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The flimsy evidence behind low-fat diets My Times column on low-fat diets and the evdience behind them: The diet police are on the prowl: if you hear a knock on the door, hide the sugar bowl, the butter dish and the salt. A draft report from the scientific advisory committee on nutrition said last week […]

The only way to get dangerous global warming is to assume stagnation Here’s a version of the article I published in the Financial Post this week with added links:   The debate over climate change is horribly polarized. From the way it is conducted, you would think that only two positions are possible: that the […]

Too few property rights at sea, too many underground My Times column was on when property rights are too strong; though in other cases they are too weak.   The government is consulting on whether to amend the law so that you cannot stop a gas or geothermal company from drilling a horizontal well a […]

The poor are getting less poor My Times column on inequality: There was a row last week between the “rock star economist” Thomas Piketty and Chris Giles of theFinancial Times over statistics on inequalities in wealth — in this country in particular. When the dust settled, the upshot seemed to be that in Britain wealth […]

The world is better off without smallpox, polio, guinea worm, dengue mosquitoes My Times column is on the eradication of diseases and the resurrection fo extinct species. Both interferences with nature would be a good thing. The World Health Organisation’s annual assembly decided on Saturday evening not to set a date to destroy the last […]

Is a political realignment in the offing? My Times column on the politics of liberty: As the Ukip campaign ploughs steadily farther off the rails into the anti-immigrant bushes, in search presumably of former British National Party voters, it becomes ever easier for small-government, classical liberals — like me — to resist its allure. Nigel […]

Lennart Bengtsson’s treatment shows how climate sceptics are silenced My Thunderer column in the Times on the bullying of a distinguished climate scientist for having the temerity to advise those who doubt the speed of climate change: [update: links repaired below] Lennart Bengtsson is about as distinguished as climate scientists get. His decision two weeks […]

Collaboration between brains matter more than individual intelligence My Times column on the implications of genetic evolution since races diverged: Is it necessary to believe that racial differences are small and skin-deep in order not to be a racist? For the first half of the last century, science generally exaggerated stereotypes of racial difference in […]

This planet and its moon are so peculiar, maybe there are none like it My Times column on the Lucky Planet theory: We may be unique and alone in the Universe, not because we are special but because we are lucky. By “we”, I mean not just the human race, but intelligent life itself. A […]

Smoking will go the way of the top hat and the crinoline My article in the Spectator (3 May) on vaping versus smoking: If somebody invented a pill that could cure a disease that kills five million people a year worldwide, 100,000 of them in this country, the medical powers that be would surely encourage […]