Allan Dyen-Shapiro
A 1987 Octavia Butler Story "Commenting" on Today's New York Times Feature
Identity—it's who you are—partially born into, partly chosen, and in part forced upon you. It was the subject of two different stories I...
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Allan Dyen-Shapiro
Science Fiction Author
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Jul 4, 2020
OF PANGOLINS, RECOMBINATION, ACE2, FURIN, ENDANGERED SPECIES, RACISM, AND XENOPHOBIA
"Kung flu," "the Chinese virus," "enormous evidence" that the coronavirus outbreak originated in a Chinese biotech lab—these phrases used...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- May 27, 2020
EXPERTISE, EMPATHY, AND VIRTUE SIGNALING
Like many of you who have been sheltering-in-place, with my now-virtual day job having settled down a bit, I've been catching up on TV...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Apr 18, 2020
My Perspective on the Revelations from the CDC
The investigation, reported in this Washington Post article, has revealed what went wrong with testing for the coronavirus in the US. The...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Mar 14, 2020
Because of COVID-19, You Will Need to Euthanize Your Lab Animals. Well…
Science Magazine today came out with a news story about researchers having to shut down their labs because of COVID-19-related...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Jan 2, 2020
Science Fiction and Green Politics in the 2020s and Beyond: Thoughts on Gibson’s The Peripheral
When I began writing science fiction just before the beginning of this last decade, I had a mission. It was related to the mission that...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Dec 23, 2019
Mr. Robot as a Comment on Revolutions and Revolutionaries
With the Emmys this show has garnered, it’s safe to say I’m not alone is judging it the best science fiction television show in recent...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Dec 7, 2019
Shiny new tech to save us all! Sort of.
The flashy headline attracted my attention: a new energy source from rivers meeting the oceans. Blue membranes. I liked the name....
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Nov 2, 2019
"To me, fair friend, you can never be old," said my buddy Bill, but that doesn't apply
I admit it—I like ridiculous titles. The Internet has been atwitter (pun intended) with a hullaballoo that seems to me will be a tempest...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Oct 13, 2019
Either a Solution to a Major Cause of Famine or Shoddy Science—I Don’t Know
By 2050, half of the world’s arable land will be salt-stressed due to rising sea levels. Although transgenic tomatoes that are more...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Sep 5, 2019
Nuclear Power, Carbon Capture, Fracking: Prophets of Avoidable Doom are Right, for the wrong reasons
Yesterday’s Climate Change Town Hall uncovered rifts between the Democratic Presidential candidates. On the one extreme, Cory Booker...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Jul 28, 2019
Jessica versus the Hellcat: moral philosophy from Season 3 of Jessica Jones
I was going to give up on this series after the first couple episodes of its last season. I had loved the first two seasons. The morally...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Jun 10, 2019
And Now for Something Controversial
For a long time, I felt that the role for men in the country’s debate over abortion was to shut up and not get involved. It was an issue...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- May 3, 2019
Caster Semenya and What Her Case Says about the Future of Gender in Sports
As this is a minefield, I will state my expertise from the get-go: at one point in my life, I published scientific papers quantifying the...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Mar 9, 2019
So, you’re believing scientists, now? Well, it will cost you.
Up to recently, I had thought the most important role for educators, broadly defined, in this country was debunking climate change...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Dec 22, 2018
Psychological underpinnings of the politics defeating the Green New Deal
The US has become a pariah nation in terms of response to global climate change, but it is not because the average person is...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Oct 15, 2018
New evidence that the world is in deep shit
Here’s a link to an excellent summary in the Washington Post of a very disturbing PNAS article. I’ve just a few clarifications to add....
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Sep 29, 2018
The Missing Experiment Necessary Before You Get Out the Protest Signs
I have been pretty consistent on calling bullshit on a particular left-wing rallying cry of Roundup as an environmental issue. The...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Aug 14, 2018
Navin Johnson Redux III—Toward a Near-Future SF Treatment of White, Male, Christian Southerners
My blog posts usually lead to a considerable amount of Facebook/Twitter-based discussion, but things have been pretty quiet in response...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
- Aug 2, 2018
Navin Johnson Redux II
In Dan Baum’s book, Gun Guys, he distinguishes the various zones experienced when armed with a loaded weapon. The most interesting to me...
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