Gish Gallop is a technique, named after the creationist Duane Gish who employed it, whereby someone argues a cause by hurling as many different half-truths and no-truths into a very short space of time so that their opponent cannot hope to combat each point in real time. This leaves some points unanswered and allows the … Continue reading Gish Gallop
Introducing the Science Action Network
Speaking of Research and Understanding Animal Research (UAR) are proud to announce a new joint initiative - the Science Action Network. We aim to enable scientists to network together to provide both authority and public weight on discussions surrounding animal research. The Science Action Network Brushing your teeth – 25 minutes per week. Queuing – … Continue reading Introducing the Science Action Network
Challenging Animal Rights Groups at Student Orientation Week
As another academic year begins many animal rights groups will be rubbing their hands at the prospect of attracting dozens of new members during the Student Orientation Week (Freshers' Week in the UK) at their local university. Brightly coloured stalls with free gifts, vegan food and animal rights literature will appear on university campuses world-wide. … Continue reading Challenging Animal Rights Groups at Student Orientation Week
Parkinson’s Patient Meet the Marmosets
Understanding Animal Research has produced a fantastic video (below) showing Geoff Butcher, a Parkinson's patient, going to a medical research laboratory to discuss some of the latest animal research models used to treat his disease. Parkinson's affects over 120,000 people in the UK, and over 1 million people in the US, with many millions more … Continue reading Parkinson’s Patient Meet the Marmosets
How to Build an Action Network for Science
Across the world individuals and organisations misrepresent science for their own end. Such misinformation has been seen in the MMR vaccine-autism debate, the questions over the GM foods, and the causes and effects of climate change. More recently, a confused Republican Senate Nominee, Todd Akin, claimed that "the female body has ways to try and … Continue reading How to Build an Action Network for Science
Consciousness and Moral Status
A group of scientists recently gathered at the Francis Crick Memorial Conference and issued the following declaration which as been widely covered in the media: The absence of a neocortex does not appear to preclude an organism from experiencing affective states. Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of … Continue reading Consciousness and Moral Status
Public Outreach – A Toolkit for Investigators
That public outreach is an increasingly important part of the scientific life in the 21st century should be news to no-one, and this is as true of biomedical research as of any other field of scientific endeavor. Allyson Bennett has written extensively for us on this subject, highlighting both the benefits of public outreach, and … Continue reading Public Outreach – A Toolkit for Investigators
Safeguarding medical progress means supporting animal transport
The following guest post is from Eric Raemdonck, who has a background in the aviation transport industry. Eric recently launched the Advancing Animal Research blog, whose purpose is to " establish bridges between the aviation world, the life sciences, health care, pharmaceutical, animal research industries, educational institutions and their affiliate or representative associations as well as Governmental organisations". Facing a … Continue reading Safeguarding medical progress means supporting animal transport
Speaking of Research 