In City Journal, John Tierney laments the scientific community’s descent into partisan politics and propaganda. Tierney sees hope for scientific integrity and academic freedom, however: U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Covid dissident Jay Bhattacharya for director of the very National Institutes of Health that colluded with social media to suppress Bhattacharya’s views throughout the pandemic.
At Least He Paid his Losing Bet
Paul Ehrlich, author of the spectacularly incorrect 1968 best-seller The Population Bomb, recently died at 93. Despite his longevity, Ronald Bailey points out in Reason, Ehrlich did not live to see even one of his numerous apocalyptic predictions come true. The world’s population certainly grew, but not merely larger, richer and fatter too. Most famously, Ehrlich once bet economist Julian Simon that the world was approaching economic collapse – but in 1990 had to mail Simon a cheque.
