THE CIRCUS CLOWN TEST

Critical Thinking about Racism

Racial issues continue to plague us. After every new incident

Chapman Survey 2017: Advanced Ancient Civilizations, Spirits, Alien Visits Remain Top Paranormal Beliefs

The 2017 Chapman University Survey of American Fears came out

DNA Test: Dalí Not Father of Spanish Psychic

A DNA test confirmed that Maria Pilar Abel, a Spanish

Oceans of Data: New Ways to Measure Global Warming

Although scientists understand that the record of Earth’s surface and

‘Science Wars’ Veteran Latour Now Wants to Help Rebuild Trust in Science

Bruno Latour, the French sociologist who was a prime provocateur

‘Blue Whale’ Game Suicide Conspiracy Surfaces

Early in 2017, scary warnings circulated on social media asking

Why Pseudoscience Should Be Taught in College

The academic community doesn’t seem to take the spread of

The Giant Panda: Discovered in the Land of Myth

Joe Nickell, PhD, author of numerous books, including Entities and

Myths and Secrets of the Colosseum

Massimo Polidoro is an investigator of the paranormal, lecturer, and

Divided Expectations

Why We Need a New Dialogue about Science, Inequality, and Society

Yes, We Do Need Experts

Stuart Vyse is a psychologist and author of Believing in

Science (Indeed, the World?) Needs Fewer, Not More, Icons

Kenneth W. Krause is a contributing editor and “Science Watch”

Is Elvis Presley in Home Alone?

Benjamin Radford is a research fellow at the Committee for

A Cancer Nurse Examines Alternative Medicine

“It’s the Equivalent of Murdering Somebody”

Critical Thinking Approaches to Confronting Racism

The racial divisiveness and tensions that erupted this past year

Psychology, Skepticism, and Confronting Racism

Racism is abhorrent. It is therefore easy for a movement

Combating Racism through Shared Goals

When my oldest child was in high school, the school

Are Racist Beliefs Pseudoscientific, and What Do We Do about Them?

One of the defining characteristics of a pseudoscience is nonfalsifiability

A Hard Look at How We See Race

Jennifer Eberhardt’s research shows subconscious connections in people’s minds between black faces and crime and how those links may pervert justice. Law enforcement officers across the country are taking note

In What Version of Evolution Do You Believe?

Despite our strong scientific understanding of organic evolution, many introduce unfounded beliefs to create a hybrid view of evolution that is unscientific and should not be taught in science classrooms

Daryl Bem and Psi in the Ganzfeld

Stuart Vyse’s (2017) article about Daryl Bem and p-hacking was

Medical Misinformation in the Media: Is Anorexia on the Rise?

Are eating disorders on the rise? One widely cited statistic claims so but falters under scrutiny. Here is a case study of flawed information presented by a prominent eating disorder information organization

Let’s be SHARPs Together: The Need for a New Umbrella Term

Two things that serve to maintain morale, focus, and motivation

Free Energy: When the Web Is Freewheeling

Claims about “free energy” are all over the Internet. What’s it all about? Not real science

Jettisoning Freud’s Spurious Contributions

Freud, the Making of an Illusion, by American literary critic

The Interplay of Science Fiction and Pseudoscience

Pseudoscience and Science Fiction. By Andrew May. Springer, New York,

Repeating Erroneously the Words of Another

Hemingway Didn’t Say That: The Truth Behind Familiar Quotations. By

NEW AND NOTABLE

ALIENS: Past, Present, Future. Ron Miller. Author and illustrator Ron

While Hurricanes Ravage the United States, Climate-Science Criticism Continues: An Exchange

The following letter is from a longtime member of the

Politicization of Scientific Issues

Although I was one of the good guys in getting

Fallacy Analysis Not Useful?

Thanks for Maarten Boudry’s “Fallacy Fork” (September/October 2017). He’s right:

Polygraph Problems

Glad to see James Randi’s unequivocal denunciation of the (so-called)

Evolution and Religion

Reading Matthew Nisbet’s column “Evolution in the College classroom” (September/October

Rose Mackenberg

In Terence Hines’s review of Tony Wolf’s book about Rose

Clash of Perspectives

In the letters column of the September/October SI, reader Norman

Erratum

The November/December 2017 issue of SI went to print omitting

[FEEDBACK]

The letters column is a forum on mat ters raised