Whilst pseudoscience is nothing new, it seems a lot more prevalent these days. So what can the scientific community, and the public in general, do about it?
Current Issues
Policy for the Masses: Thoughts from a Day with IPBES
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services was in town last week. I recorded some thoughts on uncertainty, gaps in ecological modelling, and the point of IPBES.
Ecology in Media: Thoughts, Questions and the Insect Apocalypse
Two weeks ago, an article on the Insect Apocalypse hit my Facebook feed. People seemed genuinely concerned about the plight of the world’s insects, which was a first for me. An hour later I was sitting at a conference seminar in which the speaker bemoaned the poor data that had contributed to the key statistic in the article. So here lies our quandary.
Policy-Relevant Ecology: Thoughts from the 4th Conference of the Norwegian Ecological Society
I spent last week in Tromsø, Norway, for the 4th Conference of the Norwegian Ecological Society. With the conference focussing on policy-relevant ecology, I summarised some of my thoughts from the event.
From the Experts
Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson: Rise of the Planet of the Insects
The Internet has been set abuzz (pun intended) lately by rumours of the Insect Apocalypse. And whilst the concept itself is depressing, it’s worth smiling at the fact that the public has finally started to take an interest in the ecological plight of a group of animals until recently ignored whenever possible. Professor Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson is one academic/author who has made it her life’s mission to turn people around on insects. Sam Perrin and I asked Anne about why people have an aversion to creepy crawlies, how scientific communication helps in her mission, and whether or not the planet could survive the eradication of the mosquito.
Stories from the Coalface & Paper of the week
Locating Shark’s Teeth in the Phone Book
Supervisors: they’re our mentors, bosses, idols. Sometimes, they can seem almost super-human – they know everything, and find every single flaw in your work. So it can be easy to forget that your supervisors and various other higher-ups are not necessarily a species of perfect, paper mass-producing, hyper-creative geniuses, but in reality just experienced people, who still make mistakes and have “brain-farts”. The following is a personal encounter I had which serves as proof.
Simulating the Evolution of Life in South America
We look at a paper which simulates the evolution of life in South America in order to investigate which interlinking factors promote biodiversity.
