The long and tortured process by which scientific facts are created

It was reported yesterday that Bruno Latour, the philosopher of science and anthropologist, had died at the age of 75.

Latour was considered one of France’s most influential and iconoclastic living philosophers, whose work on how humanity perceives the climate emergency won praise and attention around the world.

A pioneer of science and technology studies, Latour argued that facts generally came about through interactions between experts, and were therefore socially and technically constructed. While philosophers have historically recognised the separation of facts and values – the difference between knowledge and judgment, for example – Latour believed that this separation was wrong.
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His groundbreaking books, Laboratory Life (1979), Science in Action (1987) and We Have Never Been Modern (1991) offered groundbreaking insights into, as he put it “both the history of humans’ involvement in the making of scientific facts and the sciences’ involvement in the making of human history”.

To put that into context, one of his most controversial assertions was the claim that Louis Pasteur did not just discover microbes, but collaborated with them.

In the mid-1990s there were heated debates between “realists”, who believed that facts were completely objective, and “social constructionists”, like Latour, who argued that facts were the creations of scientists.

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The problem of junk science used as evidence in courts

Because science and its associated technology have been so successful, there is a danger that anything that can be dressed up in the language of science can carry more weight that it merits.

One example is with the use of forensic science in court cases. The ability of modern scientific techniques that can analyze microscopic traces of items at crime scenes and link them to victims and perpetrators (DNA being a good example) has led to the ability to both convict the guilty and exonerate those falsely accused. TV police procedurals also lead to the impression that forensic science is very accurate and even judges can tend to give it greater credibility than it sometimes deserves.

This can result in new techniques being accepted as evidence even when the ‘science’ behind it has not been properly evaluated and is possibly useless, sometimes referred to as ‘junk science’. One example is the so-called science of bite marks.
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Vaccine side effects and predicting surges in flu and covid

Family members who got the latest covid booster vaccine that targets the omicron strain all reported side effects of fever, chills, and feeling vaguely lousy for a period that lasted 24 to 48 hours. I had scheduled to get mine last Sunday and the day before I met a neighbor on my walk who said that that was the first day she had been outside because she had had a terrible reaction to the vaccine that had knocked her out for three days. As a result, I cleared my calendar for the three days after the shot was to be given, and made all the preparations to be house-bound and possibly bed-bound for that period.

And then … nothing happened. I had no side effects at all. The pharmacist who gave me both the covid booster and the flu shot at the same time said that since I chose to have them on the same arm, that it might be sore. But even that did not happen. The only thing I did out of my normal behavior was drink plenty of fluids, which is what the CDC recommends to alleviate side effects..
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Reducing incarceration rates in the US

In a welcome move, President Biden has ordered the release of thousands of prisoners who were being held just for marijuana possession or consumption.

Biden on Thursday pardoned all prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession, a move that senior administration officials said would affect thousands of Americans charged with that crime.

As part of the announcement, Biden also encouraged governors to take similar steps to pardon state simple marijuana possession charges, a move that would potentially affect many thousands more Americans.

And the President will task the Department of Health and Human Services and Attorney General Merrick Garland to “expeditiously” review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law, the first step toward potentially easing a federal classification that currently places marijuana in the same category as heroin and LSD.

“No one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana,” Biden said in a video announcing his executive actions. “It’s legal in many states, and criminal records for marijuana possession have led to needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities. And that’s before you address the racial disparities around who suffers the consequences. While white and Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and brown people are arrested, prosecuted, and convicted at disproportionate rates.”

“Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs,” the President said.

The moves Biden announced Thursday stop short of full decriminalization, which has enjoyed growing support among both political parties. But they are the first significant steps taken by a US president toward removing criminal penalties for possessing marijuana.

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Rugby players have higher risk of brain damage

I long ago stopped watching American football games for two main reasons. One is how the greedy and wealthy owners pressure local communities, that often need the money for essential services, to build them luxury stadiums by threatening to move their teams elsewhere if they do not. The latest such gouging is in Buffalo, NY.

The Buffalo Bills reached an agreement Monday with New York State and Erie County to build a new $1.4 billion state-of-the-art, open-air stadium in Orchard Park, New York. Under the 30-year lease, the public will provide $850 million to fund construction costs while the state of New York is expected to contribute $600 million and Erie County $250 million toward the project (per The Buffalo News). 

