Anomalistics
The term “anomalistics” refers to the study of scientific anomalies, alleged extraordinary events unexplained by currently accepted scientific theory. Anomalistics deals with empirical claims of the extraordinary – it is not concerned with alleged metaphysical, theological, or supernatural phenomena. Anomalistics recognizes that unexplained phenomena exist, but does not presume these are unexplainable. It seeks to...
Consciousness
“If the conscious self is an illusion – who is it that’s being fooled?” * “What the deniers do not acknowledge is that paradigms do change, and that it is theories, and the experiments that test them, that create paradigms … in this context consciousness researchers such as parapsychologists are simply early-adapters.”– Stephan A. Schwartz,...
Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Cosmology
Funding Denied for Plasma Cosmology Research by The Editors A group of cosmologists, other scientists and engineers published an open letter in New Scientist on May 22, 2004. Their purpose was to draw attention to the current policy on research funding which seems to be governed by dogmatism and prejudice in favour...
Energy
Energy Attacks on Research Funding for New Energy Alternatives to Oil and Nuclear Fission Energy Generation by The Editors In a 2006 issue of Nature (Volume 442, pp. 230-231, 20 July 2006) Eugenie Samuel Reich reported S. Putterman’s belief that Rusi Taleyarkhan, leader of the group that developed the bubble fusion...
Evolution
The Rise and Fall of the Peppered Moth “A riotous story of ambition and deceit.” – Dava Sobel by the Editors The cornerstone of Darwinian natural selection is crumbling. The peppered moth, biston betularia, is a species of moth familiar to anyone who has studied biology, for this ordinary moth provided evidence...
Extraterrestrials
ETs, EBEs, and ETVs by The Editors Debate over reported UFO phenomena has raged for over 50 years. All too often, the battle in a classic controversy such as “Do UFOs exist?” has been conducted from the extremes: enthusiasts to the left, dogmatists to the right. Amongst the turmoil of claims...
Psychic Phenomena
Psychic Phenomena The Great Divide by Guy Lyon Playfair Why Proponents and Deniers of Psi Are Never Likely to Agree Debating Psychic Experience, edited by Stanley Krippner and Harris L. Friedman (Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2010), deserves to become required reading for sociologists, historians of contemporary science, and anybody involved in any...
Scientific Objectivity
Bias and Fraud in Science by the Editors The problems in science today – and what needs to change. NIH Disclosure Rules Falter Sara Reardon, Nature News, 15 September 2015 “Still, [former U.S. Senate staffer Paul] Thacker says, there is a clear need for closer scrutiny. This is backed up by evidence...