Category Archives: Science
A Shortage of Physician-Scientists
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 17th February 2024Most people have no idea what a physician-scientist is or the job description for such a person. Many think that by definition medicine is a science and therefore an MD must be a scientist. Physicians get training in the rudiments of science during the first two years of medical school and may get a bit…
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When Race Trumps Merit – Book Review
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 15th May 2023Heather Mac Donald’s latest book is subtitled: How the Pursuit of Equity Sacrifices Excellence, Destroys Beauty, and Threatens Lives. It is such a tale of horrors that a number of alternate subtitles come to mind. Animal Farm Redux, How I Came to Love Big Brother, A Litany of Lunacy, 40 Years Before the Mast, Gone…
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Science and Religion
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th March 2023That there might be an inherent conflict between religion and science was not envisioned until the Renaissance when the two disciplines emerged as distinct entities. Until that time, man, the world, God or the gods, and natural phenomena were all part of natural philosophy. Aristotle could study just about anything from literature to the heavens…
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On Time
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th August 2022My subject is Father Time. He’s undefeated and likely to remain so. Even Mother Nature cannot successfully handle Father Time. Time is very difficult to define. I’ll just say it’s what happens between then and now. Learnered volumes have been written about it. It’s very hard to say if it had a beginning or will…
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Unsettled – Book review
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 9th July 2022Steven E Koonin has written a book Unsettled: What climate science tells us, what it doesn’t, and why it matters. The volume is not very long consisting of mostly data (yes data!) and endnotes. It is a sober analysis of a subject that has been a field of landmines maiming the facts that underpin an…
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Mutations and Ageing
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 14th April 2022That all living things age and then die has been of interest ever since the dawn of abstract thought. With the advent of molecular biology the prospect of studying the ageing process has become a scientific reality that casts aside random speculation. A multi institutional study from the UK just published in Nature, Somatic mutation…
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COVID, Gender, Climate, and the Collapse of Science
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 10th April 2022The article below (by me) was recently published in American Greatness. COVID, Gender, Climate, and the Collapse of Science Science is in its worst state since the burning of Giordano Bruno (1600) and the trial and conviction of Galileo (1633). The wounds it has suffered are largely self-inflicted. Science advances by questioning the current state of knowledge…
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Scientism
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd October 2021Scientism is the application of the scientific method and tools to situations that are inappropriate for such an approach and technique. It also includes the view that all of the cosmos and everything in it animate or otherwise can eventually be unravelled by science. It grants undeserved authority to those who claim to be speaking…
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CRISPR and Human Characteristics
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 12th September 2020On September 9th PBS series NOVA presented a two hour program devoted to the genetic technique CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats). It’s a technique that allows for gene editing. You can read about by clicking the link above. The PBS program does a pretty good job of explaining how the technique works and…
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The NEJM Discovers COVID-19 Sensitivity and Specificity
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 11th June 2020If you’ve been reading the articles here about the specificity and sensitivity of testing for COVID-19 you are aware that we lack critical information about the various tests used to diagnose the disease. The New England Journal of Medicine has just published an article about the sensitivity and specificity of testing for the Coronavirus. They…
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