Groundbreaking for the stadium is set for Spring 2023 with it set to open in time for the 2026 season. The Bills will pay $350 million toward the stadium and will get a $200 million loan from the NFL through the league’s G-4 loan program. The stadium is estimated to hold around 62,000 fans.

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How museums connive in the looting of the world

In yet another outstanding episode of his show Last Week Tonight, John Oliver looks at the ugly history of how western countries looted the heritage of people around the world by robbing them of their historical artifacts in order to stock their museums and enrich themselves. He takes apart the excuses that are given by these museums to retain their stolen goods.

What I found particularly depressing was that only a tiny fraction of the looted items get displayed even in the museums of the western countries. Almost all of them are buried in their vaults so that no one gets to see them.

When people talk about historical wrongs, they often complain that it is hard to know how to rectify it. In most of these cases of looted items, it is not that hard. We know what the looted items are, we know where they came from, and who the rightful owners are. They must be returned.

2022 Nobel prize in physics goes to work on quantum entanglement

It was announced yesterday that Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger have been jointly awarded the Nobel prize in physics for their experiments to test the effects of quantum entanglement. These experiments are both extremely important and extraordinarily difficult.

The story can be said to begin with the famous Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paper of 1935 where they seemed to suggest that the theory of quantum mechanics, by then already hailed as a massive success, had to be incomplete because there were elements of reality that were not represented in the theory. In their paper, they argued that in the standard Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics that was embraced by most physicists, one could have situations where a measurement made on one particle could instantaneously influence the outcomes of a measurement on another particle however far away it was. Einstein felt that was ‘spooky’.
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The story of atmospheric CO2

In this animation, they show how the arrival of coal and petroleum-based industrialization around the beginning of the 19th century led to a very rapid rise in atmospheric CO2 levels from a level of about 280 ppm (parts per million), which had been stable for millions of years, to about 412 ppm.

We have to go back about 2.5 million years to find a time when the level was as high as the current value and at that time there were no ice caps and glaciers, and consequently ocean levels were 55 ft higher than they are now. That should give us some idea of how dangerous it would be if we do not do something soon to combat global warming.

Covid superdodgers

About 95 million people (close to 25% of the US population) have got Covid so far. That is the official number. The actual number, if one includes unreported and undiagnosed cases, will be higher though how much higher is unknown. I think all of us have either had covid or know several people who did, so ubiquitous has it become.

I have not had it so far and have put it down to luck, though it is true that I am cautious and try to avoid situations where the risk of contagion is high. I do know people who have not got it even though close family members have got it on several different occasions. Have they also just been lucky? Or is there something else that might be enabling them to avoid getting infected?
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The pandemic is over – or not

President Biden created a bit of a stir when he said in an interview that the pandemic is over but “We still have a problem with covid”. Is he correct? And what exactly does he mean? Public health experts have criticized his remarks as premature, saying that it might discourage people from getting vaccinated or boosted and encourage risky behavior, thus possibly triggering the emergence of yet another variant.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization has also been optimistic, saying that the end “is in sight” but refrained from declaring the pandemic over.

It is undoubtedly true that the public is tired of taking pandemic precautions. Also, many have got covid and that may make them feel that they have paid their dues in some way and are now past it and are entitled to live normal lives, though one can get covid again, and some have had it multiple times. The problem is that the definition of a pandemic is not unambiguous so that there is no marker that will indicate that it is formally over. Hence each person will decide for themselves whether it is effectively over and whether they will continue taking precautions or not, which will be the ultimate determinant of whether the pandemic is ‘over’. But the transition to that state will be gradual.

The numbers of deaths and infections in the US are dropping but still a little too high for me for comfort. The US is averaging 400 deaths and 60,000 new cases per day. Covid is still the fourth leading cause of death in the US, after after heart disease, cancer, and accidents, but ahead of stroke, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and flu. If it reaches the level of flu, that would be a good indicator that the pandemic is over.

So right now, I am still in the pandemic frame of mind and avoid as much as possible indoor public places and if I cannot, wear masks when I enter them. I am not sure when I might give up masking. I will be taking the omicron booster in a couple of weeks and will decide after that depending on the numbers, whether for me personally, the pandemic is over.