“Bacteria species found in glacial ice could pose disease risk as glaciers melt from global warming.” Such was the headline at Phys.org for an article announcing that Chinese researchers obtained snow, ice and cryoconite from several glaciers; attempted to grow the bacteria they scraped up; and sequenced all the DNA they found. The article went on to identify four potential threats that could lead to a new pandemic: I think the risk of glacier melt causing another pandemic is greatly … [Read more...]
What’s Incredible? Learning to Read Science Articles with a Critical Eye
Almost every day, we are assaulted with “studies” purporting to have found correlations, connections, links, or ties between causes and effects. In 1998 Dr. Andrew Wakefield claimed that exposure to MMR vaccine causes autism. That assertion still reverberates across Europe and the U.S., but how reliable is Wakefield’s study? What about the claim that increased carbon dioxide emissions are causing and will continue to cause global temperature to rise, wreaking havoc with ecosystems all over … [Read more...]
