Updates

September 21, 2009: Chris Mooney just appeared to discuss Unscientific America on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," and you can watch the video here. One of his lectures on Unscientific America also aired this morning on CSPAN's Book TV--you can watch it here.

July 31, 2009: In the August 17 issue of The Nation, an adaptation of Unscientific America has run entitled "Unpopular Science: Intelligent science reporting has been gutted, just when we need it most." Partly based on chapter 6 and 9 of the book, the article also includes new reporting. You can read it here.

July 26, 2009: In the Sunday Boston Globe Ideas section, Chris and Sheril have an article based on Unscientific America entitled "The formula: Why don’t Americans understand science better? Start with the scientists." You can read the full article here.

July 20, 2009: Today is the 40 year anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landings, and Chris has a piece at the Huffington Post about the "science deficit" we've fallen into since those days--and what to do about it.

July 17th, 2009: Chris just did his first national radio segment for Unscientific America--on NPR's "Living on Earth." You can listen here, and also access a full transcript. The segment also discusses the hilarious YouTube video the "Large Hadron Rap" as an example of cutting edge science communication. Watch the video here.

July 14th, 2009: Over at Newsweek.com, Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum comment on why Francis Collins' nomination to head the National Institutes of Health is a very good thing--and why scientists who blast religious researchers like Collins are hurting their own cause.

July 13th, 2009: Two articles related to Unscientific America have come out. The first is an article by the authors on Salon.com, entitled "Why America is flunking science." The second is a Buzzflash.com commentary entitled "How Scientific Illiteracy Cost Us 20 Years on Global Warming." Unscientific America is also a Buzzflash.com premium book, and can be ordered here with an additional donation to keep Buzzflash going!

July 13th, 2009: On the popular online political blog the Daily Kos, DarkSyde has given Unscientific America a great review, calling the book "a must read for anyone who cares about understanding or reversing the long national slide into pseudoscience and willful ignorance that has periodically gripped America. The book neatly follows up Mooney's best seller, The Republican War on Science, into a broader, nonpartisan narrative of an entire nation enamored by the nifty gizmos and life saving applications of science, yet saddled with a long history of anti-intellectualism that periodically spills over into open contempt. It's a dose of stiff but sorely needed medicine for baby boomers and genx'ers who grew up during a short thaw in that icy antiscience trend by way of a cold war, a hot space race, and one great communicator named Carl Sagan."

July 13th, 2009: Chris Mooney did a dialogue on Bloggingheads with Carl Zimmer on various topics relevant to the new book 'Unscientific America'. You can view the discussion here. Carl Zimmer is also going to be introducing Chris when he gives a book talk in New Haven, CT, on July 21. Details here.

July 13th, 2009: Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum did a Q&A session about 'Unscientific America' with Steve Andrew of the Orlando Science Policy Examiner. Read the full exchange here.

July 10, 2009: There was a lot of press today on the new report from the Pew Research Center about science and the American public, and Chris Mooney was quoted--sometimes at length--by Alan Boyle of MSNBC.com, Pete Spotts of the Christian Science Monitor, and Dan Vergano of USA Today. Follow the links to read the articles, or go here for more of Chris's take on the new data about the vast gap between scientists and average Americans.

July 8, 2009: Michael Mann’s review of Unscientific America over at RealClimate is the most comprehensive yet! Click here for the full text. It ends on this note: "If it were up to me, this book would be required reading for all undergraduate science majors, along with Sagan’s “The Demon-Haunted World”. Only when we begin training scientists to understand the relationship between science and society, and their crucial role in that relationship, will be begin to solve the dilemma so eloquently described in ‘Unscientific America’."

July 8, 2009: ScienceBlogger James Hrynyshyn has written a very positive review of Unscientific America. You can read the full text here.

July 6, 2009: Noted scienceblogger Chad Orzel of "Uncertain Principles" has a strong review of Unscientific America, and promises to be blogging about the book all week. In his first post, Orzel calls it "a very good book, well argued and engagingly written." Keep following him at http://scienceblogs.com/principles!

