science

A summary of and the conclusion from Paul Feyerabend's 1975 book 'Against Method', outlining an 'anarchistic theory of knowledge.' His views on the philosophy of science remain provocative today, controversially arguing that the method widely seen as separating science from psuedo-science is in fact a barrier to scientific progress.

In 1996, physicist Alan Sokal performed an experiment after becoming frustrated with what he saw as the abuses of science and mathematics by writers and academics under the umbrella of 'cultural studies/poststructuralism/postmodernism. Here is the original hoax text, laced with nonsense phrases, meaningless mathematics, and topped with flattering citations of the editors of the journal to which it was submitted, Social Text. When the article was accepted and published, Sokal revealed his deliberate hoax, and threw petrol on the flames of the already burning 'Science Wars'.

2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On The Origin Of Species. Last year saw the anniversary of Darwin and Wallace's ideas first being presented to the Linnaean Society in London. Books, events, magazines, radio shows have already been marking these anniversaries and even two movies are in the works. Here's a list of some of them, by no means exhaustive...

Physical anthropologist Eugenie Scott of the National Centre for Science Education explains the variety of beliefs relating to the origin of life and present such views as part of a continuum. Scott's work unfortunately has an over-reliance on Gould's principle of 'Non-Overlapping Magesteria' (NOMA) and typically refrains from outright criticism of non-materialist worldviews, although she is herself an atheist. This NOMA principle is used in much of the NCSE literature as an attempt to persuade religious believers than evolution poses no threat to their religious faith.