Hello there, /r/Science! We* are a group of researchers who just published a meta-analysis of expert agreement on humans causing global warming. The lead author John Cook has a video backgrounder on the paper here, and articles in The Conversation and Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Coauthor Dana Nuccitelli also did a background post on his blog at the Guardian here. You may have heard the statistic “97% of climate experts agree that humans are causing global warming.” You may also have wondered where that number comes from, or even have heard that it was “debunked”. This metanalysis looks at a wealth of surveys (of scientists as well as the scientific literature) about scientific agreement on human-caused global warming, and finds that among climate experts, the ~97% level among climate experts is pretty robust. The upshot of our paper is that the level of agreement with the consensus view increases with expertise. When people claim the number is lower, they usually do so by cherry-picking the responses of groups of non-experts, such as petroleum geologists or weathercasters. Why does any of this matter? Well, there is a growing body of scientific literature that shows the public’s perception of scientific agreement is a “gateway belief” for their attitudes on environmental questions (e.g. Ding et al., 2011, van der Linden et al., 2015, and more). In other words, if the public thinks scientists are divided on an issue, that causes the public to be less likely to agree that a problem exists and makes them less willing to do anything about it. Making sure the public understands the high level of expert agreement on this topic allows the public dialog to advance to more interesting and pressing questions, like what as a society we decided to do about the issue. We’re here to answer your questions about this paper and more general, related topics. We ill be back later to answer your questions, Ask us anything! *Joining you today will be: Stuart Carlton aka @jscarlton John Cook aka /u/SkepticScience Sarah Green aka @FataMorgana_LS Peter Jacobs aka /u/past_is_future Stephan Lewandowsky aka /u/StephanLewandowsky Andy Skuce aka /u/AndySkuce Bart Verheggen aka @BVerheggen and perhaps some others if they have time Mod Note: Due to the geographical spread of our guests there will be a lag in some answers, please be patient!

I am a postdoctoral researcher at Michigan State University investigating the biomechanics, evolution, and ecology of gecko lizards with special attention to their adhesive toes. I’ve always been interested in figuring out how things work and my research blends that interest with biology. I use an evolutionary approach to understand why animals are shaped the way they’re shaped, This kind of work is sometimes called functional morphology or comparative biomechanics. I specifically focus on the toe pads of gecko lizards, an amazing example of natural nano-technology. Gecko toe pads are a really great system to work with because they have some really unusual mechanics and evolutionary patterns. Unlike other adhesives you may be familiar with (glue, tape, velcro, suction cups), gecko toe pads work completely differently. They are made up of tiny hair-like structures that are much smaller then mammalian hair. These structures are small enough to interact with the surface the gecko is walking on using van der Waals forces (an induced dipole - induced dipole weak intermolecular bond). Simply put, the fact that the gecko hairs are very small and have electrons spinning around them and the surface the gecko is walking on also has electrons spinning around its molecules, results in the gecko hairs being weakly attracted towards the surface. The really interesting part is trying to figure out why there is so much variation across species. Gecko toe pads come in different shapes and their hairs also come in different lengths, diameters, and densities. We’re just now beginning to look into how/why this variation evolved and its affect on performance. With this research, we’ll not only gain a better understanding of how life on our planet has evolved and adapted to different environments, but some of the things we learn can be applied to help solve complex human problems (biomimicry), like sticking to things in space or designing Spiderman gloves. I also have a live crowdfunding project at https://experiment.com/projects/are-the-feet-of-gecko-lizards-adapted-to-different-surface-textures you should check out. I will be back at 1 pm ET to answer your questions, Ask Me Anything! Sorry everybody! There was a scheduling snafu! I’ll be checking this all day on Sunday (4/16) to answer your questions! Also check out a video of a lecture I gave in 2014 at the University of Idaho https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzmXxp_tjj8

