Week in review – science edition

by Judith Curry
A few things that caught my eye this past week (well actually, the past month).

Very good overview on the Madden Julian Oscillation and its implications for rainfall  by Carl Schreck [link]
NOAA’s atmospheric river information page [link]
Assessing temperature patterns projections made in 1989 [link]
NASA study improves forecasts of summer Arctic sea ice [link]
Pacific Ocean Heat Content During the Past 10,000 Years [link]  … Important research that Medieval warming Period was global.
Forget climate change: Human-started wildfires expand the fire niche across the United States [link]
New temperature record from China gives no hint of any recent warming that can be attributed to atmospheric CO2 [link]
Declining Arctic sea ice influences European weather—but isn’t a cause of colder winters [link]
Counterintuitive claim: Slower snowmelt in a warming world [link]
Review article: Abrupt climate changes of the Holocene [link]
A “chaotic solar system” is the root cause of #ClimateChange  [link]
Climatologists say Labrador Sea could cool within a decade before end of this century, leading to unprecedented disruption [link]
The ‘bootstrap’ philosophy of nature: Physicists have found evidence of a mathematical structure that encompasses all quantum theories: [link]
Revolutionary Power Plant Captures All Its Carbon Emissions, At No Extra Cost [link]
A role for tropical forests in stabilizing atmospheric CO2: [link]
Heavy snowfall in Greenland [link]
Study shows China’s severe weather patterns changing drastically since 1960: substantial decrease of severe weather events  [link]
“Scientists uncover huge 1.8 million square kilometers reservoir of melting carbon under Western United States” [link]
Don’t expect media focus when comprehensive analysis of sea-bed methane release points firmly away from alarm. [link]  …
Scientists Solve Ocean ‘Carbon Sink’ Puzzle [link]
“Regional variations in the ocean response to tropical cyclones: Ocean mixing versus low cloud suppression” [link]
Now in NatureClimate – Snapshot: Extreme Arctic heat [link]
Powerful new tool from NOAA to indicate possible location of life-threatening storm surge. [link]…
Historical carbon dioxide emissions caused by land-use changes are possibly larger than assumed [link]
Social science and policy
Why Some of the Worst Attacks on Social Science Have Come From Liberals [link]
Meta-analysis finds abstracts in climate research papers to be “sensationalized” compared to text, like other fields [link]
Science curiosity  trumps politically biased information search [link]  …
New article published by Andrea Saltelli “What is wrong with evidence based policy , and how can it be improved?” [link]
Ideological science: BeeGate illustrates how science, activism and politics mix to produce unsound policy. [link]
Industry sponsorship and research outcome [link]
Thoughtful paper on conflation of science & values: The Biodiversity Conservation Paradox [link]
New study: Climate scientists engaging in advocacy have latitude to do so without harming scientific credibility: [link]  …
Preparing for disruptions [link]
Long but fascinating read:  An epidemic of unnecessary treatment [link]
Labels like “climate denier” undermine civil dialogue & increase destructive polarization around issues. [link]
Is the American elite really elite? [link]
How arguments about nuclear weapons shaped the climate debate [link]
Important & interesting: Motivated Responding in Studies of Factual Learning [link] …
How to Embrace Uncertainty in Participatory Climate Change Risk Management—A roadmap [link]
‘Alternative facts’: A psychiatrist’s guide to twisted relationships to truth [link]
Looks like warming has been a net good: Global economic impacts of climate variability and change during the 20th century [link]
About science and scientists
The lure of rationality: Why does the deficit model persist in science communication? [link]
Restoring Trust in Expertise Requires That Those Describing Themselves as “experts” Embrace Uncertainty [link]
Interesting essay on the history of technology and innovation [link]
History: Interview with Nikola Tesla [link]
Interview with Manabe [link]
A history of Joseph Fourier’s ‘political science’ [link]
Top U.S. scientific body not disclosing conflicts of interest on #GMOs. [link]
Where it is argued that “Galileo’s vast reputation, & the hyperbolic accolades that go with it, are not justified by the real history.” [link]
How policies designed to improve academia are actually messing it up [link] …
Treating science with the respect it deserves [link]
The History of Zero: How Ancient Mesopotamia Invented the Mathematical Concept of Nought and Ancient India Gave It Symbolic Form [link]
Researchers do a good job of estimating the size of errors in measurements but underestimate chance of large errors [link]
Certainty in complex scientific research an unachievable goal [link] …
Some provocative comments on communicating climate science & echo chambers [link] …
 
 
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