Search Results for: Science

Longreads Best of 2016: Science Writing

Longreads Pick

We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here, the best in science writing.

Author: Editors
Source: Longreads
Published: Dec 20, 2016

Longreads Best of 2016: Science Writing

We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here, the best in science writing.

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Brendan Borrell
A freelance writer in Brooklyn.

The Amateur Cloud Society That (Sort of) Rattled the Scientific Community (Jon Mooallem, The New York Times Magazine)

Whenever one of Mooallem’s stories come out, I pretty much drop what I’m working on, kick back on my couch, and read it with a big, stupid grin. This delightful piece about a self-professed “idler” who discovers a new type of cloud is the perfect match between writer and subject matter. I guarantee that the moment you start reading, you, too, will float away from whatever it is you probably should be doing.

The Billion Dollar Ultimatum (Chris Hamby, BuzzFeed)

I was blown away by this investigation into a global super court that allows businesses to strip countries of their ability to enforce environmental regulations. “Known as investor-state dispute settlement, or ISDS, this legal system is written into a vast network of treaties that set the rules for international trade and investment,” Hamby writes. “Of all the ways in which ISDS is used, the most deeply hidden are the threats, uttered in private meetings or ominous letters, that invoke those courts.” This is the second part of Hamby’s series on the ISDS, and it focuses on an Australian company that was able to strip-mine inside a protected forest in Indonesia. Even though the company was complicit in the beating and, in one case, killing of protestors, the government was too cowed by the court to revoke the company’s permit. Read more…

How Two Trailblazing Psychologists Turned the World of Decision Science Upside Down

Longreads Pick

As people critique the statistical systems used to predict presidential-election outcomes, the debate draws into question the reliability of predictions in general. But before there was Moneyball, two Israeli psychologists used baseball to understand the flawed practice of prediction.

Source: Vanity Fair
Published: Nov 15, 2016
Length: 31 minutes (7,918 words)

Longreads Best of 2015: Science

Longreads Pick

Story selections by Carl Zimmer, Justin Nobel, Francie Diep, and Julia Wick.

Author: Editors
Source: Longreads
Published: Dec 18, 2015

Longreads Best of 2015: Science

We asked a few writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in specific categories. Here, the best in science writing.

* * * Read more…

Forensic Pseudoscience

Longreads Pick

Are we fundamentally overestimating the scientific soundness of our forensic methods?

Source: Boston Review
Published: Nov 16, 2015
Length: 10 minutes (2,740 words)

The Controversy Surrounding Science Fiction’s Most Prestigious Award

At Wired, Amy Wallace reports on the controversy at the Hugo Awards, which has been plagued by accusations by a faction of mostly white male authors who call themselves “Puppies” and argue that storytelling has taken a backseat to identity politics:

Though voted upon by fans, this year’s Hugo Awards were no mere popularity contest. After the Puppies released their slates in February, recommending finalists in 15 of the Hugos’ 16 categories (plus the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer), the balloting had become a referendum on the future of the genre. Would sci-fi focus, as it has for much of its history, largely on brave white male engineers with ray guns fighting either a) hideous aliens or b) hideous governments who don’t want them to mine asteroids in space? Or would it continue its embrace of a broader sci-fi: stories about non-traditionally gendered explorers and post-singularity, post-ethnic characters who are sometimes not men and often even have feelings?

With so much at stake, more people than ever forked over membership dues (at least $40) in time to be allowed to vote for the 2015 Hugos. Before voting closed on June 31, 5,950 people cast ballots (a whopping 65 percent more than had ever voted before).

But were the new voters Puppies? Or were they, in the words of George RR Martin—the author of the bestselling epic fantasy novels that HBO adapted into Game of Thrones—“gathering to defend the integrity of the Hugos”? On his blog, Martin predicted: “This will be the most dramatic Hugo night in Worldcon history.” He wasn’t wrong.

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Who Won Science Fiction’s Hugo Awards, and Why It Matters

Longreads Pick

Controversy at the Hugo Awards, which has been plagued by accusations by a faction of mostly white male authors who argue that storytelling has taken a backseat to identity politics.

Source: Wired
Published: Aug 24, 2015
Length: 18 minutes (4,708 words)

Science, Chance, and Emotion with Real Cosima

Longreads Pick

Through her work on clone-thriller Orphan Black, science consultant Cosima Herter has helped open our eyes to the possibilities and perils of synthetic biology and the pursuit of genetic perfection.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jun 24, 2015
Length: 23 minutes (5,889 words)