July 2, 2009: Copies of Unscientific America have been spotted in stores going into the long 4th of July weekend. Meanwhile, the book tour has added three new stops: the Chicago area (Evanston, IL), Garrison, NY (the Hastings Center), and Raleigh, NC. See here for details.

July 1, 2009: Chris Mooney's latest column, "Dude, Where's My War on Science?", strongly rebuts recent conservative claims that the Obama administration is now abusing science just as the Bush administration did. You can read the full column here.

June 30, 2009: The bloggers are beginning to talk about Unscientific America, and some even to quote it at length. I gather they've gotten it on their Kindles. For commentary see James Hrynyshyn, the Daily Doubter, and curricublog. Also, the first of our real reviews has also come out today, from Seed magazine in its July list of “Books to Read Now." According to Seed, the book "duly highlights the Sagan-and Gould-shaped holes we have in our current scientific discourse."

June 23, 2009: Updates are now posting to two pages, www.waronscience.com and www.unscientificamerica.com. And besides the launch of the latter, brand new site, there is much else to announce. Chris Mooney's forthcoming book Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future, co-authored with Sheril Kirshenbaum, is now available on Amazon for preorder, as well as from many other vendors; has a growing Facebook group with nearly 700 members so far; and is even venturing onto Twitter (warning: highly experimental). The book itself is out July 13. Tour dates here--and many more updates soon.

January 24, 2009: On the evening of Monday, January 26, Chris will appear on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report to discuss the "war on science" and how the Obama administration can fix it. Many of the answers to this question are also outlined in Chris's forthcoming book, Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future, co-authored with Sheril Kirshenbaum; a recent Slate.com article Chris authored entitled "The 'War on Science' is Over: Now What?", and a recent Bloggingheads diavlog he did with leading science journalist Carl Zimmer.

January 24, 2009: Chris's second book, Storm World, recently won the 2009 Louis J. Battan Author Award from the American Meteorological Society. The book was honored as “an accurate and comprehensive overview of the evolving debate on the impacts of global warming on hurricanes that illustrates the complexities of this significant scientific problem.” The award, named for Louis J. Battan who contributed outstanding research efforts in radar meteorology and wrote several books aimed at nonscientists, was presented on January 14 at the 89th AMS Annual Meeting in Phoenix. You can order copies of Storm World here.

March 5, 2008:Storm World Named a "Best Sci-Tech Book of 2007" by Library Journal. In its latest issue, Library Journal singled out 39 noteworthy sci-tech books published in 2007. Storm World was one of two chosen in the "meteorology/earth science" category.

August 14, 2007: The website ClimateandInsurance.org, created by the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, just interviewed Chris about Storm World. Also, Chris has recently begun to write a blog at The Daily Green entitled "The Storm Pundit," which tracks hurricanes globally. His first post is entitled "2007 Hurricane Season: Don't Get Too Comfortable"; his second, "Hurricane Forecasts, Fulminations, and Flossie"; and his third, "Hurricane Flossie, the Unforecastable," discusses Hurricane Flossie in more detail. His most recent, "Farewell Hurricane Flossie--Hello Tropical Storm Dean," is available here.

Chris appeared recently to talk about Storm World at the progressive mega-conference Yearly Kos, and wrote an essay about the conference's science panel at Huffington Post. Finally, Chris did an online commentary at The Guardian's science site about just how bad Bush's presidency has been on science, in particular stem cell and climate policy.

August 7, 2007: Storm World was reviewed very favorably a few weeks back by John McQuaid in the Washington Post. Meanwhile, Chris was quoted in a recent piece by USA Today's science writer Dan Vergano, in which Vergano looks at the "war on science" following Richard Carmona's testimony.

Many other reviews of Storm World have rolled in lately: Discover magazine gave a fair review, and James Elsner, hurricane specialist at the University of Florida, gave a very positive review in the latest issue of Nature. Meanwhile, the book also got reviewed by Alexandra Witze in Nature Reports: Climate Change, which means two reviews at Nature. Finally Storm World was very favorably reviewed by Kate Sheppard at Chris's journalistic Alma Mater, The American Prospect Online.

