This week in science: Turtles all the way down

Chris Mooney's new book reviewing the science of denying science has turned into a mini-phenomenon. The author responds and clarifies here:

A potentially simpler explanation for these results, then, is that the fact-checkers are simply doing their job'and Republicans today just happen to be more egregiously wrong. Democrats, meanwhile, are certainly not innocent when it comes to making misleading statements, but their pants are not on fire.

Why does this matter? The reason I undertook this analysis was to examine, in the real world, my book's thesis'closely related to Mann's and Ornstein's'that Republicans, overall, process information differently from Democrats. Mounting evidence from psychology, for instance, suggests that one's politics are driven partly by one's personality, and Democrats and liberals are simply more open to new information and experiences as well as more tolerant of ambiguity and uncertainty.
 

Needless to say, some conservatives feel they're being ridiculed or unfairly typecast in some way, but there were no claims of anything pathological in the book, and no objective science has come forward suggesting the primary thesis is flawed. Feel free to add your review to Amazon's growing list.

• I, too, like turtles. Especially giant prehistoric turtles.
• It's a small jump from "job creator to The Creator," and a real-life science and tech creator has a better, proven idea he says is worth spreading:

  We've had it backward for the last 30 years. Rich businesspeople like me don't create jobs. Rather they are a consequence of an eco-systemic  feedback loop animated by middle-class consumers ... That's why taxing the rich to pay for investments that benefit all is a great deal for both the middle class and the rich.

• Brain and brain stem injuries are among the cruelest of neural trauma. They can leave victims locked in, completely immobile and yet completely conscious and able to feel pain. Work like this on the UI between brain and body could result in treatment for that horrible fate and it's based on amazing technology right out of a Gibson novel.
• The SpaceX launch of a Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft to the ISS was aborted literally at the last second early this morning. A sensor recorded high pressure in one of the rocket's nine Merlin engines at T minus zero causing shut off. Next window is in the wee hours of May 22.