About Me

Hi. My name is Jason and I’m a science nerd. A proud one. A geneticist by day, asleep by night; this is my science and scepticism blog. Like most people I have some favourite topics that I’m really in to, but I also love finding out about pretty much anything. When I’m browsing the science news sites I’m like a kid in a candy shop, sometimes it’ll just be an unusual word that catches my eye and then I just have to know everything I can about that new thing; I once lost an entire evening to reading about regolith on Mars.

I also enjoy writing and so some time ago I decided to marry that with my insatiable appetite for science and this blog is how I am currently doing that. I only hope that you enjoy reading my efforts as much as I enjoy writing them, and hopefully we can all learn something along the way, too.

I’ll be naturally inclined to writing about the things that interest me most: physics and astronomy, genetics and health, but I’ll also try to force myself out of my comfort zone to keep things fresh and diverse. One of my other main topics of focus will be scepticism, fighting against pseudoscience wherever it raises its ugly head (especially complimentary/alternative medicine) and the science of science itself – how we know that we’re doing it right.

One last note, the name of this blog. I wanted it to be vaguely catchy and memorable, of course, and after what must have been upwards of a full 30 seconds of thought I came up with the Sceptilogicon. Which didn’t look right. So I decided to take drastic steps and Americanise the spelling, they (I’m British) spell sceptic with a ‘k’ and so The Skeptilogicon was born.

All hail The Skeptilogicon!

ALL HAIL THE SKEPTILOGICON!

8 thoughts on “About Me”

  1. Hi, Jason. I woke up this morning realizing that from the moment humans pointed a radio telescope to the space we should have been drowning with other civilization signals ! For millions upon millions of years they had the time to grow and spread their elecromagnetic signals all over the universe. So much time had passed from the big bang, thousands of other civilizations, if they exist , should use it ! Why they are not !? This is scary and is driving me mad ! There is smt wrong with this universe ! What do you think ?

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  2. Hi danhin262,

    That’s a very good and interesting question. What you’re referring to is Fermi’s Paradox, given there are so many planets and the universe has been here for 14 billion years why don’t we see aliens everywhere we look? Obviously I don’t have the answer but there are various theories as to why this is the case.
    1. It is in the nature for intellignet life to destroy itself. Perhaps it’s inevitable that we’ll destroy each other and never make contact with another civilisation?
    2. It is in the nature of intelligent life to destroy others. Maybe there is a civilisation out there but it destroys all other potential life it comes across to preserve itself?
    3. Most life is destroyed by natural disasters before it get’s the chance to develop to a stage where it has technology that would allow it to communicate across interstallar space?
    4. The universe is too big. Maybe the distances are just too vast for us to have had a chance to pick up any communications yet?
    5. We haven’t been listening for long enough. We have only had the technology for not even a century, that’s the blink of an eye in cosmological terms.
    6. Maybe other life is too alien for us to be able to recognise a communication from them?
    7. Maybe we actually are surrounded by aliens we just don’t know it.
    8. Maybe we are the only life in the universe?

    There are plenty of other possible explanations too. Personally, my money is on option number 4. As a final thought I’ll leave you with a Carl Sagan quote: either we are the only life in the universe or we aren’t, both options are terrifying.

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  3. Given the nature of “advanced life” on Earth, and our behavior towards one another, it strikes me as likely that we have been placed under quarantine by the rest of the intelligent universe. No other intelligent life form is permitted to be in communication with us, because we’re dangerous. If we were to learn any of the secrets of what is known, we’d be even more so. Carl

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  4. Jason – Did you read the recent Andy Borowitz column on the NEW YORKER website about geneticists becoming concerned about a dangerous mutation in humans, that leaves the afflicted individuals unable to recognize facts, or follow scientific processes? If not, please do. Regards, Carl Schuster

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  5. What makes the paradox a lot worse, is that a pristine planet Earth has been sitting here ‘for the taking’, for 10s of millions of years, and no one has ever left a detectable sign of interest. No early space-faring people ever left their junk behind.

    It’s not just ‘now’ that is an issue: It’s been the same story, effectively throughout time.

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