Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston loch. Sir Henry Raeburn.
Does objective truth exist? Can humans ever uncover it? With a focus on my recent publication on oxygen-sensing proteins, concepts of Truth — qualitative and quantitative, discrete and continuous — are explored and critiqued.
Read More
Distraining for Rent. Sir David Wilkie.
We are taught that all improvements in societal health are causally linked to a corresponding scientific advance. This is the myth of heroic science. It is clear that lifespan has steadily increased due to a decline in infectious disease mortality. However, this has more to do with improve quality of life due to labour and socialist movements than antibiotic and vaccine development. Socialism is capable of improving our material conditions through wealth redistribution and my allowing democratic control of our scientific institutions to make sure we all benefit from our collective genius and creativity.
Read More
Cottage Interior with Seated Woman. Max Liebermann.
Graduate students at the University of Toronto are poorly remunerated for our scientific labour. Our stipend is a poverty wage, and we are ripe for financial exploitation. This desperation drives graduate students to the gig economy for the money they need to survive. In the freelance editing world, trainees can expect low payouts and stressful deadlines. We need to provide a living salary for all scientists, even those who are still in training.
Read More
Peupliers, temps gris, Éragny. Camille Pissarro.
Advocates for capitalism have tried to link scientific progress with a profit motive. Yet, run-away capitalism has undoubtedly ushered some of the largest medical problems facing the world - lung cancer, type II diabetes, antibiotic resistance. Capitalism, in its pursuit of profit, creates problems that can be tackled by a capitalist model, if profitable, or, if not, left by the wayside, a new fixture in our late-stage capitalist society.
Read More