I realized just now that I spend a lot of time answering questions over email from readers of the blog, friends, readers of articles I’ve written, audiences of events I’ve appeared at, family, people I’ve met on the bus, on the subway, or in a bar, people who’ve seen me on one TV show or another, dates, former dates, colleagues, people I’m consulting for on a TV show or a movie, people in prison, artist or writer friends trying to get insight in to a scientist’s view of a particular issue or idea… and so on and so forth.
I usually send off an email response that reflects what I’m thinking at the time, that may be long or short and that may or may not be my definitive answer on some matter or other, but is at least a response that may be helpful to the person who wrote in.
I think that it might be worth occasionally posting the questions and answers here. Sometimes my answers (or the questions) are longer and maybe more interesting than my blog posts of the day, so why not? I won’t attribute the question to anyone (unless I know it is ok in advance), and I certainly don’t intend to post everything here (believe me, I’ve had some that I definitely would not post!!) , but just what I feel in the mood to do. This may at least help share my thoughts on things I get asked frequently that might be of interest to others who have the same question. Sometimes you might find that you want to agree or disagree with my answer, or simply add your own view or a piece of information or link or other tidbit. This might enrich the whole process. Go right ahead in the comments, where the usual commenting rules of the blog (such as no gratuitous long posts on, or links to, charming pet homegrown hobby-enthusiast theories of the universe that will just confuse the general reader) apply. (Yes, I decide what fits into that category. It is my blog.)
This deserves a new category (“mailbox”) and I will try to put all of the posts under it, in addition to other categories they fit into.
Let’s see how it goes.
-cvj
Is the change than we have in the comunications now you have to make your account and then all the people going to know about you ! is the life change …
Hi!
For twitter, see bottom of this page: http://asymptotia.com/facebook-connect/
Best,
-cvj
Really, I searched Twitter before posting and couldn’t find you!
Good to know 😉
Well, I blog about the issue (of poor science education and anti-science nonsense, etc), but indeed I cannot promise to answer anything of that sort… nor can I help with good answers to how to the “how to deal”, other than to urge patience and do your bit to encourage people to really think about the junk they hear and if still confused maybe read a book, do a bit of research, or simply ask a real scientist (look one up online and find their email – many of us are happy to answer a few questions if only people will ask us) rather than just accepting what they’ve heard.
Best,
-cvj
What I really want to know about is how to deal with the irrational thinking I encounter every day. Yesterday, a student told me that Obama had made gay marriage legal in 13 states since he became president. I replied with the facts and she said, “Oh” and seemed to actually believe me. But I’ve had disagreements with faculty at my school about topics as disparate as the dangers of vaccinations to children under two (my kids are vaccinated; she thought I was being criminal for vaccinating them) and the desire of one staff member to have me clean all the keyboards with anti-bacterial wipes to prevent the spread of H1N1 (I refused). This sort of non-scientific nonsense, seemingly spread largely by email, infuses our culture as much as old wives’ tales about wet hair giving you a cold. I’m a fairly mild-mannered human, but I’m getting to the point where I react emotionally. Not that I think this is really the sort of question you would be likely to blog about.
Dude (:) ), the blog (er, not me) already twitters. It is also on facebook networked blogs. Subscribe if you like! Honestly, though, I don’t see how that serves question-answering any better than email or the blog itself does.
Thanks!
-cvj
Dude, you need a Twitter account. Don’t resist it 🙂
Honestly I think it just makes it easier to reply to questions and it’s a fast and easy way to build traffic and interest to your blog. I subscribe to many science tweets and for my family, it’s a really
fun way to keep abreast of what’s happening. Granted, my budding science geek son is only three.