Content tagged science
How do we know the vaccine works?
posted on 2021-12-17
In the past few months, and especially in the last weeks, I have been doing some pretty intensive research on the safety and efficacy of the Covid vaccines. I was getting a lot of questions on it from some of my friends, and I wanted to be able to give them my perspective on this as a biologist looking at the scientific literature. I've been working on a longer document looking at all sorts of issues that people bring up, but for starters I‘d like to give a quick overview of some of the studies that look at the vaccines’ efficacy. In other words: how do we know these vaccines actually work?
more...Putting the vaccinated at risk
posted on 2021-09-24
Background: A friend of mine shared a meme about Covid vaccinations with the caption: “The protected need to be protected from the unprotected by forcing the unprotected to use the protection that didn't protect the unprotected.” Here is my response:
more...Tote Kinder durch Corona-Impfung?
posted on 2021-06-30
Hintergrund: Eine Bekannte teilte online die Analyse eines Biologen (Hervé Seligmann), nach der angeblich Covid-Impfungen von Erwachsenen zu einer erhöhten Mortalität bei nicht-geimpften Kindern führt. Hier schaue ich mir diese “Studie” genauer an:
more...On the effectivity of masks against Covid-19
posted on 2021-04-29
Background: A friend of mine shared a post that quoted the CDC as saying: “CDC is not aware of any randomized control trials that show that masks or double masks or cloth face coverings are effective against COVID-19.” As my response turned out a bit longer than expected, I'm archiving it here for future reference…
more...Dumping Mendeley for Zotero
posted on 2019-07-15
For several years, my library program of choice was Mendeley, which used to be a fantastic piece of software that perfectly fit my needs. Unfortunately, phenomenally bad management and some very dubious design choices have made it pretty much unacceptable. I've hesitated for a long time, but last week I decided it was time to take the plunge and have now switched to Mendeley's open source competitor, Zotero. Here's my first impression.
more...Rezension: Darwin - Abenteuer des Lebens
posted on 2019-05-06
Sieben Monate reiste Jürgen Neffe um die Welt, der Reiseroute folgend, die seinerzeit Darwin an Bord der Beagle nahm. 2009 erschien dann sein Reisebericht: “Darwin – Das Abenteuer des Lebens”. Eine gut geschriebene 500-Seiten Reportage über Gott und die Welt, nur leider nicht die im Titel versprochene Darwin-Biografie…
more...Communicating Science
posted on 2019-03-25
“What can we do to communicate our research to the public?” This was the question for a discussion session with some of my colleagues last week. Many scientists see the need for this kind of communication, but few know how to go about it, and even fewer actively do it. After all, how do you explain your work on, say, a channel protein of the Venus Flytrap to your neighbour, and why should he bother listening? It is a challenge. But believing that it's worth the effort to try, here are some general principles we found.
more...Review: God's Philosophers
posted on 2019-01-28
For the past two years, I've been on the lookout for a good book on medieval scholarship. For one, I find the Middle Ages a strange and intriguing period; for another, I always enjoy reading about the history of science. “Standing on the shoulders of giants” is what we do as scientists – but who were these giants? And who were their giants? How did they think, argue, communicate? Well, I finally found what I was looking for. The book in question is James Hannam's “God's Philosophers – How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science”. Here is a summary of the volume, with a few of my own thoughts attached.
more...This blog covers africa, animals, biology, books, christianity, computers, conservation, covid-19, democracy, deutsch, ecology, education, essay, favourites, games, gis, history, leadership, lisp, politics, programming, projects, science, social media, society, terranostra, tutorials, writing