July 24, 2007: There have been a series of Storm World reviews written by fellow ScienceBloggers. Today, Mark Hoofnagle of the blog, Denialism, gave a very enthusiastic review of the book. PZ Myers posted a review on his blog, Pharyngula, and Janet D. Stemwedel reviews the book on her blog, Adventures in Ethics and Science. A defender of The Republican War on Science, Joshua Rosenau also praises Storm World on his blog, Thoughts from Kansas. Afarensis recommends the book, as does Dr. Joan Bushwell, here, on her blog, Dr. Joan Bushwell's Chimpanzee Refuge. Finally, Chris's "Speaking Science 2.0" co-lecturer Matthew Nisbet reviews the New York Times Review of Storm World on his blog, Framing Science.

July 15,2007: Storm World's best review yet appears today in the LA Times by Thomas Hayden. Last Friday, Kevin Drum reviewed Storm World at Political Animal, and Salon.com just released a very positive review of the book. Meanwhile, Chris has received postitive reviews at newspapers along the tour-route. The Tampa Tribune ran a profile/review as a heads-up for his talk at Inkwood Books, and New Orleans Times Picayune Book Editor Susan Larson reviewed Storm World in anticipation of Chris's upcoming talk in his hometown. Though still busy touring, Chris wrote an op-ed in the Orlando Sentinel about the National Hurricane Center blow-up, and appeared on Science Friday to discuss Storm World as well as the situation at the NHC.

July 12, 2007:Chris Mooney is on tour for Storm World. The book was given very positive review from Ellen Ruppel Shell of the Atlantic in The Boston Globe. The latest Wired also features a short item about Storm World. Additionally, Chris has contributed a two part series of posts at Huffington Post entitled "Why Did Global Warming 'Tip'?" featured on the Huff Post homepage. See the first and second. Chris was twice quoted Saturday on an NPR Weekend Edition program, once again about why the global warming issue has "tipped."

July 5, 2007: Chris Mooney's Storm World was reviewed in the Sunday New York Times Book Review by Lisa Margonelli of the New America Foundation. The review is available here. That's just one of a number of reviews: Andrew Freedman did a very thoughtful review over at the Weather Channel website Channel Earth; ScienceBlogs' Kevin Beck just wrote a very favorable review of the book; and positive reviews have appeared at RealClimate.org, Daily Kos, and in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. The Boston Globe calls the book "riveting." Finally, the segment of Chris Mooney's "Speaking Science 2.0" talk, in which he discusses the hurricane-global warming issue has now been put up on Youtube.

June 9, 2007: As the July 9 publication date for Storm World approaches, the book's official website--at www.StormWorldBook.com--has gone online. The site features tour dates (new ones are being added all the time), a central blog, an extensive author interview, and most important, the entire first chapter as an excerpt. Storm World has also recently received very positive reviews from Booklist and Library Journal. The latter was a starred review.

May 16, 2007: It's official, The Republican War on Science has sold 50,000 copies.

April 24, 2007: Chris Mooney's forthcoming book Storm World received starred reviews from Publisher's Weekly and Kirkus.

April 17, 2007: SciDev.net and the Nature Newsblog covered Chris Mooney's opening plenary speech at the World Conference of Science Journalists in Melbourne, Australia, where Mooney emphasized that scientists must adapt to "new rules" when interacting with the media and politicians.

April 6, 2007: Chris Mooney has published an article entitled "Framing Science" in the prestigious journal Science, co-authored with American University professor of communication Matthew Nisbet. Mooney and Nisbet make the provocative argument that instead of relying upon a traditional "just the facts" communication strategy, scientists should actively "frame" their knowledge to reach different segments of the public. Press release here; article here (subscription only); useful summary here; Mooney's commentary here; co-author Nisbet's commentary here.

February 4, 2007: Chris Mooney has published a joint Los Angeles Times op-ed with New York University physicist Alan Sokal, of "Sokal hoax" fame, about the left, the right, and the misuse of science. The piece can be read here.

