Genetic Engineering and Agricultural Science
The International Scientific Consensus On Genetically Engineered Food Safety
The term Scientific consensus is, by definition, an evidence-based consensus. It does not necessarily refer to 100% unanimity among all human beings, nor even among 100% of people trained in science. Rather, it refers to a consilience of scientific evidence upon which an overwhelming majority of scientists (whose areas of […]
Common Pseudoscience Arguments
Science has been wrong before, therefore I can make up whatever bullshit I want.
Some of the historical instances which typically get characterized as “science having been wrong” can be better understood as incomplete theories/models being conceptually re-framed in order to account for both the facts explained by the prior theory/model, as well as whatever (more recently acquired facts) made the modification necessary. In […]
Mathematics
A practical Introduction to Vectors
The mathematical concept of a “vector” is ubiquitous in the realms of physics, engineering and applied mathematics. Typically, the concept is first introduced (usually in a first semester physics course or perhaps a trigonometry or calculus course) as a quantity with both a magnitude and a direction, and is usually […]
Chemophobia
About those harsher herbicides that glyphosate helped replace:
One of the common criticisms of commercially available Genetically Engineered (GE) seeds is the idea that they have led to an increase in pesticide use. In actuality, it turns out that they’ve corresponded to a decrease in total pesticide use, but this is attributable primarily to insect resistant GE crops, and critics […]
Common Pseudoscience Arguments
Blowing smoke: Annihilating fallacious comparisons of biotech scientists to tobacco company lobbyists.
Bringing up pictures of doctors smoking cigarettes is a common tactic used by anti-GMO activists and other critics of “mainstream” science to cast doubt and mistrust on matters of scientific consensus by implying that a world wide scientific consensus can realistically be bought off by corporations, and insinuating that that […]
Allergens
Allergic to Bullshit: Why Genetically Engineered foods do not present a unique allergen threat. By Credible Hulk
One question that comes up a lot with regards to the safety of genetically engineered crops is whether or not they might produce allergens. The concern is that, by moving genetic material from one organism to another, an allergen might inadvertently be moved from one organism to another as well, […]