gotten [...]