January 18, 2007: Chris Mooney has announced that his next book, entitled Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming, will be published in June 2007. The book can be pre-ordered here. The announcement is here.

September 28, 2006: There have been some big developments concerning the paperback edition of The Republican War on Science. First, the Sunday New York Times book review selected the book for its "Paperback Row" section in the September 24 issue. Second, Glassbead Books, an imprint of Parlor Press, has released a book about the book, something of an unprecedented development. Entitled Looking for a Fight: Is there a Republican War on Science?, the new book contains the contents of a high-level online seminar about Chris Mooney's work that was conducted in March at the blog Crooked Timber. The new book can be purchased on Amazon, but it can also be downloaded in PDF for free! For Chris Mooney's very excited commentary on this development, see here.

September 5, 2006: The book tour for the paperback edition of The Republican War on Science begins Thursday, September 7. In connection with his first speech, Chris Mooney will be receiving the "Preserving Core Values in Science" award from the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals. Read here for more.

August 28, 2006: The paperback is officially out! For the final countdown posts, see the entries for August 26 ("Two Days to Go: The Conservative Mind on Science") and August 27 ("One Day to Go: NASA, Science, and Think Tanks on the Right"). In addition, Chris Mooney has an entry today at the Huffington Post entitled "Katrina, Science, and Politics." Read it here.

August 25, 2006: The paperback countdown continues with entries for August 24 ("Four Days to Go: New Chapter Excerpt and Update"), August 25 ("Three Days to Go: Speak the Words"). The former draws attention to the new chapter excerpt just posted on this site--Chapter 11, now revised and with a special update for the paperback edition....

August 23, 2006: Chris Mooney's latest column in Seed magazine, "Thank You for Polluting," draws attention to how the discussion of mercury emissions in The Republican War on Science has begun to affect an election in 2006. Meanwhile, the countdown until the paperback release continues. Read the entries for August 20 ("Eight Days to Go: More on Jonathan Wells"), August 21 ("Seven Days to Go: Tobacco, the Archetype of Corporate Attacks on Science"), August 22 ("Six Days to Go: The Bottomless Wells"), and August 23 ("Five Days to Go: Disinformation Has Consequences"). Again, the book's official publication date is August 28.

August 19, 2006: With the paperback edition of The Republican War on Science about to come out, Chris Mooney announces a new book tour, and starts a publication date countdown on his blog. Read the entries for August 18, 2006 ("Ten Days to Go: Carbon Neutral Touring") and August 19, 2006 ("Nine Days to Go: A Call to Arms"). The book's official publication date is August 28, and the book tour commences after Labor Day on September 7, in La Jolla, California.

March 28, 2006: At the popular blog Crooked Timber, an in depth seminar discussion about The Republican War on Science is being conducted by eight noted academics and bloggers. See here. For Chris Mooney's contribution to the seminar discussion see here.

March 28, 2006: Chris Mooney announces that a Korean edition of The Republican War on Science will be appearing soon. It will be published by Hanerl Media, with a special introduction by the author for the Korean audience.

March 13, 2006: The Republican War on Science has been named a finalist for the Los Angeles Times book prize in the category of "Science and Technology." Winners are announced April 28. For more information, see here and here.

February 27, 2006: Chris Mooney announces that he's at work on a new book about hurricanes and global warming. Read here.

February 6, 2006: Famed Yale science historian Daniel Kevles reviews The Republican War on Science in the March-April issue of The American Scientist, remarking that Chris Mooney "has done a lot of homework and has produced a book that is disturbing by reason of its steady, and for the most part sober, accumulation of evidence and indictment." Read the full review here.

February 3, 2006: Chris Mooney does a live online chat at WashingtonPost.com about The Republican War on Science. 11 am ET. Click here to ask questions or (once the chat is over) to read the finished transcript.

January 22, 2006: The Republican War on Science is reviewed in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by journalist Robin Mejia, who writes, "I gave [the] book as a Christmas present this year, and I'd recommend it to anyone who cares about the future of science in America." Read here.

