The SciSchmooze
Herb Masters
15 December 2025
Greetings Fans and Supporters of Science, Reason, and Critical Thinking,
Before we go any farther, are you reading this on Sunday, 12.14.25? The weather hasn’t been friendly lately but, if you can see the sky tonight… “The 2025 Geminid meteor shower peaks on the night between December 13 and December 14. The Geminids are expected to produce about 120 meteors per hour at a dark site, and are often considered the best meteor shower of the year by skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere.” It may seem like it has been colder than usual for this time of year. I certainly seem to be feeling it more than I have in the past. Birds usually deal with the weather by migrating. Some of us might be able to do that as well, but not many of us. There are lots of ways to survive winter in the natural world. The surprising strategies animals use to survive the winter.
I’m always amazed at how science is treated, understood, or misunderstood. I like to think that science is simply the best answer to questions about how everything works when there is evidence. If there is no evidence, but plenty of rumors and ideas, the imagination can, and does, run wild. There are so many examples that all of us know about that I’m not going to list any of them. However when there is data, and evidence, that is reproducible by independent researchers we are in the realm of science. Ideas change too. Consider the history of bloodletting. There’s another term for it. It is called hirudotherapy. Science never stops. Science checks itself and others check it too. When the overwhelming amount of evidence points to something it is generally reliable if not actually a fact! Needless to say there are many interpretations of “fact“. This is all a lead into what I think is a horrible assault on science by the current leader of the USA! There is plenty of discussion about this. Please consider these… ‘Attack on Independent Science’, The Risks to Evidence-Based Policy, let’s just say that this didn’t just start this year. I will offer this up as a bit of insight into the “controversy“. You may have heard of 3I/ATLAS. You might be inclined to ask, Is the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Alien Technology? Here’s an article that may pull all of my ramblings together… Is it aliens? Why that’s the least important question about interstellar objects Here’s one more example… Was the Baghdad Battery Actually a Battery?: An Archaeologist Demystifies the 2,000-Year-Old Artifact. One more discussion on this… Authors of ‘Science Under Siege’ warn of concerted effort to discredit science
It’s that time of year when people pay a little less attention to science and a little more to celebrating family, friends, and good will. I hope that you have plenty of that planned. I hope that you also find the motivation and interest to check out, attend, and support those that are tirelessly reaching out to the public, sharing the Joy of Science (give that one some time!) We must not stop talking about joy in science. Here’s a few presentations to consider this week…
- Special Documentary Screening: Western Monarch Butterflies, Protecting Our Pollinators – 12/16/2025 05:30 PM
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History Pacific Grove (This may be a bit far to go but it’s a gem of a museum.) - Wonderfest: Most Precious: Layers of Scientific Understanding – 12/16/2025 07:00 PM
Hopmonk Tavern Novato - 100 Years an Enigma – The Biology of the Bizarre Giant Dinosaur Spinosaurus – Livestream – 12/18/2025 04:00 PM
Skeptical Inquirer - After Dark: Solstice – 12/18/2025 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
(Not so realistically, there are only a couple of presentations this week that are in the same town at the same time. This is a good chance to claim an undocumented record for the highest percentage of SciSchmooze listed events in one week in the more than 20 years of SciSchmoozes!)
Here’s some interesting items (at least I think so!).
You may have heard about and recognize this. M 5.9 –IVDYFI Time 2025-12-04 16:06:13 (UTC) Location 39.239°N 119.519°W Depth 8.0 km I look forward to the day when we can find out what happened! Here’s an original report!
Greatest Mysteries of Gravity | Brian Greene & Kip Thorne
I Visited Abandoned Oil Rigs — and Found Something Terrifying Underwater
Got Coffee? Your Daily Brew and the Sudden Need to Poo
The Telescope Images Scientists Have Been Waiting 12 Years For | Euclid
The Atomic Cigarette Lighter in case the cigarette isn’t bad enough!
Authors of ‘Science Under Siege’ warn of concerted effort to discredit science
Science Under Attack: A case for optimism
Have an excellent week celebrating Family, Friends, Community, and Science…
and share this with a friend!
herb masters
“There is no scientific justification for faith, for science and faith are mutually exclusive. Not that one made the other impossible, or vice versa, but that, as far as science goes, there is no faith, and faith can only begin where science ends. It can not be denied that, if this limit is adhered to, faith can really have real objects. The task of science, therefore, is not to attack the objects of faith, but merely to set the limits which knowledge can attain and to establish within it the unified self-esteem.”
— Rudolf Virchow Original German from ‘Der Mensch’ (1849), collected in Gesammelte abhandlungen zur wissenschaftlichen medicin (1856)
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