by Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen L. Macknik, Scientific American –

How science can guide the search for “actual” truth in our post-truth era

This past weekend marked the swearing-in of Donald Trump as US president, and the moment in which the phrase ‘alternative facts’ joined ‘post-truth’ (the Oxford Dictionary’s most recent word of the year) and ‘fake news’ in our growing lexicon of Orwellian doublespeak. The occasion was the first clash of President Trump with the press, which had a bizarrely petty focus: the size of the crowds at his inauguration on Friday.  Continue reading The Delusion of Alternative Facts →