January 20, 2006: Chris Mooney will be appearing on the Tavis Smiley Show, on PBS, to discuss The Republican War on Science. Show link here; click here to Tivo the program. Check your local listings for airtimes.

December 30, 2005: On Saturday, December 31st, at 10:05 am ET, and then again on Monday, January 2, at 8:30 pm ET, a book talk by Chris Mooney delivered at Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C. will air on CSPAN2, or Book TV. For more info on how to tune in, please see here and here.

December 28, 2005: In its 2005 "Year in Books" list, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution singles out The Republican War on Science for "best timing." See here.

December 25, 2005: After featuring it on the cover the previous week, The New York Times book review lists The Republican War on Science as an "editor's pick," calling the book "a frankly polemical survey of scientific findings and procedures in collision with political operations."

December 23, 2005: Physics Nobel laureate Philip W. Anderson gives The Republican War on Science a lengthy, thorough, and very appreciative review in the Times Higher Education Supplement. As Anderson concludes: "This book is a well-researched guide to the recent history and is to be praised in its original analysis of the tactics used by the new Right to starve the scientific advisory apparatus and in its bringing out the confrontational nature of the attitudes of the Bush Administration and its allies. It should be read by Americans and will be interesting to scientists everywhere. We should be grateful to Chris Mooney for his diligence." (No link available.)

December 18, 2005: The Republican War on Science shares the cover of the New York Times book review. Inside, it is reviewed by famed science writer John Horgan, who remarks, "If [Mooney's] assessment sounds one-sided, so is the reality that it describes." Read here.

December 16-19: Variety, The Washington Post, the New York Post, and many other outlets carry the news that The Republican War on Science has been optioned by documentarian Morgan Spurlock, whose previous triumph, Super-Size Me, won him an Oscar nomination in 2005. "There was a time when science was respected by politicians and government officials and when the information obtained through unbiased scientific exploration was used for the better of society," Spurlock commented. "Today all of that is being ignored, manipulated or used incorrectly to further political agendas." Read here and here.

December 9, 2005: In its December/January issue, Seed magazine lists The Republican War on Science among the top ten science books of 2005. No link available.

December 5, 2005: The Republican War on Science has recently made several books-of-the-year lists, including from the Rocky Mountain News (link) and the Times of London (link), which commented that Chris Mooney "argues persuasively that the Bush Administration’s hostility to science is not limited to denial of global warming and evolution, but spans the field, from family planning to missile defence. He is particularly illuminating about tactics: the method is not simply to rubbish the experts, but to sow doubt by nurturing a handful of maverick dissenters, so the non-expert public is left wondering who to believe." The Republican War on Science was also listed last month in Publishers Weekly's "The Year in Books" feature (no link available).

December 1, 2005: The Wall Street Journal's Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg highlights The Republican War on Science as a book that benefitted from a wave of publicity well in advance of its actual publication: "David Steinberger, CEO of Perseus Books LLC, a unit of Washington private-equity firm Perseus LLC, said the company's Basic Books imprint started publicizing Chris Mooney's The Republican War on Science online five months before its official Oct. 30th publication. Perseus posted the book's table of contents and one chapter on Mr. Mooney's blog. 'We immediately noticed significant activity on science blogs, and as well as movement on Amazon,' says Mr. Steinberger. The initial print run was 13,000; today there are 30,000 in print."

November 30, 2005: Famed philosopher and evolution defender Michael Ruse reviews The Republican War on Science in The Christian Century, writing, "Chris Mooney has written a stinging indictment of the Republican Party's attitudes toward science, focusing particularly on the manipulative and dismissive thinking and policies of the current administration. Even if only a part of what he says is true, he documents an appalling state of affairs." Read the review here.

November 20, 2005: In London's Independent, Johann Hari raves about The Republican War on Science, writing, "Chris Mooney...has bravely decided to thwack his way into this jungle of propaganda and lies on our behalf." Read here.

November 16, 2005: Chris Mooney appears on WBUR's On Point with Tom Ashbrook. Listen here.

November 11, 2005: Chris Mooney appears on NPR's Science Friday with Ira Flatow to discuss The Republican War on Science. Listen here.

