Tag Archives: politics

How to (not) Argue with Anti-Vaxxers

This post is also available in video form on Youtube: https://youtu.be/eojTc0Hu0Fg

Are mRNA vaccines safe and effective?

People argue about the mRNA vaccines. Are they safe and effective? And if people get it wrong, should we bother trying to convince them? This has become a contentious (and political) issue. I’m Dr. Peter Allen. I earned a PhD in bioanalytical chemistry. I am not employed by any company with an interest in vaccines, and this video represents my personal thoughts and opinions. I want to share some 2026 research on the vaccine safety. Thankfully we don’t need a lot of expertise to understand the broad strokes of this recent study. I want to examine what it means to the anti-vax position.

Frankly, this is the kind of research that is so clear, so understandable, that it should settle the arguments. This is how an evidence-based argument is supposed to work.

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Video essay on Robots (plus a DIY chemistry demo)

I managed to post three videos since my last update.

A vlog about burning Iron: https://youtu.be/46YlW8qjp_c

Burning Iron Attempt 2: pure-ish oxygen: https://youtu.be/SURy8xRsRp4

A video essay about robotics and automation: https://youtu.be/TisXw8zS5r0

The slightly expanded essay is below for your reading pleasure.

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Aluminum is Wealth and Knowledge is Better than Gold

This post is also available in video form: https://youtu.be/pXXad5FmkiU

Aluminum is wealth. That sounds strange – it’s cheap, and it’s a recent invention. But the fact that we can all get use (goods and services) because of things made of aluminum is a kind of wealth. And it’s an example of a bigger principle. When someone tells you something is rare or scarce and equates that to value, remember this. Value comes from enabling more people to enjoy something, not from preserving its exclusivity.

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Anti-science on the internet

Comics: First – Previous – Next – Last

I had to take a break from social media because I was spending too much time worrying about people being wrong ABOUT SCIENCE on the internet (credit to XKCD for articulating it first). I moved house and had to focus on catching up at work. But the subject nagged me. I started working on a long form writing project about anti-science online. Why are people against science? There are a lot of answers to that question. It’s not as simple as just saying “fundamentalism” and throwing my hands up. I want to understand the problem better.

As I started researching the issue, I found a book called The War on Science. I realized that I don’t need to write a book about this because it has been done already (and better than I could manage). The book is exhaustive.

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Anti-fragility

Evolution, capitalism and science are anti-fragile. Nassim Taleb introduced the idea to my consciousness.

Top-down optimized systems are always fragile. These three phenomena are not fragile. In fact, they gain from being shocked.

Evolution, capitalism and science also share this common algorithm: systematic, brutally honest trials of proposed solutions, followed by ruthless rejection of failures and amplification of successes. The human psyche may not be well-adapted to appreciate such systems. We seldom like honesty or rejection.