2009-07-14-2B Unscientific America - still useless

2009-07-14 PZ Myers Pharyngula \Unscientific America\PZ Myers vs. Unscientific America http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/07/unscientific_america_still_use.php Unscientific America: still useless Unscientific America - still useless  Mooney is at it again, scrabbling madly to refute my criticisms. It's another ho-hum effort.

Ah, but the real kicker here, the one that clearly is annoying Mooney most, is my accusation of uselessness against his book, that it offers no solutions at all. He says there are, there are! He says it several times, in several ways!

...

Alas, if you read his rebuttal, he won't actually tell you what those solutions, or even that Grand Solution, are. It's very strange; it's as if he's afraid that if he even briefly summarizes what his proposals are, you won't need to buy his book, so they've got to be kept secret. ...

Well, I'm going to do it. I'm going to spill the beans. I am going to give you the Grand Solution that Mooney and Kirshenbaum present in chapter 10, the one that is so new that neither of them could have come up with it on their own.

Here it is. Ready?

Here's a summary of chapter 10: seven pages laying out the many problems that face people who want to pursue a career in science, from uninspiring teachers in grade school to the fierce competition for university positions. All true, of course, nothing at all novel here. What is their solution, presented in the final three pages? Create more well-rounded scientists, more Renaissance scientists, more scientists with specific training in communications skills, so that when they don't manage to land that academic position, they're still prepared to go out into society and act as ambassadors for science.

Really, that's it. All of it. That's their solution.

In an ongoing debate over the merits of the book Unscientific America, PZ Myers responds to the latest defenses of the authors.   