October 22, 2005: The Republican War on Science is reviewed in The Guardian, which comments, "Mooney performs a useful service by researching all the details and interviewing as many of the protagonists as possible. He also enriches the narrative with much historical context, tracing over decades a gradual politicisation of science that has culminated in the present farce."

October 17, 2005: Chris Mooney appears on CSPAN-2 discussing the FDA and Plan B emergency contraception, as part of a panel discussion put on by the Center for American Progress. Click here to watch.

October 13, 2005: Chris Mooney appears on Air America's "Morning Sedition." Listen here (starts around 1:34).

October 10-14, 2005: The Republican War on Science will be featured at the TPMCafe book club, with discussants Lawrence Krauss, Roger Pielke, Jr., and Matthew Yglesias joining Chris Mooney for a wide-ranging dialogue about the book. Click here for more information.

October 7, 2005: Naomi Oreskes reviews The Republican War on Science in Science magazine, writing that the book "makes clear that scientists need to do more to present their knowledge to the rest of society, because there is no shortage of people willing to misrepresent it." Read here (subscription required).

October 2, 2005: Chris Mooney is profiled by Jeet Heer in the Toronto Star. Read here (registration required).

October 1, 2005: Chris Mooney appears on "Ring of Fire" with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., on Air America Radio. Listen here.

September 30, 2005: The Republican War on Science remains on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction bestseller list for the second week in a row, now at # 34. See here.

September 30, 2005: Chris Mooney appears on NPR's "Science Friday" with Ira Flatow to discuss the Dover evolution lawsuit. Listen here.

September 28, 2005: The Contra Costa Times lists The Republican War on Science at number 10 in nonfiction on its Northern California bestsellers list (compiled from sales at 45 independent bookstores in Northern California). See here (subscription required). Meanwhile, the East Bay Express lists the book at # 7 in nonfiction (a number complied based on sales at independent bookstores throughout the East Bay area).

September 27, 2005: Grist magazine runs an interview with Chris Mooney, entitled "The Chris Science Monitor." Read here.

September 27,2005: Chris Mooney appears on E&E TV's "On Point." Watch here.

September 27, 2005: "The Republican War on Science lives up to its incendiary title," writes Gregory M. Lamb in the Christian Science Monitor, adding that "for those who have felt even vaguely disturbed by their government's attitude toward science, this book is likely to bring those concerns into sharp focus." Read here.

September 25, 2005: Chris Mooney's op-ed on the Bush administration's misuses of science appears in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Read here.

September 22, 2005: The Republican War on Science debuts at # 24 on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction bestseller list (for the date of October 2, 2005). See here.

September 22, 2005: Chris Mooney appears on WBUR's "Here and Now." Click here to listen.

September 22, 2005: Writing in the London Review of Books, Daniel Greenberg calls The Republican War on Science a "valuable chronicle of Bush's persistent efforts to undermine the authority of science in the interests of his anti-regulatory and anti-abortion agendas." Read here (subscriber only).

September 20, 2005: Writing in Scientific American, Boyce Rensberger calls The Republican War on Science "a well-researched, closely argued and amply referenced indictment of the right wing's assault on science and scientists," adding that "Thomas Jefferson would be appalled." Read here.

September 20, 2005: Chris Mooney's op-ed about the abuse of science on the issue of Plan B contraception appears in the Los Angeles Times.

September 18, 2005: The Republican War on Science debuts at # 7 on the San Francisco Chronicle Best-Sellers list.

September 15, 2005: Chris Mooney appears on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, NPR. Listen here.

September 14, 2005: Andrew O'Hehir of Salon.com calls The Republican War on Science "nothing short of a landmark in contemporary political reporting." Read here.

September 13, 2005: Chris Mooney is profiled in the Seattle Times. Read here.

September 12, 2005: Chris Mooney appears on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Comedy Central. Watch here.

September 9, 2005: Dan Danbom of the Rocky Mountain News writes that "If timing is everything, Chris Mooney's The Republican War On Science has reached some kind of pinnacle." Read here.