At CPAC Marco Rubio said it's an "absolute fact" that life begins at conception, but that climate change is not a certainty. Will scientists ultimately doom the GOP?

Noted Jefferson Scholar Clay Jenkinson spends the hour discussing Shawn's article in Scientific American, "Antiscience beliefs jeopardize US Democracy," from Thomas Jefferson's perspective (mp3 file; takes a moment to load)

First-ever Presidential surrogates general election science debate, Capitol Hill.

How do the US presidential candidates view science and technology issues? MSNBC's Alan Boyle talks with ScienceDebate.org's Shawn Lawrence Otto about science politics.

Science is beginning to outpace our global policymaking apparatus so rapidly that the situation is posing serious challenges to democracy.

Local screenwriter Shawn Otto, who wrote House of Sand and Fog, has another treatment in development about wild rice. Perfect for Minnesota, right? You would think so. Slam dunk.

It’s the media’s job to be a check and balance on the government and hold them accountable for what they do. But if the media isn’t doing that and people are getting bad information, how are they supposed to govern?

Denying science and reality should, in principle, be non-partisan. No general political orientation should be more or less predisposed to it.

Unlike a typical history-of-science text, Fool Me Twice weaves the history of science throughout a discussion of the current anti-science movement in this country, always reminding us that the nature of democracy in America is tied to the nature of science.

This book deserves attention and discussion by individuals and groups who aspire to improve the climate for rational public discussion of science. I strongly recommend it.

I do hope that at least a number of scientists–especially those just wading into the waters of communication and science politics–do pick up the book, and dog-ear some of the important pages and suggestions as I have done.

This is a very good book for the science activist, offering many viable solutions to the growing problem of science illiteracy and stupidity.

In the other side of his bifurcated life, the author muses on the mysteries of coincidence and the siren call of the movies

Thursday morning I moderated my first live presidential debate, on Capitol Hill.

The United States faced down authoritarian governments on the left and right. Now it may be facing an even greater challenge from within

It's not about voter fraud. Minnesota has had no cases of voter impersonation, which is the only kind of fraud that a government-issued photo ID would prevent. It's about turning Minnesota into a "red state" for the foreseeable future. Here's how.