My Insect Collection

What is Junk Science?

strathy — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 04:20:38 +0000

I did a quick Twitter/Google study on the term 'junk science' this evening and can only conclude that, it depends on who you ask.

If you are a supporter of the man-made Global Warming theory, junk science is anything that clouds the issue or creates confusion in your perfectly formed theory. Conversely, if you are a skeptic of the AGW theory, you will disregard all scientific study that comes from a doubted source (i.e. IPCC) no matter how good the science is. If you believe that DDT is bad – then any science that shows a connection between DDT, mosquitoes and malaria is labeled and disregarded as 'junk science.' If you believe that DDT is good, then you will disregard any science that clouds the issue such as the studies that seem to show that mosquitoes have built up a resistance to DDT making the chemical less effective in vector control.

Junk science is a label that both sides of a position seem to throw around at will. So just what is Junk Science?

According to Wikipedia, "Junk science is a term used in U.S. political and legal disputes that brands an advocate's claims about scientific data, research, or analyses as spurious. The term may convey a pejorative connotation that the advocate is driven by political, ideological, financial, or other unscientific motives."

The problem with this definition, is that nobody can be free of the label. Any research commissioned by big oil, tobacco and drug companies are virtually always defined as junk science. No matter what their findings are – they can be relegated to the junk pile without any contrary scientific findings at all. However, when an environmental lobby group, such as Green Peace publishes its 'findings' this is very rarely called junk science. Yet they are very politically motivated. They are money hungry and indeed, need to be self-supporting just to keep themselves fed and clothed. Even ecologists must keep the dire warnings coming or else they face the withdraw of public funds which they so heavily rely on. Without impending doom, what would we need ecologists for? Who is free from political, ideological or financial motives today?

Once we begin to term scientific study as simply 'junk science' especially without showing proof that counteracts the findings we disagree with, we are no longer acting as scientists – we are politicians.

My conclusion: Leave the politics to the politicians and lets get back to science. If an opponent of yours produces something that you believe to be flawed or incorrect, prove him wrong. Show us where and why he is wrong. Show me the science … not the money (thanks Jerry Maguire.) Simply painting him and his findings with a label does nothing to advance our knowledge of science and the world around us.

Raising Cecropia’s – Final Stage

strathy — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:33:44 +0000

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Of the original 100 and some, I ended up with 4 survivors. I lost close to 80 of them in 1 24 hour period when disease swept through all the containers. After that I had about 10 left. In the final stages here, it has been hard to keep them alive. On Monday, one of them spun a cocoon and 2 more are definitely ready to do so going by their size. The other remaining one is substantially smaller, so probably will continue to feed for a while yet.

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Raising Cecropias – Newly Emerged 3rd Instar

strathy — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:43:07 +0000

Here you can see a newly emerged 3rd instar with it’s shuck still attached to the leaf beside it. At this point the new skin is very soft and so I notice that they tend to sit and ‘rest’ or whatever for a while after molting before going on to feed again.

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Raising Cecropias – 3rd Instar

strathy — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 14:04:33 +0000

The Cecropias are doing quite well. However I did lose one container of them to some sort of disease. The whole container of them got sick and died within 24 hours. The other 3 containers of them are doing well. They eat about 4 large Maple leaves a day now … and will only consume more as they get larger. Their colour seems to change from light green to almost black, but I’m not sure what causes this or why. My informal count this morning came to just over 70 left, so there has been some mortality other than the container that had the disease. Most of them are just over 1 inch long now.

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Raising Cecropia Moths – 2nd Instar video

strathy — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 23:26:48 +0000

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IMG_0155.mov (5387 KB)

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Raising Cecropia Moths – 2nd Instar

strathy — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 23:11:16 +0000

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Raising Cecropia Moths – 1st Week

strathy — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 22:40:14 +0000

So far, out of approximately 150 eggs, I have 118 Cecropia larvae. I started them on Maple as it is common here and abundant, so I should have a good food source for the most of the summer. I'm currently housing them all in clear SnapLid containers. However, there is no way that I will be able to raise all these in such limited space. So, when they begin to outgrow the containers, I will set most of them free on local Maples, keeping only the most robust ones.

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Raising Cecropia Moths -1st Hatch

strathy — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:41:05 +0000

The hatch has begun. Last night when I went to bed, there was 1, this morning when I got up there were a couple of dozen. I've started them on Maple leaves – looks like there is going to be a LOT of them!

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Raising Cecropia Moths

strathy — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 23:17:57 +0000

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IMG_0113.mov (5514 KB)

After 8 days, Mrs. Cecropia has laid 154 eggs … and now, like all overworked mothers, she is spent. She will likely goto moth heaven tonight.

I've put the eggs into a clear plastic container and we will see how many hatch. I will try to raise them on maple if I can.

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Ready for a Night of Moth Collecting

strathy — Sun, 30 May 2010 04:42:16 +0000

Here is my lights set up at my Mother-in-laws place in the country outside of Smiths Falls, Ontario. I set up and collected Friday and Saturday nights – May 28 and 29, 2010. There were a lot of different Sphingids coming in both nights, with a nice hatch of Two-eyed Sphinx on Saturday night. I did not see any Silk Moths on Friday night, but on Sat., first a really beat up Polyphemus came in and then about 5 mins later a beautiful, female Cecropia came in. I kept here alive and she is in a paper bag right now – she should lay between 100 and 200 eggs overnight, then die. I will try to raise those eggs, but it might be hard on the boat.

Ready for the night to come.

Couple of young potential collectors … with ice cream for bait.

Set up at night.

Waved Sphinx (Ceratomia undulosa) Bunch of these came in on Friday night.

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