Across the Interwebs: April 27, 2014

We forget, at times, that Medieval minds, far from being suffused with intellectual sluggishness and bereft of curiosity, often found themselves aflame with new concepts, ideas, and mental tools.  Phys.org has a compelling post on the ideas of Robert Grosseteste (1170-1253), church reformer, theologian, and politician whose work, 800 years later, "provides the basis for doing great interdisciplinary work, offering unexpected challenges to both modern scientists and humanities experts alike, especially in working closely together."

---

While Grosseteste may not be the originator of western experimental science, his scientific works come close to advocating experiments. They are also beautifully balanced mathematical constructions, not always apparent to a literary reading, yet wondrously so to later medieval generations.

The core team of researchers for this work are drawn from medieval history and theology, vision science, physics and cosmology, medieval philosophy, with many other colleagues engaged on particular aspects of the treatises under scrutiny, from marine scientists to astronomers. Following a principle of collaborative reading, all researchers contribute to the preparation of the edition, the translation and the interpretation.

Such minds, living nearly a millennium ago, are encouraging to those of us who see the world slipping into a technological Dark Age, in which the majority of Americans do not believe the Big Bang occurred, the anti-vaccine crowd is putting lives at risk, and religious zealots see even basic science education, in the form of a popular television series, as a threat.  It's no wonder they become bothered when educators like Neil DeGrassy Tyson refuse to debate them, or even consider inviting them into conversation.  It's no wonder, too, that the latter demand equal time for their own views as Ken Ham does in Answers in Genesis," regardless of how embarrassing they might be. 

---

The ongoing, and one-sided, battle between creationist Ken Ham of “Answers in Genesis” notoriety and highly-regarded astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson of Fox’s Cosmos is humiliating for America because Ham typifies the right wing evangelical Christian ignorance founded on ancient mythology. Dr. Tyson is not involved in Ham’s battle because one thing he likely learned early in life is that it is futile for a scientist to dialogue with religious fanatics who base their arguments on factless faith. Each episode of the scientific series brings a new charge from Ken Ham, and it is apparent that his primary target is not Neil deGrasse Tyson or Cosmos, but science itself.

Each week without any “answers in Genesis” to support his claim that Cosmos and Tyson are wrong about the Universe, age of the Earth, or why evolutionary theory is fact, Ham resorts to Republicans’ Koch brother tactic of questioning the veracity of scientists. If Ham could find the “answers in Genesis” he claims repudiate science or Neil deGrasse Tyson’s empirical data to back up facts supported by peer-reviewed scientific research, he certainly would have presented them by now. Despite offering no facts to support his creationist sophistry except “bible,” it has not stopped Ham from weekly assertions that science is fraudulent because, like every good scientist, Tyson readily admits science, by nature, is an evolving process and does not have all the answers. That is the primary difference between science and devotees of the creation myth; creationists claim to have all the answers because god.

This weekend marked the 28th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.  Photographer Michael Forster Rothbart has a fascinating photographic essay on the aftermath on Mother Jones's website, part of his After Chernobyl project.