freedom of opinion has its place, but this phd thesis goes too far

One of today's big stories, in the blogosphere and elsewhere, is of the University of Wollongong's decision to award a PhD to a thesis that promotes a strongly anti-vaccination take on the policies and science relating to immunisation. Fellow NZ scibloggers Helen Petousis Harris and Grant Jacobs have already commented on it, and over on Respectful Insolence […]

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if only…

A nice piece in Nature, by Tony Ballantyne (& hat-tip to PZ Myers, who somehow finds these things first), speculates on how things could be for those who selectively reject the bits of science they don’t like: in this instance, vaccination, but creationism could easily be substituted in this storyline. T.Ballantyne (2012) If only… Nature […]

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anti-vaccination anti-science

At Respectful Insolence, Orac has a recent post discussing ‘anti-science’, and I thought of this when I finally got around to writing this piece (which Grant has kindly ‘left to me’, as it were!). Here’s how Orac defines the term ‘anti-science’:  It’s an imperfect term for people who reject well-established science. To get a flavor […]

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