I just did my first national radio interview for the book–with NPR’s Living on Earth. They put together a really fun segment in which I not only explain the book’s arguments to host Jeff Young, but also provide running commentary on one of the best examples I’ve seen of using the new media to communicate positively and entertainingly about science–CERN’s “Large Hadron Rap” video:
You can listen to the whole “Living on Earth” segment here. Here’s an excerpt:
YOUNG: Well give me some examples of challenges we face where the average Joe needs to know something about science.
MOONEY: Well there are certainly many and I think by far the largest right now is the climate change issue. That’s the one where the most is at stake for the future, and it’s also the one where you see such a huge gap between the average American in terms of what they think the state of scientific understanding is and then the scientific community on the other hand. The scientists are something like 85 percent sure that it’s human caused. And the public is more like, you know, 50 percent sure. And if you break it out by party affiliation, and this has been done many times, the Republicans overwhelmingly don’t accept the science. So you got a politicized issue and you’ve got a huge gap between scientists and the public. You add that to unfortunately a lot of bad media coverage of the issue over time and you pretty much get the gridlock that we have.
YOUNG: Something you point out here I found pretty interesting and that is among those Republicans who do not think that climate change is caused by humans, it doesn’t seem to matter how educated they are. Even well educated Republicans hold that belief.
MOONEY: Yeah, it’s really amazing, isn’t it? This is a different Pew study. They studied global warming opinions and they looked at party affiliation and level of education. And what they found for Republicans is that the higher the level of education, the less likely they are to accept scientific reality. And for Democrats and Independents it’s precisely the opposite. I don’t find that actually surprising having been involved with debating the climate debate for a long time.
You look at someone who doesn’t accept the science of global warming, like George Will the Washington Post Columnist or Michael Criton the late novelist, someone like that, these people are not stupid, you know, they’re actually quite intelligent, and their intelligence itself is what lets them come up with arguments against the scientific position of the scientific community that are quite ingenious and very misleading.
Again, the full “Living on Earth” segment is here.
Unscientific America by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum is a must read for anyone who cares about understanding or reversing the long national slide into pseudoscience and willful ignorance that has periodically gripped America. The book neatly follows up Mooney’s best seller, The Republican War on Science, into a broader, nonpartisan narrative of an entire nation enamored by the nifty gizmos and life saving applications of science, yet saddled with a long history of anti-intellectualism that periodically spills over into open contempt. It’s a dose of stiff but sorely needed medicine for baby boomers and genx’ers who grew up during a short thaw in that icy antiscience trend by way of a cold war, a hot space race, and one great communicator named Carl Sagan.
It will be a light week blogging for me because the kissing experiment requires a good deal of time and attention to run. I’m extremely grateful to David Poeppel and the terrific people working in his lab for all of their support and enthusiasm on this project.
This morning I’m headed back to the Meyer building at NYU for day two of brain scanning volunteer subjects–liquid helium and all… So for now I’ll leave you with a few more photos from my test run yesterday in the MEG.
On the right I’m suited up in scrubs wondering what I’ve gotten myself into and how in the world I went from sea cucumber reproductive biology to kissing experimentation. A couple of additional images are below the fold and remember you can follow the research live on Twitter @Sheril_.
No, I’m still not ‘tweeting‘, but am appreciative that the lovely and talented Arikia has created an account which will feature details on new initiatives, questions to followers, ways to contribute, and more. And when you have important related news, tell us about it here.
As I wrote last week, June was only the beginning and momentum continues to build. Our goal remains to draw attention to sexual abuse globally and encourage everyone to talk about it and act. And we will rage against the silence.
Remember, there’s still one week to maximize blogospheric donations to Doctors Without Borders so keep clicking on these links since revenue is based on traffic:
As I’ve already announced, my next book will be an interdisciplinary look at why and how we kiss, drawing on neuroscience, classical history, psychology, evolutionary biology, anthropology, and popular culture. Tentatively, it’s called ‘The Science of Kissing.’
Now I need a volunteer… (No, not for more experimentation, although real research will begin in a couple weeks). I am looking for someone interested in helping with an easy assignment. There will be no spreadsheets or equations, and it will probably only take an afternoon. There is no kissing required. A background in languages is a plus, but by no means necessary and you’ll be thanked in the acknowledgments when the book is published.
It’s close to the official July 13 launch of Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future, and we’re continuing to preview what’s in store. As Chris already noted, he spoke to AIBS last month about the book (slides from that talk are here)–and now the full video is up on YouTube:
Stopping by UC Berkeley–one of my all time favorite campuses–to post a quick note from Peet’s…
Thanks to everyone for so many emails with Silence Is The Enemy links, news, questions on kissing, book tour suggestions, and more. It will take a long time to filter through it all, but know Chris and I really appreciate hearing from you.
I’ll be on a red eye east overnight, so expect the blog to pick back up in full force soon!
Tomorrow I’m off to Seattle–it seems I visit roughly once per year–for a series of talks and media appearances, centering on this event:
The Northwest Science Writers Association Presents: Dumb, Getting Dumber? The Cost of Scientific Illiteracy
Thursday, May 14, , 7:00 p.m.: Pacific Science Center, Eames Theater
A public forum featuring Chris Mooney, author of the coming book “Unscientific America,” and local experts on science, education, policy and the economy.
