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| Rational Alchemy 02/14/2009 |
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| Podcasts - Rational Alchemy Podcasts | |||
| Written by Brian Walsh | |||
| Saturday, 14 February 2009 00:00 | |||
Download file:Information Filename: ra02142009.mp3 Filesize: 29713728 Kb
In this episode we discuss evolution with Dr. Doug Nichols in honor of Darwin Day. Douglas J. Nichols is a Scientist Emeritus with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and a Research Associate with the Department of Earth Sciences of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology from New York University and his doctoral degree in geology from The Pennsylvania State University. His career has included college teaching (Arizona State University and the State University of New York), the oil industry (Chevron USA Inc.), and research with the USGS. He was with the USGS in Denver for 30 years. Doug is a palynologist, and his research interests are in the fossil pollen and spores of Upper Cretaceous and Paleogene rocks of western North America and eastern Asia, with emphasis on biostratigraphy, paleoecology, evolution, and extinction events. His research has taken him throughout North America and to China, Japan, and Mongolia. He is a past-president of the American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists and a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. Doug is author or coauthor of more than 140 scientific papers and coauthor of the forthcoming book Plants and the K-T Boundary (Cambridge University Press). He is a former editor of the journal Palynology and for fifteen years has been the North American Editor of Cretaceous Research.
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No Libel Laws in Science

The use of the English libel laws to silence critical discussion of medical practice and scientific evidence discourages debate, denies the public access to the full picture and encourages use of the courts to silence critics. The British Chiropractic Association has sued Simon Singh for libel. The scientific community would have preferred that it had defended its position about chiropractic through an open discussion in the medical literature or mainstream media.



