A Science Journal Funded by Peter Thiel Is Running Articles Dismissing Climate Change and Evolution

[TheBlackAdder]

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This fucker again?

Last summer, I noticed a peculiar email in my inbox. It was from someone I didn’t know, addressing me as “Professor Becker” (a misnomer), and asking me to write for an online publication called “Inference: International Review of Science.” Like hundreds of other emails, this one had languished in my inbox for months while I was busy promoting my first book—an in-depth look at the persistent mysteries of quantum physics. Now I was trying to catch up, which involved deleting a lot of spam. As I read through Inference’s email, I nearly deleted it too.

But Inference, which bills itself as a “quarterly review of the sciences,” was offering me a chance to write about a topic of my own choosing (subject to their approval). They also promised to pay me “appropriately” for my work, and the timing would have been great for book promotion. So I replied. While I waited for an answer, I went to Inference’s website. It looked like a real science publication — featuring the original writing of scientists and other thinkers I respect, including MIT’s Noam Chomsky and George Ellis at the University of Cape Town. There were 13 issues ranging back to 2014, covering a mix of subjects including physics, biology, and linguistics. But as I clicked around, I began to think that Inference wasn’t what it appeared to be.

Several articles on the site argued against the theory of evolution, for example, and at least one dismissed the overwhelming scientific consensus on global warming. Later, through tax documents and interviews, I would learn that all of Inference‘s funding came from a surprising source: Peter Thiel. Since Inference’s start, Thiel, a prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist, has donated at least $1.7 million to the outlet.

Thiel has shown an interest in the media before: After a years-long vendetta against the online news site Gawker, he funded the lawsuit that ultimately bankrupted their parent company. According to reports, Thiel has been exploring the launch of a conservative news outlet. And while he does fund legitimate scientific endeavors—largely through grants to science startups, including some that depend heavily on evolutionary biology—he has also given money to companies engaging in alarming scientific practices, such as unregulated offshore human clinical trials for a herpes vaccine.

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/01/a-science-journal-funded-by-peter-thiel-is-running-articles-dismissing-climate-change-and-evolution/

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[Claritie Pixie]

1. Another obscenely rich man with dead eyes.

[hunter]

2. It's not a "science journal" whatever he wants to call it.

I could draw a hundred dollar bill with a crayon, but it's not a hundred dollar bill.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

3. but what if

What if I found some people willing to swear that's a hundred dollar bill? Wouldn't that make it legit?



(DU needs a bigger sarcasm thing).

[Iliyah]

4. I was told by my elders that . . .

God gave us the ability to make right choices. When it comes to protecting the earth and all the inhabitants therein, God gave us brain power, such intelligence to rectify known pass wrong decisions.

[redstatebluegirl]

5. This is not a science journal, it is a work of fiction.

[TheBlackAdder]

6. Like those sham sites you pay a few hundred to get your papers "peer-reviewed" by peers :-D

[redstatebluegirl]

7. Oh yea, I've seen those.

[spanone]

8. Proof that money doesn't make you smart.