Your humanist community for scientific, skeptical, secular, and rational inquiry
A traditional ammeter shows the intensity of an electric current with the angular position of a pointer on a dial; in other words as a ratio of two lengths. A mercury or ethanol thermometer shows ambient temperature by the length of the column of liquid. A balance shows two bodies have different weights via the…
September 16-22, 2019 is Science Literacy Week. This week, CFIC members are sharing their knowledge about Science Literacy. We hope you will also share your science literacy information with us in the comments on this article or in the specific posts. If you ever wonder “is it science?” check out our info graphic to find…
By Zack Dumont I don’t even need to provide an example. We’ve all seen it before. I’m referring to the lofty claim that some new and/or improved soap “kills 99.9% of bacteria”. In the spirit of Scientific Literacy week, I’d like to share what goes through my mind when I see claims like this. My…
Read More “The First Rule of Soap Club: Don’t Analyze Our Claims” »
Though it seems difficult to comprehend, there are apparently still people who, in all seriousness, believe that the world is flat, and all evidence presented to the contrary is just part of a huge conspiracy. The recent documentary “Behind the Curve” follows the lives of a few prominent flat earthers (the Flat Earth Society of…
By the time Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, speculations about biological “transmutation” and the relations between various groups of organisms had already been in circulation for decades. The broad outline of the geological timetable was known by 1850, and while confident assignment of the exact numbers would have to wait…