The Bewilderness

Arctic Circular Ices Up

On the 6th September, meteorologists released a report examining statistically significant weather phenomena and guaged whether anthropogenic global warming could be identified as a causal factor. One of those events was the Arctic ice area in 2012, much reduced, and explained as a response to global warming. This also remains the controversial response of the IPCC.

As for “the extremely low Arctic sea ice extent in summer 2012,” the report says this resulted primarily from the melting of younger, thin ice from a warmed atmosphere and ocean.

“This event cannot be explained by natural variability alone. Summer Arctic sea ice extent will continue to decrease in the future, and is expected to be largely absent by mid-century.”

Arctice ice cover was set to decrease. And now? It has increased by 60% this year after record lows. There is also the significant matter of the 'global pause'.  For some reason, we are not given a reason for the increase, except for the vague notion of variability. This programmed bias raises scepticism; its simplistic, circular arguments in the media  

Amateur science comes into its own

Domestic science is on the up. Not the art of cooking, sadly diminished in the world of the celebrity chef, but the exploration of nature by amateur scientists. They have profited from cheaper instrumentation, better processing power and internet communities that can provide guidance and suggestions on experiments and observations.

This is not a new development and matters in degree, not kind. Amateur communities have existed in some scientific disciplines for generations, especially where professionals depend upon the observations of amateurs: astronomy and natural history, for one, Now, laboratories can be set up on a domestic scale and can achieve notable reproductions.

Sadly, the United Kingdom does not appear to have the critical mass for a separate society of mad amateur scientists.

DIY Science

The barriers to entry in science have fallen and new communities of amateurs are banding together to plan research, compare results and create improved forms of peer review. This has coalesced into the OpenScience movement, where citizen scientists campaign to erode the barriers to hobbyists and amateur researchers.

Ronald Bailey of Reason attended the Conference and reported back on the various factions within this movement: the egalitarians and the libertarians. NO doubt this is an artificial distinction within such a young trend, but there are some common foundations: a belief in the freedom to research, a need to provide microfinance for younger scientists marginalised by Big Science and a preference for Schumacher's 'small is beautiful'.

Creativity and innovation are drawing away from the dead hand of state bureaucracy: why wait 20 years acting as a dogsbody for a grant, when you can diy biology, chemistry and physics.

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