Posted 09.18.2012 at 11:00 am
2 Comments
Malcolm Gladwell
Wikimedia Commons
Steven Poole over at the New Statesman has a great piece up bashing the populist, not-so-scientific writings of folks like Malcolm Gladwell and Jonah Lehrer. It's an angry, thoughtful discussion of the complexities of the brain and why catchy headlines and simplistic conclusions might be doing us a disservice. The first line: "An intellectual pestilence is upon us." Read it here.
2 Comments
To comment, please Login.
Popular Tags
Science
|
|
|
|
|
|
June 2013: American Energy Independence
Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.
Popular on Popsci
Most Commented
Science
- Scientists Create First Cloned Human Embryo
- State Drops Charges Against High School Student Arrested For Science Experiment
- Space Tourism's Black Carbon Problem
- Cold Fusion Machine Gets Third-Party Verification, Inventor Says
- Giving White People The Illusion Of Darker Skin Makes Them Less Racist
- What Modern Humans Can Learn From The Neanderthals' Extinction
- FYI: Do Wind Farms Make It Less Windy?
- How Do You Make A Painkiller Addiction-Proof?
- Untouched For The Last Billion Years, Water In Canadian Mine Holds Ingredients For Life
- FYI: Could Climate Change Cause More (And Bigger) Tornadoes?
Most Emailed
Science
- Portland, Oregon, Says No To Fluoridation
- Got A Wound? Science Says Rub Some Dirt In It
- Was The Oklahoma City Tornado The Worst In History?
- These Self-Assembling Nanoflowers Are As Beautiful As They Are Tiny
- The Moore, Oklahoma Tornado, From Space
- The Oklahoma Tornado, From Space
- Synthetic Biologists Engineer A Custom Flu Vaccine In A Week
- These Self-Assembling Nanoflowers Are As Beautiful As They Are Tiny
- FEMA's 'Waffle House Index' Rates Moore, Oklahoma, At Disaster Level Yellow
- FYI: Could Climate Change Cause More (And Bigger) Tornadoes?
Most Viewed
Science
- Portland, Oregon, Says No To Fluoridation
- Got A Wound? Science Says Rub Some Dirt In It
- Was The Oklahoma City Tornado The Worst In History?
- These Self-Assembling Nanoflowers Are As Beautiful As They Are Tiny
- The Moore, Oklahoma Tornado, From Space
- The Oklahoma Tornado, From Space
- Synthetic Biologists Engineer A Custom Flu Vaccine In A Week
- These Self-Assembling Nanoflowers Are As Beautiful As They Are Tiny
- FEMA's 'Waffle House Index' Rates Moore, Oklahoma, At Disaster Level Yellow
- FYI: Could Climate Change Cause More (And Bigger) Tornadoes?
Online Content Director: Suzanne LaBarre | Email
Senior Editor: Paul Adams | Email
Associate Editor: Dan Nosowitz | Email
Assistant Editor: Colin Lecher | Email
Assistant Editor: Rose Pastore | Email
Contributing Writers:
Rebecca Boyle | Email
Kelsey D. Atherton | Email
Francie Diep | Email
Shaunacy Ferro | Email
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2012 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
Of course it's "bollocks." Just look at how mental illnesses are so overdiagnosed. Jon Ronson spoke of this in a TED talk: www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/jon_ronson_strange_answers_to_the_psychopath_test.html
Come on guys; whats the point of putting this in Popsci? Is there some reciprocal agreement between mags or writers that we are not seeing.
Why not have "lost the plot" Dennis Miller come on in for a conservative rant to no where about the nonsense and pseudoscience of interpreting human brain chemistry/activity instead of this verbose and erudite dribble. It would at least be funnier.
Why is this in here at all; are you saying NONE of the distinguished writes he bashes have credible science to support their positions? Not ALL of the data in the so called NEURO self help books is being examined through a fMRI machine. Years of study and testing beyond the supporting evidence of brain scans also applies here.
Mr. Poole's rhetoric should be supported by fact. If Mr. Poole has the gumption, let him study a "NUERO" topic for 5 or 10 years and lets see how he approaches it.
Dan; what is your relationship to Mr. Poole?