A great quote from Robin Ince, who was asked to sit on a panel entitled ‘Is science the new religion?’

‘The answer to “is science the new religion?” is obviously yes, so long as you redefine religion as “a self-correcting, evidence based system of exploring the universe which attempts to unearth the least wrong laws and theories that can explain what exists or might exist whilst accepting that room must always be left for doubt and further enquiry”.’

The rest of his post is thoughtful and thought-provoking also, especially to those of us who have to deal with parents of patients, and acquaintances, who claim to have researched an issue when what they really mean is they googled it.

Richard Lehman’s journal review this week is ironic and biting as usual, with some great links. His evaluation of the poor science underlying all the calls to reduce salt intake (and his links to various papers evaluating the evidence in detail) is comforting for someone who sprinkles sodium liberally on a lot of cooking.

My favorite science writer on the internet is Ed Yong, his blog ‘not exactly rocket science‘ is a treasure trove, and his ‘missing links’ section points out, every week or so, other excellent science writing. He manages to explain things to non-specialists without dumbing down (at least only enough for a non-specialist to understand). A great new post from him, about the Monarch Butterfly I found fascinating. We have Monarchs in Quebec of course, and our Monarchs migrate 4000 kilometers to overwinter in the mountains of Mexico. Its an amazing journey for such a fragile creature, even more amazing that no one butterfly makes the whole journey, they reproduce en route and the next generation is able to complete the journey.