Battle of Ideas | Reading for Battle

Shortages: Water supplies in crisis
Over the past 40 years the world's population has doubled. Our use of water has quadrupled. Yet the amount of water on Earth has stayed the same.
Roger Harrabin, BBC News, 19 June 2012

The Sound of Thirst

Water, water, everywhere. Or is it? The Sound of Thirst explains the urgency of taking water and waste water seriously in an age where good management and political will are chronically scarce.

David Lloyd Owen, Parthian Books, 1 June 2012

Shale Gas Extraction in the UK: a review of hydraulic fracturing
The health, safety and environmental risks associated with hydraulic fracturing (often termed ‘fracking’) as a means to extract shale gas can be managed effectively in the UK as long as operational best practices are implemented and enforced through regulation. Hydraulic fracturing is an established technology that has been used in the oil and gas industries for many decades. The UK has 60 years’ experience of regulating onshore and offshore oil and gas industries.
The Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering, 1 June 2012

Bringing new life to dead matter
Human beings have the potential to transform the universe, so let’s not lose sleep about turning it into ‘grey goo’.
Colin McInnes, spiked, 22 May 2012

The Minimal Publishable Unit
What constitutes a minimal publishable unit in scientific publishing ? The transition to online publishing and the proliferation of journals is creating a setting where anything can be published.
Pedro Beltrao, Public Rambling blog, 9 May 2012

There’s no such thing as a natural drought
Never mind the lack of rain in recent UK winters - it is our willingness to invest and build big that has really dried up.
Rob Lyons, spiked, 3 May 2012

Drugs - Without the Hot Air: Minimising the Harms of Legal and Illegal Drugs

Prof Nutt puts the case for an evidence-based scientific approach to drugs. In straightforward languages for the lay person, he explains what drugs are, how they affect the body and the mind, and why people take them and get addicted to them. He shows how we can quantify the overall harms of a drug, addressing issues from direct danger of death, through to environmental, financial and family factors, to obtain a true indication of the overall effect of a drug.

David Nutt, UIT Cambridge, May 2012

War Of The Worlds: When Science, Politics Collide
Roger Cone is a microbiologist, not a politician. He struggles with a basic truth: For all the scientific acceptance of evolution, many Americans simply don't believe it is factually accurate.
Scott Neuman, NPR, 17 April 2012

Misery index
Low social status is bad for your health. Biologists are starting to understand why
Economist, 14 April 2012

Human Genetics Commission Final Report
Human Genetics Commission, April 2012

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The IPCC: can we trust the evidence?

"Who would choose to go to a session on free will at 10:30 on a Sunday morning? A few hundred of the most engaged, passionate and discursive participants I have encountered. As a neuroscientist on the panel I felt my science was aired and challenged in exemplary fashion. As a passionate believer in engagement I couldn’t have been more delighted."
Daniel Glaser, head, special projects, public engagement, Wellcome Trust

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