Hi Reddit! I am S. Jay Olshansky and I’m a professor of epidemiology in the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. I’m also on the board of directors of the American Federation of Aging Research; the first author of The Quest for Immortality: Science at the Frontiers of Aging (Norton, 2001); A Measured Breath of Life(2013); and co-editor of Aging: The Longevity Dividend(Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2015). I have spearheaded The Longevity Dividend Initiative – an effort to extend the period of healthy life by slowing aging. I study the upper limits of longevity and ask which populations are living longer and why, and what that means for society. Living a longer life is a monumental achievement of public health and modern medicine – it is exactly what we set out to achieve more than a hundred years ago when life was short. More people today are living to 65, 85, and 100 and beyond than ever before, but it has created a Faustian trade. In exchange for our longer lives, we now live long enough to experience heart disease, cancer, sensory impairments, and Alzheimer’s disease. The fact is that our bodies were not “designed” for long-term use . While improved lifestyles can enhance health and quality of life, the aging process marches on unaltered beneath the surface – leading to the diseases and disorders we fear most. My research focuses on investigating ways to extend the period of healthy life and compress sickness and disease as much as possible to the very end. Recently I have teamed with a group of researchers to study the ability of the diabetes drug metformin to do just that; although metformin is just one of many research pathways scientists are pursuing to slow biological aging. My research suggests that slowing down aging will be the next great public health advance in this century because it targets multiple age-related chronic diseases. Importantly, this approach to public health can save far more health care dollars than treating one disease at a time. The time has arrived to take a new approach to chronic fatal and disabling diseases. I’ll be back at 1 pm EST (10 am PST, 6 pm UTC) to answer your questions, ask me anything!

Available from: Kyndt, T., Quispe, D., Zhai, H., Jarret, R., Ghislain, M., Liu, Q., … Kreuze, J. F. (2015). The genome of cultivated sweet potato contains Agrobacterium T-DNAs with expressed genes: An example of a naturally transgenic food crop . Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 112(18), 5844–5849. doi:10.1073/pnas.1419685112

Diversity supports the well-being of any healthy and productive ecosystem. The scholarly research enterprise is no different in this regard. Diversity needs to be designed into the research ecosystem and the interactions across the community. We call the community to refocus its efforts on building a vibrant habitat by supporting diversity and inclusivity.

A document by Do Tromp. Click on the document to view its contents.

Hi Reddit! I’m Tristram Smith, Ph.D., professor of Neurodevelopmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center. I’ve been studying and treating Autism Spectrum Disorder for several decades, and have written extensively on the effectiveness of early behavioral interventions for children with ASD. I’ve also spent time reviewing treatments for autism, many of which have not been studied extensively. (Most recently, a colleague and I published a review article that identified and catalogued a number of different treatments based on their effectiveness in peer-reviewed literature.) I also oversee a user-friendly website that provides capsule reviews on the science behind various interventions. Ask me about early intervention for ASD, myths about autism causes/treatment, or anything else! I’m signing off for now, but I’ll leave a few links for people who want to learn more! NIMH Autism Spectrum Disorder CDC Interactive Autism Network

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Quantum gravity theories are relevant for very high energies that occurred e.g. during the Big Bang. These theories also make statements for the entropy of a Black hole. This papers shows how the entropy of a Black Hole is computed approximately by E-gravity theory. Also quantum fluctuations affected by gravity are discussed.

A document by AmerChemSocietyAMA . Click on the document to view its contents.

Contemporary scientific research faces major cultural and institutional hurdles. Some of the primary challenges include an exploding knowledge base and organizational complexity of many scientific projects, the overproduction of PhDs relative to the availability of faculty positions, and protracted educational trajectories for many aspiring researchers. Perhaps the most serious set of consequences caused by the fierce competition of modern science are low rates of reproducibility in research studies across many disciplines, a startling reality which undermines the scientific process and institutional authority itself. In an increasingly interconnected intellectual world, where fundamental and applied research are deeply interwoven, the implications of this state of affairs extend well beyond the research laboratory. In this article, I explore one possible strategy among the many necessary interventions for addressing these critical global issues, namely, new graduate programs to train scientific generalists. Rather than focus on developing niche technical skills, these programs would train outstanding communicators and decision makers who have been exposed to multiple subjects at the graduate level. The motivation for creating such programs is to introduce a large number of exceptionally trained individuals across all industries and organizations who have been encouraged to think critically about the practical realities and contemporary cultural trends of scientific research. I suggest possible avenues for structuring such programs and examine the roles that generalists might play in the modern research, policy, and industrial landscape.

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