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A review by baghaii
Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives by Michael Specter
3.0
After the local discussions by people afraid of 5G, I needed to read a book that was preaching to the choir of people who believed in scientific evidence over nonsense. A number of the people that the author relied on for this book are people that I read.
However, I was disappointed in the author's discussion on GMOs because he was measuring the harm of pesticides by the weight of the pesticides applied, arguing that GMOs required a smaller quantity of pesticide. This is not a good way to measure the harm of pesticides. We usually measure the harmfulness of chemicals not by the weight of the chemical but by their LD 50. He really should have discussed this chapter with some more pharmacologists or chemists.
It was quite jarring to watch the author transition from pesticides are not harmful because we measure them by weight to the chapter on echinacea where he is not discussing anything about the quantity of the harmful substances present in these supplements.
I really liked the chapters discussing vaccines and synthetic biology.
However, I was disappointed in the author's discussion on GMOs because he was measuring the harm of pesticides by the weight of the pesticides applied, arguing that GMOs required a smaller quantity of pesticide. This is not a good way to measure the harm of pesticides. We usually measure the harmfulness of chemicals not by the weight of the chemical but by their LD 50. He really should have discussed this chapter with some more pharmacologists or chemists.
It was quite jarring to watch the author transition from pesticides are not harmful because we measure them by weight to the chapter on echinacea where he is not discussing anything about the quantity of the harmful substances present in these supplements.
I really liked the chapters discussing vaccines and synthetic biology.