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Alex Berezow
Executive Editor, Big Think | Executive Editor, Freethink
Dr. Alex Berezow is the Executive Editor of Big Think and the Executive Editor of Freethink. He holds a Ph.D. in microbiology and is a veteran science writer, author, and public speaker. He also is a member of the USA Today Board of Contributors, and his articles have appeared in BBC News, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Forbes.com, Wired, The Economist, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, and many other publications. His most recent books are The Next Plague and How Science Will Stop It (2018) and Little Black Book of Junk Science (2017).
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It does not matter if intelligent life exists elsewhere. We will never find each other.
As the American population grows, fewer people will die of cancer.
Scientists believe they have the answer, but philosophers prove them wrong.
The new treatment targets the underlying genetic cause of the disease.
The Black Death, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, wiped out 30 to 50 percent of Europe's population between 1347 and 1351. But, this is just the most infamous of the little microbe's shenanigans. Y. pestis, which is one-millionth our size, has caused three major pandemics and continues killing people to this very day. The plague gets such a bad rap because it represents some of the greatest tragedies to ever befall the human race.
My grandfather used to keep all sorts of things in the trunk of his car: Fishing gear, duct tape, aluminum foil, a large chain, a defused WWII hand grenade. When we asked why he squirreled away such a random assortment of items, he would shrug and say, "Just in case."
That, in a nutshell, is why we should never destroy the smallpox virus. Just in case we need it someday.
Most Americans don't think twice about workplace safety. Perhaps they should. In newly updated numbers for 2012, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 4,628 Americans met their demise while on the job.
Editor’s Note: This article was provided by our partner, RealClearScience. The original is here. It has been long thought that one of the characteristics that makes humans unique is our […]
Editor’s Note: This article was provided by our partner, RealClearScience. The original is here. The entire idea of democracy rests upon the notion that large groups of people will, more […]
Editor’s Note: This article was provided by our partner, RealClearScience. The original is here. Ebola is one of the scariest viruses on Earth. Along with Marburg and a few other […]
Editor’s Note: This article was provided by our partner, RealClearScience. The original is here. You might recall from high school biology a scientist by the name of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. He proposed a […]
The trouble with labeling everything a "fallacy" is that (1) not all poor reasoning is automatically fallacious, and (2) it implies that everybody would agree on everything if we could only think correctly.
The U.S. does have one thing in its favor: Inertia. The fact that we have been #1 for so long means that we will continue to live off of past success for several years to come. But, we can't live on fumes forever.
Not only is religion just as bad as an infectious disease, Mr. Dawkins also says it is a form of child abuse.
How are we supposed to communicate about science in an age when political partisanship and media hype dominate the 24/7 news cycle?
This article originally appeared on RealClerScience. You can read the original here. The government of the United Kingdomrecently announced its intention to draw up regulations for an innovative and controversial in vitro […]
To truly help developing societies, we need to answer their immediate needs.
What the average person in the Westernized world considers to be a big problem is rarely aligned with reality.
The U.S. Supreme Court determined that biotechnology companies are not allowed to patent genes. The Court has not gone far enough.