BY HANK REICHMAN Issued in December, the AAUP’s report, “National Security, the Assault on Science, and Academic Freedom,” examines politically motivated threats to scientific research, with emphasis on threats to climate science and on the initial actions of the Trump administration. As one of the authors of this report I learned how daunting, if not…
BY HANK REICHMAN Readers of this blog have probably already heard how the Trump administration has barred officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from using a list of seven words or phrases in official documents being prepared for next year’s budget. According to the Washington Post, policy analysts were told of…
BY HANK REICHMAN Earlier this week word arrived that Princeton University history graduate student Xiyue Wang, sentenced in July by the Iranian government to ten years in prison for alleged espionage, is being transferred from general detention to Ward 7, a more extreme prison unit run by Iran’s intelligence agency. When Wang arrived there, his…
BY HANK REICHMAN Today the AAUP released a new report, “National Security, the Assault on Science, and Academic Freedom.” The report details troubling threats to academic freedom in the physical and natural sciences that have been exacerbated by the Trump administration’s hostility to science. International scientific exchange and, especially, the charging of innocent Chinese or…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Testimony of Stephen Mockabee, Ph.D. Ohio Conference of the American Association of University Professors House Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee Representative Mike Duffey, Chair October 11, 2017 Chairman Duffey, Ranking Member Sweeney, and members of the Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee: My name is Steve Mockabee, and I am…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH On this past Friday, LiveScience’s entire daily newsletter was devoted to Friday the 13th and the concepts of good and bad luck. The linked articles included “Why Do We Fear Friday the 13th?, ”Statistically Speaking, Is Friday the 13th Really Unlucky?,” What is the Origin of Friday the 13th?,” “Why Are…
BY HANK REICHMAN It has become something of a truism that the Trump administration and the Republican Party more generally have been dismissive of and even hostile to the findings and methods of scientific research. The Union of Concerned Scientists this summer released an exhaustive report, Sidelining Science Since Day One, that documents how in…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH Reviewing Frederick Crews’ new biography for the Washington Post, Matthew Hutson titles his review “Young Freud, Cruel, Incurious, Deceptive, and in Search of Fame.” Regardless of what one thinks of Freud’s contributions to human thought, science, and the discipline of psychology, the biography paints a portrait of a young man who…
POSTED BY MARTIN KICH The New York Times Editorial Board has published a lengthy editorial on the Trump administration’s persistent efforts to deny scientific consensus and to place in positions of power people who share that disdain for scientific truths that conflict with narrow corporate interests and Far-Right ideological talking points. The editorial begins by…
