Paul Braterman is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Glasgow University, and former Regents Professor at the University of North Texas. His research has involved chemistry related to conditions on the early Earth and to the origins of life, and collaborations with Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Sandia National Laboratories, and NASA’s Astrobiology Institute. His earlier book, From Stars to Stalagmites, discusses aspects of chemistry in their historical and everyday contexts, and he is now working on a book exploring the links between creationism, climate change denial, conspiracy theories, and right-wing politics. Email: psbraterman@yahoo.com; contactable at @paulbraterman@sciencemastodon.com
by Paul Braterman Evolution has nothing to do with progress. Most evolution doesn't even have anything to do with adaptation, and it is perfectly possible for a change that is worse than useless to spread through a population. Paradoxically, however, such non-adaptive change may be a necessary prelude for major adaptations. This post was inspired…
by Paul Braterman How Darwin's name is taken in vain, with mini-reviews of some of the worst offenders From Darwin's Notebook B, 1837 Don't say Darwin unless you mean it. Don't say theory when you mean historical fact. And don't say you believe in evolution, when you mean you accept it on the basis of…
by Paul Braterman A 1929 law* imposes three unelected clergy on each of Scotland's local Education Committees. This was based on practice dating back to the 1870s, with the formation of the Scottish educational system from a merger of church and non-church elements, and to the 1918 incorporation of Catholic schools into the system. The…
by Paul Braterman Part 1 of this series, “Atoms Old and New: Atoms in Antiquity” can be read here. The transition to modern thinking “It seems probable to me, that God in the beginning formed matter in solid, massy, hard, impenetrable, movable particles… even so very hard, as never to wear or break in pieces;…
by Paul Braterman Michael Gove (remember him?), when England's Secretary of State for Education, told teachers “What [students] need is a rooting in the basic scientific principles, Newton's Laws of thermodynamics and Boyle's law.” Never have I seen so many major errors expressed in Newton via Wikipedia in so few words. But the wise learn…
by Paul Braterman Islam Evolving, Taner Edis, Prometheus Books, June 2016 This is an excellent review of an important but difficult subject, and a welcome change from the ill-informed bluster of a Sam Harris, or the limp apologetics of a Karen Armstrong. It is the work of an author who is exceptionally well placed to…
by Paul Braterman Glen Roy is a valley in the Western Scottish Highlands, just south of the Great Glen (home to Loch Ness), and draining through Glen Spean to Loch Linnhe, an inlet of the Atlantic. It is remarkable for the presence of the Roads, a series of parallel, almost horizontal, grooves in the hills…
by Paul Braterman Toilet signs on sale at ebay Toilet etiquette is where prudery meets absurdity. Your chance of being embarrassed, let alone molested, by a transgender person in a US public toilet is probably zero, and certainly less than your chance of being shot dead at home by a toddler playing with a gun;…
by Paul Braterman As in Alcatraz; Alcove; Alfalfa; Alcohol; Alkali; Alizarin; Almanac; Alchemy; Alembic; Algol; Almagest; Algebra; Algorithm; Alhambra The syllable Al- is Arabic for “The”, and is attached to the beginning of the word to which it applies. Like English today, or Latin in Renaissance Europe, the dominant language of learned discourse for several…
by Paul Braterman What is now proved was once only imagin’d – William Blake Really important ideas in science are not the work of a single individual or even a single generation. The idea of an atom, for instance, was developed by ancient Greek philosophers, revived by eighteenth century chemists to make sense of their…
by Paul Braterman Is this book worthy of your time and attention? Yes. But this is not a book review, so much as a conversation with myself, triggered by reading it, and what follows is as much mine as his, especially as I have focused on those chapters that overlap my own concerns. There is…
by Paul Braterman University of North Texas, where I was teaching in 2005 Kitzmiller v Dover Area School District, in which judgment was pronounced on 20th December 2005, is the court case that established that Intelligent Design is not science, but a form of religiously motivated creationism, and as such may not be taught in…
by Paul Braterman If Isaac Newton is the father of modern physics, then Antoine Lavoisier is the father of modern chemistry. Newton was knighted, and died in his bed at age 84. Lavoisier died at age 50, on the guillotine. A civil servant scientist Lavoisier originally trained as a lawyer, but studied science at the…
by Paul Braterman For disrespectful blogging and criticism of the religious authorities, one thousand lashes, to be administered 50 at a time. A fine of one million Riyals (roughly £170,000). 10 years in jail. If, like me, you have been wondering what horrible crimes could merit so severe a punishment, now you can find out.…
by Paul Braterman It looks as if life on Earth just got older, and probably easier. Tiny scraps of carbon have been found inside 4.1 billion year old zircons, and examination shows that this carbon is most probably the result of biological activity. This beats the previous age record by 300 million years, and brings…
by Paul Braterman Darrow: Did you ever discover where Cain got his wife? Bryan: No, sir; I leave the agnostics to hunt for her. Both sides, I will argue, were long-term loses in this exchange. But why were such matters being discussed in a Tennessee court of law in the first place? The story so…
by Paul Braterman What is the purpose of this examination? We have the purpose of preventing bigots and ignoramuses from controlling the education of the United States, and that is all. Dayton Courthouse today Inherit the Wind, the prism through which the public sees the Scopes Trial, is a travesty. William Jennings Bryan, who prosecuted…
by Paul Braterman Good to eat, in traditional Mediterranean and oriental cuisines. Good food for farmed fish, not that they (the fish, I mean) really have much choice in the matter. Good as a source of possible biofuels. And now good for almost a million pounds of research funding. Your sister, the sea squirt, actual…
by Paul Braterman “And if he insists on being killed … then at the end, by the authority of the ruling body, it's done.” Sheikh Kamal El Mekki, who expounds with apparent approval the law on beheading ex-Muslims, spoke this February at Trinity College Dublin. Maryam Namazie, equal law campaigner, ex-Muslim and prominent critic of…
by Paul Braterman In my last post, I said that the right way to undermine creationism is to promote appreciation of the science of evolution, by presenting it in ways that are engaging, enjoyable, and above all personal. In this post, I review two more books that succeed in doing this; Alice Roberts' The Incredible…