Liberal, Racism, Science, Politics

British naturalist Charles Darwin has become the latest historical scientist to run afoul of the “decolonise the curriculum” movement, with Sheffield University reportedly claiming that Darwin’s theory on evolution was used to “justify white male supremacy”.

  A handbook produced by the university informs lecturers and pupils that celebrating “white saviour” figures such as Darwin serves to overshadow less privileged scientists and scholars and that the “whiteness and Eurocentrism of our science” should be deconstructed, according to The Telegraph.

Liberal, Funny, Racism, Science, Narrative, Crazy, Academia, Feminism

A feminist professor at the University of California-Davis has vowed to “challenge the authority of Science” by “rewriting knowledge” through a feminist lens. Sara Giordano, who left the field of neuroscience to become a Women’s Studies professor at UC-Davis, opened up about her feelings towards the sciences in a recent essay for Catalyst, a journal of feminist theory.

  "We need to disrupt the epistemic authority of Science…[and] the assumption that science = truth." Science, she worries, has “earned its epistemic authority through its co-constitution with colonization and slavery,” and therefore “relies on a colonial and racialized form of power.”

Liberal, Funny, Science, Oops

Professor Valentina Zharkova at Northumbria University is being attacked by climate change proponents for publishing research suggesting there could be a 35-year period of low solar activity that could usher in an “ice age.” Zharkova and her team of researchers released a study on sunspot modeling, finding that solar activity could fall to levels not seen since the so-called “Little Ice Age” of the 1600s...

  In fact, Zharkova said some scientists even tried to have her research suppressed. “They were trying to actually silence us,” she said. “Some of them contacted the Royal Astronomical Society, demanding, behind our back, that they withdraw our press release.”

Environmentalist, Warming, Incompetence, Funny, Science, Un, Oops, Fear

There’s been quite a stink over farting, belching farm animals ruining the planet, and professor Frank Mitloehner wants to clear the air, reports The Billings Gazette. In 2006, the United Nations concluded the livestock industry was a big contributor to climate change, but Mitloehner, an air quality specialist at the University of California-Davis, said recently in a speech that methane gas from livestock was misidentified as the bigger greenhouse gas source than airplanes, trains and automobiles combined, the newspaper reports.

  “In its report “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” the U.N. concluded that livestock were contributing 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases — allegedly more than the entire world’s transpiration. The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change used the report to forecast that Himalayan glaciers might vanish within 25 years. Outside groups reacted to the U.N.’s claims by launching efforts to slow global warming by getting the public to go meatless one day a week, as way of lowering demand for livestock products.

  Mitloehner convinced the U.N. to recant its claim in 2010.

Liberal, Science, Energy, Protest

Some members of the Eastern Washington Section of the American Nuclear Society showed up with their own signs, describing the safety record at Hanford, and talked to the media about nuclear science. Tony Brooks, a retired Washington State University professor of environmental science, talked to members of Occupy Portland, saying that shutting off nuclear power meant shutting off the lights. "OK, I'll use candles," one participant in the rally told him.

Liberal, Crime, Character, Science, Brilliance, Oops, Protest, Vandalism, Theft

At one point, Mogulof said, the squatters pruned some fruit trees on the property and explained to the dean of resources that they had to do it because the trees were diseased. Turns out the pruned branches were part of a research project on how diseases affect fruit trees, he said.

Liberal, Hate, Incitement, Violence, Smears, Hoax

Websites are posting the addresses of scientists. Last month, the Times of London obtained an animal rights “hit list” targeting 150 people, including 21 children. The document advised: "Whatever you do, just do it and show them no mercy."