Ground Truth

These messages describe the challenges of knowing what is valid.

    • The Perils of Binary Thinking

      Bob was an extrovert growing up with jobs selling shoes and appearing on the radio. He was also very bright. He originally planned to be a comedian but chose to study medicine instead and specialize in cardiology. Not one who enjoyed working for others, he created his...

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    • Lessons from The Donora Fog

      Donora, a small town south of Pittsburgh was a microcosm of American society. Donora had become home to a blend of cultures all coming together to work on the nation’s rapid growing economy post World War II. For a small community, it was well represented in both the...

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    • A Thousand Words

      Sebastião Salgado was born in 1944 in Brazil. He had a difficult childhood but eventually received a PhD in Economics from the University of Paris. With a degree, he began his professional career as an economist for the International Coffee Organization. It was this...

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    • How Can We Know

      Brian Wansink was born in Iowa in 1960. He came from a blue-collar family who valued education, eventually earning a Ph.D. in marketing from Stanford University. He went on to teach at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and the Wharton School of Business at...

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    • Transmitting Harm

      Andrew Wakefield was born in 1956 in England. Both parents were medical doctors and that became his career path as well. He began his career by exploring tissue rejection after transplantation surgery. His career took a turn when he published a paper linking the...

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    • Transmitting Harm

      Andrew Wakefield was born in 1956 in England. Both parents were medical doctors and that became his career path as well. He began his career by exploring tissue rejection after transplantation surgery. His career took a turn when he published a paper linking the...

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    • Polarization of Science

      Trofim Lysenko was born to a peasant family in Ukraine in 1898. He developed an interest in agriculture and graduated from the Kyiv Agricultural Institute. His early interests were finding a way to grow crops in the harsh winters of his homeland. His work in improving...

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    • Propaganda: What We Know from Neuroscience

      Until recently propaganda was a matter of throwing mud at a wall to see what sticks. (See Propaganda: A Look Back) It was effective because financial support provided the funds for a lot of propaganda. Now with the research of neuroscientists using fMRI, propaganda...

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    • A Hidden Epidemic

      Apophenia is the brain’s tendency to see meaningful connections between things that are unrelated. It is useful for finding creative breakthroughs, but it can lead to psychiatric dysfunction when taken to extremes. And that’s where the epidemic comes into play. Our...

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    • How We Understand Science

      Frank Field was born to Ukrainian immigrants to the U.S. He later anglicized his last name to Feld. He studied geology in college and then served in World War II where he was assigned duties as a meteorologist. His assignment was to help predict weather prior to...

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