德克薩斯州 vs. 北卡羅來納州 科學愚蠢的鐵籠賽

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本文發表於《大眾科學》的前部落格網路,反映了作者的觀點,不一定代表《大眾科學》的觀點。


北卡羅來納州注意了——德克薩斯州不會讓你輕易奪走“在愚蠢的政治破壞科學方面最可恥的州”的頭銜。 儘管北卡羅來納州最近一年來在科學相關的立法精神錯亂方面取得了令人印象深刻的連勝——從立法反對海洋本身,到將科學家從科學委員會中移除,再到放棄諸如計數等科學基本要素——德克薩斯州不會不戰而降。

看看國會議員拉馬爾·史密斯,他提出了一項提交給美國眾議院的法案,該法案將要求科學研究透過政治傾向測試。 史密斯在這項法案提出前一週就出了名,當時他致信美國國家科學基金會(NSF),要求解釋一些似乎不符合他嚴苛標準的科學研究。

我不知道史密斯大學主修什麼,但是他承認自己大學一年級的物理就學得很吃力,並且也表達了他對氣候變化的懷疑。 他畢業於耶魯大學——在我看來,耶魯大學似乎需要對此做出一些解釋。


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我不確定我告訴你這些是作為警告,還是作為一種安慰自己的方式,讓自己相信北卡羅來納州的立法者並非每時每刻都是這個國家最瘋狂的人,或者僅僅是為了在寫這篇文章的過程中遠離蘇格蘭威士忌。 無論如何,我已經告訴你們了。

Scott Huler was born in 1959 in Cleveland and raised in that city's eastern suburbs. He graduated from Washington University in 1981; he was made a member of Phi Beta Kappa because of the breadth of his studies, and that breadth has been a signature of his writing work. He has written on everything from the death penalty to bikini waxing, from NASCAR racing to the stealth bomber, for such newspapers as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Los Angeles Times and such magazines as ESPN, Backpacker, and Fortune. His award-winning radio work has been heard on "All Things Considered" and "Day to Day" on National Public Radio and on "Marketplace" and "Splendid Table" on American Public Media. He has been a staff writer for the Philadelphia Daily News and the Raleigh News & Observer and a staff reporter and producer for Nashville Public Radio. He was the founding and managing editor of the Nashville City Paper. He has taught at such colleges as Berry College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

His books include Defining the Wind, about the Beaufort Scale of wind force, and No-Man's Lands, about retracing the journey of Odysseus.

His most recent book, On the Grid, was his sixth. His work has been included in such compilations as Appalachian Adventure and in such anthologies as Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont, The Appalachian Trail Reader and Speed: Stories of Survival from Behind the Wheel.

For 2014-2015 Scott is a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT, which is funding his work on the Lawson Trek, an effort to retrace the journey of explorer John Lawson through the Carolinas in 1700-1701.

He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife, the writer June Spence, and their two sons.

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